Is Persistent Pain Holding You Back?

Are you experiencing ongoing pain, digestive issues, or fatigue that’s impacting the quality of your life?

Yet, have medical professionals been unable to determine a cause for your discomfort?

Chronic symptoms can make it very difficult to concentrate and participate in physical activities. You may experience pain when you stand, sit, or move. Or maybe digestive issues like constipation, diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), and acid reflux have complicated your diet and daily routine. You may feel as though your life revolves around your physical symptoms, limiting what you can do on a daily basis.

Physical discomfort also often translates to mental health challenges. You probably worry about what your symptoms signal or how much they will impact you on any given day. Perhaps you’re afraid that the pain will never resolve or that you’ll become increasingly disconnected from your relationships because you’re unable to participate in everyday activities. And if you are taking strong pain medications, you may also struggle with secondary symptoms due to side effects and concerns surrounding dependency.

A traumatic or emotionally difficult experience could very likely be at the core of your physical symptoms. Whether you are holding onto stress from the past or have been unable to process your emotions following a loss, your body may be asking you to tune in and listen to what it’s saying. Fortunately, psychotherapy can be a meaningful way to address chronic pain and discomfort so that you can live with more relief and satisfaction.

Pain And Fear Exist Within A Self-Perpetuating Cycle

A whopping 50.2 million adults live with chronic pain resulting from a wide range of factors, including injury, illness, and psychological trauma. [1] No matter the cause of symptoms, physical and emotional discomfort are deeply intertwined.

Yet, finding relief in a society that values constant movement and productivity is difficult. We put a lot of stress on our minds and bodies to be successful, and we criticize ourselves when we fall short. Soon, we internalize the message that we aren’t enough, causing our bodies to respond in ways that don’t always seem obvious or directly related to distress. Pain is ultimately a danger signal, though, and it manifests out of a desire to protect us from causing even more damage. However, the more our brain signals the alarm, the more entrenched we become in the pain-fear cycle, perpetuating both physical and emotional sensitivities.

If ongoing symptoms have developed, you’ve likely sought out medical attention but have yet to find lasting relief. Your doctor may have ruled out underlying medical explanations, furthering your frustration. But because mental health and physical health are so deeply intertwined, it’s possible that therapy could be the answer to your chronic pain. Working with the therapists at Halos Counseling, you can learn valuable skills to manage and reduce the impact of chronic pain on your life.

Halos Counseling Provides Psychological Treatment To Chronic Pain Patients

Psychotherapy offers you an opportunity to understand chronic pain on a deeper level. As you explore how your symptoms began, what makes them worse, and the fears and anxieties surrounding your pain, you can get to the bottom of your discomfort, targeting it at the core.

What To Expect

The process begins with a basic intake that will allow your therapist to better understand your experience. In discussing your trauma history, personality traits, past or current stressors, and the symptoms you want to treat, you can better locate the source of your pain.

From there, your therapist will teach you skills to help promote feelings of safety and release. Practicing these skills in counseling can essentially retrain your brain out of danger mode as the pain becomes less frequent and chronic.

Psychotherapy for chronic pain through our practice involves:

Somatic tracking – helps you interpret and “turn off” the brain’s pain signals
Mindfulness – creates nonjudgmental awareness of how you feel in your mind and body
Imagery – allows you to imagine situations that would intensify pain and then provides you with tools to retrain the brain to have new, more positive associations with those situations
Exposure therapy – reinforces feelings of safety in situations that might feel uncomfortable or anxiety-inducing
Self-compassion skills – shifts a self-critical mindset to be less worried, perfectionistic, and more loving

Our therapists operate from the premise of H.O.P.E.—Hold On, Pain Ends—to help you embrace the idea that mental health therapy can meaningfully target chronic pain symptoms. By changing the mindset you have around pain, you can adjust the way your body feels.

We have witnessed clients struggling with a wide range of chronic pain issues find relief through psychotherapy. We know that emotional support can decrease the fears and discomfort you experience. Working together in counseling, we can facilitate a new sense of safety in your life so that chronic feelings of worry, pain, and discomfort no longer bog you down.

Still Not Convinced That Psychotherapy Can Address Your Chronic Pain Symptoms?

What are common personality traits associated with chronic pain?

Our approach to therapy acknowledges the connection between mental health and chronic pain. A lot of our clients who experience physical discomfort also struggle with self-criticism, pressure, worry, perfectionism, anxiousness, and people-pleasing behaviors. These traits often propel fear, which directly correlates to physical pain and discomfort.

Can psychotherapy help me relieve chronic pain even if I’ve been diagnosed with a medical condition?

Medical doctors are specifically trained to look for and “fix” physical, structural causes of chronic pain. However, they may not always be looking for psychological symptoms that could be exacerbating pain. Our approach to psychotherapy decreases the pain signals your brain sends and retrains your brain to feel safe so that you experience fewer chronic symptoms.

Will my pain come back?

Relapse is always a possibility with chronic pain issues—especially as we’re exposed to new stressors, old habits, or a physical injury. Fortunately, psychotherapy provides you with lasting skills and resources to help you escape the pain-fear cycle so that even if symptoms re-emerge, they can be quickly identified and managed.

Physical And Emotional Relief Are Possible

Halos Counseling offers psychotherapy to clients struggling with chronic pain so they can live with less fear and more comfort. To schedule a free, 15-minute therapy consultation and find out more about how mental health and chronic pain are related, contact us.

(1) https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/the-big-number-502-million-people-live-with-chronic-pain-in-the-us/2021/06/03/94a9e94c-c493-11eb-8c18-fd53a628b992_story.html

Chronic Pain Therapy in Charlotte, NC