feature Adapted Yoga Individualized active care for back pain Tom Barwell is a psychodynamic psychotherapist, and founder of The Yoga Back Clinic, in Toronto. His work focuses upon helping people take creative ownership of their lives and he provides facilitating environments for people to access their potential and vitality. He is also a passionate writer and father. We can do everything possible as health-care providers, but if our patients don’t take an active ownership of their health, they are unlikely to benefit from our services to the degree that we’d like. A lmost everyone has a “bad back,” has had a bad back, has a close friend with a bad back or is about to get a bad back – probably from living a sedentary lifestyle. Low-back pain is a widespread condition. For example, in 1999 in Alberta, 17 per cent of persons between the ages of 20 and 39, and 20 per cent of persons be -tween the ages of 40 and 49 reported having low-back pain. 1 In 2001 in Alberta, out of a total of 37,927 work loss claims, 10,164, or 26.8 per cent, were associated with low-back pain. 2 Back pain is an issue that is painful not only in the body, but also in the wallet. Back pain in the United Kingdom is estimated to cost £2.10 billion annually, and for patients, costs can skyrocket very quickly indeed. In a U.S. study conducted for the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons in 1984, Jacobs et al. stated that the annual costs of low-back pain were over $16 billion. 3 www.canadianchiropractor.ca Tom Barwell 8 • CANADIAN CHIROPRACTOR | MAY 2013
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