Let’s Get Your Life Back — A New Approach to Chronic Pain Recovery
- Laura Good
- Apr 1
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 2
Are you one of more than 1 billion people worldwide living with chronic pain? Maybe you’ve tried every treatment, seen every specialist, and followed every recommendation—only to experience short-term relief or no lasting change at all.
If pain has left you feeling fearful, isolated, exhausted, or hopeless, you’re not alone. And you’re not out of options.
Recent breakthroughs in neuroscience have given us a new understanding of chronic pain—and how to treat it. By focusing on where pain is actually generated (in the brain), and shifting how you perceive, relate to, and respond to pain, it’s possible to reduce or even eliminate symptoms. Yes—even pain you’ve carried for years.
This type of chronic pain is called neuroplastic pain—and it’s more common than you think.
What Is Neuroplastic Pain?
Neuroplastic pain happens when the brain misinterprets safe signals from the body as dangerous. The pain is real, but it’s not caused by a structural injury. It’s a false alarm—one that’s just as loud and distressing as the real thing.
This kind of pain often begins after an injury that healed but left lingering pain, a stressful life event, or years of chronic stress or trauma that keep the nervous system in a state of high alert. When your brain is constantly scanning for danger, it wires itself to interpret even normal sensations as threatening. That’s how the pain-fear cycle begins—and why it can feel so hard to break.
But here’s the hopeful truth: just as the brain learned to create pain, it can also unlearn it—and that’s the foundation of true chronic pain recovery.
What Is Pain Reprocessing Therapy?
Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) is a mind-body approach developed by Alan Gordon, LCSW, to help people recover from neuroplastic pain. It’s grounded in neuroscience and focuses on rewiring the brain’s response to pain.
PRT includes five core components:
Education about the brain origins and reversibility of pain
Gathering personal evidence that your pain is neuroplastic—and changeable
Learning to observe sensations through a lens of safety, not fear
Addressing emotional threats that may be reinforcing pain
Focusing on positive sensations and experiences to rewire your pain pathways
In a groundbreaking study published in JAMA Psychiatry, 98% of people with chronic back pain who received PRT experienced improvement and 66% were pain-free or nearly pain-free after just four weeks. These results were largely maintained a year later. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2784694
How I Help With Chronic Pain Recovery
I’m certified in Pain Reprocessing Therapy and integrate PRT with functional health coaching tools to support your chronic pain recovery in a way that is holistic, compassionate, and personalized. We focus on helping you retrain your brain, regulate your nervous system, and reconnect with the parts of life that pain has pushed to the side.
This work is tailored to your story, your needs, and your pace.
Sessions are held virtually (or in person for those in the Portland/Vancouver metro). Most people see lasting results in 8–12 sessions. We typically meet weekly at first and adjust frequency as your symptoms improve.
You don’t have to simply endure, miss out, or feel like your body is holding you back. Together, we build your capacity to move freely, sleep more deeply, enjoy your favorite activities again, and trust your body with confidence and ease. This work supports you in reclaiming joy, energy, and self-trust—so you can live fully and feel like yourself again.
Want to learn more or take the first step?
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