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Writer's pictureKatie Potratz

Can a Mind-Body Approach Really Heal Chronic Pain?

Updated: Nov 5


heal chronic pain

There is an undeniable connection between the mind and body. When you feel stressed, your muscles become tight. When you are excited, you feel butterflies in your stomach. Our mind and body are completely intertwined. In fact, I view the body as a physical extension of the mind. What happens in the mind happens in the body.


This is because what goes on in our minds will generate emotion and emotion is a chemical reaction in the body. When we feel positive emotions, hormones like dopamine are released into the bloodstream. When we feel negative emotions, hormones like adrenaline are released. This means that when we feel and emotion, every cell in our body feels the effects of them as well.


This deep mind-body connection helps us better understand what chronic pain is, why it shows up, and even how to heal from it.


Heal chronic pain by interrupting the danger signal


Essentially, pain is a danger signal. When we feel pain it’s because something is wrong. There are tiny receptors all over our body that are monitoring sensations. When they sense a sensation in the body they send a signal to the brain and the brain will determine whether that sensation is safe or dangerous. If it perceives the sensation as dangerous, we feel pain.

This is a great system! Without it we would be in big trouble. Without the sensation of pain, we may find ourselves in life-threatening situations.


The problem occurs when our body perceives safe sensations as if they are dangerous. This causes the experience of pain even when there is no structural damage. In other words, the brain is sending a danger signal when there is no danger present.


What causes the danger signal?


In short; stress.


A hypervigilant brain that constantly feels threatened can misinterpret safe signals from the body as dangerous. It’s like being scared of the dark. If you’re already afraid, then any abrupt sounds would cause you to jump, even if you later realize it was nothing scary at all. When our subconscious mind feels chronically unsafe, it can experience any sensation as dangerous, resulting in pain.


This can show up as back pain, neck pain, joint pain, migraines, etc. Even some diagnosed chronic conditions like scoliosis and fibromyalgia can be a result of the mind misinterpreting sensations in the body.


This kind of pain is called ‘neuroplastic pain’. The good news is that there is a clinically proven method to healing chronic pain, it called Pain Reprocessing Therapy. Using this method, we simply send signals of safety to the subconscious mind and help the brain interpret those sensations as safe. Using a simple technique we can break the cycle of pain in the body.


To take it one step further, we can also use hypnotherapy to uncover the root-cause of the pain as well, releasing the unprocessed emotion that causes the brain to feel stressed in the first place. By using this method, you can heal chronic pain and even reverse symptoms of chronic conditions.


Is My Pain Neuroplastic?


Do you suffer from chronic pain or a chronic condition? Are you curious to know if your pain can be healed with a mind-body approach? Find out with my Neuroplastic Pain Quiz! Enter your details below and I'll send it straight to your inbox.

With this detailed, 30 question quiz you'll discover if your pain is neuroplastic and therefore, can be healed with Pain Reprocessing Therapy.


You Can Heal Chronic Pain with Your Brain


By seeing the sensations in the body as safe, the subconscious can learn that those sensations are not actually dangerous. When this happens the pain is eliminated for good. Often times my clients see a decrease in pain within the first session.




heal chronic pain with your brain

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