When you consult with our Chronic Pain Practitioner & Recovery Coach they will be able to help you understand primary pain better and whether or not it applies to you.

At a high level, positive indicators of primary pain, may include some or all of the following*:

• Pain that has lasted more than 6 months.
• Pain that varies substantially throughout your day or from day-to-day.
• Pain that originated without injury.
• Pain that originated during a time of stress or increases with stress.
• A history of failed treatments for pain.
• Presence of perfectionism, putting others first, or anxiousness.
• Pain that has a lack of a physical diagnosis.
• A history of adverse childhood experiences.
• Presence of depression, anxiety, and other mood symptoms that seem to amplify the pain.

* Please do not use these criteria to diagnose yourself – they are here to act as key indicators to get you thinking about neuroplastic pain. It will be critical to your success that we understand your chronic pain history in detail to ensure medical conditions with a clear structural cause have been ruled out and that approaching your chronic pain treatment from a primary pain perspective is best for you. We also provide the opportunity to refer our clients to physicians specialized in diagnosing primary pain, where necessary.

It is essential that everyone dealing with chronic pain has the necessary understanding and set of tools they need to move past the pain-fear cycle and into a positive state of self-care and management. We know that this can be all too daunting alone. Moreover, it is a process that requires a strategic approach to know where YOU should focus. 

Thus, we created the Guiding Chronic Pain Framework that pulls from the latest in pain management research and techniques (See this bibliography for a comprehensive list of exemplar research studies), but is also influenced by work being done in cancer and chronic illness recovery. For example, ongoing research from the Radical Remission Foundation was reviewed to understand overlap with the latest in scientific findings within the chronic pain literature. The goal is to be as comprehensive as possible in our understanding of not only what it take to manage chronic pain, but how to fully open the doors to recover from the chronic pain cycle! 

We will walk through the Guiding Chronic Pain Framework with you to diagnose and outline core areas for you to focus on. These areas will be to successfully managing your chronic pain, increasing positive health outcomes, and, ultimately, recovery. The Framework aligns with the biopsychosocial model of managing chronic pain to help us understand what is missing from how we have been managing pain thus far so we can prioritize what to do next – one step at a time. 

We understand the need to find some sense of pain relief immediately, but the answer here truly is that it depends on your medical history and whether or not we are working with you to manage secondary pain or to treat primary pain.

The good news is that the chronic pain research continues to advance and reduce the timeline to success and pain relief. Not that long ago it was harder to use the terms “relief and recovery” or “eliminate pain” when talking about chronic pain and mind-body interventions. We kept our focus on managing pain only.

For example, a recent randomized study treating primary pain with Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) produced dramatic results — 98% of patients improved, 73% were pain free/nearly pain free at the end of the 4 week study. The timeline really is up to how much you want to dive right into and if that makes sense for you to do so! We’ll help you determine a better sense of timelines and more during our initial consult!

We have the tools to help you move beyond the cycle of chronic pain starting today. Nevertheless, it really is up to you and how open you are to managing and understanding the pain you have. This is often difficult to digest for chronic pain patients who just want something they can hold on to to help them get through the day. It seems impossible that they’d have to be the ones to truly do the work to get relief, but that is also the beauty of it! Our clients find renewed strength and courage to step beyond pain and into a life of their choosing – not just a temporary, quick fix for a moments relief from pain.

Should you decide to take the first step and work with us on moving out of the pain cycle then you’ll soon start to find the opportunities for  pain relief, space, and openness from pain and into a life you can’t even imagine today. The most rewarding part of our job is getting to hear from people like you on how they are getting to do new activities or back to doing the things they never thought they’d do again like hiking, swimming, go to family events, starting new jobs, typing with ease, driving a car, sitting through a movie at the theater from start to finish and on and on!!

Telehealth is actually perfect for folks with chronic pain as it enables us to come to you. It also makes it easier for you to be able to attend to the program when you are having a difficult day of pain. A telehealth visit has all of the benefits you’d expect from meeting with us in-person – you just don’t have to worry about driving to us to do so! You just need to make sure you have reliable internet, a phone, smartphone or computer. Our Telehealth platform (Healthie) makes creating an account, managing appointments, and jumping on your next consultation call easy!!

Unfortunately, we are not covered by insurance at the moment. The good news is you’ll get the the right pain management treatment for you with our program and not just the services that your insurance benefits cover.

For those that truly cannot afford this work out of pocket, we do have opportunities to explore sliding scale options. We continue to try to do our best to ensure everyone at least gets the opportunity to explore what is possible.

Learn More About Pricing Here!

We aim to partner with and build on the knowledge you have likely already gained from numerous, ongoing visits with licensed medical professionals. Your Awakened Actions Chronic Pain Practitioner & Recovery Guide has a dual sequence Master’s in Psychology and is Certified in Pain Reprocessing Therapy with 15 years of personal experience in managing and overcoming the cycle of chronic pain, but is not a licensed medical professional. We understand it is likely a long journey that has gotten you to this point and, thus, we are here to help you find your path moving forward to bring it all together outside of some of the shortcomings of how many licensed medical professionals can sometimes view chronic pain. 

The educational work from the Pain Reprocessing Therapy Center and the Psychophysiologic Disorders Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to ending the chronic pain epidemic, are essential to what we do here. They are educating chronic pain practitioners and coaches to know how to help people with chronic, ongoing primary pain that has been largely under-diagnosed and misunderstood to-date. Additionally, our work with the Guiding Chronic Pain Framework at Awakened Actions provides significant opportunity to pinpoint and understand the behavioral opportunities to manage a life of chronic pain associated with secondary, structural pain.

DISCLAIMER: The information provided, including but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material contained on this or linked to this website, is for informational purposes only  (Learning about chronic pain is essential to managing and treating it!). The information on this website is not intended to be a substitute for medical advice from a licensed professional or their professional opinion, diagnosis or treatment and, instead, always seeks to work in conjunction with this information. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding your medical condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen. You should also consult with your physician or other healthcare provider to assist you in interpreting any information on this website or in the linked websites, or in applying the information to your individual case. Reliance on any information appearing on this website is solely at your own discretion. If you do not understand something please reach out – we are here to help!

Please consider to following in regards to the level of immediate care you may need:

1. If you are seriously depressed or considering suicide as a result of your chronic pain, that is a crisis needing immediate attention. You should contact your mental health or medical professional or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.
2. If you have not seen your primary care physician to undergo a thorough in-person evaluation of the pain you are dealing with then please contact your physician immediately or if there is immediate, physical danger associated with the pain you are experiencing please visit the nearest hospital or dial 911. 
3. If you have seen your primary physician multiple times and/or numerous specialists and practitioners with little to no help, then please know you are in the right place. There is ample opportunity here to learn about, manage, relieve, and reduce chronic pain based on the latest in scientific evidence and ongoing research on chronic pain with our work here at Awakened Actions.