Pain Management Resources
Apps
The Curable app has been instrumental in Eileen’s healing journey.
Books
The Way Out: A Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven Approach to Healing Chronic Pain by Alan Gordon, LCSW, and Alon Ziv “The Way Out dives into Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) a system of psychological techniques designed to rewire the brain and break the cycle of chronic pain.”
Unlearn Your Pain by Dr. Howard Schubiner
“Why manage your pain when you could cure it? Do you suffer from chronic pain that appears to have no medical cause?
Using cutting-edge research, this book demonstrates that the underlying reason for much chronic pain is nerve sensitization and learned nerve pathways, rather than actual tissue destruction. Dr. Schubiner has used this new understanding to develop a unique program to this book, you’ll be able to determine if you have this syndrome and then learn how to overcome it. The program in this book gives you therapeutic writing exercises, a CD with four meditations, and everything else you need to unlearn your pain.”
Healing Back Pain by Dr. John Sarno, Jr.
“Dr. John E. Sarno is a medical pioneer whose program has helped thousands upon thousands of people overcome their back conditions--without or drugs or dangerous surgery. Now, using his groundbreaking research into TMS (Tension Myositis Syndrome), Dr. Sarno goes one step further: after identifying stress and other psychological factors in back pain, he demonstrates how many of his patients have gone on to heal themselves without exercise or other physical therapy. Find out: Why self-motivated and successful people are prone to TMS; How anxiety and repressed anger trigger muscle spasms; How people "train themselves' to experience back pain; How you may get relief from back pain within two to six weeks by recognizing TMS and its causes. With case histories and the results of in-depth mind-body research, Dr. Sarno describes how patients recognize the emotional roots of their TMS and sever the connections between mental and physical pain... and how, just by reading this book, you may start recovering from back pain today.”
The Body Keeps Score by Bessel van der Kolk
Bessel has been instrumental in developing cutting-edge clinical therapies that focus on calming the nervous system, enhancing self-regulation, and grounding patients in the present moment.
The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture by Dr. Gabor Mate
Over four decades of clinical experience, Maté has come to recognize the prevailing understanding of “normal” as false, neglecting the roles that trauma and stress, and the pressures of modern-day living, exert on our bodies and our minds at the expense of good health. For all our expertise and technological sophistication, Western medicine often fails to treat the whole person, ignoring how the toxicity of today’s culture stresses the body, burdens the immune system, and undermines emotional balance.
Now Maté brings his perspective to the great untangling of common myths about what makes us sick, connects the dots between the maladies of individuals and the declining soundness of society—and offers a compassionate guide for health and healing. Co-written with his son Daniel, The Myth of Normal is Maté’s most ambitious and urgent book yet.”
Documentaries
“Using a first-person approach to explore the work of renowned physician Dr. John Sarno and his radical methods to treating back pain, ALL THE RAGE examines the connection between emotions and health. Through interviews with Sarno, esteemed patients, and experts, the film invites viewers to profoundly rethink our approach to healthcare. He changed shock jock Howard Stern's life. Veteran Senator Tom Harkin was inspired to campaign for his cause, and he gave comedian Larry David "the closest thing to a religious experience" he's ever had. Dr. John Sarno's bestselling book "Healing Back Pain" was first published in the 1980's, and when co-director Michael Galinsky's father read it he was cured of chronic whiplash. The book – which connects pain with emotions rather than structural causes – put Sarno at blunt odds with the medical system, which shunned his unorthodox approach. Many years later, when Michael was immobilized by excruciating back pain, he met with Dr. Sarno and was put on the mend. Thus began a 12-year odyssey to chronicle his personal journey of healing with the story of Dr. Sarno and his work. This artful and personal film, ALL THE RAGE, braids Galinsky's universal story of pain together with the history of Dr. Sarno's work, connecting the audience to both the issues and the emotions at play. Featuring interviews with Howard Stern, Larry David, reporter John Stossel, Dr. Andrew Weil, Senators Bernie Sanders and Tom Harkin, and other luminaries, ALL THE RAGE offers a profound rethink of our health care.”
“THE PROBLEM: CHRONIC PAIN: One in seven people around the world suffer from chronic pain, and nearly 80% of us will experience it at some point in our lives. The symptoms show up as back pain, neck pain, fibromyalgia, migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety, depression, fatigue, and a dozen others. The standard treatments are often ineffective, and one of the main remedies, opioids, has made the problem worse. What’s going on here? THE FILM: This Might Hurt is a documentary that offers solutions to reduce and unlearn chronic pain. The film follows three chronic pain patients who have spent years searching for answers. Desperate for relief, they enter a new medical program — run by Dr. Howard Schubiner — that focuses on uncovering hidden causes of pain, and retraining their brains to switch the pain off. This new paradigm for diagnosis and treatment was found to be effective in several randomized trials, and was listed as a “best practice” by the HHS’s task force to combat the opioid epidemic. This Might Hurt provides an intimate exploration and suggests a path to healing for millions.”
Podcasts
1) Tell Me About Your Pain, Alan Gordon, Spotify
2) The Cure for Chronic Pain, Nicole Sachs, Spotify
3) The Lorimer Mosely Podcast, Dr. Lorimer Moseley, Spotify
Other Resources
1) YouTube video, TedTalk, Professor Lorimer Mosely TEDxAdelaide - Lorimer Moseley - Why Things Hurt
2) YouTube video, Tame the Best, Professor Lorimer Mosely Tame The Beast — It's time to rethink persistent pain
3) Dr. John E Sarno - 20/20 Segment Dr. Sarno's most notable (and controversial) achievement is the development, diagnosis and treatment of TMS, which is not accepted by mainstream medicine.
4) Series of six videos on YouTube created by Dr. Howard Schubiner - Essentially "Chronic Pain 101":
Counseling Services
1) Pain Psychology Center, founded by Alan Gordon
2) Better Mind Center, founded by Christie Uipi
3) Freedom from Chronic Pain, founded by Dr. Howard Schubiner
All of these offer Zoom sessions.