PRT (Pain Reprocessing Therapy) – Choosing Joy

This is the final episode of the PRT (Pain Reprocessing Therapy) series. There are many ways of calming down your nervous system, but the real healing occurs as you train your nervous to move into the life that you want. You can learn to create a felt sense of safety versus fear of your pain – mental or physical. “To have a good life, you must live a good life.” David Hanscom REVIEW: What is Pain reprocessing therapy (PRT)? PRT is an approach that trains the brain to reinterpret sensory input by (1) Breaking the pain-fear cycle and thereby (2) reducing or eliminating pain by training the brain to reprocess pain signals as safe. What do we mean by creating more positive feelings and sensations towards your pain? Besides reducing a person’s fear of their pain, PRT also aims to increase an overall feeling of safety - using the lens of safety. We become conditioned to quickly engage in wanting to get rid of the pain that we spend all our awakening hours trying to do various things, including distracting ourselves or not even moving because we hurt. One of the goals of PRT is to help the person shift from “danger mode” to “safety mode.” The therapist can help the patient attend to pleasant sensations in their body (e.g., the breath) through a lens of positivity. Using your breath, self-compassion, imagery - and associated with pleasant feelings of something that mimics the body sensations (burning pain with hot tub). We become what we practice. What do you want? The goal of, “Getting rid of my pain” places your attention on the pain and it will continue to run the show. David Hanscom, MD Les Aria, Ph.D. Pain Psychologist