The Role of Psychotherapy in Chronic Pain Management

Written By: Dr. Stephen F. Grinstead, LMFT, ACRPS, CADC-II Date: February 23rd, 2010. Topic: Member Blogs.

Given the biopsychosocial nature of chronic pain management it is imperative to utilize a multidisciplinary treatment team approach. True multidisciplinary pain management involves interventions such as physical therapy, massage, medication management, counseling or therapy, biofeedback, occupational therapy, exercise physiology, an anesthesiologist or pharmacologist, and a case manager all at one site, at a minimum. It may also involve some type of movement therapy such as Tai Chi, classes on spiritual wellness, yoga or meditation.

In our era of reducing resources, and the very limited access to a multidisciplinary team approach, many people are not getting the help they deserve and need for effective chronic pain management. I’ve also said many times that for people living with chronic pain that knowledge is power.

When people are undergoing chronic pain management they are impacted in three major areas. Physically there is damage, injury or disease to a part of the body and the pain receptors in that area send a signal to the brain. Psychologically the brain interprets that ascending pain signal and sends a message to the cognitive section or the brain as well as the limbic system that controls emotions. Finally there is a social and cultural context in which to experience the pain in a way that reduces suffering.

To learn more about using a team approach including psychotherapy in chronic pain management check out my article The Need for Multidisciplinary Chronic Pain Management that you can download for free on our Articles page.

You can learn about the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System at our website www.addiction-free.com. If you are working with people undergoing chronic pain management and want to learn how to develop a plan for managing their chronic pain and coexisting psychological disorders; including depression, addiction and other coexisting psychological disorders effectively; please consider my book Managing Pain and Coexisting Disorders: Using the Addiction-Free Pain Management® System. To purchase this book please Click Here.

To read the latest issue of Chronic Pain Solutions Newsletter please click here. If you want to sign up for the newsletter, please click here and input your name and email address. You will then recieve an autoresponse email that you need to reply to in order to finalize enrollment.

To see an online overview of Cognit delivering Addiction-Free Pain Management® please go to this Link for a free demo.

To learn about my upcoming trainings you can check out our Calendar page.

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