Los Angeles, California
The Pain Psychology Center is a facility specializing in the treatment of chronic pain.
Recent studies have shown that chronic back pain, neck pain, fibromyalgia symptoms, repetitive strain injury, headaches, and other forms of chronic pain are often not the result of structural causes, but of psychophysiologic processes that can be reversed.
Though the pain can be addressed psychologically, this does not imply that the pain is imaginary. In fact, brain imaging studies have demonstrated that the pain is quite real. Recent research has shown that pain is often the result of learned neural pathways in the brain. And just as pain can be learned, it can also be unlearned.
Dr. John Sarno of the New York University Medical Center has referred to this condition as Tension Myoneural Syndrome (or TMS). For more information on this condition, see “Miracles of Mindbody Medicine,” written by co-founder, Alan Gordon.
This treatment approach has been featured on ABC’s 20/20 and Larry King Live, and has a high success rate in significantly reducing or eliminating chronic pain. For further information on these studies, visit our evidence page.
We use a two-pronged approach when working to eliminate symptoms. First, we work to toward changing one's relationship with the pain. Reframing the meaning of the symptoms often serves to break the pain cycle. The following article discusses the role that reinforcement plays in perpetuating symptoms and the video below introduces the concept of conditioned responses.