Living with arthritis can be incredibly challenging. The persistent pain, stiffness, and limited mobility can affect almost every aspect of daily life, making even simple tasks feel overwhelming. While traditional treatments like medications and physical therapy offer some relief, they don’t always fully address the complex nature of chronic pain.
That’s where Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) comes in. This innovative approach shifts the focus from just treating symptoms to retraining how the brain processes and responds to pain. It offers a refreshing perspective for those struggling with arthritis pain, aiming to bring relief and improve quality of life in a way that conventional methods might not.
In this post, we’ll take a closer look at Pain Reprocessing Therapy and how it can benefit those with arthritis. I’ll share a real-life client experience who experienced remarkable improvements with PRT, providing a glimpse into how this therapy can make a meaningful difference. Whether you’re exploring new pain management options or simply curious about Pain Reprocessing Therapy, I hope these insights and personal experiences will offer hope and inspiration.
What is Arthritis?
Arthritis encompasses a range of inflammatory joint diseases, the most common being osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). OA primarily affects the cartilage, leading to pain and stiffness as the cartilage wears down over time. RA, on the other hand, is an autoimmune condition where the body's immune system attacks the joints, causing inflammation, pain, and eventual joint damage.
Conventional treatments, including medications and physical therapy, have long been the cornerstone of arthritis management. However, these methods may not always provide complete relief or address the underlying cause of Arthritis pain.
Understanding the Causes of Arthritis Pain
For Arthritis, and many other forms of pain, there are two causes: structural and neurological. Structurally caused pain is pain that originates from a structural injury or abnormality. As far as arthritis is concerned, this could be degenerated cartilage or inflammation in the joints. These are structural injuries and abnormalities that could lead to pain.
Neurologically-caused pain (also called neuroplastic pain) is pain that originates from stress. Essentially, this is when the brain misinterprets signals from the body and causes pain. The reason the brain may misinterpret those signals is if it is in a state of stress, either caused by stress from daily life, or unresolved stress from the past.
For example, your brain could misinterpret signals from the body if you are in a stressful period of life such as dealing with financial stress, a divorce, the loss of a loved one, or have a high-stress job. Unresolved stress from the past could be related to early life stress that has influenced your capacity to handle stress, such as childhood trauma.
It could also be linked to painful or traumatic experiences that have not been fully processed such as grief from a significant loss, stress from a significant life change, or unprocessed fear from a traumatic experience(s) such as an abusive relationship or tragic accident.
Both neurological and structural pain are real and are experienced in the same way. The only difference is how it is caused, and how it is treated.
Structural Changes related to Arthritis are NOT Predictors of Pain
It’s important to understand that the structural changes associated with Arthritis, such as the wear-down of cartilage is universal, meaning that it is a normal part of aging, and is NOT a predictor of pain.
As we age, it’s normal for our bones and joints to wear down. You can think of these changes as grey hair or wrinkles; they are a normal part of aging and are not dangerous or painful. In fact, arthritic pain is very inconsistent with structural changes.
Someone with a severe case of osteoarthritis may experience little to no pain, while someone with a milder case could experience severe pain, and the same is true for inflammatory arthritis. These structural changes do not necessarily equate to pain, which tells us that at least some (or in some cases, all) of the pain experienced by those with Arthritis is neurologically caused pain that can be eliminated with a mind-body approach such as Pain Reprocessing Therapy.
Even with severe cases of structurally-caused arthritic pain, there could be neuroplastic pain present that is adding to the pain from the structural changes.
How can I tell if my Arthritis Pain is Neuroplastic?
Regardless of your Arthritis diagnosis, you can observe your experience and gage whether you may have structurally-caused pain, neurologically-caused pain or both.
Signs of Neuroplastic Arthritis Pain
The pain came on during stressful period of life
The pain came on without injury
The pain is inconsistent (sometimes it is severe, other times it is very mild)
The pain can be triggered by things that are not body-related (such as the weather, stress, or thoughts)
The pain seems to spread or move around
The pain is present in many different areas of the body at once (ie. The knees, the shoulders, and the spine)
The pain is symmetrical (ie. Starts in one knee, then the other knee)
The pain is delayed (ie. Pain is experienced hours or even the day after movement)
The amount of pain you experience is severe whereas the structural changes in your body are mild
You have a tendency toward anxiety, overthinking, worrying, being self-critical or highly conscientious
You have experienced some form of trauma
Signs of Structurally-Caused Arthritis Pain
The pain is constant with the same intensity
The pain is consistently present in a particular location in the body
Keep in mind that it’s possible to experience both some structurally-caused pain and neurologically-caused pain. It is also possible to experience neurologically-caused pain in both osteoarthritis and inflammatory arthritis, and therefor, pain levels can be decreased with a mind-body approach such as Pain Reprocessing Therapy.
What is Pain Reprocessing Therapy?
Pain Reprocessing Therapy is a simple technique that retrains the brain to interpret and respond to signals from the body properly, subsequently breaking the cycle of chronic pain. The mind-body connection is instantaneous, therefor, the moment your mind interprets sensations as safe, the pain immediately dissipates or disappears completely.
In most Pain Reprocessing Therapy sessions, my clients experience a decrease in pain within just 10-15 minutes of using the technique. This has been the case regardless of whether my client’s pain is in the form of fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, IBS, migraines, back pain, joint pain, scoliosis, or pain from a prior injury. When the brain interprets the sensation as safe, the pain decreases.
Pain Reprocessing Therapy is a process of retraining the brain, this means that although my clients experience a decrease or elimination of pain within the first session, the pain will likely return. However, with time, they are able to retrain their brain to interpret the sensation properly, resulting in a decrease in overall pain (or complete elimination) over just a few sessions.
It’s as if we are teaching your brain a new skill. It takes a little practice but may not take as long as you think. After just a few sessions, my clients are usually quite proficient at the technique and progress starts to speed up.
Real Client Experience with Pain Reprocessing Therapy for Arthritis
To maintain my clients privacy, I will refer to her as Jane. Jane had high levels of pain due to Arthritis in her knees, shoulder and neck. She had been told by medical professionals that the Arthritis was quite severe, and was describes as “bone-on-bone”. During the period that we worked together, she was also seeing a Physiotherapist to gain movement back in her shoulder.
Our first session include a brief overview of Pain Reprocessing Therapy, as well as an intake form with questions about her pain to begin to assess whether it was structural, neuroplastic, or both. In this quick intake, Jane mentioned a few things that indicated her pain may be neuroplastic.
Signs that Indicated Neuroplastic Pain
She mentioned that the weather effects her knees, and that the severity of her pain was very inconsistent. Some days it was very high, other day, it was mild to the point where she didn’t notice it.
One thing to consider with pain is that pain is designed to be un-ignorable. It’s literally a signal that cannot be ignored. So when my clients say that they can distract themselves and in that distraction, become unaware of the pain, what that tell me, is that in those situations, the pain is actually gone.
This commonly occurs when you’re doing something that brings you a sense of joy, contentment, or something that is highly engaging, such as reading a good book, gardening or other hobbies, or even visiting with a good friend. I had one client who had very consistent pain from gastrointestinal issues, who experienced no pain at all for two weeks while on vacation. The moment she got home, the pain came back.
A few more signs that Jane was experiencing neuroplastic pain were that the pain seemed to be all over her body (her knees, shoulder, and neck), and that after a day of movement she would “pay for it” with pain being delayed to the next day.
Results in the first Pain Reprocessing Session
After feeling confident that at least some of her pain could be neuroplastic, we began the first session. We started the session by scanning through her body to assess the pain at that moment. She was experiencing pain in her head (a mild headache unrelated to the arthritis) right knee, left shoulder and neck with intensities ranging from 2-4 out of 10.
We started with the mild headache that she was noticing and after walking her through the Pain Reprocessing technique, she started to notice changes to the headache pain right away. Within just 2-5 minutes, the headache had completely faded away.
We then moved on to her right knee. The pain she was noticing in her knee was very mild, and within a minute or two it had faded completely, so we moved on to her neck. She described the intensity of her neck pain as a 4 out of 10 when we began, and as we applied the technique, it began to move and change, and eventually faded away completely.
This brought us to the left shoulder, which she noticed a mild pain while sitting still, but a sharp pain with any movement. We spent a few minutes applying the Pain Reprocessing technique, and the pain started moving around her shoulder and down her arm, fading and diminishing. As we continued, she witnessed the pain completely vanish from her shoulder as well. We spent the remainder of the session scanning back through and working on any little discomforts she felt until there were no uncomfortable sensations left to work on.
Jane picked up the technique very quickly, which doesn’t always happen. In some cases, there is a bit of a mental block to experiencing pain differently, which we can usually work through in the first session. Jane, however, seemed to understand and apply the technique quite easily and therefor, the results were quite rapid.
Self-Directed At-Home Pain Reprocessing Sessions
As mentioned earlier in this post, Pain Reprocessing Therapy is a process of retraining the brain to interpret signals from the body properly. That means, although Jane saw a complete elimination of pain in her first session, it doesn’t mean the pain won’t come back. It will (and did) but just as you wouldn’t expect to master a new skill in one sitting, we wouldn’t expect the brain to learn how to interpret signals from the body differently in one session.
Jane learned the Pain Reprocessing technique in this first session, and was able to continue to use it outside of our sessions to retrain her brain how to interpret signals from the body properly. Her self-directed sessions that she did at home between our sessions were extremely crucial to her results.
In subsequent sessions we continued to apply the Pain Reprocessing technique, while also challenging her comfort zones and continuing to help her interpret signals from the body properly.
Client Results
Jane saw a dramatic change in just a few sessions of Pain Reprocessing Therapy. By integrating the technique into her daily routines, along with the physiotherapy she was already doing, she was able to retrain her brain to see those sensations as neutral, and saw a 50% reduction in inflammation, according to her medical scans. Each week she felt better and better with less pain and more movement.
These results show that even pain from Arthritis can be resolved with Pain Reprocessing Therapy. Even if you've been told you have structural injuries or abnormalities - such as stiff joints or loss of cartilage, this technique can still help you manage and eliminate pain.
Conclusion
Navigating the challenges of arthritis can be daunting, and finding effective pain relief often feels like a never-ending journey. Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) offers a promising alternative by focusing on how we perceive and process pain, rather than just treating symptoms. Through its unique approach, PRT has shown the potential to significantly improve the lives of those struggling with arthritis.
The real client experience shared in this post highlights the transformative impact that PRT can have. From reducing pain to enhancing overall quality of life, these experiences offer hope and demonstrate that there are innovative solutions available beyond traditional treatments. Each success story is a testament to the power of addressing pain through a new lens.
If you’re feeling stuck with your current pain management plan or simply curious about alternative therapies, Pain Reprocessing Therapy might be worth exploring. You can continue reading more on Pain Reprocessing Therapy in this article, or you can start your journey now by booking your first Pain Reprocessing session with me.
If you’re full of questions about PRT, or are unsure if your PRT would be a good fit for you, feel free to book a free 30-minute consultation with me directly. I can answer any questions you have about the process, and by learning more about your experience with pain, I can advise weather PRT would be a good fit.
