Radical Relief: A Guide to Overcome Chronic Pain. Joe Tatta, PT, DPT, CNS. Minneapolis, MN: OPTP; 2019. Soft cover, 104 pages, $18.95.
Joe Tatta is a physical therapist and certified nutrition specialist and founder of the Integrative Pain Science Institute, a company reinventing pain care for both patients and professionals. His book guides readers, individuals with chronic pain, on an unpopular journey toward a productive, full life despite the presence of pain. Unlike most popular approaches to pain management, Tatta's approach, focused heavily on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), emphasizes the importance of learning to live with pain, rather than aiming for resolution or reduction of pain.
The introduction is the most technically advanced section of the book, briefly explaining the science behind ACT and its application to chronic pain. This section succinctly delivers the premise of the book, how to best utilize the guide for optimal benefit, and the intended outcomes. There is a concise section explaining the appropriate use of this guide for clinicians, cautioning against applying any of the principles without first reading the book in its entirety. The remainder of the guide utilizes stark imagery, rather than technical terminology, to teach pain science and a radical approach to pain care. Part I introduces pain science, as well as mainstream pain management strategies. Part II begins to describe the body's response to pain and how, with chronic pain, the pain response becomes distorted over time. Part III introduces the radical concept of embracing pain while learning to live and move with pain, and part IV shares strategies for reframing pain and taking control of the pain by changing the mindset surrounding pain. Part V details the necessity of identifying values and then cultivating a life fully embracing those values.
The chapters in each "part" are short, 2 to 4 pages each, well-organized, moving from general awareness to acceptance to change. The most helpful aspects of the guide are the interactive activities and tangible, immediately applicable strategies, each designed to emphasize the concept delivered. There is significant repetition, which is helpful not only to highlight each point but also to tie together the many elements of chronic pain. Tatta uses a mildly negative intonation in the writing whenever discussing health care professionals and their treatment approaches for chronic pain, and while likely done to validate patients' experiences, there is some concern that the tone may also serve to further fuel patients' irritation as they work through the guide.
While clinicians in any setting or specialty area could recommend this resource, there may be cause to form a rapport with the patient before introducing this approach to chronic pain. Furthermore, there would be great benefit to the clinician having familiarity with ACT and this approach before sharing with patients, as this would enable the clinician to individually tailor their patients' program through their journey. Overall, this book could be a good resource for patients and these strategies become helpful tools for clinicians.
-Rachel Hohman, PT, DPT, CLT
Hershey, Pennsylvania
The Great Sex Rescue: The Lies You've Been Taught and How to Recover What God Intended. Sheila Wray Gregoire, Rebecca Gregoire Lindenbach, and Joanna Sawatsky. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books; 2021. Paperback, 272 pages, $14.99.
An award-winning author/blogger, psychology graduate/podcaster, and public health scientist came together to write a book based on survey responses from more than 20 000 Christian women. The authors gathered data to answer various questions about how the evangelical church's teachings about sex and sexuality have impacted marriage and sexual intimacy with their spouse. What is that premise? It is that everything women are taught about sex and sexuality from the Christian church is wrong. Survey questions ranged from general information regarding frequency of sex and orgasm to more in-depth concepts such as "I believe that sex before marriage means you have less to give your future spouse..." and "duty sex." The authors openly present summative responses to readers, in addition to sharing real-life stories submitted by respondents. These efforts aim to expose much of these teachings to be unbiblical and oppressive in nature in terms of women's roles, feelings, and expectations for sex and sexuality. The book suggests that in the Christian church's attempt to support "purity culture," women have been taught to view themselves as a subservient vessel to meet the perpetual sexual needs of their husbands, thus being ignorant to or neglecting their own sexual needs.
In relation to pelvic health, the book covers many topics relevant to the field including the orgasm gap, sexual aversion, pelvic pain, shame, fear of intimacy, lust, pornography, "duty sex," when "duty" becomes coercion (ie, sexual trauma). To contest these concepts, the authors are, in turn, diligent in offering a God-centered approach to reclaim intimacy by introducing scripturally based concepts in the "Explore Together" and "Rescue and Reframe" sections at the end of each chapter. These particular concepts are geared to give equal levels of responsibility, attention, and importance to both partners, to change the psychology of sex, and to reawaken the intimacy and passion that God intended for couples to experience in the Christian bedroom.
The book is enticing and easy to follow. Christian readers will be challenged to consider breaking through the instincts in which they have been taught to consider sex from a different perspective. Throughout the book, the authors are firm in their views that exposing these teachings as unbiblical is not an attempt to pass judgment on the church but rather to point women (and men) toward the true biblical intent of sexuality. Perhaps, what they should have been taught from the beginning and how to "recover from the lies" so to speak.
This book could not have had a better title. As a married Christian woman, I could relate to nearly every topic covered in this text. I found that what I was, or was not, taught about sex and sexuality in the church fell in line with the vast majority of other Christian wives. I also found that despite by own liberation from these teachings, the same story is not true for many other women. In gaining the knowledge and strategies presented in The Great Sex Rescue, couples are thrown a life preserver, a lifeline, to improve their sex lives and experience sexual intimacy with a God-centered intention.
-Whitney Bartley, PT, DPT
Greenbrier, Arkansas