Talking Back brings the reader into the classroom with people disabled by chronic back pain to experience the insights and lessons that have helped thousands of them to regain the physical and emotional capacities to resume productive lives and wellness. Through the stories of sufferers and the steps they took to take back their lives, Dr. Rowland Hazard reveals their pathways to recovery..

When back pain limits their work, recreation, and even simple activities of daily life, people become disconnected from their former lives and relationships. Each chapter in Talking Back takes the reader through one of Dr. Hazard’s classes developed from his 30 years of listening to patients’ narratives and needs. The topics begin with how people become disconnected and how to reconnect by setting personally meaningful life goals and safely achieving the flexibility, strength, and endurance required by those goals. Strategies include dealing effectively with doctors and drugs and owning the skills of deep relaxation and physical self-care to combat acute flare-ups of pain and to overcome the fear of pain that disables people even more than the pain itself. 

Talking Back delivers tools for rebuilding an active life and enjoying the benefits of wellness, even if you cannot get rid of your pain.

Rowland G. Hazard, MD is emeritus professor of orthopedics, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He has devoted his over 30-year clinical and research careers to the understanding and care of people who are disabled by chronic low back pain. He has been a pioneer in the field of rehabilitation, and he is internationally known for developing the goal achievement model for overcoming painful disability.