Understand What’s Driving the Pain Experience
Move beyond tissue-damage-only thinking. Build a practical understanding of nociception, pain mechanisms, sensitization, and the factors that influence pain so you can interpret complex presentations more clearly.
Recognize Pain Presentations with Greater Confidence
Use a structured clinical reasoning approach to distinguish nociceptive, neuropathic, nociplastic, and mixed presentations, integrate multidimensional assessment findings, and identify factors that may be contributing to the patient's pain experience.
Turn Assessment Into an Individualized Treatment Plan
Apply evidence-informed communication, pain neuroscience education, graded activity and exposure, pacing, and other treatment strategies based on the patient’s presentation, goals, and response to care.
About This Course
Pain is one of the most challenging parts of outpatient orthopedic practice. Sometimes the tissue diagnosis seems clear, but the patient’s symptoms, irritability, beliefs, and functional limitations do not behave the way you expect. This course gives physical therapists a practical framework for understanding pain more clearly and making better clinical decisions. Decoding Pain is designed to help physical therapists translate modern pain science into day-to-day practice. You’ll learn how to recognize different pain presentations, assess important contributing factors, communicate in ways that reduce fear and improve understanding, and develop individualized treatment plans you can apply immediately in the clinic.
What you'll learn
Recognize and interpret different pain presentations
Distinguish nociceptive, neuropathic, nociplastic, and mixed presentations while recognizing sensitization and relevant psychosocial contributors.
Assess and communicate pain more effectively
Use a multidimensional assessment framework and apply pain neuroscience education in ways that improve understanding, reduce threat, and support engagement.
Develop individualized treatment plans with confidence
Translate your findings into evidence-informed treatment using communication, exercise, graded activity or exposure, pacing, and other strategies matched to the patient.
This Course Includes A structured, self-paced learning experience designed to help you understand the science, test your clinical reasoning, and apply what you learn in practice.
7 Chapter Video Lessons Work through more than four hours of instruction that builds from pain generation and processing to assessment, communication, pain neuroscience education, and individualized treatment planning. Printable Learner Notes Use detailed companion notes to reinforce each chapter, deepen key concepts, and create a practical reference you can return to in clinical practice. 7 Chapter Knowledge Checks Check your understanding after each chapter with five clinically focused questions designed to reinforce the most important concepts. 15-Question Final Assessment Bring the course together with a cumulative assessment focused on clinical reasoning and application rather than simple recall. 5.0 Contact Hours Complete the required course content and assessments to document 5.0 contact hours of continuing professional education. Certificate of Completion Receive an Ortho PT Academy™ Certificate of Completion documenting successful completion of the course and 5.0 contact hours. Self-paced online course Acceptance of contact hours is determined by the individual licensing jurisdiction.
Meet Your Instructor
Ross Martin Allumbaugh PT, DPT, OCS, COMT Ross is an orthopedic physical therapist with advanced certification in orthopedic clinical practice and manual therapy. His background includes outpatient orthopedics, rehabilitation leadership, clinical education, and mentoring clinicians and students. His teaching emphasizes practical clinical reasoning, evidence-informed care, and translating complex concepts into decisions clinicians can use immediately in practice. Ortho PT Academy™ was created to provide physical therapists with a structured pathway for developing advanced orthopedic clinical skills outside of a traditional residency or fellowship model. In Decoding Pain, the goal is not simply to teach pain terminology, but to help clinicians better understand what may be driving a patient’s pain experience, communicate more effectively, and make more confident treatment decisions.
Earn 5.0 Contact Hours
Complete the required course content, chapter knowledge checks, and final assessment to earn 5.0 contact hours of continuing professional education and receive an Ortho PT Academy™ Certificate of Completion. Your certificate documents your name, course title, completion date, certificate ID, and awarded contact hours. New Hampshire Physical Therapists: Decoding Pain provides 5.0 contact hours applicable toward New Hampshire continuing competence requirements under NH Admin. Rule Phy 406.03. For physical therapists licensed in other jurisdictions, acceptance of contact hours is determined by the individual licensing authority.
What Clinical Leaders Are Saying
“As a clinical educator and leader in a multi-clinic physical therapy practice, I found the Decoding Pain course through Ortho PT Academy™ to be both valuable and highly relevant. I appreciated the practical, evidence-informed content and its application to patient education and clinical practice. I am exploring incorporating this course into our Clinical Excellence Program to support ongoing team education, strengthen clinical reasoning, and promote a consistent, evidence-informed approach to pain management and patient care across our clinics. I highly recommend it to clinicians and clinical leaders looking to advance their knowledge and enhance patient outcomes.” Patricia E. Wolber, PT, M.Ed. Chief Clinical Officer Fusion PT Partners Course access provided complimentary for evaluation.
Build a Clearer Framework for Complex Pain
You do not need another collection of disconnected pain-science facts. You need a framework that helps you understand what may be driving the patient’s pain experience, decide what matters during assessment, communicate effectively, and translate your findings into an individualized treatment plan. Decoding Pain was built to help you do exactly that. 5.0 Contact Hours • Printable Learner Notes • Certificate of Completion
$149.00