Therapeutic Bodywork + Wellness Coaching w/ Laura Good


Let's get your life back
Are you one of the more than 1 billion people world wide living with chronic pain? Have you tried every treatment and specialist you can find with only temporary relief at best? Does the pain leave you feeling fearful, isolated, frustrated, exhausted and maybe even hopeless? Based on recent breakthroughs in neuroscience, researchers have gained a new understanding of chronic pain, and how to treat it. By working on where pain originates, in the brain, and how you perceive, relate and
respond to it, you can significantly reduce or eliminate your pain.
Yes, even pain you've lived with for many years.
If that sounds too good to be true, read on.
What is Neuroplastic Pain?
Pain is our internal alarm system. If we injure ourselves, the body sends signals to the brain telling us that we hurt ourselves and when the brain believes the body is damaged, it responds with pain. That pain signal is essential for our survival because it’s meant to stop us from doing further damage by removing our hand from a hot stove
or to prevent us from walking on a broken leg.
We're evolutionarily hardwired to believe physical pain = physical damage.
However, recent studies have shown that 80-85% of people suffering from chronic pain - defined as pain that has lasted for more than 3 months - are actually suffering from neuroplastic pain. Neuroplastic pain is not the result of a structural injury, it’s the brain misinterpreting safe sensations from the body as if they are dangerous.
The brain is making a mistake.
False Alarms Are Just As Loud As Real Ones
What causes this false alarm? There are different ways that neuroplastic pain can develop. Some people suffered an injury that healed but the pain persisted long afterwards. Others developed symptoms during a particularly stressful time in their lives. Often times, people had developmental experiences that predisposed them to ongoing states of hypervigilance that communicate a steady stream of threat to the brain. All of these alter the neural pathways in the brain and cause a misfiring of pain circuits. Chronic pain can cause a lot of psychological distress. Anxiety, fear, loneliness, frustration, depression and worry, just to name a few. Those feelings are completely understandable and they are also the fuel on the fire that is neuroplastic pain, because they all boil down to a sense of threat for the brain. The equation is simple -
Sensation + Threat = Pain This equation perpetuates an unhelpful feedback loop. You experience the pain and feel worried or frustrated, the brain interprets those sensations and emotions as a threat, resulting in more pain. And the loop goes on and on. The great news is that just as neural pain pathways can be learned, they can also be unlearned.
All Pain Is Produced In The Brain
Although neuroplastic pain can be treated psychologically, the pain is absolutely not imaginary. Recent brain imaging studies have clearly shown that not only is the pain very real, but neuroplastic pain activates the same parts of the brain that are involved in the processing of emotion, memory and learning - not the areas that are activated when you have an acute physical injury.
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Explore the positive indicators of neuroplastic pain. The more indicators you have, the more likely your symptoms are neuroplastic.

Overcoming Chronic Pain with Pain Reprocessing Therapy
Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) was developed by Alan Gordon, the Founder of The Pain Reprocessing Center in Los Angeles and the author of the book “The Way Out”
Pain Reprocessing Therapy is a system of psychological and somatic techniques that retrain the brain to interpret and respond to signals from the body properly, subsequently breaking the cycle of chronic pain.
Pain Reprocessing Therapy has five main components:
1) education about the brain origins and reversibility of pain
2) gathering and reinforcing personalized evidence for the brain origins and reversibility of pain
3) attending to and appraising pain sensations through a lens of safety
4) addressing other emotional threats
5) gravitating to positive feelings and sensations
A randomized controlled trial at the University of Colorado Boulder validated Pain Reprocessing Therapy as the most effective current treatment for chronic pain. In the study, there were 150 chronic back pain patients. 50 patients received PRT twice a week for four weeks, 50 patients received treatment as usual, and 50 patients received an open-label placebo injection. In the PRT group, 98% of patients improved and 66% of patients were pain-free or nearly pain-free at the end of treatment. These outcomes were largely maintained one year later. Read the study in JAMA Psychiatry here
I'm certified in Pain Reprocessing Therapy and utilize these techniques, as well as other coaching techniques to help people overcome their chronic symptoms and reclaim their life and vitality.
* All treatment timelines vary for each person, but it's typical to see results after 8-12 sessions.

* I recommend meeting weekly during the initial phase of treatment and then revisiting session frequency as you progress.
* Sessions are offered virtually. In-person sessions available for the Portland/Vancouver metro only.
* The first step is to schedule a complimentary 30 minute introductory call to determine if PRT is right for you.