Living with chronic pain that won’t go away is a heavy burden. This burden of pain makes life more stressful than it already is. Our Taming Pain Program is a drug-free approach designed to ease this burden by providing you with the tools to find the pain relief you have been yearning for.

No one can ever know your pain as well as you know it.  Therefore, the keys to healing your chronic pain problem lie within you. The challenge is finding these keys. Therefore, when everything that can be done and should be done has been done medically, you must search for pain relief within yourself. That’s where our Taming Chronic Pain program comes in. Our program can help you find the answers within yourself so that you can get lasting pain relief.

Taming Chronic Pain is based on simple common-sense principles.  These principles are grounded in the science of psychology, the practice of mindfulness meditation, the art of hypnosis, our years of experience treating patients with chronic pain, and our own experiences of living with chronic pain.

So, what does it mean to tame your pain?  It means to establish ties and to stop fighting your pain. The fact is that you are tied to your pain and to your body whether you like it or not. Your pain is in your body. You live in your body with your pain. But you make sense of your experience in the world with your brain. So, the strain of the pain in your body is felt mainly in your brain where pain signals and sensations are interpreted. Because of this mind-body connection, your persistent pain is physical, mental and emotional. Taming Chronic Pain addresses all three factors.

To learn how our Taming Chronic Pain program can help you get lasting pain relief and for a free chapter from our forthcoming book, Taming Chronic Pain: Get Pain Relief with Mindfulness and Compassionate Self-Awareness, sign-up for our newsletter on the home page.

Chronic pain is not just physical hurt; it is a whole lot more. Pain affects your thoughts, your moods, your relationships, your motivation and ability to work, your ability to experience pleasure, and your view of yourself. Research shows that these psychological and social factors are more predictive of your long-term adjustment to chronic pain than is the severity of your physical pain or the extent of your injuries.

It was very frustrating for me (Bruce) to experience healthcare professionals as well as my friends and family questioning if I really was in that much pain. I was reminded repeatedly that I looked okay. They could not see my pain as I did not wear it on my sleeves. I did not broadcast it. Plus, I was the only person who could feel my pain. Others told me, directly or indirectly, that I should just “snap out of it” and “get back to work”. I felt alienated, and developed resentments.

I discovered that my use of the self-help tools of self-hypnosis, mindfulness meditation, focused imagery, relaxation techniques, and cognitive-behavior therapy became life-saving for me. I have also helped hundreds of patients cope better with their chronic pain by teaching them how to use these powerful yet gentle and respectful tools after I thoroughly assessed each patient from a psychological perspective.

One of my patients, a 55 year old lady, reported she has had bad pain days since her last visit. She has had annoying and biting back pain in her right lumbar area, and radiating right leg pain with some numbness. Her right sided lumbar pain is flared up by household chores such as washing dishes, taking out the trash, as well as by ADLs such as donning her shoes–all activities that involve leaning forward and bending.

MRI of the lumbar spine showed:

1. Advanced lumbar spondylosis. Findings include a moderate sized right subarticular and foraminal disc herniation at L5-S1 causing significant impingement of the traversing right S1 nerve root.
2. Small central disc herniation at L4-L5 without mass effect on the nerve roots.
3. Left foraminal and far lateral disc herniation at L3-L4 displacing the exiting left L3 nerve root.

HISTORY: Low back pain radiating to left leg. History of lumbar spine surgery at L4-L5 and L5-S1. Two back surgeries and both have helped. Epidural steroid injections never helped she stated.

MEDCATIONS:  Depakote from 1500mg hs. Ambien 1mg hs. Neurontin 300mg hs. Vicodin 5/500 mg tid.

INTERVENTIONS:

After reviewing her use of her pain meds, we moved on to challenging disabling and pain magnifying thoughts. As she verbalized each thought, I offered her a different way of looking at the situation. That is we “reframed” the negative thoughts.

We talked about coping techniques. We used Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) strategies to address her anger that flares up when she hurts. We talked about pacing and taking breaks. I demonstrated and had her do some simple back stretches. We talked about self-postural adjustment. The idea is that it’s not either/or move or not move. That is not an option. We discussed her need to stretch her back out regularly as she becomes aware of the strain building in her low back. I emphasized that she would do well to consider taking planned time outs to care for her back.

I also gave the patient a handout with the following coping self statements:

1. When my pain flares up, I remind myself that I can adjust my posture and take more breaks. I can stretch.
2. I expect up and downs.
3. I will always have a back up plan.