228 - John Gasienica - A Revolutionary Approach to Disrupting Chronic Pain With Pain Reprocessing Therapy
“I like to think of it as our brains become this night watchman who's been told there's gonna be a robbery tonight [and] everything that bumps in our body, our brain shines a flashlight on.” - John Gasienica
When I say “it’s all connected,” I’m not pushing a love ‘n light colloquialism; I preach the gaddang truth! That cranky back you woke up with this AM? That IBS that took you down during a meeting? That nagging knee injury that kept you from your run? It’s ALL connected to the way we treat ourselves.
Pain is a message the brain sends to warn the body. Those messages are often tied to big “T” or little “t” traumas that we haven’t correctly processed, leading to miscommunication between head and knee (or back or gut), says John Gasienica, a therapist and the Director of Development at the Pain Psychology Center in Los Angeles. “All pain is real,” John asserts, “but sometimes the nerve endings send neutral signals to our brain, and if our brain is primed from reliving trauma, it can start to get extra sensitive and ring the alarm bell of pain when it's not necessary.”
But wait, there are more mind-blowing revelations about pain and the life-changing therapy called pain reprocessing within the confines of this conversation between John, Anne, and me––truth bombs that just might change the way you approach the mind-body connection and your relationship with the physical vessel you inhabit.
The growing body of research (Harvard! JAMA!) into pain reprocessing, a technique that helps patients release themselves from pain by retraining the way their brains interpret danger signals, is further proof that healing isn’t about management (opioids, surgery), it's about relationship. That's literally what life is about: forging a different relationship to what you're experiencing. “Self-compassion,” John agrees, “[is something] I would always roll my eyes at because it seemed like a nice thing, but it didn't seem necessary. When I learned this is actually the piece I need to feel better physically, my motivation skyrocketed.”
We are all connected and already possess the skills, like pain reprocessing, to live a different way. Still don’t believe me? I leave you with one of the many powerful observations Anne shares in this episode. “I was thinking about changing the relationship to your body, from where your body can feel like a prison to where it can feel like the activator of freedom.”
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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
NARM - NeuroAffective Relational Model
The Way Out: A Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven Approach to Healing Chronic Pain
Tell Me About Your Pain podcast
Effect of Pain Reprocessing Therapy vs Placebo and Usual Care for Patients With Chronic Back Pain
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John Gasienica, MSW, is a therapist and the Director of Development at the Pain Psychology Center in Los Angeles where he works with the founder of Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), @alantgordon, to help people with chronic pain and anxiety. John is also currently a research clinician studying the efficacy of PRT in racially/ethnically diverse adults with the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine.
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