Pain Reprocessing Therapy:

Pain Reprocessing Therapy —A system of psychological techniques that retrains the brain to accurately interpret and respond to signals from the body, breaking the cycle of chronic pain. Although various treatments aim to manage pain, PRT stands apart as an evidence-based treatment to eliminate pain. It has also been used alongside Emotional Awareness & Expression Therapy to treat a wide variety of chronic symptoms.

--> check out the PRT blog and newsletter articles for a wealth of information about how PRT works, the science behind it, common pitfalls, what to do for flare ups, and more.

Tell Me About Your Pain—Podcast by Alan Gordon, Alon Ziv & Curable (The podcast that connected the dots for me and changed my life—I binged the whole series in a week and all my pain went away! Not forever... turns out I had to do the inner work! But it showed me what was possible for the kind of symptoms I was experiencing and gave me great hope.)

The Way Out—Book by Alan Gordon - a more in-depth look and systematic presentation of PRT practices, tips, tricks, and pitfalls, including how to handle flare-ups during the healing process

PRT also provides wonderful Practitioner Trainings (learn the latest pain science and Pain Reprocessing Therapy) and run 8-week educational Healing Workshops. I have completed their basic Practitioner Training & Advanced PRT for Manual & Physical Therapists training.

Curable:

The #1 App for Chronic Pain (infographic above courtesy of Curable): Shown to be effective in an independent randomized controlled trial. Ranked #1 highest quality app for persistent pain in a large-scale peer reviewed study.

Designed to help people with persistent pain reduce their symptoms and calm their nervous system, based on Pain Reprocessing Therapy.

Pain is a multifactorial experience, which is why Curable takes a biopsychosocial approach to helping people heal. Curable helps people with pain identify and address the “missing pieces” that are often excluded from treatment plans, including the role of the brain and conditioning of the nervous system.

The Curable program guides users through short and engaging audio lessons about pain science, teaching how to apply a wide range of science-backed techniques to reduce symptoms, including: somatic tracking, graded motor imagery, cognitive behavioral therapy techniques, guided meditations, pain reduction visualizations, expressive writing techniques, and more.

Click here for a free 6-week trial of the Curable app! I do not receive compensation for sharing—I just found this app very helpful in my own learning and healing.

The Protectometer:

The Protectometer is a tool for taking a comprehensive and holistic look at what is contributing to your nervous system's sense of threat and safety—one of the most illuminating worksheets I've ever done.

Use this to help gain clarity about what contributes to symptom flare ups, and to evaluate what factors might be the biggest be driving factors of chronic nervous system dysregulation. Both to take an honest look at what is under your control and not, and to generate a list of resources/self-care strategies and tools you already have and know.

Link for Downloadable Protectometer Worksheet - by Lorimer Moseley and David Butler of NOI Group (Neuro Orthopaedic Institute).

Comes from the very excellent: Explain Pain Protectometer Handbook

NOI Group: Global Leaders in Pain Science Education – Transforming Knowledge into Better Care (trainings, resources and more). An exceptional resource for pain education, for medical and health care professionals and layfolk alike. --> NOI Group clinical discussions YouTube channel

JournalSpeak (emotional processing and nervous system regulation through targeting writing practice):

Nicole Sachs, LCSW, created JournalSpeak to help people start to ladle off their emotion, stress, anxiety and nervous system charge so you can heal:

Learn why emotional/stress processing is important for reducing your stress/allostatic load on your nervous system (and some strategies to do it) here.

Mind Your Body book (or listen to the audiobook / free with Spotify premium)

www.yourbreakawake.com - JournalSpeak writing process

JournalSpeak is a targeted, expressive writing tool created by Nicole Sachs to give you agency over your chronic pain. A regular JournalSpeak practice allows repressed emotions and stored trauma to safely rise, eliminating the brain’s protective impulse to send pain signals.As you learn how to develop this tool, you will also rewire your neural pathways and gain awareness, presence, and freedom from chronic pain and anxiety.

--> Enter your email at JournalSpeak link above for instant access to prompts to get started!

She also has a course specifically for Chronic Anxiety.

The Cure for Chronic Pain with Nicole Sachs Podcast: A great place to hear personal stories from people with a huge range of chronic symptoms and conditions that were resolved with mind-body tools!

NERVOUS SYSTEM FOUNDATIONS:

Nervous System Mastery 101 w/Jonny Miller: Jonny Miller is my go-to educator on the nervous system. Jonny's journey into nervous system mastery began when his fiancée suffered an anxiety attack that led to her taking her own life. He's the real deal. Every program, class, course and workshop I've taken with him is top-tier.

-->The Truth About How Your Nervous System Operates (polyvagal theory in practice, through a "game of life" lens—a bit masculine/optimization-oriented, but applicable to us all).

--> Free Online Workshop: If [THIS] then [BREATHE]: An Introduction to Nervous System Work

--> check out all his free nervous system workshops here

--> check out Nervous System Mastery 5-week course here (contact me for alumni discount)! THE best online course I have ever taken.

--> I continue to take Jonny's courses and cannot recommend his work enough. It has been foundational for everything else I have learned and healed in the last 4 years, and foundationally informs my approach to my work and life. While I find his approach very masculine/corporate oriented, I can attest he is trauma-informed and the skills and teachings translate.

Conni Biesalski— scientific, somatic, trauma-informed, gender-neutral/queer, student-of-life approach to nervous system/somatic healing and breathwork (especially for those who don't like breathwork).

--> Breathwork & Nervous System Foundations course

--> EXCELLENT articles here on their substack

--> Conni writes the most informative, honest articles I've seen about how somatic therapy works and what to expect, phone/social media addiction, emotional numbing and processing.

Also Very Helpful:

Polyvagal Theory - Deb Dana's Rhythm of Regulation (top collaborator with Stephen Porges to help translate his research into clinical and layperson accessible information)

Emotion Sensation Wheels (for developing greater vocabulary for mapping emotions to physical sensations)

-->Check out my article and practice for developing your interoception (inner-awareness) to sense your nervous system and emotional states. If you have trouble connecting with your body, or reading your internal emotional states, this is a great place to start!

Mindfulness

A meditator of various sorts for 20 years, mindfulness practice, I have found the practice of being present in the moment—with whatever is happening—to be one of the greatest skills we can develop as human beings, for increasing our capacity for both the gifts and challenges of aliveness.

I have been part of Adam Moskowitz's Rainbow Mind inclusive online meditation group and/or going on retreat with Adam for about 5 years now. I appreciate that his teachings are foundationally rooted in presence with the body and somatic experience.

--> Learn more about Rainbow Mind (Tuesdays, 7:30–8:15am PT) and upcoming Retreats here

Podcasts (a great way to learn and see what approaches resonate for you):

1. Like Mind, Like Body —Interviewing top researchers, best-selling authors, and field experts about the astonishing ways the mind can affect the body. Covers many types of symptoms.

2. The Cure for Chronic Pain with Nicole Sachs —Not the best intro to her work (see her book Mind Your Body), but she covers a wide variety of symptoms and recovery stories.

3. Tell Me About Your Pain —Pain Reprocessing Therapy, taught by its creater Alan Gordon. An educational series, I suggest starting at the beginning and listen sequentially to learn the main practices, tips, tricks and pitfalls for PRT (just skip the first one about covid March 2020, not necessary)!

Some Notable Episodes:

--> Non-Pain Symptoms are Curable! w/Yonit Arthur, Audiologist- conversation about vestibular symptoms and how the brain can create or amplify any sensation in any part of the body

--> The Psychology of Pain: Practical Insights for Recovery w/Justin Barker, PsyD (SO insightful, even if you've been doing the work a while. I had some major ah-ha's listening to this one!)

--> Healing When Pain is Both Structural & Neuroplastic w/Lara Birk, PhD

More:

The Sage Practice by Dr. Lara Birk — chronic pain coaching especially for people who also have a structural/physical component to their pain.

--> She offers the most robust free resource and education page I've ever seen.

--> Podcast: Healing When Pain is Both Structural & Neuroplastic w/Lara Birk, PhD

The Steady Coach —Dr. Yonit Arthur, AuD: Helping people with chronic dizziness (and other chronic vestibular symptoms) get strong and steady with mind-body approach to healing.

Adrian Louw www.whyyouhurt.com "Your Comprehensive Resource for Pain Neuroscience Education"

This Might Hurt: Unlearning Pain (with Dr. Howard Schubiner, MD)

*I have not seen this film but the website is great resource for learning. Dr. Howard Schubiner is one of the primary doctors associated with the Pain Reprocessing Therapy and Emotional Awareness & Expression Therapy, both of which have statistically mind-blowing rates of chronic pain resolution in clinical trials.

--> List of non-pain chronic symptoms that can also be produced by the nervous system, and healed with similar mind-body approaches.

Other Neuroplastic Symptoms Can Include: Anxiety, long covid, chronic abdominal pain and spasms, chronic arm or leg pain, chronic back pain and spasms, chronic neck pain, chronic tendonitis, repetitive strain injury (RSI), complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), depression, dizziness (including PPPD & MmDS), face pain, fibromyalgia, insomnia, brain fog, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), painful bladder syndrome (interstitial cystitis), pelvic floor dysfunction, POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), temporo-mandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ), chronic inflammation, tension and migraine headaches, post-concussion syndrome, tinnitus (ringing or distortion in the ears), burning mouth syndrome, vulvodynia, coccydynia, some people with neuropathic pain, trigeminal neuralgia and other neuralgias, post-exertional malaise and chronic fatigue (ME/CFS), some people who are told their chronic pain is due to Hypermobility Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS), and conversion disorders/functional neurological disorders, plantar fasciitis/foot pain.

MOTION IS LOTION:

Movement is an essential part of healing any chronic symptom. Getting out of pain is NOT a prerequisite to get moving again, it's actually the contrary—getting moving again is the prerequisite for getting out of pain—with proper pacing, mind-body tools and pain education to reduce fear.

Walking, dancing, pandiculating/stretching, bouncing, shaking, playing... let's talk about what is right for your body! I also have many amazing movement professionals in my roladex!

Very gentle prescriptive (muscle group by muscle group) movement: Clinical Somatics (aka Hanna Somatics/Pandiculation) - great $45 online course that teaches the concepts of pandiculation exercises. Sarah's blog is also a wealth of well-researched information. Here is some specific content I often recommend to people:

– VIDEO: Why Static Stretching Doesn’t Work (And What to Do Instead)—Pandiculate! 4-min physiology

– VIDEO: Iliopsoas Release (free 20 min sample sequence)
– VIDEO: Pandiculation Somatic Practice/Fascial Unwinding (guided somatic practice for pandiculating—much more freeform and organic) by SomaSensing

CONTINUING EDUCATION (for medical professionals, bodyworkers, and therapists of all kinds):

PODCAST: Treating the Brain and the Body w/Charlie Merrill, MSPT / Like Mind, Like Body - conversation about combining manual physical therapy with a mind-body approach

Pain Reprocessing Therapy Applications for Physical & Manual Therapists (19hr CE Training)

The Sarno x Sachs Solution (19hr CE Training) - combining the teachings of Dr. John Sarno and Nicole Sachs, LCSW

NOI Group: Global Leaders in Pain Science Education – Transforming Knowledge into Better Care (live and self-paced courses, resource and clinician list)

-->NOI Group Clinical Discussions on YouTube (great place to start and learn for free)!

ASK ME ABOUT COACHES, THERAPISTS & COMPLIMENTARY THERAPIES!

I also have a wonderful curated list of nervous system, trauma, somatic, and pain-education informed therapists and coaches I would be very happy to refer you to. Please just reach out.