Tips from a chronic pain recovery therapist Chronic pain is a danger signal created in the brain when your nervous system feels unsafe. So, in order to get the pain signal turned down, we need to help our nervous system feel safe again.⁠ For some people in some situations, simply saying the mantra “I am safe” can be enough…

Tips from a chronic pain recovery therapist. Expressive writing can be one of the most powerful tools for releasing chronic pain and anxiety. It certainly has been for me. But sometimes, you may find that when you journal your emotions, they just get stirred up into a spiral that amplifies pain and anxiety levels instead…

Tips from a chronic pain recovery therapist. We all want a quick fix for our suffering, and there is absolutely no reason to be ashamed of that desire. How could we not want that? Our yearning to delete our suffering — whether it be in the form of chronic pain or otherwise — is also…

Tips from a chronic pain recovery therapist… This is a question that I often get from clients: “If I let myself rest when I’m in pain, isn’t that avoidance? Should I rest or just keep going?” The answer is… it really depends. Pain is a danger signal that your nervous system sends when it feels…

If the answer is “complicated,” read on… Mind-body therapy is a lot like relationship therapy for your body and mind. Yes, your mind and your body do have a relationship with each other! And the issues that can come up between them are a lot like the issues that come up between family members, partners,…

It’s no secret that symptoms like chronic pain and anxiety are related to stress. Even the mainstream medical field has embraced this basic truth and you may have had doctors advise you to “reduce stress.” But what actually IS the relationship between stress and symptoms? How does one lead to the other — and what can we do…

Conflicting feelings are common. And they often contribute to chronic pain… Even in the most loving families, conflicted feelings towards parents are practically universal. This has something to do with the complexity of attachment bonds… And it also has something to do with the power dynamics between adult caregivers and children in a culture that…

When people use the phrase “𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗱” to describe stress-induced pain, the implication is that the pain exists only in your mind — in your thoughts — in your fantasy.⁠ Not only is this notion dismissive and hurtful to those experiencing pain, it’s quite simply untrue. Anyone who’s ever experienced stress-induced pain (i.e.…

3 examples of moving through hopelessness to the other side. If you’ve already begun the journey of chronic pain recovery using a mind-body approach, you’ve probably experienced each of these things at some point along the way: I’ve been to both places. And as a chronic pain recovery therapist and coach, I often get asked…