Based on the authors 20 years of clinical experience and research using EMDR to treat pain, this book shows how to harness natural brain capacities such as attention, memory and sensory processing to change the brain activity which maintains pain. The new ‘Change Your Brain Change Your Pain’ offers a combination of insightful information and practical real-world strategies for reversing the brain activity which maintains chronic pain and includes;
- How to understand your pain in terms of how your brain works.
- How to match pain-related problems onto brain activity and choose strategies that target the brain activity involved.
- How to use sensory stimulation to change the brain activity associated with pain
- 15 x brain-smart bottom-up and top down strategies for overcoming pain.
- 40 x activities for reversing the various physical and emotional effects of chronic pain.
- 15 x guided audio self-help exercises (2 hours of audio downloads).
- Updated information on the connection between stress and pain (e.g. trauma, and attachment problems).
About the Author:
Mark Grant is a psychologist/researcher who was an early adopter of EMDR in the treatment of chronic pain after becoming frustrated with the limitations of traditional psychological methods – particularly their inability to modify the sensory aspect of pain. He has created a treatment manual and a variety of self-help resources based on the method. His app ‘anxiety release based on E.M.D.R’ resulted in the first documented case of an app being used to alleviate physical discomfort associated with chronic pain. Mark lives and works in Melbourne Australia.
Tabla de materias
Audio downloads xi
Introduction 1
How to get the most out of this book 4
Part One: Know Your Brain Know Your Pain
Your Brain in Pain 9
First principles 9
Introducing your brain 10
Bottom up and top down processing: 11
Bottom-up and top-down processing of pain 12
Left and right hemisphere processing of pain 17
Two key brain functions that maintain pain 19
Summary 20
How Pain Gets into Your Brain 21
Stress, pain, and your brain 22
How severe stress leads to pain 25
Biochemical effects of severe stress 25
Summary 32
7 ‘Brain-Smart’ Steps to Change Pain 33
7 ‘Brain-Smart’ Steps to Overcoming Pain 37
Summary 43
Part Two: Bottom-up Strategies for Changing Pain
Tame Your Pain (touch) 47
Why we need touch 48
Why we are afraid to touch 49
What is Healing Touch? 50
How to use Healing Touch to feel better 53
Four ‘Healing Touch’ strategies for taming your pain 54
Summary 63
Tame Your Pain (Bls) 65
What is the Orienting Response and why does it matter? 65
What is bilateral stimulation? 67
How can bls help you feel better? 68
Bls at work: June’s story 69
How to use bls to tame your pain 72
How to use the bilateral stimulation audio resources 74
Overcoming attention problems 74
Other sensory strategies 75
Summary 78
Understanding Feelings 79
What are feelings and why do they matter? 81
Emotions and Your Brain 83
Normal emotional reactions to chronic pain 84
Summary 91
Regulating emotions 93
Accepting feelings 94
Interpreting feelings 98
Bilateral stimulation 101
Touch 102
Enjoyable activities 102
Sharing feelings 103
Acting on Feelings 104
Mindfulness strategies 107
Summary 110
Trauma processing 111
What is EMDR and how is it different from other therapies? 111
How EMDR changes your brain 113
Trauma and pain 114
Dissociation: the key to pain memories 114
The eight stages of EMDR 115
The positive cognition 116
What happens in an EMDR session? 117
Esther’s story: healing accident-related pain and trauma 119
How you can benefit from EMDR 124
Summary 124
Self-Care (emotional) 127
Emotional Self-Care and Your Brain 129
Attachment problems and pain 131
How to tell if you do not have enough social support 132
How to increase your emotional support 134
Safety 136
Spiritual practices 139
Summary 141
Self-Care (physical) 143
What is sleep and why do you need it? 144
Pain and sleep 146
Five ways to sleep better 147
Exercise and Pain 152
The Benefits of Exercise 152
How to exercise 154
Diet and Pain 155
Summary 157
Part Three: Top-down Strategies for Overcoming Pain
Uncovering the Meaning of Your Pain 161
The PFC – where ‘you’ come from 161
Core negative self-beliefs 162
How to uncover the meaning of your pain 164
How to develop a positive post-pain identity 166
Developing healthy self-beliefs 168
Summary 169
Dealing with other stressors 171
Life is stressful 171
Effects of chronic pain on relationships 173
‘3 is a crowd’: the problem of third-party involvement 175
The blame game 175
The lack of a medical diagnosis 177
Managing expectations regarding medical treatment 177
Dealing with ‘other stressors’ 179
Other cognitive strategies 179
Summary 185
Reintegration 187
Normal brain, normal you 187
How I lost my hand and found my life: The Michael Weisskopf Story 188
Looking forward 190
You can go your own way 191
Summary 193
Appendices 195
Appendix A 195
Appendix B 196
Appendix C 198
Appendix D 200
Appendix E 201
References 204
Index 214
Sobre el autor
Mark Grant is a psychologist/researcher who was an early adopter of EMDR in the treatment of chronic pain after becoming frustrated with the limitations of traditional psychological methods – particularly their inability to modify the sensory aspect of pain. He has created a treatment manual and a variety of self-help resources based on the method. His app ‘anxiety release based on E.M.D.R’ resulted in the first documented case of an app being used to alleviate physical discomfort associated with chronic pain. Mark lives and works in Melbourne Australia.
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