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Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT)

Neuroplastic Pain

Chronic pain affects about one-fifth of American adults (about 50 million people). Recent studies have shown that chronic conditions including neck pain, back pain, fibromyalgia, migraines, gastrointestinal disorders, and many more forms of chronic pain are often not the result of pathology in the structural body. Neuroplastic pain is the result of learned neural pathways in the brain, which is a psychophysiological process that can be reversed.  

The brain can experience pain over and over again, and the neural pathways get sensitized and strengthened to a point that acute pain may become chronic. When fear of pain increases, we reinforce that the pain is dangerous, and the body tends to protect itself by sending more pain. This then leads to more fear and a cycle of pain and fear builds on itself which maintains the pain.

This does not mean that pain is imagined or “just in your head.” This is pain felt physically. But it can be addressed psychologically from a mind-body perspective.

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Pain Reprocessing Therapy

Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) is a psychological approach that aims to eliminate and resolve neuroplastic pain by retraining the brain to interpret and respond to signals from the body properly. We use a set of techniques and strategies aimed at breaking the pain-fear cycle and lowering the hypervigilance in the nervous system. These techniques aim to help people view their pain as non threatening and reappraising symptoms as caused by non-dangerous nervous system processes.

PRT is an evidence-based treatment. A peer-reviewed randomized controlled trial confirmed and validated the efficacy of PRT for chronic back pain (but it can be translated to other forms of chronic pain as well). Results of the study showed that 66% of participants receiving PRT “nearly or almost nearly pain free” after the course of therapy.  98% of participants had some improvement in pain intensity.

Research-based, personalized therapy.

At My LA Therapy, our warm and experienced therapists specialize in anxiety, depression, trauma, & relationships.

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PRT has multiple elements including:

  1. Psychoeducation about neurobiology of pain and how neuroplastic pain can be reversed
  2. Gathering personalized evidence to confirm your own experience of neuroplastic pain
  3. Learning to view pain sensations through a lens of safety to lower the fight-or-flight in the brain
  4. Addressing other emotional threats that can maintain the pain including anxiety
  5. Learning to gravitate toward positive sensations

PRT uses somatic, cognitive, and mindfulness techniques to retrain and rewire the neural pathways that maintain. One of the main techniques of PRT is called somatic tracking. Its primary goal is to help correct the misinterpretation in the brain and teach the brain that the symptom it is assessing as dangerous is actually safe. Somatic tracking is a mindfulness technique and will help individuals attend to painful sensations through a lens of safety that helps to reduce fear and deactivate pain signals. The keys to healing neuroplastic pain include internalizing the fact that it is not dangerous and reducing or eliminating fear of the pain or other emotions that keep the brain on high alert. 

Again, we want to stress that having neuroplastic pain does not mean that your pain is not valid or that the pain is imagined. The research in this field shows that pain is real, and, because it is learned by the brain, it can be reversed.

 

Resources

  1. Practical Pain Management
  2. The Washington Post
  3. JAMA Network
  4. Pain Reprocessing Therapy
 

What Our Clients Say

"With your help, I've finally started to understand that while my vivid imagination often wants to create terrifying monsters under the bed, in a lot of cases those monsters are nothing more than a heap of decidedly less-terrifying laundry I've avoided for too long that just needs to be aired out and put away. Which is definitely a lot easier than monster slaying. Thank you for shedding light in the dark places I was too afraid to face alone."
Anonymous Client
"After every session I come away feeling better prepared to start shining light into shadows I've hustled past for a long, long time... some rational ones, but a lot more aren't. Shame is such a stealthy master; He's been the monkey on my back for a long time. You totally called it. I'm so grateful for your guidance and skill and although sometimes I may shuffle and others I may leap, after our sessions I always feel like I'm moving forward."
Anonymous Client
"I want to thank you again for your continued help and expertise, and more specifically for yesterday's learning opportunity about how I can communicate more effectively. After your ultimately appreciated prodding you made me feel comfortable with the idea that expressing confusion or even doubt can serve as valuable conversation-assets, and I look forward to moving forward without those those self-inflicted parameters."
Anonymous Client
"Just wanted to share that yesterday's session with you, and a long, productive dinner table conversation with my wife last night, started to uncover a huge gap between perception and reality in my understanding of the status I held in our marriage. Our session opened my eyes to the fact that the inequity I've long felt comes from a place of assumed unworthiness. I'm so thankful for this journey we are taking together, with your help, towards deeper, more productive understanding."
Anonymous Client
"I have worked with many therapists in the past, but this is the first time I feel that I am making changes that are deep and lasting. Her counseling has truly helped me become free, even from things I wasn’t aware were affecting me. Brooke integrates many different approaches to provide balanced and effective therapy."
Anonymous Client
"You are truly an amazing person. I am so grateful for your sincerity and kindness– big-hearted and deep soulfulness. You are incredibly intuitive, insightful and wise. You are a gifted listener and a powerful speaker, passionate and genuine."
Anonymous Client
"Brooke is kind and warm, but not afraid to challenge you. She is caring, authentic and compassionate as well as intelligent and clinically skilled. Brooke possesses great wisdom and intuition, which she balances with knowledge and skill."
Anonymous Client
"Brooke has really helped me to overcome the problems in my life that I was starting to believe couldn’t change. I now understand where my depression and anxiety came from and they are no longer a part of my life. I now feel a sense of peace and purpose."
Anonymous Client
"I’ve recommended Brooke to so many of my friends and colleagues, I’m starting to feel like her personal cheerleader. But it can’t be helped. When I look back on the past year, without a doubt the most difficult year of my life, I can’t believe how far I’ve come."
Anonymous Client
"Brooke has been an incredibly positive influence in my life. I first came to Brooke in the midst of a divorce from my high school sweetheart and best friend. With Brooke’s gentle guidance and supervision, I began the most intense period of personal growth in my life."
Anonymous Client

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Our warm and experienced therapists offer research-based, personalized therapy that addresses the root cause for your symptoms to create lasting change.
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