Exploring These New Approaches to Chronic Pain for the First Time?
We recommend starting with these resources.
Dr. Lorimer Mosely explains pain in this video from TedXAdelaide: Why Things Hurt
An article from NPR: Can You Reshape Your Brain's Response To Pain? by Patti Neighmond
Dr. Howard Schubiner’s “Ted Talk”-style lecture for Google about Chronic Pain (140k views)
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.
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
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.
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.
Books for a Popular Audience
FOR CHILDREN & TEENS
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.
VOX: America’s most famous back pain doctor said pain is in your head. Thousands think he's right. by Jullia Beluz
7 Things No One Understands About Chronic Pain by Marion Cunningham
Miracles of Mind-body Medicine by Alan Gordon
A guide to therapeutic writing by Georgie Oldfield
I Can’t Stop Thinking About This 1991 Book About Pain by Edith Zimmerman
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
EXPLORING A NEW DRUG-FREE SCIENCE-BASED TREATMENT
SCIENTIFIC CITATIONS
“Effect of Pain Reprocessing Therapy vs Placebo and Usual Care for Patients With Chronic Back Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial,” JAMA Psychiatry, September 2021, by Yoni Ashar, Tor Wager, et al
Lumley, Schubiner, Clauw, “Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy for Fibromyalgia,” PAIN, 2017.
Lumley, Schubiner, “EAET for Chronic Pain. Rationale, Principles and Techniques, Evidence, and Review,” Current Rheumatology Reports, 2019.
More discussion of the evidence base for these related treatments (PRT & EAET) can be found on our Evidence-Based Medicine page.