Three learners from SPOT’s Chronic Pain Management Online Graduate Certificate program received Gloria Gilbert Awards 2024 recognizing their efforts to disseminate knowledge in chronic pain management.
Congratulations to Michelle Bocchicchio, Joanie Thibault and Benoit Yergeau, who have each received a Gloria Gilbert Chronic Pain Award from the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy (SPOT). This award recognizes a student enrolled in SPOT’s online Graduate Certificate in Chronic Pain Management who has conducted an outstanding project in chronic pain management and has demonstrated leadership and innovation in the treatment of those with chronic pain. The trio were singled out for projects completed as part of their elective coursehttps://www.mcgill.ca/spot/programs/online-graduate-certificates/chronic-pain-management, which offers an opportunity to apply the acquired knowledge and skills learned in the program to an area specific to their practice. All three projects involved interdisciplinary approaches, reaching audiences beyond the scope of the course by including presentations to clinical settings.
Meet the award winners
Michelle Bocchicchio, OT, is an occupational therapist working in mental health and addictions in Montreal. She conducted a literature review titled “Facilitating transformation in individuals with chronic pain: A narrative review of the process and the role of the occupational therapist. Paired with pain researcher and SPOT affiliate member Peter Stilwell, DC, PhD, as her supervisor – he was the Ronald Melzack Fellow in Chronic Pain Research at the Alan Edwards Centre for Research on Pain at the time – Bocchicchio says she appreciated the guidance, mentorship and engaging reflections she received during their weekly meetings. At the end of the course, she delivered a paper that served to share reflections about various subtopics and provide suggestions to facilitate the process of transformation. She also presented the material to a receptive multidisciplinary group, making it an enriching learning and networking experience for all. Her project continues to inform her approach when working with individuals having chronic pain, and her contributions are appreciated by clients and colleagues seeking her expertise.
Joanie Thibault, a hypnotherapist and mental health practitioner in a multidisciplinary clinic in Trois-Rivières, successfully completed a project that explored the use of therapeutic hypnosis in the management of chronic pain, with a focus on fibromyalgia and pelvic pain. During the online program, she says she was grateful for the opportunity not only to learn about chronic pain management with health care professionals from various backgrounds, but also to share her expertise and the evidence in hypnotherapy with her fellow learners during the online discussions. “The demystification of hypnosis is an important professional challenge for me, and I aspire for its integration in health care,” she says. “I was delighted to have the opportunity to finish my program with a literature review on a topic that interests me greatly – hypnosis in fibromyalgia and chronic pelvic pain – and to be supervised by Dr. Allen Steverman [Adjunct Professor in the Department of Family Medicine]. He provided me with great insights and his mentorship helped me to produce a scientific outreach report that I can still use and present to professionals and clients.”
Benoit Yergeau, PT, DO, is a physiotherapist and osteopath based in Montreal. He worked on the integration of the biopsychosocial model of chronic pain into the practice of osteopathy, from a mindfulness perspective. “I chose this program first, because of McGill’s long-standing history of research in pain and also because I was able to continue working full time during my studies,” he says. “I really appreciated the collegiality and the opportunity to have in-depth discussions with so many diverse healthcare professionals learning and working in this field. With the knowledge acquired, I have improved my treatment approaches, and I plan to educate other clinicians practicing osteopathy on the topic of chronic pain. I also intend to further deepen my knowledge in the field of clinical ethics in relation to chronic pain by starting a master’s degree in clinical sciences.”
About the Gloria Gilbert Chronic Pain Award
Originally established in 2016, the Gloria Gilbert Chronic Pain Award accommodates a growing number of excellent projects being completed in Chronic Pain Management at the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University. Read more about Gloria Gilbert and the award.
Learn more about the Graduate Certificate in Chronic Pain Management
