It is common, if not the rule, for people in mental or physical pain to discuss it with anyone who will listen – especially their family. It wears people out and drives them away. An important aspect of healing is nurturing a close support system – connection and love. Discussing your pain blocks this critical step.

David Hanscom, MD

Les Aria, PhD Pain Psychologist

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It is common, if not the rule, for people in mental or physical pain to discuss it with anyone who will listen – especially their family. It wears people out and drives them away. An important aspect of healing is nurturing a close support system. Not discussing your pain is a major step.

Find out more about David Hanscom, MD

Les Aria, Ph.D. Pain Psychologist

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There are many concepts about the meaning of the word, “love.” However, Anthony DeMello, in his book, The Way to Love, condenses it down to one word, “awareness.” Awareness is “being fully present in the moment you are in.”

Anytime you are anxious or angry, you are connected to the past and have lost awareness. However, since we are programmed to survive, mentally and physically, we are always on the lookout for danger. These reactions are not controllable, and it requires tools to process them and then being in the present can emerge.

Awareness is at the core of successful human relationships, yet close relationships are the most powerful triggers. Instead of being an opportunity to heal, they often are an additional source of stress (pain). Today, we are just focusing on the word, “awareness” as the word for love. How can you positively interact with someone or solve problems without being aware of who they are and how the world may look through their eyes? How can you listen if you are already projecting your opinion onto them?

Anthony DeMello suggests that awareness may be all you need to heal. He is probably correct. These concepts are particularly relevant to close relationships in context of being in chronic mental/ physical pain.

Get the book The Way to Love by Anthony DeMello

Find out more about David Hanscom MD

Les Aria, PhD Pain Psychologist

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All of us need to have a place where we feel safe and nurtured. Home is the place where this needs to happen. How safe do you feel in your own home. How does your family feel? How do your close friends feel around you? 

But remember, the first place to feel safe is with yourself from your own mind. Once you can create this level of safety, you can create it in other areas. Then as your home and circle of friends feel safe, it works in the other direction.

Connect with Dr. David Hanscom

Les Aria, PhD Pain Psychologist

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This is the final episode of the PRT (Pain Reprocessing Therapy) series. There are many ways of calming down your nervous system, but the real healing occurs as you train your nervous to move into the life that you want. You can learn to create a felt sense of safety versus fear of your pain – mental or physical. 

“To have a good life, you must live a good life.” David Hanscom

REVIEW: What is Pain reprocessing therapy (PRT)? 

PRT is an approach that trains the brain to reinterpret sensory input by (1) Breaking the pain-fear cycle and thereby (2) reducing or eliminating pain by training the brain to reprocess pain signals as safe.  

What do we mean by creating more positive feelings and sensations towards your pain?  

We become what we practice. What do you want? The goal of, “Getting rid of my pain” places your attention on the pain and it will continue to run the show.

David Hanscom, MD Les Aria, Ph.D. Pain Psychologist

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Unpleasant emotions are painful and no one wants to hurt. So, your brain represses it (unconscious response), or we suppress it (conscious act). You must first train yourself to feel your own pain before you can reprocess it. Quote: “Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.” Sigmund Freud

Emotional and physical pain share the same neurological circuits in your brain. Emotional pain has a bigger impact on your body in that you can’t escape your thoughts. Suppression/ repression is all we know, and it really fires up the threat response. It also causes the hippocampus (memory center) to shrink in size, and the amygdala (fear) to enlarge.

In order to solve your pain, you have to first feel it. Awareness is at the core of healing. Then there are specific strategies that allow you to cope and reprocess your emotions. Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) encompasses most of these approaches.

David Hanscom, MD Les Aria, PhD Pain Psychologist

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This episode is focused on the third component of Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), which gently “leaning into your pain.” We tease out the difference between “mind over matter” compared to “being with your pain.” It is also much different than “accepting your pain.” 

A central skill in in PRT is called “somatic tracking”, which addresses this specific need to “lean into your pain. The goal of somatic healing is to help the patient attend to pain sensations through a lens of safety. At the same time, you must be kind to yourself – you don’t have to like being in pain, and you must nurture you.

Another view of this phase is to, “give up and move on.” Pay more attention to the rest of your life instead of your pain (classic phase of healing). Your pain circuits will atrophy and your capacity to enjoy life will grow.

Find out more about the hosts of Dynamic Healing- David Hanscom, MD and Les Aria, PhD.

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The second component of Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) is gathering and reinforcing personalized evidence for the brain origins and reversibility of pain.

One way to combat the belief that there is a “structural”/peripheral cause of the pain is by gathering as much counterevidence as possible – evidence reinforcing that the pain is actually due to central processes, as opposed to a structural problem in the body. 

Indicators of centralized pain include:  

The therapist and patient work together in a collaborative effort to gather and reinforce the evidence that their pain is not a function of underlying structural pathology. The therapist can assist the patient in developing an evidence sheet - a list of all the support that reinforces that patient’s pain is due to central processes.

Find out about David Hanscom, MD and his books, products, and events here

Les Aria, Ph.D. Pain Psychologist

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“Medically Unexplained Symptoms” (MUS) is a term that came into use around 2002 that implied that your medical provider knows you are suffering, he or she is not sure why, and they will try to help you live the best you can with the pain (mental/physical). This is a deadly term in that it further takes away hope and nothing could be further from the truth. 

There is always a reason for chronic symptoms. They are caused by the body’s stress chemistry. Understanding the nature of chronic mental and physical pain allows for solutions. A more accurate term would be “Medically Explained Symptoms” (MES).

It has been shown that suffering from chronic pain has a similar effect on the quality of your life as having terminal cancer – except that is worse. You often don’t know the nature of the problem, and no one is offering viable solutions.

A foundational component of Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) is education. Chronic pain is a complex set of issues and all of them must be understood in order to successfully address them. There are several steps in the evolution of it.

· Source

· Sensitized

· Memorized

· The modifiers

Find out more about David Hanscom, MD Les Aria, Ph.D. Pain Psychologist

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Understanding the nature of chronic pain and that mental and physical pain are essentially the same entity allows you to create new circuits in your brain and the pain will markedly diminish or resolve.

However, there is a sequence that is important to acquire this knowledge and skill set called PRT (Pain Reprocessing Therapy). This podcast presents an overview of the five components that will be discussed in detail in future episodes. 

Connect with David Hanscom, MD here

Connect with Les Aria, PhD Pain Psychologist here

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