Chronic Pain & Illness

Pain does not have to define you!

What exactly is pain anyway?

Pain has many faces. It can be acute pain which is a direct response to an injury, such as the pain from breaking a bone or having surgery.

Then there is chronic pain which is more long lasting and debilitating. It develops due to an injury but has the added complexity of sticking around long after you have healed from your initial injury.
If you are suffering from chronic pain, you may not be able to do physical things you used to be able to do. You may be reliant on pain medications that seem to no longer be effective. A restful night’s sleep is now a fantasy.

Invisible Pain

No one can see your pain. You may find yourself feeling misunderstood, judged and isolated due to your pain. Isolation increases feelings of depression or anxiety and life feels like it will forever be about pain management.

Thoughts of “I will never be normal again,” or “no one understands what I am going through” are ever present in your daily activities.

What does living a full life even look like now that I have this suffering?

Suffering from chronic pain occurs on several levels that affect you. There is the primary suffering which is the visual suffering from the injury or chronic illness. It is the signal your painful area sends to your brain.

Then there is the secondary suffering, which are your thoughts and feelings about your condition. These may be anxiety, depression, stress and feelings of hopelessness. When you can recognize and manage your secondary suffering, you can greatly reduce or perhaps even eliminate your pain and distress.

How I can help

In sessions, I will provide compassionate understanding that your suffering is real. You feel it, and it can be very overwhelming, Once you begin to discover and understand the underlying mechanisms for your pain, you can minimize its power over your body and release the hold it has on you.

During our time together, you will learn to respond to your body rather than react to it. You will gain a more compassionate perspective of yourself, learn how your mind and body work together by being able to identify stressful events that cause your pain to flare, learn how to enjoy the simple pleasures of life, and learn mindfulness techniques to bring about more mind and body awareness.