Pain Reprocessing Therapy
Ah, if you have been experiencing pain for a long time I am sure that you’ve tried everything you possibly could. The thing is, what are you looking for? Are you looking for the quick fix? Are you looking for someone to give you the one right exercise? Hoping that the next Dr appointment will get you into the right surgery?
Pain is challenging, and mentally exhausting, to deal with. It is easy to imagine that there should be one structural aspect that needs to be changed by someone else and then you’ll be able to get on with your life.
But chronic pain (pain that has lasted longer than 6 months) isn’t like that. As a society, we need to flip the way we view pain and look at the big picture of what is going on. Pain Reprocessing Therapy helps you do just that.
We now know that persistent pain develops largely from the neuroplastic aspect of how our nervous system protects us and that the persistent pain is essentially our nervous system now being hyper vigilant and over protective. This side of persistent pain is not going to go away because of the one ‘best’ exercise or prescription/surgery/injection.
Pain Reprocessing Therapy is an evidence based treatment that ‘aims to rewire the neural pathways in the brain to deactiviate pain’. One of the ways in doing this is through a practice called ‘somatic tracking’. Here the patient is led through a calming process and practices looking at the sensation of pain through a lens of safety.
No, this is not ignoring pain, it is not pushing through pain. It is the practice of calmly, consciously being aware of a painful sensation without engaging and feeding the fear/pain cycle. This practice teaches patients to break their conditioned responses to certain activities/movements/stressors and look at engaging in life’s activities & responsibilities without pain.
This breaking of the fear/pain cycle allows you to look at the sensation for what it is: your nervous system trying to protect you from danger.
This process works very well in calming the nervous system and building your confidence in moving your body again. Whether you are wishing you could get in the car for that road trip or long haul flight, to playing with your kids, to easing the mental load of how persistent pain has affected your life in general. Pain Reprocessing Therapy is an amazing tool to build the mind/body connection and live life again.
Imagine feeling the weight of daily pain lifted. The ability to breathe again and not fear the next painful sensation. Imagine the mindset shift of inviting the sensations so that you can practice your mindfulness!