Change Your Brain, Change Your Pain

Chronic Pain affects one in five people. It’s also rarely the only problem, with stress, anxiety and depression frequently found alongside pain. Sufferers and treating professionals alike continue to search for solutions to the problem of pain. One of the most exciting developments in recent years has been increased understanding of the role of the brain in pain, made possible by advances in brain scanning technology. It’s been discovered that pain changes the brain, but also that the brain can be changed – if you know how. Change Your Brain, Change your pain, shows pain-sufferers how to reprogram their brain to heal physical and emotional pain. This innovative book will prove an invaluable source of hope and practical assistance to the millions of people afflicted by this terrible condition.

 

Summary           

Change Your Brain, Change your Pain, begins by describing the role of the brain in human experience, the relationship between the brain and the body, and why its important to understand how your brain works. Readers are introduced to the notion that the brain is more than just a passive recipient of information; the brain is modified by experience and the brain also generates experience. While we are all familiar with physical injury as a cause of pain, readers will learn how severe stress can damage their nervous system in ways which can lead to pain. Stress is one of the most powerful types of experience in terms of changing the brain. After learning how the effects of stress on the brain lead to pain, readers will then learn a range of self-help strategies designed to reverse the patterns of brain activity that maintain pain.

Change your Brain, Change your Pain is divided into two parts. Part One (chapters 1 to 4) summarizes the role that the brain plays in pain, including how stress affects the brain and the role of emotion and memory in maintaining and exacerbating pain. While pain is nearly always stressful, readers will also discover that stress is often painful, with severe stress being one of the leading predisposing factors for chronic pain. Part One is designed to help the reader understand the relationship between stress and pain and also relate it to themselves. People tend to be ignorant or in denial about the impact of stress. After reading part one the reader will finally understand why they hurt more than they should.

Part Two (chapters 5 to 12) describes six strategies for overcoming pain, based on current understanding of brain functioning. These strategies are designed to be consistent with how the brain processes information, making it as easy as possible to learn how to feel better. They enable the reader to harness the power of their nervous system to change the sensory-emotional patterns which maintain pain.

 

Author

Mark Grant is a psychologist with 15 years experience treating sufferers of pain and stress. Lay-persons and professionals alike have been exposed to his work through international conference presentations, scholarly articles, self-help CD’s and press (New York Times 11/6/7 - ’Living With Pain That Just Won’t Go Away’). Mark is the author of a chapter in the edited volume Eye movement Desensitization and Reprocessing EMDR Scripted Protocols (Springer, 2008). His website for chronic pain sufferers has attracted over 20,000 hits.

 

Change your Brain, Change your Pain is for anyone who suffers from some combination of pain and stress. At a conservative estimate, this is 20% of the adult population of most urbanized societies. These people are looking for answers as to why they hurt more than they should and what they can do about it. This is also a book for  psychologists and health professionals as it explains the relationship between stress, pain and the brain, and how to use this knowledge to overcome these problems.

 

Change Your Brain, Change Your Pain is;

  1. Informative Change Your Pain explains how the brain is involved in pain and stress and how these problems maintain and exacerbate each other in a factual yet readable fashion.
  2. Innovative – Change Your Pain offers practical new insights and self-help strategies for overcoming pain, based on the latest advances in neuroscience. This is the first self-help book to apply recent insights from neuropsychology and stress research to the problem of pain.
  3. Inspiring – the book’s fresh approach and unique blend of didactic material, case-studies and practical exercises stimulates hope and helps readers to learn the various self-help strategies.
  4. Practical – the six self-help strategies described in the book are uniquely designed to specifically target the pain-maintaining mental and physical effects of stress as well as being consistent with how the nervous system functions..
  5. Personalized approach – the book enables readers to assess the impact of stress on their health and to develop their own personalized pain/stress-management program. Most other books tend to assume that everybody’s stress is the same and offer a one size fits all approach (eg; meditation, or cognitive approaches).
  6. Scientifically grounded – this book contains over 100 references, meaning it can be a reference for clinicians and that it will stand the test of time.

 

REVIEWS

“Chronic pain probably accounts for the largest healthcare cost center, and reason for seeing a physician in the Western world. Psychologist, Mark Grant has written a compelling and reader-friendly book that not only presents a wealth of information regarding how to manage and heal pain, but also a cogent description of how the brain operates in stress and pain. In a syndrome where the fear of the process is a major contributor to its persistence and severity, education is great therapy and a source of empowerment. Grant has provided both in this appealing book.”

Robert Scaer, M.D, author, The Body Bears the Burden, and The Trauma Spectrum. Associate Clinical Professor of Neurology at University of Colorado Health Sciences Centre, Denver.

“Well written, thoroughly referenced, and an excellent guide to psychological approaches to understanding and learning to live with chronic pain. Contains practical, detailed guidelines for minimizing the adverse psychological impact of chronic pain on one’s life.”

Jennifer P Schneider, MD. author, ‘Living With Chronic Pain’ Arizona Community Physicians.

 

For More information go to http://overcomingpain.com 

 

support
Need Help?
Support Ticket
Skip to toolbar