Psychoeducation for chronic pain lays the groundwork for lasting recovery. It helps patients understand why pain persists, how the brain plays a role, and how to rewire it through safety and awareness.
As we gear up for our next Patient Healing Workshop, we want to focus on one of the key elements that make Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) so effective: psychoeducation for chronic pain.
Psychoeducation for chronic pain serves as the foundation for understanding why pain develops and chronifies. We are often asked why two people with the same initial injury have vastly different pain experiences. “Why did my pain persist while others recover within the expected course of healing?” By understanding our brain’s role in the development of chronic pain, we can more easily see the pain for what it is: a false alarm.
Quote of the Week: “The more you learn about the ‘what’ and the ‘why,’ the easier and more effective the ‘how’ becomes.” — Joe Dispenza
The Importance of Psychoeducation for Chronic Pain
Psychoeducation for chronic pain is a critical component of PRT. It involves educating patients about the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms that contribute to chronic pain. By understanding that pain is often a result of the brain misinterpreting safe or neutral signals, patients can demystify their symptoms and reduce the fear and anxiety that so often accompanies and fuels chronic pain.
All pain is real, and all pain is an output of the brain. So, you can think of PRT as physical therapy for the brain!
With PRT, we address the biological, social, and psychological factors contributing to the pain experience. Although two people might have the same injury, no two people have identical biological predispositions, psychological factors, and external environmental influences.
There is no one person or factor to blame for pain. For example, an individual’s pain may persist because they are hypervigilant and have a sensitive nervous system. Perhaps they learned to exist with hypervigilance because they grew up in an unsafe environment or were in a dangerous relationship. Their hypervigilance was an adaptive protective mechanism that is no longer serving them. As such, this person might constantly scan their environment for threats and view everything, including sensations, through this lens. And when we add fear and expectation of danger to sensations, the outcome is pain.
But pain does not necessarily indicate physical damage. This understanding is crucial in helping patients feel safe enough to embrace therapeutic techniques that expose them to pain, which is understandably scary.
Psychoeducation Tips for Providers
There are many ways to provide psychoeducation for chronic pain to patients. Here are a few strategies we recommend:
- Research-based: PRT is an evidence-based treatment. Read our JAMA Psychiatry study and our JAMA Network Open secondary analysis. Email us for our study cheat sheet!
- Anecdotal: Sharing stories of other patients with similar conditions can spark hope and reinforce that recovery is possible.
- Personal: If you’ve recovered from chronic pain yourself, sharing your story can build trust. If not, normalize that everyone experiences mind-body symptoms — like blushing from embarrassment or a stomachache from stress.
Recommended Reading: A Diagnostic Guide for Psychophysiologic Disorders
Written by David Clarke, MD, David Schechter, MD, and Howard Schubiner, MD, this comprehensive guide addresses how to diagnose and treat neuroplastic pain. It helps close the gap between medical and mental health disciplines by clarifying which conditions are brain-based rather than structural.
This book is rooted in both published research and extensive clinical experience. It even includes a detailed patient self-assessment and a guide for providers to identify biopsychosocial patterns commonly seen in chronic pain sufferers.
It’s a powerful psychoeducation for chronic pain tool and an ideal companion for any practitioner seeking to expand their understanding of mind-body treatment models.