What is
Pain Reprocessing Therapy?

Pain Reprocessing Therapy is a treatment that targets the root cause of your chronic pain. It is a simple, effective process that allows you to change the learned patterns of your nervous system and free yourself from symptoms.

What is Chronic Pain?

Chronic Pain is defined as ‘pain that lasts for more than 3 months or beyond the usual recovery period of an injury’. Regardless of the cause, all chronic pain is a phenomenon of the nervous system. It is the interpretation of sensory input by our subconscious or ‘primitive’ brain that generates the sensation of pain. We now know that many cases of chronic pain are not signs of structural damage, but are instead due to patterns learned by our nervous system - this is called ‘neuroplastic pain’.

Neuroplastic pain feels just like any other kind of pain: it is your nervous system warning you that something is wrong, in exactly the same way that it does when you are injured. It is not imagined, made-up, or exaggerated. It can feel just as scary as any injury, and in many cases even more so, as it can be unpredictable and mysterious. But, the good news is that with PRT it can be simple to diagnose and treat effectively.

By understanding how to work with the nervous system, the patterns and feedback loops that lead to chronic pain and many other kinds of symptoms, can be Recognised, Reappraised, and Replaced.

Working with the nervous system

The nervous system is constantly processing the input from our senses and letting us know whether it judges that we are safe or threatened. The language of the nervous system is sensation. When we feel unsafe it is not a thought, we feel it in our body; in our belly, or chest, prickling on the back of our neck, or tingling up our spine. When our subconscious or primitive brain interprets sensory input as dangerous or harmful it generates the experience of pain. In most cases, the cause is obvious and we are able to act quickly to address the threat, and our primitive brain turns off the alarm bell of pain.

When the nervous system becomes dysregulated, sensitised or traumatised it can begin to interpret neutral (harmless) nerve signals as dangerous, generating pain without a structural cause, this is known as neuroplastic pain. Neuroplastic pain is a signal that our system has become dysregulated and has fallen into a feedback loop made up of pain and anxiety. When we are able to recognise neuroplastic pain for what it is then we can respond appropriately and address the cause of the dysregulation rather than fighting and endlessly losing battle against symptoms.

Pain, whether structural or neuroplastic, triggers protective physical processes in the body. For example; in cases of lower back pain, the muscles around the sacrum and sacroiliac will constrict to protect the area, causing the feeling that movement is unsafe and damaging. The dismay, concern and fear caused by experiencing pain and crippling symptoms can cause the nervous system to become even more sensitised. It is in the nature of pain to be all-consuming and our fear-response is often very strong, whether conscious or unconscious. This creates a feedback loop that can lead to chronic pain, or other chronic symptoms such as; sleep disorders, anxiety, allergies and hypersensitivities. Chronic symptoms are a cry for help from your nervous system. Any system under too much stress will begin showing signs of imbalance or breakdown, and our nervous system is no different.

Drawing from cutting edge neuroscience and the latest medical understanding about pain, chronic pain, and the nervous system, PRT provides a safe, tried and tested process to eliminate neuroplastic symptoms. It is a framework that enables you to learn to identify which sensations are ‘structural’ and which are ‘neuroplastic’ and to respond appropriately, thus eliminating chronic symptoms whilst bringing health and balance to the nervous system.

The nervous system is made up of the brain, spinal cord and a complex network of nerves that connect and manage all of the systems and processes in the body. Neuroplasticity is a term referring to our understanding that our nervous systems are constantly learning, literally reconfiguring themselves to adapt to changes in our environment and changes in our perceptions. Both inner and outer changes cause our nervous system to adapt.

A key function of the nervous system is to constantly monitor our senses to assess whether we are safe or in danger, and to provide us with a continuous feedback channel. This feedback is given in the form of sensation. We feel safe, or we feel nervous etc. The conscious mind is then responsible for confirming or overriding this feedback. It is the dialogue between our conscious mind and our autonomic (unconscious) nervous system that determines our state. Through neuroplasticity, this feedback system inevitably becomes biased, either towards states of safety, or towards states of danger.

Do you spend most of your time relaxed and happy? or angry and reactive? or fearful and shy? these are examples of states that can become ingrained as your nervous system adapts to what is familiar.

An important part of working with the nervous system is to recognise and understand when different states have been activated and to support your system to navigate unhelpful states and to return to regulation.

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The Pathway to Recovery

The pathway to recovery begins by challenging the common misconceptions about chronic pain, understanding the role of neuroplastic pain, and responding to symptoms appropriately.

PRT works on the basis that the human body is innately healthy, that after millions of years of evolution, it is an expert at balancing and regenerating its own systems. It is our habits of thought, emotional suppression, and lifestyle choices that cause stress to build up in our systems. As with any system under stress, things start to go wrong. Addressing chronic pain on the level of the symptoms is like trying to patch up a bursting dam with tape. It might work momentarily, but it will not solve the problem.

It is not necessary to be spiritually enlightened or even stress-free to leave chronic pain behind, the pathway to recovery is a path of learning the language of the nervous system and learning how to regulate in times of stress to avoid any dam bursts.

Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) incorporates:

 Education: Learning about what pain is and how it is processed by the brain and nervous system.
Understanding: Looking back at past events and forming a coherent storyline of how certain patterns were formed.
Reappraisal: Learning to reduce fear and anxiety about the symptoms, breaking the feedback loop.
Mindfulness and Relaxation Techniques: Calming and regulating the nervous system.
Cognitive Behavioral Techniques: Changing negative thoughts about the symptoms.
Gradual Exposure: Carefully resuming normal activities whilst using techniques to retrain the brain to perceive them as safe.

It is common for people suffering with chronic pain to struggle with it for decades and even for their whole lives. This is due to a historic lack of understanding and treatments that target symptoms instead of root-causes. Through addressing the underlying causes it is often a simple matter to reverse the feedback loops and eliminate chronic symptoms for good.

With the support and guidance of a trained practitioner, who can help their clients to implement the tools used in PRT and to uncover their blind spots, it is common for people to see significant improvement in their symptoms very quickly and complete cessation of chronic symptoms over a number of sessions.

Pain Reprocessing Therapy has been called miraculous, but it is actually about getting back to the very basics and learning to implement simple tools that could one day be taught in every primary school.

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