Patient Mini-Experiment Pack

Build safety through experience, not just explanation.

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🔹 Purpose: To give patients small, low-stakes ways to test their system’s flexibility, gather new data, and shift beliefs about pain—one experiment at a time.

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🔹 Why This Matters: When pain becomes chronic, patients often rely on avoidance, protection, and guesswork. But safe, curious experimentation gives their system new evidence: “I can move. I’m okay.”

These aren’t home exercise programs. They’re nervous system challenges wrapped in play and permission.

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🌀 How to Introduce:

“Let’s try a small experiment—not to push through pain, but to explore what your system might tolerate better than you expect.”

🔬 Mini-Experiment Examples:

🟪 1. The Movement Mythbuster

▫️ Try: A movement you usually avoid (e.g., twisting, bending) in a slow, supported way.

▫️ Reflect: “What did I feel? Did I survive it? Did the fear match the outcome?”

🟪 2. The Flare-Up Curiosity Tracker

▫️ Try: When a flare-up begins, pause and ask:.

🗣️ “What just happened?”

🗣️ “What’s going on in my life today?”

🗣️ “What’s one thing I can do to feel grounded?”

🟪 3. The Permission Walk

▫️ Try: A short walk where the only goal is to enjoy the process, not achieve a distance or pace.

▫️ Cue: “I have full permission to stop, slow down, or rest at any point.”

🟪 4. The Change-the-Context Challenge

▫️ Try: Doing a feared or painful activity in a completely different context. Example:

🔄 Turn on music. Do it in a different room. Ask someone to join you.

▫️ Reflect: “Did changing the context change how it felt?”

🟪 5. The Belief Buster Journal

▫️ Try: Write down one thing you’ve believed about your pain (e.g., My disc is slipping).

▫️ Research or discuss it with your clinician.

▫️ Rewrite: “What could be a more helpful, still honest, belief?

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✅ Tips for Clinicians:

🟠 Frame these as experiments, not tests.

🟠 Emphasize learning > performance.

🟠 Reflect together on outcomes—“What did your system learn from this?”

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🧠 Final Insight:

Healing doesn’t happen by convincing the brain—it happens by showing the system. Each mini-experiment is a nudge toward safety, a challenge to old stories, and a reminder that change is possible. When patients gather their own evidence through experience, they don’t just hear a new story—they start to live it.

This resource is part of The Wondering Clinician Toolkit. It’s not medical advice—just a tool to support learning, reflection, and healing. Always consult your clinician when needed.