Affect tolerance is a term we use to indicate how much emotion or feeling in our bodies we can sit and tolerate with without needing to shut it down. This is a crucial skill we want to learn when we have chronic symptoms. The reason being is that many chronic physical symptoms in the body […]
One of the things you know I talk about is the overlap between emotions and pain or physical symptoms. The very definition of pain has the word ’emotional’ in it. All physical pain or symptoms activates the emotional brain. Other times we know the emotional brain itself can activate physical pain or symptoms in the […]
Had a fantastic trip over to London for the 2022 Chronic Pain SIRPA Conference. Very educational and inspiring to see so many leaders and practitioners in one place. I want to thank my mentor and head of SIRPA Georgie Oldfield for putting this event on. Some takeaways from the conference are that we are moving […]
As many of you know, I am a physiotherapist and mind-body coach. I am also a SIRPA practitioner and trained under Georgie Oldfield, who is the founder of SIRPA (Stress Illness Recovery Practitioners’ Association) and a fellow a physiotherapist. Georgie created this fantastic organization based on the pioneering work of the late great Dr. John […]
Wanted to review a study here showing the impact of emotions on physical symptoms like pain. What the study found was: Conclusion. The experience of both anger and sadness amplifies pain in women with and without fibromyalgia. A stronger emotion-induced pain response was associated with more emotional reactivity. No convincing evidence was found for a […]
Many people have a hard time believing their brains can generate physical somatic symptoms in the body. Studies around what’s called the ‘nocebo effect’ prove the brain is capable of producing all sorts of real physical symptoms. The nocebo effect is when there is a negative expectation of having a symptom and then experiencing that […]
I had the pleasure of catching up with Rebecca Tolin, who has not only recovered from her own debilitating chronic fatigue, but has since gone on to helping others heal as a mind-body coach. Rebecca is currently launching a 8 week ‘Be Your Own Medicine’ group course that starts Sept. 22nd. I’m really excited about […]
Do you know your amygdala (the part of your brain that generates negative emotions) has been shown to cause and also cure physical symptoms? Incredible and probably not believable by many. But just because you may not believe it, doesn’t mean it’s not true. We have the neuroscience now to prove what the pioneering Dr. […]
Title of this 2019 review study from the British Journal of Sports Medicine is: ‘Role of kinesiophobia on pain, disability and quality of life in people suffering from chronic musculoskeletal pain: a systematic review.’ Kinesiphobia is a fear of movement and ‘is defined as an excessive, irrational and debilitating fear to carry out a physical […]
This 2022 study in the Journal Pain found what I see daily with chronic pain patients. The researchers ‘conclude that chronic back pain is associated with altered threat and safety learning. This ambiguity to emotionally evaluate threat and safety information might lead to overly protective behavior and thus contribute to the maintenance of chronic pain.’ […]
