Dr Kate Jochimsen - how we think and feel influences our pain.

Kate Jochimsen, PhD, ATC is a Researcher at the Center for Health Outcomes and Interdisciplinary Research (CHOIR) at Massachusetts General Hospital and a Member of the Faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Her work “bridges the gap” between sports medicine and psychology by developing interventions to improve patient's pain-related cognitions (‘how they think’) and emotions (‘how they feel’) to improve their health behaviors and increase physical activity. She is passionate about advancing psychologically informed practice and teaching clinicians how to communicate about mental health and intervene when appropriate. Her work has been funded by agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and the American College of Sports Medicine.

The big questions we try to answer: 1. When you have hip pain why does it hurt? 2.  What is the mechanism behind psychological factors influencing pain? 3.  How do we address these psychological factors? 4.  What is cognitive restructuring and how can you do it to help pain?