Psychotherapy

How Psychotherapy Helps People with Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is both individual and subjective. Pain that may be manageable for one person may be debilitating for another. One important aspect of psychotherapy is validation for the patient that the pain is real and has far-reaching side effects. Once that has been established, psychotherapy can help people cope with the daily effects of living with chronic pain.

Psychotherapy can help people with chronic pain by:

• Coaching patients in behaviors that limit the degree to which pain affects daily life.
• Developing strategies to encourage and reward normal activities and discourage manipulative behaviors.
• Encouraging thought patterns that give the patient more control over his or her mood and level of anxiety.
• Suggesting strategies that increase the sense of control the patient has over his or her life.
• Helping the patient develop social relationships and a sense of self-worth to combat isolation and pain-related depression.
• Suggesting complementary alternative therapies such as relaxation techniques, hypnosis, meditation, yoga, or biofeedback to help relieve pain