My personal trainer, Nina Moore, has a thing or ten in which to school health care practitioners working with chronic pain patients:

1. She took the time to get to know me — to read my blog posts and articles, to correspond with me by email, and, in the process, to understand my needs.
2. She responded non-judgmentally to all the information I shared, including my sensitivities and anxieties — offering only respect, love, validation, and encouragement.
3. She provided the unsolicited option of speaking with another client of hers, also living with chronic pain, so that I could gather more information about whether she (Nina) and I were a good match.
4. She started off our training program by asking me what I needed from her, to make the training sessions safe for me.
5. She begins each movement sequence by demonstrating for me the correct form, and she is happy to repeat the sequence several times, until my body and mind understand how to move through the sequence properly and safely.
6. She carefully watches me as I go through each sequence, offering precise guidance on how to position my body and weight.
7. She is prepared and happy to answer my questions about how to fine-tune my movements – for example, advising me where to put my focus and where to center my awareness.
8. She actively invites and encourages me to listen to, honor, and respond to my body – saying things like the following:
   • “My goal is for you to do four more. But that’s just my goal. Your body will tell us how many more you can do.”
   • “Err on the side of caution.”
   • “Let me know if you have kind of pain.”
9. When I say I am feeling pain, she helps me clarify if it is good pain or bad pain, and if necessary, she either modifies my movement or has me stop that movement altogether.
10. She does not use a cookie-cutter, textbook, formulaic approach, but rather engages her creativity, intuition and flexibility, so as to work with and respond appropriately to my body.

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