Your pain is real, you feel it and it hurts. Your pain is not imagined and you are not exaggerating. For many people, pain that has outlasted healing is partly a pattern the nervous system has learned. Patterns that are learned can often be unlearned.

Does this sound familiar?

• Medical treatments have been ineffective or only given you temporary relief

• You have symptoms in multiple parts of your body

• Your pain and symptoms came at a particularly stressful time in life

• You’re exhausted from pain that doesn’t seem to have a clear cause

• You’ve started to feel frustrated with, or even betrayed by, your own body

Pain is always real. And all pain is processed through the brain, which gives the brain tremendous power over when, where and how we will experience it. The brain has the power to keep sounding an alarm even after the body is no longer in danger. Clients who see me for chronic pain have often spent a long time searching for answers, going to doctor after doctor and only being met with more frustration. They’re tired of feeling unheard and disbelieved. You may be wondering if this means your pain is “all in your head”. Your pain is real and not “in your head”. It often means the alarm system producing the pain may be able to change, more so than you thought.

What we do in Session:

For chronic pain I combine two approaches. Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) helps you understand pain as a signal generated by the brain, and teaches somatic tracking, staying calm, and being curious towards sensations instead of bracing against them. With this your brain starts to learn that sensations in the body are not dangerous.

Alongside that, I work from an IFS lens. Living with pain, you may carry many inner parts that have learned to be frustrated or angry with your body, one that pushes through no matter what, or one that’s grieving what all the pain has taken. IFS helps you to understand and care for these parts, which often lessens the alarm signals.

Who This Work Is a Good Fit For:

This may be a good fit if your pain has lasted longer than three months or beyond the time an injury should have healed, if your doctors haven’t found a structural cause that fully explains it, and if you’re open to the mind-body connection and willing to practice between sessions.

When This May Not Be the Right Fit:

This isn’t the right fit if you’re in acute psychiatric crisis and need that level of support, if you need insurance-based care, or if you have new, worsening, or unexplained symptoms that need medical attention first. I ask that a doctor has evaluated your pain before we begin.