How to Desensitize Your Pain and Symptom Alarm System (Brain Retraining Practice Included)

Your body isn't damaged, but you're still feeling pain or symptoms? That's because chronic pain/symptoms often persists long after injuries heal due to a sensitized nervous system. In this illuminating episode, we unravel how your brain can misinterpret safe signals as dangerous, creating persistent pain and symptoms even when there's no structural damage.

We explore the fascinating neuroscience behind chronic pain/symptoms, explaining how different brain regions become involved when pain transitions from acute to chronic. The famous neurological principle "neurons that fire together, wire together" reveals why pain/symptom pathways strengthen over time through repetitive activation. Just as learning any skill improves with practice, your brain unfortunately becomes more efficient at producing pain/symptoms when these pathways are repeatedly activated.

The episode centers on a powerful solution: embodiment practices that help desensitize your overactive alarm system. Rather than staying trapped in fearful thoughts and rumination that fuel the pain/symptom cycle, we guide you through approaching sensations with curiosity and safety. Through deliberate nervous system regulation, slow breathing, and present-moment awareness, you can teach your brain to reappraise sensations it previously misinterpreted as threatening.

The highlight of this episode is a complete guided somatic practice where we walk you through exploring sensations with playful curiosity—like a kitten investigating a new room—rather than fear or judgment. This brain retraining exercise helps create new neural pathways that view sensations as safe rather than dangerous.

Ready to rewire your brain's pain response? Begin your healing journey by practicing embodiment consistently when symptoms are mild to moderate. For additional support, check out our digital course with over 60 somatic and brain retraining practices at mbodycommunity.com, or book a consultation with one of our therapists. Your path to freedom from chronic pain starts with understanding your nervous system and learning to create safety within.

Tanner Murtagh and Anne Hampson are therapists who treat neuroplastic pain and mind-body symptoms. They are also married! In his 20s, Tanner overcame chronic pain and a fibromyalgia diagnosis by learning his symptoms were occurring due to learned brain pathways and nervous system dysregulation. Post-healing, Tanner and Anne have dedicated their lives to developing effective treatment and education for neuroplastic pain and symptoms. Listen and learn how to assess your own chronic pain and symptoms, gain tools to retrain the brain and nervous system, and make gradual changes in your life and health!

The Mind-Body Couple podcast is owned by Pain Psychotherapy Canada Inc. This podcast is produced by Alex Klassen, who is one of the wonderful therapists at our agency in Calgary, Alberta. https://www.painpsychotherapy.ca/

Tanner, Anne, and Alex also run the MBody Community, which is an in-depth online course that provides step-by-step guidance for assessing, treating, and resolving mind-body pain and symptoms. https://www.mbodycommunity.com

Also check out Tanner's YouTube channel for more free education and practices: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Fl6WaFHnh4ponuexaMbFQ

And follow us for daily education posts on Instagram: @painpsychotherapy

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