Chronic Pain Therapy
in Arvada, CO
Can Therapy Actually Help with Chronic Pain?
Yes! Therapy for chronic pain can help in many ways. Benefits can include: support and validation when you are feeling doubted; improving coping skills for dealing with discomfort, and having a professional who understands. For structural physical conditions causing pain, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can help you change how you think about the pain, which will help decrease anxiety and depression around symptoms. Another type of pain, that is not caused by structural issues, is what we call “neuroplastic”. With nueroplastic pain, neural circuits in the brain are creating or amplifying pain. A thorough assessment will help determine if you may be experiencing neuroplastic pain – and if so, Pain Reprocessing Therapy can be effective.
Affecting All Aspects of Life
Chronic pain can begin to shape every part of your life. Even simple activities—getting out of bed, carrying groceries or climbing stairs—can become exhausting. You may find yourself weighing every decision against the possibility of making the pain worse. You end up doing less, and avoiding activity. Chronic symptoms can cause anxiety and depression, and often create a strain on relationships. As a specialist in this area, I have seen how isolating these conditions can be. People often power through alone, even when surrounded by friends and loved ones. A counselor who understands can help. We will work on strategies that will help you cope and improve your quality of life. In many situations, people actually report a reduction in pain.
Pain can make you physically miserable, but there is also an emotional side. Grief about all the things you can’t do anymore. Anxiety about planning activities (because you never know how you are going to feel tomorrow). Sadness about feeling left out – people don’t always know if they should invite you anymore. You start to get isolated. Feelings of guilt about how much your spouse or family does for you. Anger and irritability seem to be an everyday occurrence. Chronic Pain Therapy can provide support and help you manage difficult feelings.
If you’re here, there’s a good chance you’ve already done everything you were told to do. You’ve seen specialists, completed physical therapy, undergone imaging, tried medications or injections, maybe even had surgery—and you’re still living with pain. After investing so much time and energy, it’s understandable to wonder whether anything can actually help.
There is reason for hope. Research over the past decade has shown that Pain Reprocessing Therapy can significantly reduce chronic neuroplastic pain, and some people experience complete resolution of symptoms. While no treatment works for everyone, PRT offers a different approach when traditional medical treatments haven’t provided lasting relief.
Have Questions About Chronic Pain Therapy? Contact Me.
I feel so alone. How many people are affected by Chronic Pain?
Chronic pain has a huge impact on society. Over 50 million Americans suffer from chronic pain conditions like back pain, migraines, fibromyalgia, neck pain, pelvic pain (1). There is often no injury or evidence of a physical cause. Sometimes the body heals from an injury or surgery, but the pain continues long after it should. 48% of people receiving medical treatment for pain report that they are not responding well to treatment, or not improving at all (2). There are roughly 1 million back surgeries performed in the US each year (3)! Up to 39 million Americans have chronic headaches (4). Approximately 4 million people in the US have Fibromyalgia – 2% of the adult population (5). In the US, medical costs for treating chronic pain are estimated at 530 billion dollars annually (6)!
How Does Counseling For Chronic Pain Work?
Chronic Pain Therapy is a lot more than just talking. We will discuss strategies, and you will learn new ways of thinking. New pain psychology research has led to new mind-body approaches (7). This is not just pain management, this is about working to improve the quality of your life – and sometimes reduce pain.
What Is Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT)?
Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) is a psychological approach designed to help people retrain the brain and reduce chronic pain. Much of what is experienced as chronic pain is generated by the brain, not from the rest of the body. These are physical changes in neural connections, not your imagination.
The Brain Creates the Pain
Our brain is constantly deciding how the physical body feels, always monitoring and interpreting. Most of this is an unconcious process, you have no control over it, and you are not making it up. This is real pain. However, the brain can make a mistake- interpreting a signal as meaning there is something is wrong when you are actually healthy. These neural pathways can get stuck and continue to cause pain over the long term. Your brain can also amplify normal pain signals, making you feel worse than you need to. With PRT, we use a set of proven psychological techniques to:
- Calm the brain’s overactive alarm system
- Rewire misfiring neural pathways
- Help you gradually increase meaningful activities
PRT techniques have been shown to help people reduce pain and in some cases stop pain altogether! Psychotherapy for chronic pain can help you rewire your brain!
Common Conditions Helped by PRT
PRT may be effective for a wide range of conditions, including:
- Back and neck pain
- Headaches and migraines
- Fibromyalgia
- IBS and digestive issues
- RSI and joint pain
- Pelvic pain
- Chronic fatigue
- POTS and EDS
- CRPS
- Anxiety and depression related to chronic symptoms
Often, these issues appear without a clear injury or don’t show up on scans or tests. We call this neuroplastic pain — pain created and sustained by the brain. Other issues like IBS, Chronic Fatigue, and Tinnitus can also be neuroplastic.
How does Pain Reprocessing reduce Chronic Pain?
When pain is structural, medical treatments and surgeries are often helpful. When pain is Neuroplastic, medications and invasive procedures often don’t reduce the pain. Medical treatments are focusing fixing structural issues in the body, – not neural pathways in the brain, which is where neuroplastic pain is being created. I have worked with many clients who had structural issues in the spine, had successful surgery to repair these issues, but pain did not stop.
Some signs that you might have neuroplastic pain include:
- Going from doctor to doctor with no answers
- Hearing “it’s all in your head” – or being given the impression that is what experts think
- Recovering from an injury or surgery and still having pain more than six months later
- Feeling good while you are active and then “paying for it the next day”
- Scans show abnormalities, but specialists don’t think this is what is causing your pain
- Pain or symptoms started after a significantly stressful event – trauma, grief, loss, divorce, retirement, move, etc
- Pain moves, is inconsistant, or appears in different body parts at different times
Pain Reprocessing treats Chronic Pain by:
- Increasing undertsanding of how pain is created in the brain
- Decreasing fear around the symptoms
- Helping you learn to decrease physical stress and regulate the nervous system
- Learning to respond to with less fear – not in a state of “fight or flight”.
- Gradually exposing yourself to more activity
- Identifying and expressing difficult emotional issues that may have been amplyfing physical symptoms
Common Questions About Chronic Pain Therapy
How do I find out if I have Neuroplastic Pain?
Pain Reprocessing Therapy begins with a thorough assessment.. We will go over details of your past and how you experience pain. This also involves discussing psychological history, life events, and recent stressors. I will often consult with physicians involved in your treatment to get more information and coordinate care. I will let you know if I don’t think PRT is appropriate for you.
Note: PRT is not helpful for rheumatoid arthritis, cancer pain, lupus, MS, or other serious chronic conditions. If you have had an injury or surgery within the last six months, you may still be healing.
If my brain is making the pain, does that mean it's all my fault?
Absolutely not! When the brain makes errors, it’s not a conscious thought process. It’s not something you would ever choose. Our brain is a miraculous organ, but it is not perfect. It tries so hard to protect you, but it can go too far. It’s trying to keep you safe, and pain is the alarm bell. Unfortunately, sometimes it is a false alarm.
I've tried so many treatments, I don't want to be discouraged again.
That’s understandable. It’s not uncommon for chronic pain patients to have seen specialists, had many procedures, and tried multiple treatment options. You get your hopes up, only to be discouraged again. It’s normal to be skeptical about PRT. I was very skeptical about this approach when I first started learning about it. Pain reprocessing is based upon research, and I am only practicing this because I have seen amazing results with many people.
How do I get started with Pain Reprocessing?
You don’t have to keep suffering. Let’s explore whether Pain Reprocessing Therapy could help you reclaim your life.
📞 Call today for a free consultation: (720) 315-0123
(1) Rikard SM, Strahan AE, Schmit KM, Guy GP Jr.. Chronic Pain Among Adults — United States, 2019–2021. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2023;72:379–385
(2) (Clarke, D., Jones, L., Sondag, M., Goldberg M. H., & Gustafson A. (2025). How Americans Experience and Understand Neuroplastic Symptoms. Association for the Treatment of Neuroplastic Symptoms. Portland, OR, USA.)
(3) 1. Weiss AJ, Elixhauser A, Andrews RM. Characteristics of Operating Room Procedures in U.S. Hospitals, 2011: Statistical Brief #170 Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Statistical Briefs. Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US); 2006
(4) Probyn K, Bowers H, Caldwell F, Mistry D, Underwood M, Matharu M, Pincus T., CHESS Team. Prognostic factors for chronic headache: A systematic review. Neurology. 2017 Jul 18;89(3):291-301.
(5) Walitt, B., Nahin, R. L., Katz, R. S., Bergman, M. J., & Wolfe, F. (2015). The Prevalence and Characteristics of Fibromyalgia in the 2012 National Health Interview Survey. PLOS ONE, 10(9), e0138024. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0138024.
(6) Guy GP Jr, Miller GF, Legha JK, Rikard SM, Strahan AE, Mikosz C, Florence CS. Economic Costs of Chronic Pain-United States, 2021. Med Care. 2025 Sep 1;63(9):679-685
(7) Ashar YK, Gordon A, Schubiner H, et al. Effect of Pain Reprocessing Therapy vs Placebo and Usual Care for Patients With Chronic Back Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry. 2022;79(1):13–23. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.2669
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