Mark Kargela
@mkargeladpt.bsky.social
Physical Therapist || 🎙️Host of the Modern Pain Podcast || Content creator looking to change the way we understand and treat pain across the world
Healthcare trains us to ask about symptoms. What it rarely teaches us is how to ask about the person living with them.
September 12, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Healthcare trains us to ask about symptoms. What it rarely teaches us is how to ask about the person living with them.
Healthcare often adds to the distress people in pain already feel.
Instead of seeing the whole forest of persistent pain, the system breaks people down into isolated trees:
• Rheumatologist with one set of diagnoses and language
• Immunologist with another
• Endocrinologist with their own lens
Instead of seeing the whole forest of persistent pain, the system breaks people down into isolated trees:
• Rheumatologist with one set of diagnoses and language
• Immunologist with another
• Endocrinologist with their own lens
September 4, 2025 at 10:50 AM
Healthcare often adds to the distress people in pain already feel.
Instead of seeing the whole forest of persistent pain, the system breaks people down into isolated trees:
• Rheumatologist with one set of diagnoses and language
• Immunologist with another
• Endocrinologist with their own lens
Instead of seeing the whole forest of persistent pain, the system breaks people down into isolated trees:
• Rheumatologist with one set of diagnoses and language
• Immunologist with another
• Endocrinologist with their own lens
Clinicians: trade the cape for a compass. Your job isn’t to fix every problem—it’s to support the person who will live the solution. Be Alfred, not Batman. #patientcentered #physiotherapy
August 28, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Clinicians: trade the cape for a compass. Your job isn’t to fix every problem—it’s to support the person who will live the solution. Be Alfred, not Batman. #patientcentered #physiotherapy
Clinicians—your patients don’t need you to have all the answers. They need you to be real. When you give yourself permission to be empathetic and authentic, you create space for true trust and alliance. False certainty is everywhere in healthcare—dare to be different.
August 19, 2025 at 11:56 AM
Clinicians—your patients don’t need you to have all the answers. They need you to be real. When you give yourself permission to be empathetic and authentic, you create space for true trust and alliance. False certainty is everywhere in healthcare—dare to be different.
Numbers tell part of the story—people fill in the rest. Qualitative research is how we stop guessing and start understanding what truly matters.
August 5, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Numbers tell part of the story—people fill in the rest. Qualitative research is how we stop guessing and start understanding what truly matters.
Listening skills are vital yet we the majority of us don't get taught this
August 2, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Listening skills are vital yet we the majority of us don't get taught this
Nothing wrong with doing some manual therapy but it is simply a support to the real deep work of engaging with someone's lived experience and ensuring they are pointed to their values
August 1, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Nothing wrong with doing some manual therapy but it is simply a support to the real deep work of engaging with someone's lived experience and ensuring they are pointed to their values
🧠💥 Psychologically informed care isn’t a checkbox—it’s a clinical skillset.
Most clinicians stop at education. But real change happens when we help patients connect meaning to their experience and take action.
👉 Ready to go beyond the script?
#ModernPainCare #PainRehab #Biopsychosocial #PNE
Most clinicians stop at education. But real change happens when we help patients connect meaning to their experience and take action.
👉 Ready to go beyond the script?
#ModernPainCare #PainRehab #Biopsychosocial #PNE
July 19, 2025 at 1:01 PM
🧠💥 Psychologically informed care isn’t a checkbox—it’s a clinical skillset.
Most clinicians stop at education. But real change happens when we help patients connect meaning to their experience and take action.
👉 Ready to go beyond the script?
#ModernPainCare #PainRehab #Biopsychosocial #PNE
Most clinicians stop at education. But real change happens when we help patients connect meaning to their experience and take action.
👉 Ready to go beyond the script?
#ModernPainCare #PainRehab #Biopsychosocial #PNE
Are we really practicing what we preach with psychologically-informed care? It's time we moved beyond theoretical knowledge to meaningful patient connections. The most transformative moments happen when we're brave enough to have difficult conversations and create experiential learning opportunities
June 3, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Are we really practicing what we preach with psychologically-informed care? It's time we moved beyond theoretical knowledge to meaningful patient connections. The most transformative moments happen when we're brave enough to have difficult conversations and create experiential learning opportunities
What if the future of chronic pain care wasn’t in a biologic, but in building skills to thrive in tough contexts? Biology adapts to life—so let’s stop chasing fixes and start restoring agency. Teach people, don’t just treat them.
#PainCare #FunctionFirst #BeyondBiologics
#PainCare #FunctionFirst #BeyondBiologics
May 1, 2025 at 3:41 PM
What if the future of chronic pain care wasn’t in a biologic, but in building skills to thrive in tough contexts? Biology adapts to life—so let’s stop chasing fixes and start restoring agency. Teach people, don’t just treat them.
#PainCare #FunctionFirst #BeyondBiologics
#PainCare #FunctionFirst #BeyondBiologics
Your participation would be greatly appreciated!
April 5, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Your participation would be greatly appreciated!
Great discussion today with Annina Schmid and Joel Fundaun about their recent work around whiplash. Some great clinical tips to help you all better manage people dealing with whiplash and some data that may change some of our traditional beliefs around whiplash. Stay tuned!
March 25, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Great discussion today with Annina Schmid and Joel Fundaun about their recent work around whiplash. Some great clinical tips to help you all better manage people dealing with whiplash and some data that may change some of our traditional beliefs around whiplash. Stay tuned!
I worry the nociceptive apparatus will become the latest seductive target to "fix" pain with biomedical strategies.
It just seems treatments aimed at improving it, without consideration of the context this apparatus sits and functions in, are doomed for failure.
It just seems treatments aimed at improving it, without consideration of the context this apparatus sits and functions in, are doomed for failure.
March 21, 2025 at 1:22 PM
I worry the nociceptive apparatus will become the latest seductive target to "fix" pain with biomedical strategies.
It just seems treatments aimed at improving it, without consideration of the context this apparatus sits and functions in, are doomed for failure.
It just seems treatments aimed at improving it, without consideration of the context this apparatus sits and functions in, are doomed for failure.
🚨 We Need Your Input! 🚨
March 11, 2025 at 1:00 PM
🚨 We Need Your Input! 🚨
What was your lightbulb moment in understanding the power of therapeutic communication?
#ModernPainCare #PainScience #PhysicalTherapy #TherapeuticAlliance #ClinicalCommunication #PainEducation
#ModernPainCare #PainScience #PhysicalTherapy #TherapeuticAlliance #ClinicalCommunication #PainEducation
February 12, 2025 at 6:23 PM
What was your lightbulb moment in understanding the power of therapeutic communication?
#ModernPainCare #PainScience #PhysicalTherapy #TherapeuticAlliance #ClinicalCommunication #PainEducation
#ModernPainCare #PainScience #PhysicalTherapy #TherapeuticAlliance #ClinicalCommunication #PainEducation
Ever wonder why a ‘new’ treatment suddenly works when nothing else did? 🤔 It might not be the treatment itself—but something much deeper at play.
February 7, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Ever wonder why a ‘new’ treatment suddenly works when nothing else did? 🤔 It might not be the treatment itself—but something much deeper at play.
As with most things in clinical care, it's not an OR issue, it's an AND issue. We need to be able to recognize our biases toward one side and put them aside and fit ourselves to the unique person in front of us and not vice versa.
February 6, 2025 at 12:39 PM
As with most things in clinical care, it's not an OR issue, it's an AND issue. We need to be able to recognize our biases toward one side and put them aside and fit ourselves to the unique person in front of us and not vice versa.
We are trained to speak in illness narratives yet people desperately need someone to help them develop their healing and/or valued living narrative.
January 2, 2025 at 1:00 PM
We are trained to speak in illness narratives yet people desperately need someone to help them develop their healing and/or valued living narrative.
Great chat with Jim Stark today. Jim shared great perspective and his experience. Can't wait to share with you all
December 21, 2024 at 2:17 PM
Great chat with Jim Stark today. Jim shared great perspective and his experience. Can't wait to share with you all