The 3R Patient Education Flow

Relate → Reframe → Reinforce

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🔹 Purpose: To give clinicians a simple, repeatable structure for delivering pain education that sticks—without sounding like a lecture. The 3R Flow helps you meet patients where they are, gently shift their understanding, and solidify the message through action or experience.

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🔹 Why This Matters: Even the best pain science explanation can fall flat if it doesn’t connect to the patient’s story. This tool helps you start with empathy, guide with meaning, and support learning with reinforcement—because behavior change needs more than facts.

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🌀 The 3R Flow Breakdown:

🔸 1. Relate

Start with their language, their story.

▫️ “You mentioned it feels like something is tearing every time you move…”

▫️ “It makes sense that you’d be afraid to bend—it’s hurt before.”

▫️ “That scan result would scare anyone.”

💡 Goal: Show them you’re listening. Build trust before offering an explanation.

🔸 2. Reframe

Offer a new lens—gently.

▫️ “What we now know is that pain isn’t always a sign of damage—it’s your system trying to protect you.”

▫️ “The good news is that the body is adaptable, and we can work with your system to feel safer.”

▫️ “That pain might be more about sensitivity than injury—and that means it can change.”

💡 Goal: Shift the meaning of pain, not deny its reality.

🔸 3. Reinforce

Anchor the new idea with action, metaphor, or reflection.

▫️ Movement: “Let’s try a small motion and see how your system responds when it feels supported.”

▫️ Metaphor: “It’s like a fire alarm that got a little too sensitive after the smoke cleared.”

▫️ Reflection: “What surprised you about that? Did your system react how you expected?”

💡 Goal: Make it stick through experience, repetition, and real-world connection.

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➡️ How to Use in Practice:

▫️ In evaluations: Especially when addressing imaging results or pain history.

▫️ During treatment: Great for movement hesitancy or flare-up education.

▫️ After flare-ups: Helps patients make sense of setbacks.

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🧠 Optional Add-On:

Use this tool as a teaching framework for new grads or students to practice delivering pain education that’s human-centered and behaviorally informed.

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.