As someone who has lived with years of chronic pain due to physical trauma to the body as well as a genetic tendency (talking strictly biology there—you’ll understand this comment shortly), I’m always paying attention to how to support myself and others dealing with this lifeforce draining experience.
Over time, I’ve woven together a range of approaches in my own healing and in my work with others: mindfulness practices (observing pain to create space from it, softening or reshaping it with attention), hypnotherapy techniques (deep relaxation, reducing overall stress load, “glove anesthesia” and control room imagery), creativity (as a way to observe and learn from the pain), and EMDR (targeting the original moments where pain took hold and gently rewiring the networks that keep those signals alive).
Recently, I heard a couple podcasts that further aided my understanding of working with pain by helping me see this work with more clarity. I want to invite you to listen to two recent Good Life Project podcast episodes on chronic pain—they’re worth your time.
In the episode titled “An End to Chronic Pain? Surprising Science is Getting Us Closer” with Dr. Rachel Zoffness, one of the core ideas shared is that pain is biopsychosocial in nature. In other words, pain isn’t just physical—it’s shaped by our biology, our psychology, and our social context.
This means healing has to reach all three; it can’t just be the biological description that I mentioned in the first paragraph, and in fact, it can be problematic to identify too strongly with the biological component. Should you pursue the “bio” part of biopsychosocial? Absolutely! Is it the beginning and the end of the process of healing? No!
In my case, I not only have the physical conditions mentioned above (bio), but I have a quick brain and even quicker reflexes.
I have a tendency to move toward anxiety when I get out of balance and to overthink seeking a solution, leaning into my intellect and experience (psycho). When it comes to pain, this can look like being able to tell my bodyworkers exactly where things started and how I think they evolved to a degree that they are shocked how well I know my body.
I also have a lot of draws on my capacity due to both my work and private life that require I be at my best (social). Bracing against these demands can create pain and pain draws from my capacity to be with these demands.
If I look at my pain through this biopsychosocial lens, I have a lot more levers I can pull on for healing.
Per Zoffness, there isn’t one universal solution for pain. Each person’s pain and each person’s healing has its own “recipe.” In my case, I don’t do well sitting for hours (pain). I do best when I alternate between standing and sitting and when I take walks in the middle of my workday (healing).
Bright lights create a lot of facial tension that then generalizes throughout my body (pain). Face yoga helps reduce facial tension and regulate my nervous system (healing).
I tend to have issues with my tendons (pain). I do best when I’m building muscular strength, remapping how I initiate movements, and support my body better with repetitive tasks (healing).
In another episode titled “How to Unlearn Pain: Groundbreaking Research Offers Hope,” Yoni K. Ashar shares research that stopped me in my tracks: people who received back surgery for chronic pain and those who received a sham (placebo) surgery had similar outcomes.
Let that land for a moment!
It DOES NOT mean the pain isn’t real. It means the brain—and its interpretation of threat and safety—plays a powerful role in how pain is experienced.
Ashar talks about something called neuroplastic pain: a component of the pain experience that is driven by learned neural pathways and a kind of pain/threat feedback loop. When the brain perceives danger, it amplifies pain. When it learns safety, that amplification can soften.
This is further reinforced by research he shares that pain is initially located in areas of the brain we associate with pain (during brain scans), but that a year after the initial source of pain, repeat brain scans show signals move to the part of the brain associated with learning, fear and survival.
This means neuroplastic chronic pain can be worked with in a way that creates safety and therefore healing.
Is your pain neuroplastic? Some signs that pain may have a neuroplastic component:
- It changes in intensity or moves around
- The individual has had multiple pain syndromes over time
- It began during a period when “a lot” was happening in your life
Again—and this bears repeating—this does not make pain imaginary. Like my tag line says, I offer “mental health for bodies because it’s not all in your head.” Likewise with pain! But what this does mean is that neuroplastic pain occurs in brains that are very good at learning and amplifying danger.
And here’s where my mind immediately goes:
We can do this work with somatic EMDR intensives, and, in fact, this research explains why EMDR has given such good results with pain!
We can target the “a lot” that was happening when the pain first began—those moments where the nervous system became overwhelmed and the signal got amplified, or what I call precipitating traumas.
We can gently approach the experience of the pain itself, instead of bracing against it, so the body no longer has to stay in guarding mode.
And, like with the pain reprocessing therapy discussed in the podcast, we can use EMDR future templates to begin reintroducing the things pain has taken away—slowly, steadily, and in a supported way—so the bodymind can learn, again and again: this is safe now.
That’s the work—rewiring the brain toward safety!
Not forcing the pain away.
Not fighting the body.
Simply teaching the system, over time, that it no longer has to stay on high alert.
Neuroplastic pain has been linked to many chronic pain conditions from EDS to fibromyalgia and beyond. Yes, there are biological reasons (remember the biopsychosocial?) but the neuroplasticity of our predicting brain amplifies it and makes it a chronic experience.
This makes so much sense when you’ve lived it.
This is complex work. It’s not one-size-fits-all. And it doesn’t replace medical care when that’s needed.
But it does open a door.
In the U.S. alone, over 50 million people live with chronic pain. If even a portion of that pain can be softened by helping the nervous system relearn safety, that matters!!!
If you’re curious, I really encourage you to listen to the episodes above. And if you’re someone living with pain, or supporting someone who is, I hope this gives you more perspective and a little more possibility.
Love, Renee