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Chronic Pain & Illness
If you are living with chronic pain or ongoing illness, you may have been told to simply manage it or live with it. I believe there is often more hope than that. A growing body of research shows that many kinds of persistent pain are driven by learned signals in the brain and nervous system, called neuroplastic pain, and that these signals can change. This is the understanding at the heart of Pain Reprocessing Therapy, an approach I use in my work.
The resources below are gathered to help you explore this perspective at your own pace. You'll find videos introducing neuroplastic pain, books I return to and recommend, and articles and research I believe are worth your time. My hope is that they offer not just information, but a sense of hope. If you would like to learn more about my work with chronic pain click Book Now for a free consultation.
What is Neuroplastic Pain
(Vidoes)
#1 What is Pain -Howard Schubiner animation
#2 The Brain Creates Pain
#3 Predictive Coding
#4 How to determine the cause of chronic pain
#5 how to retrain brain
#6 All MRI's are abnormal
Why Things Hurt - Lorimer Moselt TEDx
FILM
This Might Hurt (Film)
Books I recommend
The Way Out (Book)
A Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven Approach to Healing Chronic Pain
By Alan Gordon and Alon Ziv
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/617809/the-way-out-by-alan-gordon-and-alon-ziv/
The Boulder Back Pain Study
In a landmark 2021 study at the University of Colorado Boulder, published in JAMA Psychiatry, researchers tested Pain Reprocessing Therapy against placebo and usual care for people living with chronic back pain. Two-thirds of those who completed the four-week treatment were pain-free or nearly pain-free afterward, and most still felt that relief a year later. Brain imaging showed real changes in how their brains processed pain. It is some of the strongest evidence yet that persistent pain can be unlearned.
Read the study: [JAMA Psychiatry, Ashar et al., 2021]
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Five-Year Follow-UpAshar YK, et al. "Pain Reprocessing Therapy vs Placebo and Usual Care for Patients With Chronic Back Pain: 5-Year Follow-Up of a Randomized Clinical Trial." JAMA Psychiatry. Published online July 30, 2025.At five years, 55% of the PRT group were nearly or completely pain-free, compared with 26% in the placebo group and 36% in usual care. The PRT group also showed lasting improvements in pain interference, depression, anger, and fear of movement. As the lead author put it, the original trial showed many people got better, and the five-year study shows they mainly stayed better.
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