Chronic pain is a complex experience influenced by a combination of biological, psychological, and social factors. The water cup analogy helps us understand that pain is more than just tissue damage; your inflammation, and the sensitivity of your central nervous systems are also linked with different stressors playing a role in our pain experience. Picture all of your stressors as water in a cup: as you add more stressors, the water level rises, and when it overflows, you experience pain. Our goal is to prevent the water from overflowing, by reducing the number of stressors in your cup and/or increasing the size of your cup.

Reducing the water in your cup involves acknowledging and addressing each of your Bio-Psycho-Social stressors, such as the tissue damage itself, CNS sensitivity, inflammation, stress, recovery, tightness, and weak links in the kinetic chain. Increasing the cup’s size involves empowering patients to build resilience and develop proper understanding of pain while incorporating exercise rehabilitation. By recognizing the multifaceted nature of pain, we can implement a more lasting, and comprehensive approach to pain relief.