One of the most common type of counselling used for chronic pain is psychotherapy, or mindfulness and somatic-based approaches, specifically. Psychotherapy aims to increase the individual’s sense of his/her own well-being.

Your therapist may assist you in seeing and trusting that individuals — not outside situations and events — create their own experiences, pain included. And by changing thought, emotion and behavioural responses in reaction to pain, people can change their awareness of pain and develop better coping skills, even if the actual level of pain stays the same.

Somatic and mindfulness therapy can help provide pain relief in a few ways. First, it changes the way people view their pain. It helps to change the thoughts, emotions, and behaviours related to pain, improve coping strategies, and put the discomfort in a better context. You will begin to recognize that the pain interferes less with your quality of life, and therefore you can function better.

To help provide pain relief, therapy:

• Encourages reframing your interpretation of the pain. The worst thing about chronic pain is the sense of learned helplessness, and the belief that all pain is “wrong”. When you feel that you have ways of taking action against the pain, you will feel more in control and able to impact the situation.

• Fosters skills for coping that apply to many situations in your everyday life. You can use the tactics you learn for pain management to help you with other problems you may encounter in the future.

Chronic pain is defined as pain lasting more than 6 months or longer than the time expected for tissue healing. If this is something you are experiencing, then you could benefit from counselling.

We understand that often, individuals are unable to continue with recreational, vocational, and social activities that were a regular part of daily enjoyment. In counselling, you will identify these losses which often result in feelings of anger, resentment, and frustration that further complicates and adds to the physical experience of pain and illness. Your counsellor, using a values-based approach, will work through the emotional aspects of living with a chronic condition, taking into account that it indeed does have a profound impact on the experience and challenges you face living with the pain or illness.