Setting Goals That Actually Drive Recovery
Junze Chen, Physiotherapist, PhD candidate
Goal setting is commonly used within rehabilitation programs to help guide treatment and support progress over time. In chronic pain management, it can help clinicians better understand what is meaningful to the individual and assist in developing rehabilitation plans that focus on improving participation in valued activities and life roles.
For many people living with persistent pain, initial goals are understandably centred around wanting the pain to stop completely. While symptom reduction may still remain important, rehabilitation often also focuses on improving function, confidence, and participation in meaningful activities alongside pain management. Depending on the individual, these activities may relate to physical health, family roles, social participation, hobbies, household tasks or work.
Goals are often structured across short, medium, and long term timeframes. Long term goals generally reflect broader outcomes or activities the individual hopes to return to over time, while shorter-term goals help build the capacity required to support those longer-term outcomes. Structuring rehabilitation in this way can help provide direction, support progression and allow progress to be reviewed more clearly over time.
SMART goals
One commonly used approach to goal setting is the SMART framework, where goals are designed to be:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-bound
In practice, goals are often more useful when they clearly describe a specific activity and include a measurable target. For example, a goal such as “walk for 10 minutes, four days this week” provides a clearer and more measurable target than a broader goal such as “walk more”. Clear goals may also support communication between clinicians and patients and help guide decisions around progression or modification of the rehabilitation program.
Tailoring rehabilitation to an individual’s goals
Within chronic pain rehabilitation, exercise and activity interventions are often tailored to the individual’s goals and functional needs. For example, where a person’s goals involve lifting, carrying, or manual tasks, rehabilitation may include strengthening or functional lifting activities. Where goals involve overhead movements, recreational activities, or returning to specific hobbies or work demands, exercises may be selected to support those physical requirements. In this context, exercise is often used as a way of gradually improving capacity for meaningful daily activities.
Progression is also an important part of rehabilitation planning. Early goals may focus on establishing consistency and identifying a manageable starting point, while later goals may involve gradually increasing activity demands, complexity, or confidence with movement. Progression is typically tailored to the individual, recognising that recovery rates and symptom patterns can vary significantly between people.
Dealing with setbacks and reviewing goals
Setbacks and fluctuations in symptoms are also common in chronic pain rehabilitation. For this reason, goals are often reviewed and adjusted over time in response to progress, symptom behaviour, and changes in personal circumstances. Within many rehabilitation approaches, setbacks are viewed as a normal part of the rehabilitation process rather than simply an indication of failure.
Summary
Overall, goal setting can help provide structure within rehabilitation programs and support individuals and clinicians in working towards meaningful and realistic outcomes. Person-centred goal setting remains an important component of many contemporary chronic pain management approaches, helping rehabilitation stay aligned with the individual’s priorities, values, and daily life demands while supporting people to gradually build capacity and work towards their full potential.
Reference
Doran, G. T. (1981). There’s a S.M.A.R.T. way to write management’s goals and objectives. Management Review, 70(11), 35–36.
Junze joined Advance Healthcare in 2021 and is currently completing his PhD. He has a strong interest in chronic musculoskeletal pain management and values combining a deeper understanding of pain with movement-based rehabilitation approaches to support meaningful functional outcomes. Junze works across the Geelong and Hoppers Crossing clinics and speaks fluent Mandarin.