Interview with Kjartan Vibe Fersum CFT

Cognitive Functional Therapy (CFT) is presented as a multidimensional, person-centered approach to persistent musculoskeletal pain, especially low back pain. Kjartan Vibe Fersum explains how CFT developed from earlier movement-based ideas into a broader clinical reasoning framework that addresses beliefs, fear, coping, lifestyle, movement patterns, and social context rather than placing patients into rigid categories. The discussion also covers a randomized controlled trial comparing CFT with manual therapy plus exercise. Both groups improved, but CFT produced larger effects on pain and disability, with benefits maintained over time. A key explanation is that lasting change comes from changing behavior, reducing fear, and helping people return to valued activities. Strong emphasis is placed on clinical skills needed to apply CFT: listening carefully, avoiding premature explanations, improving communication, using pain neuroscience appropriately, and building a collaborative rehabilitation plan. Other important themes include therapeutic alliance, motivational interviewing, the limits of structural explanations, the overuse of “core stability” ideas, and the need to consider sleep, stress, social isolation, health beliefs, and function in assessment and treatment.