‘Mind Body’ Approach to Resolving Pain
'Mind body' treatment approach services starting from just £50
Have you been suffering from pain for more than 3 months, or do you have the same pain coming back repeatedly? Is your pain preventing you from engaging in activities you love? Have you tried many treatments which give temporary ease but haven’t resolved the problem?
Alongside the more ‘mainstream’ and traditional physiotherapy treatments (e.g., manual therapies), at the White House Clinic our clinical specialist, Irralee Andrzejowska, offers an alternate approach to treating patients suffering with pain. This approach is evidence-based and has been very successful for many chronic pain sufferers, offering patients real hope of a solution to their problem.
What is Chronic Pain?
Chronic pain (sometimes known as long-term pain or persistent pain) is pain that lasts for more than 3 months. Unfortunately, it is estimated that 1 in 5 people have chronic or persistent pain.
This short, animated clip explains further what chronic pain is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy5yKbduGkc
'Mind Body' Approach to Resolving Pain
Relief from chronic pain is possible using a ‘mind body’ approach. This approach recognises that your mind and body are intricately linked, so that thoughts and emotions produce a physiological effect on the body via the autonomic nervous system, which can either enhance or impede the health of your tissues.
Modern neuroscience has shown that the root cause of chronic pain lies in the nervous system, and not the site of the symptoms, hence the need for a new approach. Here is a helpful metaphor to explain this:
- You find water on your bathroom floor (your symptoms)
- You mop it up with a towel (treatment aimed at the symptoms)
- A few hours later the water has returned- you realise that mopping up the water is never going to solve the problem
- You search for the source of the water (the root cause) which is a faulty pipe under the floor (the nervous system)
- You hire a plumber to fix the pipe (mind body approach), and the problem is resolved
What is a 'mind body' disorder?
A ‘mind body’ disorder causes real pain (all pain is real) and despite the severity of symptoms, it is a common, harmless condition. The neuroplastic nature of the nervous system, means it has potential for change and improvement. Chronic pain is not caused by a ‘hardware’ problem (structural damage) but a ‘software’ problem (neural pathway dysfunction). Pain circuits can be reprogrammed in the nervous system using the ‘mind body’ approach.
What are the common signs of a ‘mind body’ problem?
1. How the symptoms began
- Started with an innocuous normal movement such as just bending over, turning, or reaching (despite what we may believe, our bodies are not fragile)
- You woke up with pain (it is difficult to injure yourself in bed)
- Started during an activity your body is accustomed to doing (our body is resilient, and injury occurs only if you experience unusual loading on tissues)
- There can be a time delay between the suspected damaging activity and the pain starting (tissue damage causes immediate pain, unless you are in a life-threatening situation at the time)
2. How the symptoms behave
- Started around the time of significant stress in your life; loss, overwhelming demands, a health scare, relationship difficulties or change in your life (includes positive occasions such as retirement/marriage/new baby/moving house etc)
- Have spread over time and may include the whole side of your body or be mirrored on both sides of the body (both situations are rare with structural pain)
- Can either shift location or persist in the same place, and usually worsen over time (injuries get better over time)
- Are often worse after not during activity (structural pain is always worse during loading and better with rest and in the morning)
- Diminish when you are doing enjoyable activities, and worse in stressful situations (sitting at work with an unpleasant colleague is more painful than sitting having coffee with friends)
A 'Mind Body' review from one of our patients
Through the Polyvagal system that Irralee introduced me to, I gained a deep understanding that my unwanted physical symptoms and behaviours made sense, and that my nervous system had all the time been working hard to protect me. I also recognised that this was no longer necessary, that I could interpret things in a different way, and release myself into a good life - as long as I continue to listen to my internal needs and messages. I had been working on the issues my nervous system presented to me for a long time. Irralee has helped me understand I now need to trust and let go. I can do that because my life is no longer challenging in the way it was, and I also recognise I am held, heard and appreciated. It’s so simple. I truly believe that as this process happens, I will no longer be troubled by the sensations in my arm and hand and I will feel well. With the input from Irralee, this change of perspective happened quickly and was transformational. My thanks go to Irralee, who listened with empathy and understanding, and gave me appropriate tools and relevant reading prompts to guide me, which have helped me let go of limiting beliefs, and allowed me to thrive. I’m happy for use to use all or some of what I’ve written in whatever way is useful to you. Heartfelt thanks for your help and support!
FAQs
Do you have a ‘mind body’ disorder?
What types of pain respond to this treatment approach?
Any persistent pain that is not due to an inflammatory disorder, infection, or serious disease.
Examples include:
- Back, neck, foot and buttock pain
- Migraines and headaches
- Joint pain from osteoarthritis
- Tennis elbow
- Frozen shoulder
- Sciatica
What does treatment entail with this approach?
Treatment is tailor-made to your individual problem, and as chronic pain is complex, it requires a comprehensive approach to address all the pieces of the pain puzzle. Treatment with a 'mind body' approach typically includes:
- EDUCATION: resources and accurate information based on up-to-date science to reduce fear, confusion and uncertainty about your symptoms, as fear fuels pain
- RELAXATION: strategies to activate the relaxation response and switch off the chronic fight/flight/freeze state of your nervous system which causes pain and tension
- MOVEMENT: exercises to rewire the pain pathways in response to physical triggers to retrain normal relaxed movement and return to the activities you love
- STRESS REDUCTION: techniques to reduce the physiological reaction to stress including how to modify: a negative mindset, critical self-talk and stress-inducing personality traits such as perfectionism, people pleasing, over-responsibility and over-analysing
- EMOTIONAL: emotional awareness and expression exercises to release repressed emotions in response to stress, which have been shown to cause pain and tension in the body
- BALANCE: identifying and correcting any imbalance in your life which doesn’t prioritise time for rest, down-time, fun and self-care activities which are essential for well-being and soothing the nervous system.
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Our team are ready and waiting to assist with your recovery.
At the White House Clinic our chronic pain specialist (Irralee Andrzejowska) recommends an initial 1-hour Physiotherapy Assessment to obtain a detailed history and physical examination to explore the cause of your symptoms, and to determine if this approach is suitable for your pain problem. From her findings, she will advise you of the most likely cause for the pain you are experiencing:
A. A structural problem: which will respond best to a course of manual therapy treatment
B. A suspected serious issue, for which she will refer you for further tests
C. A ‘mind body’ condition
We understand you may be sceptical because you may not have heard about this approach, but we want to reassure you that it is at the cutting edge of evidence-based pain treatment strategies, and we are delighted to provide this service for clients at the White House Clinic.