A 52-year-old male self-refers to physical therapy for evaluation and treatment of low back pain. He states that he has had recurrent bouts of low back pain over the past 12 years and for most of those episodes, the back pain tends to resolve to his satisfaction. On occasion, he has had to see his family doctor for episodes that did not resolve. In most instances, he was given nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication and a small booklet describing low back exercises. He feels that these exacerbations of pain now last longer and the bouts seem more frequent. This most recent back pain episode began 7 days ago. He is a university professor and does not want this episode to cause him to miss work as several of his past episodes have done.