Tell Me About Your Pain

Alan and Alon introduce the concept of leaning into positive sensations, a technique that rewires your brain and deactivates pain. Alan talks to Emily, a back pain sufferer with a lot of fear and preoccupation around her symptoms. By embracing this new technique, Emily does something she thought was impossible: she sits without pain. After the call, Alan and Alon demonstrate how to use this technique to heal your own pain at home.

Alan and Alon introduce somatic tracking, the most effective technique they’ve found for overcoming chronic pain. Somatic tracking teaches your brain to reinterpret signals from your body through a lens of safety, thus deactivating the pain. Alan talks to Stephen (chronic back pain), Amber (fibromyalgia), and Felicia (chronic neck pain). Alan guides each of them through somatic tracking exercises, helping them to neutralize their fear and alleviate their symptoms. Then, Alan and Alon break down the different components of somatic tracking, and explain how you can use this technique to eliminate your own pain.

Most chronic pain is caused by pain circuits in the brain that get stuck. But this can be hard to accept when pain feels like it's coming from our bodies. In this episode, Alan and Alon discuss how to determine if your pain is caused by your brain and explain why it's so important to embrace this belief. Alan talks to Greg, a former football player who always assumed his debilitating pain was caused by injuries to his back. By changing his mindset about the source of the pain, Greg completely overcame his symptoms. Alan also helps Denise, who suffers from multiple chronic pain symptoms, determine whether her pain is caused by her brain or by structural problems in her body.

Alan and Alon discuss the science behind the “pain-fear cycle" and speak with real chronic pain sufferers to examine how it plays out in the real world. Amber, who suffers from chronic neck pain, calls in to share her fears and worries about how her pain dominates her life. Meanwhile, Emily struggles to let go of the idea that her pain is purely physical in nature. Alan and Alon guide their guests to let of go these fears to break the cycle of chronic pain.

Chronic pain sufferers share their struggles with navigating Coronavirus anxiety. Kristin grapples with feelings of uncertainty, while Bethany has a difficult time cultivating a sense of safety during the global pandemic of Covid-19. Co-hosts Alan Gordon, LCSW (Founder of the Pain Psychology Center) and Alon Ziv help Kristin and Bethany calm their fears, and discuss how these anxieties connect back to the latest research on pain.