Here’s a checklist that will help you keep track of your progress through the first phase of the DOCC Project.

Step 1—Nail Down Diagnosis

____Feel that you understand whether or not there is a structural problem

____Take the test for the Mind Body Syndrome

____Understand the soft tissues—“Eight Steps to a Pain Free Back”

Step 2—Write

____Free writing

____Read the first third of “Feeling Good”

____Write in the “three column technique” of “Feeling Good”

Step3—Learn Why Writing is Effective

____Read “The Talent Code”

____Read “The Seed of our Undoing”

____Understand “reprogramming” the nervous system

Step 4—Sleep (#1)

____Learn how sleep affects pain

____Sleep hygiene

____Medications

____Stress management at bedtime

____Consider sleep disorders

Step 5—Learn DOCC Principles

____Read DOCC outline

____Read the full or condensed draft of “Back in Control”—use it frequently as a reference

____Commit at least 30 minutes a day to learning about chronic pain—Schedule it!!

____Subscribe to the website

• Do not rush through any of these phases
• Read all of the links of phase I
• Actively engage in the protocol—you cannot improve by just reading
• Print this worksheet and use it to monitor your progression
• Practices you put into place will be ones you will be using the rest of your life
• Your spouse or partner must also fully engage—just have he or she use the word “stress” instead of pain

NH, BF