Treatment Options

Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) for Chronic Pain

Chronic pain—whether neck pain, pelvic pain or fibromyalgia—often resists treatment. That’s because while chronic pain feels like it’s coming from the body, often it’s created by misfiring pain circuits in the brain. Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) involves a system of psychological techniques that actually rewire your brain, breaking the cycle of chronic pain. 

A randomized controlled study at the University of Colorado Boulder validated Pain Reprocessing Therapy as the most effective current treatment for chronic pain. In the study, there were 100 chronic back pain patients. Half of them received PRT twice a week for four weeks, and half of them received treatment as usual. In the PRT group, 98% of patients improved and 66% of patients were pain-free or nearly pain-free at the end of treatment. These outcomes were largely maintained one year later.

Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) for Anxiety

PRT addresses anxiety by teaching the brain to recognize that fear thoughts are simply the brain misinterpreting danger where there is none. PRT works by teaching the client to respond to familiar, habituated fear thoughts with self-compassion by sending messages of comfort and safety to the brain. With enough repetition, this process heals the anxious brain, training it away from hypervigilance and toward a new state of calm. 

Internal Family Systems (IFS)

The Internal Family Systems (IFS) model of psychotherapy offers a clear, non-pathologizing, and empowering method of understanding human problems, as well as an innovative and enriching philosophy of practice that invites both therapist and client to enter into a transformational relationship in which healing can occur. IFS has become my preferred therapeutic model because it creates change quickly, but gently. And the positive effects of treatment endure over time.

EMDR

There are life events that are so painful they disrupt our ability to emotionally and cognitively process them. These experiences can lead to a sense of hypervigilance and disconnection or simply cause emotional blocks that keep us stuck. EMDR promotes healing and forward movement by helping a person’s brain complete the integration process that was interrupted during overwhelm.