APTA Learning Center

Your Access to Trusted Continuing Education

Psychologically Informed Strategies in Physical Therapy

  • Register
    • Non-Member - $199
    • PT Member - $139
    • PTA Member - $139
    • Student - $29
    • Post-Professional Student - $139
    • Staff - Free!

This option is for individual purchase of Course 4 of the Persistent Pain Management Certificate. To purchase the full certificate, click here.

This course delves into the integration of psychologically informed strategies within physical therapy to enhance the management of persistent pain. 

Release Date: April 2025

This course is designed for healthcare professionals and includes three essential modules:

Key Features

  • Pricing:
    • Students: $29
    • Members: $139
    • Non-members: $199
  • Format:
    • Modules 1-3: Asynchronous, allowing you to complete the content at your own pace
    • Module 4: Live Q&A with Speakers: Tuesday, April 22, at 7 pm ET
  • Earn Credit: Earn 0.6 CEU/6 contact hours.

Course Details

  • Module 1: Understanding Psychologically Informed PT
    • Define and explain pain as a complex, multidimensional experience, and establish the cognitive and emotional state of the individual.
  • Module 2: Communicating Effectively: Discussing Pain With Your Patients
    • Learn to communicate pain concepts and principles to individuals in a way they understand and that empowers effective self-management.
  • Module 3: Integrating Psychological Approaches Into Clinical Practice
    • Implement evidence-based, person-centered self-management strategies for pain, including exercise, manual therapy, relaxation strategies, and more.
  • Module 4: Live Q&A with Speakers
    • Attend a live Q&A with Corey Simon, DPT, PhD and Adriaan Louw, PT, PhD

Live Webinar Notice: Please note that all webinars will be recorded and available for later viewing. However, attending the live sessions is highly encouraged. This allows you to interact directly with the speakers, ask questions, and engage in real-time discussions.

Enroll now to elevate your approach to pain care!

Corey Simon

DPT, PhD

Corey Simon is an associate professor in the Duke Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, senior fellow in the Duke Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, and member of the Duke Clinical Research Institute. He trained at the University of Florida (UF) Clinical and Translational Science Institute and UF Pain Research Intervention Center of Excellence; where he was mentored by physical therapist and PIPT expert Dr. Steven George, and pain psychologists Drs. Joseph Riley and Roger Fillingim. Since coming to Duke in 2016, Corey has been mentored by pain psychologist Dr. Francis Keefe – a pioneer in pain coping skills training and PIPT. 

As a geriatric pain researcher, Corey’s uses precision medicine science to identify older adults at risk for high-impact chronic pain (HICP) and disability; and subsequently, develop tailored biobehavioral interventions for this high-risk subgroup. As part of his principal work, Corey leads a multidisciplinary team examining the interface between stress, inflammation, and movement-evoked pain. This interface is quantified in a novel laboratory paradigm, where peripheral stress and immune biochemical biomarkers (e.g., serum cortisol, pro-inflammatory cytokines) are measured before and after evocation of an acute stressor (e.g., muscle injury, painful physical activity). Through this work, they have discovered novel inflammatory effects to acute pain and implications of high stress reactivity on movement-evoked pain, physical function, and psychological distress in older adults with HICP. 

In addition to his principal research, Corey has extensive experience in psychologically-informed intervention development, implementation, and education. In the AIM-Back Trial, he led the development of a sequenced-care treatment pathway of stratified and matched care for Veterans with low back pain at risk for disability based on psychological distress. Subsequently, this pathway was embedded in nine VA sites nationally and provided care to over 800 Veterans. Corey also developed the Duke Doctor of Physical Therapy foundational course in Pain Science; introductory PIPT elective for second-year Duke DPT students; and introductory PIPT module for Duke DPT orthopaedic PT residents.

Adriaan Louw

Adriaan earned his undergraduate, master’s degree and PhD in physiotherapy from the University of Stellenbosch in Cape Town, South Africa. He is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Adriaan has taught throughout the US and internationally for 25 years at manual therapy, pain science and medical conferences and has authored and co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles. Adriaan is the Director of the Therapeutic Neuroscience Research Group, senior faculty, pain science director and vice-president of faculty experience for Evidence in Motion.

Course Instructions

  1. Click on the Contents tab to watch the course recording.
  2. Click the Take Quiz button to complete the assessment. Learners will have 3 attempts to pass and must answer at least 70% of questions correctly.
  3. Click Fill Out Survey under the Evaluation listing to provide valuable course feedback. Scroll down on all questions as there may be answer options that expand past the size of the window.
  4. Click the View/Print Your Certificate button under the Certificate listing. You can view/print your certificate at any time by visiting the APTA Learning Center and clicking the CEU Certificate/Transcript link on the left-hand side of the page. 

Need Assistance?

For assistance logging in, accessing activities, claiming credit, or for other questions or concerns, please e-mail learningcenter@apta.org. 

Key:

Complete
Failed
Available
Locked
Live Webinar: April 22, 2025
Questions for the Speakers
Open discussion to continue.
Open discussion to continue. Welcome to the Discussion Board! We encourage you to share your questions for our experts by clicking the "Share Your Questions" button.
Live Q&A with Speakers
04/22/2025 at 7:00 PM (EDT)  |  Recorded On: 04/22/2025  |  60 minutes
04/22/2025 at 7:00 PM (EDT)  |  Recorded On: 04/22/2025  |  60 minutes
Asynchronous Content
Module 1: Understanding Psychologically Informed PT
Begin self-paced component package.
Begin self-paced component package. This module introduces the foundational concepts of psychologically informed care, emphasizing its significance in addressing the complexities of persistent pain.
Module 1 Assessment
10 Questions  |  3 attempts  |  7/10 points to pass
10 Questions  |  3 attempts  |  7/10 points to pass
Module 2: Communicating Effectively: Discussing Pain With Your Patients
Begin self-paced component package.
Begin self-paced component package. In this course, learners will understand how to use a person-centered approach to identify patient priorities and pain-related goals across the biopsychosocial domain.
Module 2 Assessment
5 Questions  |  3 attempts  |  4/5 points to pass
5 Questions  |  3 attempts  |  4/5 points to pass
Module 3: Integrating Psychological Approaches Into Clinical Practice
Begin self-paced component package.
Begin self-paced component package. In this course, learners will discuss outcome measures and components of the clinical encounter, exploring how to blend the physical and psychological approaches to care.
Module 3 Assessment
10 Questions  |  3 attempts  |  7/10 points to pass
10 Questions  |  3 attempts  |  7/10 points to pass
Evaluation and CEU Certificate
Evaluation
19 Questions
19 Questions Your comments are important to us! Please submit your feedback about the course through this evaluation.
CEU Certificate
Up to 0.60 contact hours available  |  Certificate available
Up to 0.60 contact hours available  |  Certificate available