Pain distracts, interrupts, disturbs and when it persists, can overwhelm, disabling a person's quality of life. Pain, however, is not simple. It can come from a stimulus in the body as physical pain, and it can come from mental processes involving our attitudes, feelings and emotions.
therapy for chronic pain & illness in los angeles
Recent studies have shown that chronic back & neck pain, fibromyalgia symptoms, repetitive muscle strain, nausea, headaches, and others, are often not the result of structural causes, but of psychophysiologic responses that are centered in the brain and can be reversed. Many of the psychological culprits are stress, anger, sadness, and sometimes, memories of past physical pain. The standard medical approach focuses on symptom alleviation, but does little to explore the complex underlying issues, and rarely heals such conditions.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) provides tools to challenge your thoughts/ behaviors related to pain, allowing for the creation of psychological coping strategies to counter the physical manifestations. In addition, mindfulness-based stress reduction is a form of mediation where in a nonjudgmental way, you learn to become aware of your thoughts and feelings and accept pain and other uncomfortable sensations as neither positive nor negative.
