Exploring These New Approaches to Chronic Pain for the First Time?

We recommend starting with these resources.

  1. Dr. Lorimer Mosely explains pain in this video from TedXAdelaide: Why Things Hurt

  2. An article from NPR: Can You Reshape Your Brain's Response To Pain? by Patti Neighmond

  3. Dr. Howard Schubiner’s “Ted Talk”-style lecture for Google about Chronic Pain (140k views)

  4. If you’re ready to find a practitioner in your area, the PPDA Directory has an updated roster of doctors and therapists who practice from similar paradigms as what’s depicted in the film.

  5. If you want to begin by guiding your own healing process, here is a free online program created by Alan Gordon, LCSW, one of the innovators of Pain Reprocessing Therapy.


FREE ONLINE COURSES FOR CHRONIC PAIN PATIENTS

  1. Howard Schubiner’s Free Unlearn Your Pain Course “The Rein of Pain” — NOTE: you do not need a paid Coursera account to take the full course. The course is 100% free with a free account.

  2. Alan Gordon’s Free 21-day Pain Recovery Program on the TMS Wiki.


WORKBOOK FOR PATIENTS

EAET Patient Workbook [PDF download], authored by Mark Lumley PhD, and Howard Schubiner, MD


What About My Specific Diagnosis?

The PRT (Pain Reprocessing Therapy) or EAET (Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy) approaches for treating chronic pain are recommended for 20+ conditions which are often—but not always—brought on by a brain-induced process that is reversible.

The following list of symptoms was compiled by physicians at the Psychophysiologic Disorders Association and in Dr. Howard Schubiner’s book, Unlearn Your Pain. (For each of the links below, we created a diagnosis-specific page on our site that you can visit for more resources). You can find out more about NIH-funded research on our evidence-based medicine page.


Common PRIMARY PAIN, or Brain-GENERATED Conditions are the Following:

anxiety, chronic abdominal pain and spasms, chronic arm or leg pain*, chronic back pain and spasms*, chronic neck pain*, chronic tendonitis, repetitive strain injury (RSI), complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), depression, dizziness, face pain*, fibromyalgia, insomnia, brain fog, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), painful bladder syndrome (interstitial cystitis), pelvic floor dysfunction, POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), temporo-mandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ), tension and migraine headaches, post-concussion syndrome, tinnitus (ringing or distortion in the ears), vulvodynia, coccydynia, conversion disorders, some people with neuropathic pain, trigeminal neuralgia, and other neuralgias, post-exertional malaise and chronic fatigue, people who are told their chronic pain is due to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, and functional neurological disorders.

* “As long as the X-rays and MRIs do not show a tumor, infection, inflammatory condition, or fracture, and if the neurological examination is normal to rule out nerve damage, then: the presence of degenerative discs, spurs, facet problems, and bulging discs should not be interpreted to be causing pain.” (citation: Howard Schubiner, MD)

This is still only a partial list, if you can believe it. A fuller list can be found here.


Chronic Pain Healing Resources

A community of peer support and resources: TMS Wiki

SIRPA: A mind-body medicine resource in the UK


Books for a Popular Audience

Unlearn Your Pain, third edition
By Howard Schubiner, MD, Michael Betzold
Chronic Pain: Your Key to Recovery
By Oldfield MCSP, Georgie

FOR CHILDREN & TEENS

The MindBody Workbook For Teens
By David Schechter, M.D.

Videos

Dr. John Sarno & John Stossel 20/20 segment

Dr. John Sarno interview by Donna Hamilton

MSU RX talk “Reign of Pain Lies Mostly in the Brain” by Howard Schubiner, MD

Howard Schubiner 40 minute lecture on why most chronic pain treatments don't work

Alan Gordon - Neural Pathways - another animated short explainer video


Articles about Integrative Approaches to Chronic Pain

Washington Post: “Chronic Pain is Surprisingly Treatable—when patients focus on the Brain.” Nathaniel Frank writes, “Neuroplastic pain treatment has become a rare and exciting example of practitioners and patients coming together to help reduce suffering on a wide scale.

NPR: Can You Reshape Your Brain's Response To Pain? by Patti Neighmond
This audio story features the EAET approach to chronic pain depicted in This Might Hurt.


Podcasts

Like Mind Like Body — Curable’s Podcast with Success Stories

Tell Me About Your Pain — Alan Gordon, LCSW’s Podcast

The V Hive — Interview with Dr. Howard Schubiner

The Mind and Fitness Podcast — Kent and Marion’s interview with Eddy Lichtenstein

The Cure for Chronic Pain, by Nicole Sachs, LCSW

Crushing Doubt, by Dan Ratner, PhD