Letting go of suffering is a retracing of the past while planting seeds of safety.
When you know the way in, you know the way out.
People who develop chronic pain conditions often share common signposts, or ways into pain. These signposts include personality traits like perfectionism, self-criticism, and people pleasing; early childhood experiences of high stress environments, neglect, or trauma; acute traumatic events like car accidents.
When we persist in states of stress our nervous systems do not have time to recuperate. The brain learns to respond to normal events through a lens of danger, and it gets primed to see threats even when there are no actual threats present.
Experiences of a life threatening or dangerous nature, like motor vehicle accidents, violence, or abuse further activate the nervous system. And often these events can further activate an already sensitized nervous system to tip it over the edge, where it can shift from a state of chronic anxiety to chronic pain.
The good news is when we understand the way into chronic pain, we can become our own wise sages who also know the way out. We can set in motion the pathways to recovery, unlearning patterns of anxiety and trauma, getting comfortable with uncomfortable emotions, and as a result, releasing the grip of pain that holds us back in life.
Just imagine, enjoying that vacation without pain looming in the background. Or having the confidence that you can go on those adventures you used to enjoy – whether it be sports outings, or just simple walks – without the fear of getting debilitating pain for days afterward. Imagine just having greater ease in your everyday life, especially when those events occur that used to trigger protective reactions like headaches and anxiety.
In truth, the first step out of anxiety, trauma, and pain is to know it is possible to step outside their grip. The next step is yet to come.
Call for a free consultation and we can move things forward so you can experience greater freedom from what holds you back.
What to expect
Initial consultation
During an initial consultation we will first assess what combination of anxiety, trauma, and chronic pain we are working with. Often my clients have a mix of anxiety and trauma symptoms, but no pain. In such cases, we will explore your past and identify core emotional and cognitive themes that lock fear into your life. If you also have chronic pain we will explore your pain symptoms further to determine whether the type of pain fits with treatment methods.
After an initial consultation we will schedule a future session for more in-depth assessment to ensure consistent treatment planning.
Assessment
For anxiety and trauma:
The assessment process for anxiety and trauma is somewhat simpler when chronic pain is not one of the presenting conditions. At this stage you will share a brief life history to identify core fear-based memories and your patterns of response. Assessments to identify core emotional and cognitive themes that lock fear into your life will also be explored. This process sets treatment in motion as we collaborate on the best means of achieving your health goals.
For chronic pain:
The assessment process for chronic pain is slightly more complex. We will co-ordinate with your primary health provider to identify if your medical history shows clear evidence of structural pain syndromes. In the absence of clear structural pain, we then follow protocols to rule in neuroplastic pain as a central cause. We also use assessments to identify core emotional and cognitive themes that may be interfering with pain recovery.
Therapy
Therapy for anxiety, trauma and pain share a similar goal: to help you unlearn fears and deepen a sense of safety. Though the ways may vary depending on the unique characteristics of each person, we aim for a life free from the constraints of fear while firmly rooted in an internalized sense of safety and trust. When we get there, we get beyond the suffering.
Specializations
-
The word ‘pain’ has a broad meaning, and I often use it to describe more than physical bumps and bruises. Pain is also emotional. As such, I often use to term ‘pain’ to include anxiety and trauma and the suffering that coincide with them.
There is a common belief that pain is an indicator of injury. This is however not always true, especially when it comes to chronic pain. Recent research has demonstrated that when pain shifts from acute tissue damage to a chronic state, pain is experienced in the same brain areas associated with emotion. In other words, chronic pain is registered as emotional pain. And when we learn how to release that emotion (be it anxiety or other emotions) while steeping the brain in a sense of safety, we unlock the brain’s healing capacity – a capacity that often seems magical.
-
There are two types of trauma. The first type (or Type I) is an acute trauma, like a surgery or motor vehicle accident. Clients with Type I traumas typically have a quicker recovery time because the event tends to be separate from underlying developmental neurocircuitry.
The second type of trauma (or Type II) is defined as an ongoing and persistent form of trauma. Often it is considered as developmental trauma, because it often persists during years of childhood development. Examples of this type of trauma can include childhood neglect, poverty, or emotional and/or physical abuse. Type II traumas tend to result in more persistent stress responses because the brain has learned to respond to stressful environments rather than just one or two specific events. The ‘Type II’ brain has learned that the world is unsafe. For adults with Type II learning, this can often mean that present experiences in adulthood get filtered through the neural pathways of childhood, and otherwise neutral events can often trigger the brain to produce danger signals like pain, anxiety, panic, and other emotions.
I use methods designed to help clients process through both Type I and II traumas. They are also designed to ensure that client’s learn how to utilize their brain’s ability to move beyond the traumas into states of ease, comfort, and joy.
-
I view anxiety as the most foundational and common human emotion. Its purpose is deeply rooted in evolutionary biology – it is there to keep us safe from external threats and dangers. But because it is so foundational, sometimes our brains learn anxiety responses to non-threatening situations. And when the brain does this, though it might act like it is doing us a favour, it tends to just generate more fear and anxiety.
So when we work with anxiety, we aim to gently retrain the brain to know that we value its efforts to keep us safe from harm, while giving it the necessary reassurance that the non-threatening situations it is protecting us from are entirely okay. When we do this, we engage the brain’s neuroplasticity and find a way out of unhelpful anxiety.