Back in Control with David Hanscom, MD

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with pain psychologist Les Aria about how the body’s response to sustained threat can prevent you from being the person you really are. He explains that when we are overwhelmed, the primitive parts of the brain take over and rational thinking and behavior decline. It is only when you understand this process and develop coping skills for stress that you can reconnect to your true self and have the quality of life you desire.

Les Aria, PhD is a Pain Psychologist, who has been practicing for the past 16 years with Kaiser Permanente Medical Group, Inc. He served as the Lead Pain Psychologist for Kaiser Northern California to help incorporate modern pain science, mindfulness and Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT). Les specializes in treating psychophysiological disorders/persistent pain and medically unexplained problems. His passion for mind body interventions promote a unique style to help patients relate differently to their suffering, and thereby shifting them into pain recovery and wellness.

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with Dr. Joshua Smyth. He explains that while unwanted repetitive thoughts (URTs) are very common, people differ in their response to them. Each person has a different level of adaptability and resilience that determines how well they can handle URTs. These repetitive patterns can drain a person’s resources and cause problems with their health or psychology. Cognitive behavioral therapy, in combination with better sleep, exercise and diet, can calm the nervous system and help patients modulate their body’s response to URTs and then eventually slow their frequency.

Joshua Smyth is a Distinguished Professor of Biobehavioral Health and of Medicine at Penn State and Hershey Medical Center and serves as Associate Director of Penn State’s Social Science Research Institute (SSRI). Smyth is an internationally recognized expert on ambulatory assessment and intervention, with a focus on the interplay of stress, emotion, physiology and behavior in everyday life.   He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, and the Society of Behavioral Medicine. Dr. Smyth has served as an editorial referee for more than four dozen journals, served as Editor and Associate Editor for several journals, and has been active in Society leadership for the American Psychosomatic Society, the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and the Society for Ambulatory Assessment. Dr. Smyth has widely shared his research in interviews with ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, PBS, Newsweek, Time and the New York Times, among many others, and recently published (with James Pennebaker) a popular science book on expressive writing interventions. Finally, he is an active and engaged teacher, and has received numerous accolades and awards for teaching and mentoring of students and trainees.

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Dr. Joshua Smyth about the nature and mechanisms for unwanted repetitive thought (URT) patterns. These are thought patterns that persist over time and can have a negative effect on a person’s health and psychology. Dr. Smyth explains that these thoughts often have lots of very emotional associations and can be very experiential / visual. Ironically because of this, trying to suppress them consciously typically just reinforces them. They can damage our health because they trigger the body’s threat response.

Joshua Smyth is a Distinguished Professor of Biobehavioral Health and of Medicine at Penn State and Hershey Medical Center and serves as Associate Director of Penn State’s Social Science Research Institute (SSRI). Smyth is an internationally recognized expert on ambulatory assessment and intervention, with a focus on the interplay of stress, emotion, physiology and behavior in everyday life.   He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine, the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, and the Society of Behavioral Medicine. Dr. Smyth has served as an editorial referee for more than four dozen journals, served as Editor and Associate Editor for several journals, and has been active in Society leadership for the American Psychosomatic Society, the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and the Society for Ambulatory Assessment. Dr. Smyth has widely shared his research in interviews with ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, PBS, Newsweek, Time and the New York Times, among many others, and recently published (with James Pennebaker) a popular science book on expressive writing interventions. Finally, he is an active and engaged teacher, and has received numerous accolades and awards for teaching and mentoring of students and trainees.

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with psychiatrist Dr. Fred Moss. He explains the process by which he helps patients reconfigure their narrative through conversation and discover their authentic voice. He stresses the importance of the physician going through this process themselves so they can connect with and help their patients. He shares his own story of healing and how he discovered the magic of being aligned with your true voice.

Dr. Fred Moss is a graduate of Northwestern University Medical School and a licensed psychiatrist who has consulted patients, practitioners, medical facilities, non-profit organizations, and community groups for nearly four decades. In 2006, he began taking a new approach with his patients, working with a chosen few to assist in reclaiming their lives from the clenched fists of medication. Over time he saw that those who persisted gradually and reliably improved once they were free of the medication.

Patients began to report frequent success stories that began to open up a whole new set of questions about the actual definitions of mental illness and mental health and the conversations that are created around those definitions. It is around these basic principles that Dr. Moss began to shape his methodology and his work with clients. He is now dedicated his efforts to establishing his brand, Welcome To Humanity (welcometohumanity.net), as a "home base" for his work as a speaker, consultant, and advisor, and for his mental health and life coaching practice as a "non-medicating psychiatrist."

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with psychiatrist Dr. Fred Moss about the evolution of his practice. While his initial interest in psychiatry was to expand on communication as a primary healing tool, a shift in the medical paradigm in the 80’s led to physicians prescribing “magic pills” as a primary way of dealing with emotional distress. The medications, which initially seemed to briefly quell the symptoms, appeared to be exacerbating—even causing—the symptoms they were prescribed to treat. In 2006, he began to change his practice to one based on communication, connection, creativity and radical listening. He is now using these principles as a restorative, transformational coach.

Dr. Fred Moss is a graduate of Northwestern University Medical School and a licensed psychiatrist who has consulted patients, practitioners, medical facilities, non-profit organizations, and community groups for nearly four decades. In 2006, he began taking a new approach with his patients, working with a chosen few to assist in reclaiming their lives from the clenched fists of medication. Over time he saw that those who persisted gradually and reliably improved once they were free of the medication.

Patients began to report frequent success stories that began to open up a whole new set of questions about the actual definitions of mental illness and mental health and the conversations that are created around those definitions. It is around these basic principles that Dr. Moss began to shape his methodology and his work with clients. He is now dedicated his efforts to establishing his brand, Welcome To Humanity (welcometohumanity.net), as a "home base" for his work as a speaker, consultant, and advisor, and for his mental health and life coaching practice as a "non-medicating psychiatrist."

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with chiropractor and rehabilitation / pain specialist Dr. Tovah Goldfine. She explains that our bodies already come equipped with tremendous healing capabilities, but these can be blocked by repressed emotions. She discusses the idea that you have to get to your emotions through your thoughts. Having a purpose to heal and taking responsibility for it can lead to self-healing. But the first step is letting go of the anger and repressed emotions to clear the path to healing. She also shares the work that she and her partners are doing to educate patients about these concepts and make them aware of their own healing capacity.

Dr Tovah Goldfine, like other passionate doctors in her field, was drawn to the healing profession from a whirlwind of trauma and drama in her own personal life. She has been in practice for 36 years as a Doctor of Chiropractic, Rehabilitation and Pain Solutions. She has assisted her patients with acute pain, chronic pain, autoimmune disease and most importantly, tools and insights they can use to take responsibility for their conditions and their ultimate health and emotional well-being.

Originally from Philadelphia, she is now living and working in Israel. Dr Tovah (as her patients call her) along with her 3 cohosts are presently educating and inspiring self-healing on 3 weekly Facebook Live broadcasts:

TMS RoundTable Global,TMS RoundTable IsraelDisrupt and Heal Autoimmune Disease

Dr Tovah has been deeply influenced by the work of the late Dr John Sarno.

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with chiropractor and rehabilitation / pain specialist Dr. Tovah Goldfine about the evolution of her practice and the mind body principles she uses to help patients discover their self-healing powers.  She explains that emotional healing can help us survive and rise above pain and disease. But the first step, she emphasizes, begins with taking responsibility for yourself and your healing.

Dr Tovah Goldfine, like other passionate doctors in her field, was drawn to the healing profession from a whirlwind of trauma and drama in her own personal life. She has been in practice for 36 years as a Doctor of Chiropractic, Rehabilitation and Pain Solutions. She has assisted her patients with acute pain, chronic pain, autoimmune disease and most importantly, tools and insights they can use to take responsibility for their conditions and their ultimate health and emotional well-being.

Originally from Philadelphia, she is now living and working in Israel. Dr Tovah (as her patients call her) along with her 3 cohosts are presently educating and inspiring self-healing on 3 weekly Facebook Live broadcasts:

TMS RoundTable Global,TMS RoundTable IsraelDisrupt and Heal Autoimmune Disease

Dr Tovah has been deeply influenced by the work of the late Dr John Sarno.

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with Dr. David Clarke, the President of the Psychophysiologic Disorders Association. He founded the organization in 2011 to provide education to physicians and patients about the nature, diagnosis and treatment of psychophsiologic disorders. He shares advances being made in the field and his hope to eliminate traditional medicine’s assumption that if there are no structural abnormality, there is no medical issue.  For more information, visit https://ppdassociation.org.

David D. Clarke, MD is President of the Psychophysiologic Disorders Association. He is also Assistant Director at the Center for Ethics and Clinical Assistant Professor of Gastroenterology Emeritus both at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon, USA.  He teaches graduate courses on Psychophysiologic Medicine at Arizona State University and at the Cummings Graduate Institute. His book for patients, They Can’t Find Anything Wrong! He is board-certified in Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine and has diagnosed and treated over 7,000 patients whose symptoms were not explained by diagnostic testing.     

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with Dr. Vania Apkarian, a world renowned neuroscientist at Northwestern University. He talks about his current research aimed at predicting the likelihood of a patient developing chronic pain following a surgery. To date, the predictive markers his research has identified have shown an accuracy of greater than 80%. He explains how neural circuits in different regions of the brain change as chronic pain develops, making clinical interventions more difficult. Techniques that help patients create new neural connections to replace these chronic pain circuits can be very effective.

Vania Apkarian, MD is Professor of Neuroscience, Anesthesia, PM&R and director of Center of Translational Pain Research at Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois. His research involves human brain imaging and animal mechanistic studies mainly in the topics of chronic pain and of opiate addiction in chronic pain. He has been studying brain predictors of placebo response as well as brain properties involved in perception in general. His initial training was in electrical engineering and he has been conducting neuroscience research for over 3 decades.        

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with neuroscientist Dr. Vania Apkarian, about his groundbreaking research into how chronic pain affects brain structure and activity.  He shares his vision for understanding how measurable neural activity translates into the subjective experience of chronic pain. He discusses the changes that the brains of chronic pain patients undergo over time and the possibility of predicting which patients suffering from an acute pain incident will go on to develop chronic pain.

Vania Apkarian, MD is Professor of Neuroscience, Anesthesia, PM&R and director of Center of Translational Pain Research at Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois. His research involves human brain imaging and animal mechanistic studies mainly in the topics of chronic pain and of opiate addiction in chronic pain. He has been studying brain predictors of placebo response as well as brain properties involved in perception in general. His initial training was in electrical engineering and he has been conducting neuroscience research for over 3 decades.