Pain can take over your days.
Some people come to pain therapy after years of living with pain that won’t go away.
Others come because pain affects their mood, work or relationships.
Some come because they’ve been told it’s all in their head.
Maybe you feel:
- dismissed
- exhausted
- frustrated
- isolated
Pain is real, and it can keep your nervous system on high alert.
Pain therapy can help you live with more ease.
What is Pain Therapy?
Pain therapy helps you understand your pain, calm your nervous system and reclaim parts of life that pain has taken.
It starts from the idea that pain is always real, and that body, mind and life all shape how much it hurts.
Pain therapy also looks at stress, fear and emotional pain, which travel the same pathways as physical pain.
It can help with back pain, headaches, fibromyalgia, arthritis, nerve pain, pain after injury or pain without a clear cause.
Online sessions can help on days when pain makes getting out too hard.
How Pain Therapy Helps
Therapy gives you a place where your pain is taken seriously.
It can help whether your pain is new or has been there for years.
In pain therapy you can learn to:
- calm your nervous system
- cope with flare-ups
- pace your activities
- sleep more restfully
- speak up for your needs
Therapy can’t always take pain away, but it can help you suffer less.
Progress often comes in small steps, as you help your body feel safer.
Life can grow bigger than the pain.
What is a Pain Therapist?
A pain therapist is a registered therapist who helps people cope with and reduce the impact of pain.
Many pain therapists train in how the nervous system processes pain, and how it can change pain signals.
Some work in pain clinics alongside doctors, physiotherapists and occupational therapists.
Some train in acceptance-based or pain reprocessing therapies, which were developed for chronic pain.
Some focus on pain after injury, accidents or surgery.
Some focus on pain connected to trauma, since the two often go together.
What matters most is that the therapist is a good fit for you, whatever approach they use.
Some Approaches for Pain Therapy
Holistic
It looks at sleep, movement, stress and relationships as part of how pain is felt.
Mindfulness
It helps you notice pain without fighting it, which can ease the suffering around it.
Somatic
It helps your body feel safer, so your nervous system can turn the pain signals down.
Trauma-Sensitive
It recognizes how past trauma can shape pain, and puts your safety and pace first.
What to Expect in Pain Therapy
Pain therapy often starts with believing your pain and understanding its story.
Your therapist might ask when the pain started, what makes it better or worse, and how it affects your days.
Early sessions often explore what you’ve lost to pain, what you’ve tried and what matters most to you.
You might learn how stress, sleep and fear can turn the pain signal up or down.
Some therapists suggest small experiments between sessions, like pacing your energy or breaking a task into smaller pieces.
If you’ve felt dismissed by health care, that’s worth talking about.
Pain therapy can be short-term to learn coping skills, or longer when pain is tied to trauma or major life changes.
Pain hasn’t always been believed.
In 1664, philosopher René Descartes described pain as a straight line.
A fire touches your foot, and a signal travels up to the brain like pulling a rope to ring a bell. For centuries, pain was seen as a simple signal of damage.
In the 1840s, Alabama doctor J. Marion Sims operated on enslaved Black women without anesthesia, at a time when many doctors believed Black people felt less pain. One woman, Anarcha, endured about 30 surgeries.
In 1872, neurologist Silas Weir Mitchell described Civil War soldiers who felt burning pain in arms and legs that had been amputated. There was no limb left to hurt, and many were afraid to say so.
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In 1953, anesthesiologist John Bonica published a book on managing pain. He had been injured as a wrestler, and later opened one of the first clinics to treat pain with a whole team.
In 1965, Montreal psychologist Ronald Melzack and British scientist Patrick Wall proposed the gate control theory. They suggested the spinal cord can turn pain signals up or down, depending on emotion, attention and past experience.
In 1975, Melzack created the McGill Pain Questionnaire, giving people words to describe pain beyond a number.
In 1985, a premature baby named Jeffrey Lawson had open-heart surgery with no pain relief, because many doctors believed newborns couldn’t feel pain. His mother’s campaign helped change that.
In 2016, researchers in Virginia found that half of white medical students and residents in their study believed false ideas about biological differences between Black and white people. Those who did rated Black patients’ pain as lower.
In 2020, the International Association for the Study of Pain updated its definition. Pain is always a personal experience shaped by biology, psychology and social factors.
But pain is still judged by what shows up on a scan.
In 2021, the Canadian Pain Task Force reported that about 1 in 5 Canadians live with chronic pain. Many said they felt disbelieved and stigmatized.
People whose pain doesn’t match their tests are often told it’s in their head.
Women, Indigenous people and people of color are more likely to have their pain dismissed or undertreated.
People with chronic pain can be labeled as drug-seeking when they ask for help.
And trauma can make pain more intense and harder to treat, but it’s rarely asked about.
Trauma-sensitive pain therapy works inside those gaps. It believes your pain. It looks at how trauma and stress shape the pain signal. It names dismissal and bias in health care. And it helps your body feel safe enough to turn the volume down.
Trauma-sensitive therapy starts by listening to you.
Trauma-Sensitive Pain Therapy
What if your body is still protecting you?
After injury or trauma, your body may brace, guard and stay watchful to keep you from more harm.
Trauma-sensitive therapists understand that pain can be shaped by what your body has lived through.
5 phrases you might hear in Trauma-Sensitive Pain Therapy:
- I trust your body.
- I believe your pain is real.
- Let’s go at a pace that works for your body.
- What helps your body feel even a little safer?
- You can change positions or move any time.
Trauma-sensitive pain therapy invites your body to feel safe again.
Principles of Trauma-Sensitive Pain Therapy
Pain is real
Your pain is real, whatever your tests show. It affects you physically, mentally, emotionally and socially.
Pace with the body
Pain can change from day to day. Sessions can adapt to how your body feels, including taking breaks.
Body and history
Past injuries and trauma can shape how pain is felt, how it’s treated and whether you’re believed.
Lower the volume
When your body feels safer, pain can become less intense. Building safety is part of easing pain.
Questions You Can Ask a Pain Therapist
A consultation is a good time to ask questions. Trust how you feel after the conversation as much as the answers themselves.
How do you understand chronic pain?
Have you worked with my kind of pain?
Can we work on trauma too?
What if I need to move during sessions?
Do you work with my health care team?
What if pain never fully goes away?
Related Topics in This Library
Concerns
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