Freedom from Pain

Therapist Levine (Healing Trauma) and psychologist Phillips (Reversing Chronic Pain) here provide a program of steps to help people suffering from chronic pain. They intend to teach "simple strategies that you can learn to use effectively in order to recruit your body as your main ally in obtaining lasting freedom from both pain and suffering." Their approach is firmly rooted in the mind-body alternative/complementary/integrative side of medicine, although they don't dismiss the benefits of conventional approaches like surgery and medication when appropriate. Levine and Phillips suggest that past traumas, physical and/or psychological, and fear are often at the root of pain's becoming chronic. Their progressive exercises involve such tactics as mindfulness, controlled breathing, grounding, affirmations, and "restoring the deep self." They include a chapter dealing with specific types of pain, such as fibromyalgia, migraine, complex regional pain syndrome, and chronic head, shoulder, and neck pain.