Points of reference
The reading behind the work.
A working selection of the literature this practice reasons from — enactive and predictive-processing accounts of pain, touch, and manual therapy, and the clinical reasoning around them. Not exhaustive, and revised as the reading is. Each entry links to its source; details are corrected against DOI.
Enactive & active inference
- Clark A (2024). Hacking the Predictive Mind. Entropy 26: 677.
- Coninx S, Stilwell P (2021). Pain and the field of affordances: an enactive approach to acute and chronic pain. Synthese 199: 7835-7863.
- Coninx S, Stilwell P (2023). Chronic Pain, Enactivism, & the Challenges of Integration. Studies in Brain and Mind: 241-276.
- Cormack B, Stilwell P, Coninx S, Gibson J (2022). The biopsychosocial model is lost in translation: from misrepresentation to an enactive modernization. Physiotherapy Theory and Practice 39: 2273-2288.
- de Haan S (2020). Enactive Psychiatry.
- Esteves JE, Cerritelli F, Kim J, Friston KJ (2022). Osteopathic Care as (En)active Inference: A Theoretical Framework for Developing an Integrative Hypothesis in Osteopathy. Frontiers in Psychology 13.
- Kim J, Esteves JE, Cerritelli F, Friston K (2022). An Active Inference Account of Touch and Verbal Communication in Therapy. Frontiers in Psychology 13.
- Kube T, Rozenkrantz L, Rief W, Barsky A (2020). Understanding persistent physical symptoms: Conceptual integration of psychological expectation models and predictive processing accounts. Clinical Psychology Review 76: 101829.
- Lersch FE, Frickmann FCS, Urman RD, Burgermeister G, Siercks K, Luedi MM, Straumann S (2023). Analgesia for the Bayesian Brain: How Predictive Coding Offers Insights Into the Subjectivity of Pain. Current Pain and Headache Reports 27: 631-638.
- Nesi J, Benites M, Schedler FB (2025). Enactivism: A contemporary perspective of a reconceptualization of osteopathy. Advances in Integrative Medicine 12: 100416.
- Ongaro G (2024). Outline for an Externalist Psychiatry (1): Or, How to Fully Realize the Biopsychosocial Model. Philosophy, Psychiatry, & Psychology 31: 269-284.
- Stilwell P, Harman K (2019). An enactive approach to pain: beyond the biopsychosocial model. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 18: 637-665.
- Van den Bergh O, Witthöft M, Petersen S, Brown RJ (2017). Symptoms and the body: Taking the inferential leap. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 74: 185-203.
- Vaz DV, Stilwell P, Coninx S, Low M, Liebenson C (2023). Affordance-based practice: An ecological-enactive approach to chronic musculoskeletal pain management. Brazilian Journal of Physical Therapy 27: 100554.
Pain, reconceived
- Cohen SP, Vase L, Hooten WM (2021). Chronic pain: an update on burden, best practices, and new advances. Lancet 397: 2082-2097.
- Fitzcharles M, Cohen SP, Clauw DJ, Littlejohn G, Usui C, Häuser W (2021). Nociplastic pain: towards an understanding of prevalent pain conditions. The Lancet 397: 2098-2110.
- Hutting N, Caneiro JP, Ong'wen OM, Miciak M, Roberts L (2022). Person-centered care for musculoskeletal pain: Putting principles into practice. Musculoskeletal Science and Practice 62: 102663.
- Linton SJ, O’Sullivan PB, Zetterberg HE, Vlaeyen JWS (2024). The “future” pain clinician: Competencies needed to provide psychologically informed care. Scandinavian Journal of Pain 24.
- Rabey M, Moloney N (2022). “I Don’t Know Why I’ve Got this Pain!” Allostasis as a Possible Explanatory Model. Physical Therapy 102.
- Ramne M, Elam M, Löken LS, Ortiz-Catalan M (2023). Neurophysiology of pain for non-neurophysiologists: a systematic review.
- Varangot-Reille C, Pezzulo G, Thacker M (2024). The fear-avoidance model as an embodied prediction of threat. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience 24: 781-792.
Persistent symptoms & the body
- Henningsen P, Gündel H, Kop WJ, Löwe B, Martin A, Rief W, Rosmalen JGM, Schröder A, et al. (2018). Persistent Physical Symptoms as Perceptual Dysregulation: A Neuropsychobehavioral Model and Its Clinical Implications. Psychosomatic Medicine 80: 422-431.
- Henningsen P, Zipfel S, Sattel H, Creed F (2018). Management of Functional Somatic Syndromes and Bodily Distress. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics 87: 12-31.
- Löwe B, Toussaint A, Rosmalen JGM, Huang W, Burton C, Weigel A, Levenson JL, Henningsen P (2024). Persistent physical symptoms: definition, genesis, and management. The Lancet 403: 2649-2662.
Touch, alliance & synchrony
- McParlin Z, Cerritelli F, Friston KJ, Esteves JE (2022). Therapeutic Alliance as Active Inference: The Role of Therapeutic Touch and Synchrony. Frontiers in Psychology 13.
- Arrigoni A, Rossettini G, Palese A, Thacker M, Esteves JE (2024). Exploring the role of therapeutic alliance and biobehavioural synchrony in musculoskeletal care: Insights from a qualitative study. Musculoskeletal Science and Practice 73: 103164.
- Abbey H (2023). Communication strategies in psychologically informed osteopathic practice: A case report. International Journal of Osteopathic Medicine.
Biopsychosocial & person-centred
- Cook CE, Bailliard A, Bent JA, Bialosky JE, Carlino E, Colloca L, Esteves JE, Newell D, et al. (2023). An international consensus definition for contextual factors: findings from a nominal group technique. Frontiers in Psychology 14.
- Draper-Rodi J, Vaughan B, Fleischmann M, Sposato NS (2026). Person-centred care in osteopathic practice in Australia: Results from a national health service use survey. Advances in Integrative Medicine 13: 100684.
Clinical reasoning & foundations
- Accardi C, Cerritelli F, Bovo L, Esteves JE (2023). The osteopath-parent-child triad in osteopathic care in the first 2 years of life: a qualitative study. Frontiers in Psychology 14.
- Bialosky JE, Beneciuk JM, Bishop MD, Coronado RA, Penza CW, Simon CB, George SZ (2018). Unraveling the Mechanisms of Manual Therapy: Modeling an Approach. Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy 48: 8-18.
- Chi MTH, Roscoe RD, Slotta JD, Roy M, Chase CC (2011). Misconceived Causal Explanations for Emergent Processes. Cognitive Science 36: 1-61.
- Hoover HV (1963). A hopeful road ahead for osteopathy. The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association 62.
- Loghmani MT, Keter D, Bove GM, Winkelstein BA, Bulea TC, Olausson H, Pathak MN, Powell R, et al. (2025). A Model to guide force-based manipulation research and practice. PLOS One 20: e0331606.
- Marwaha K, Cain R, Asmis K, Czaplinski K, Holland N, Mayer DCG, Chacon J (2025). Exploring the complex relationship between psychosocial stress and the gut microbiome: implications for inflammation and immune modulation. Journal of Applied Physiology 138: 518-535.
- Montgomery K (2006). How Doctors Think: Clinical Judgment and the Practice of Medicine.
Compiled from my own reference library; selection and emphasis are mine. If a citation looks wrong, tell me — I keep it tidy.