Chronic Pain Therapy with a Psychologist

Chronic Pain Conditions I Work With:

I provide therapy for adults living with chronic pain from a wide range of conditions, including:

  • Pain in any area of the body (back, neck, leg, arm, abdominal, pelvic, etc.)

  • Arthritis (rheumatoid, osteoarthritis, psoriatic, gout, etc.)

  • Centralized pain/central sensitization (also called “neuroplastic pain”)

  • Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS, also known as Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy/RSD)

  • Fibromyalgia

  • Headaches and migraines

  • Injuries

  • Muscle spasms

  • Neuropathy

  • Phantom limb pain

  • Repetitive strain injury (RSI)

  • Temporomandibular joint dysfunction (TMJ)

  • Tendonitis

  • Thoracic Outlet Syndrome

  • Trigeminal neuralgia

  • Unexplained or undiagnosed pain

  • Many others

A young woman with long dark hair wearing a gray turtleneck sweater and ripped blue jeans sitting on a dark sofa with her eyes closed and hand on her head, appearing to be in pain or discomfort.

How Can Therapy With a Psychologist Help with Chronic Pain?

People with chronic pain often feel misunderstood by their families, the medical community, and others. Working with a psychologist does not mean your pain is “all in your head” or imagined. Your pain is in fact very real, and it is important that you feel believed, heard, and understood. Physical pain and psychological processes influence one another in complex ways, and therapy can help you work with that connection without dismissing the reality of your pain. Therapy can help you understand and address the complex connections between your body, nervous system, emotions, thoughts, behavior, and symptoms. Many of these factors are often unaddressed in pain treatment, which can limit successful outcomes.

As a psychologist specializing in chronic pain, I work with people who want a different, specialized approach to addressing the challenges of their condition. I help patients with chronic pain in a variety of ways. Depending on your goals, these are the types of results we will aim for in therapy:

  • Understanding more about your pain and why it may be occurring

  • Learning what pain means (when it is dangerous and when it is not)

  • Understanding how the nervous system can influence chronic pain and developing skills to support nervous system regulation

  • Feeling safer in your body

  • Reducing fear and avoidance

  • Building practical skills to manage pain and physical limitations

  • Reducing or eliminating pain in some cases

  • Navigating unpredictability of symptoms and flare-ups

  • Breaking the push-crash-burn cycle

  • Regaining a sense of control and identity

  • Reducing anxiety, frustration, anger, grief, and other strong emotions about pain

  • Figuring out what activities you can realistically do and how to get there

  • Building a life that feels full and meaningful – not one completely defined by pain

  • Understanding how certain personality traits, like people-pleasing, a tendency to put everyone else first, perfectionism, conscientiousness, being high-achieving, and anxiousness can impact pain and what to do about it

A More Complete Understanding of Stress and Your Pain

Almost everyone agrees that stress can make any chronic pain condition worse, but that doesn’t mean that simply reducing stress will make your pain go away. Being told to “manage your stress” doesn’t necessarily explain why your pain is happening or what you can actually do about it.

Understanding the complicated relationship between stress and chronic pain can be an important part of treatment. The goal isn't simply to teach you how to relax or “think positively”; these can be beneficial, but there’s more to addressing your pain. I can help you understand how your nervous system responds to stress and how factors such as your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors may interact with your pain. This can give you clearer insight into patterns that may be contributing to your pain—and, importantly, what you can do differently.