The Pain PT News

Somatization is defined as the production of medical symptoms with no discernable organic cause. Another way to describe it is the tendency to experience psychological distress in the form of somatic symptoms…

Hwabyung is probably not a diagnosis you have ever heard of. In Korea though, it is diagnosable and seen as a valid medical and mental health condition. According to this research paper "the term Hwabyung…

Wanted to share a 2020 research paper that studied the effect of attachment style in relation to emotional processing skills and subsequently somatic symptoms. Attachment style/theory was put forth by…

One of the things I teach in my 1-1 coaching and group work is shifting ourselves into the facing state, which is not the same as fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. These 4 I just mentioned are trauma or…

We have more and more research indicating there being changes in the brain with chronic pain. In particular, an area of the brain called the orbitofrontal cortex has been implicated with somatic symptom…

One of the things I thing is very important from a mind-body perspective to healing is parlaying hope into want and desire for change then moving to will to make it happen. Will is an important mind-body…

We've come a long way in understanding chronic pain and how the brain shapes pain in ways we never knew before. The amygdala, which is the emotional generating and processing part of the brain, is now…

I want to share a large study (over 50,000 people) that highlights the link between anxiety and depression and somatic symptoms in the body. I treat a lot of unexplained physical symptoms that are purely…

In my work of treating chronic health issues, I focus on areas that most traditional medical professionals fail to look at. These are the psycho-social areas, which relate to the brain and nervous…

"A total of 248 college students participated in the daily diary study. Daily stressors, daily hurt feelings, and rejection sensitivity predicted somatic symptoms. Rejection sensitivity also moderated…

Fibromyalgia is one of the conditions we can look as a part of a broader group of symptoms that are considered central sensitivity syndromes. Others are IBS, chronic fataigue, tension headaches, TMJ, etc.…

The power of the nocebo (opposite the placebo) is real in causing elevated physical symptoms in the body. This brain mechanism is a part of the focus point in the treatment of mind-body health disorders. This…

Wanted to share this study that looked at the relationship between our emotions and somatic symptom disorder (SSD). A lot of what I treat are people who present with SSD- meaning there is nothing physically…

One of the things I see in a lot of people I work with is a difficulty in letting go. Letting go of our bodies and its tension, tightness, stiffness, guarding, and protection. Letting go of our minds and…

I talked about nocebo in this weeks group class. A lot of the chronic pain and chronic symptoms I see are productions of the brain not the body. I found part of this article enlightening as many people…

The short answer is YES. In this research review article titled "The Neurobiology of Central Sensitization the researchers state: "Features of central sensitization have been identified in nearly all chronic…

Check out this randomized control study  that really showed the power of information given by a doctor can have very real negative effects on the patient. This is called the nocebo effect. In this…

Emotional Awareness & Expression Therapy (EAET) has been shown in 4 different studies to be an effective treatment choice for different types of problematic physical symptoms. Dr. Howard Schubiner…

This is the title of a study put forth by Tor Wager, who was the lead researcher in the Boulder back pain study that showed how powerful pain re-processing therapy was in reducing chronic back pain. In…