Therapy for Chronic Pain and Chronic Conditions
Can You Relate to Any of the Following?
- Struggling with the pain controlling or limiting your life.
- Struggling to understand your pain and how to get the most out of your life despite it
- Feeling like you are losing a part of yourself to the pain.
- Dealing with exhaustion, fatigue, depression and/or grief associated with your pain
- Finding yourself isolating yourself from others because of feelings of guilt for being a burden and struggling to find a way to be social with your pain.
- Dealing with trauma that triggers your pain
- Struggling with uncomfortable emotions, fears, and/or worries.
- Challenges in dealing with not being believed, stigma, ableism, and the medical system.
Chronic Pain isn’t Just Chronic Pain
Dealing with chronic pain and illness isn’t just about the symptoms; it’s also about dealing with everything that goes with the symptoms: grief and loss, fatigue, limitations, depression, anxiety and worries, uncertainty, etc. Ultimately, it’s about how it affects your life and how much you can get out of it.
I realize that therapy for chronic pain and illness needs to keep both the realities of what it is like to live with a chronic illness and the goals to create a better life in balance as we work together. Many things can fuel the pain and symptoms you are experiencing. We can look at how these things contribute to your pain now and how some of them are inherited from a time when you had less autonomy. There are a lot of strategies that have been shown to reduce pain and, in some cases, resolve pain. There is a path forward to reduce symptoms and get more out of your life.
The Path Forward
We can work together with strategies that help you forge a path forward and get more out of your life. I use a combination of compassionate support, toolbox building, psychoeducation, and strategies and techniques that have been found to work for chronic pain and conditions.
Please book a free 15-minute consultation to find out more or continue reading below.
Who Am I and Why Am I Passionate about Therapy for Chronic Pain?
I’m Leona Westra and am a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC) with lived experience of chronic pain. I started with my own experiences with chronic pain and have tried to learn as much as I can to help others with chronic pain and similar conditions.
How I Apply My Lived Experience of Chronic Pain
I had trouble with headaches and migraines growing up, as well as developing chronic pain after a car accident when I was in my thirties. I know how difficult it can be to deal with chronic pain and the rollercoaster of hope and disappointment, grief over the things we lose due to my condition, fatigue, flare-ups, and depression.
I’ve experienced how hard it can be to deal with practitioners who don’t understand what it’s like day to day. So, I try to support my clients in ways I wasn’t supported or understood by many of the practitioners I dealt with. I’ll approach your experiences with compassion and understanding, drawing on my own lived experience, yet understanding that your experience is unique in its struggles and challenges.
Because I’ve experienced the limitations and struggles of having a chronic condition, I have a flexible and compassionate approach when flare-ups and your condition interfere with what we had planned. We can work with where you are in each session, address your current struggles, and build a long-term plan to bring you the relief you want.
I know it can feel hopeless at times, and I will encourage you to stick with the process because I know these techniques and strategies work if you keep going. You can get there as well by working through what is contributing to your pain. Ultimately, I believe we can reduce your pain and suffering. I want you to experience the lasting change that I found for myself or something even better.
My Desire to Learn and Apply What Works
I have sought to learn more and educate myself so I can help you and others like you improve your lives. Additionally, I have been trained under different perspectives that have been found to work with chronic pain and conditions. I have seen others’ progress and want to be part of your path forward.
A Safe Environment to be Real About Your Pain
So often we hide our pain for various reasons (don’t want to be a burden to our friends and family; doesn’t feel appropriate or safe). I provide a safe environment where you can be real about how your pain is affecting you and the challenges you’re facing. You can be vulnerable with the many losses that come with chronic pain and illness with someone who understands to a level, but not the specific experience that is unique to you. A place you can be honest enough to feel seen, heard, and validated. A place where we can work through your deepest hidden burden and talk about the toll it takes to reduce what you’re carrying.
How I Approach Chronic Pain
Chronic pain and illnesses are complex. They don’t fit into a nice, orderly treatment plan. The right treatment plan is unique to each individual and condition. Everyone has different factors fueling their current condition. I will work with you to understand what is going on beneath the symptoms, identify what is fueling them, and figure out what’s best to start with.
Your Pain is Real
If you feel pain, your pain is real. Too many people in pain are blamed for their pain or have it discounted. That is not right. You didn’t decide to have pain.
Chronic pain comes from a complex set of contributors. Some are in your control, and some are not. We can work together to change the contributors you can control. We can change the story of your pain and help you take more control. The contributors may be based in the past (trauma, adverse childhood experiences, etc.) or patterns you’re currently dealing with (negative thought patterns, harsh inner critic, perfectionism, people-pleasing, inner pressure, etc.).
Your whole body contributes to chronic pain. From the signals your body sends, to the sensitization of your nervous system, to the interpretations your brain makes. We can work on changing the pattern of pain and help you gain more control of your life.
Pain Psychoeducation
Understanding the pain system and how it works can give you tools and awareness to help decrease your pain and suffering. I bring pain psychoeducation in a way that’s personal to your pain and condition. Helping you understand what is happening in your body and what you can do to change it.
How Do I Apply My Training and Knowledge to Help You with Your Chronic Pain
Some of the ways I use my knowledge and trainings to help with Chronic pain and other chronic conditions:
- Use Pain Reprocessing Therapy (basic training and Advanced application), EMDR Pain Protocol, and CBT to help you change your relationship with your pain and reduce your pain and suffering attached to your pain
- Mindfulness and Somatic techniques that can help you get in touch with your body and better manage your pain
- Teach skills to help you improve your coping strategies and give you tools to retrain your brain towards a more positive and purposeful mindset that can reduce your pain and suffering
- EMDR, Internal Family System/Parts Work, and other trauma approaches to help you process your trauma, desensitize your traumatic memories, and put your trauma in its place so it doesn’t affect you as much and is less likely to trigger your pain.
- Emotion Awareness and Expression Therapy for Chronic Pain and other emotion-based approaches to process suppressed emotion that may be contributing to your pain.
- Use Pain Psychoeducation from Explain Pain (NOI group), Pain BC (Pain Foundations) and other research to help you understand how pain operates, why your pain isn’t improving and what works to reduce it.
- Mindfulness, Polyvagal Theory, and Self-compassion to decrease internal threat levels that can contribute to sensitization and increased pain and other symptoms
- Grief therapy to help you process the loss of some of the things that meant a lot to you due to your pain.
You are not alone in this process, and I can guide you through it. I firmly believe we can reduce your pain and bring more ease and contentment to your life.
Specific Aspects of Chronic Pain and Other Chronic Conditions
Dealing with Flares
Unfortunately, flares are often a very real part of living with a chronic condition. Because of my own experiences with chronic pain, I bring a patient understanding of the complex struggles with chronic illness. I will work with your limitations and flares to help you navigate the complexity of your chronic condition and mental health challenges. I know it can feel discouraging when flares come up and pull you off course; however, they don’t need to be roadblocks that stop your progress. Sometimes they are detours where we gain new insights and learn new skills.
Mind-body/Nociplastic Conditions
Mind-body and nociplastic conditions are conditions in which we experience pain or other symptoms due to associations, misinterpretations by the nervous system, or other non-structural causes. These conditions are very real, even if they don’t show up on scans and other tests. In fact, they’re among the hardest to get quality treatment for in the traditional medical system.
Some of these conditions are connected to trauma, while others aren’t. However, they can be treated through psychological methods like Pain Reprocessing Therapy, Emotional Awareness and Express Therapy, and EMDR Pain Protocol, as well as Polyvagal, CBT, and other techniques. These methods often help to resolve or significantly reduce nociplastic symptoms.
Mixed Pain and Conditions
Not all pain and chronic conditions are completely nociplastic. Structural or condition-based factors may also contribute to the pain or other nociplastic symptoms. Sensitization and other factors often worsen these conditions and intensify symptoms.
We can work together to minimize the factors that intensify your symptoms and lessen their effect on you and your life.
Pain or Symptoms that are Intertwined with Trauma
Trauma and chronic pain can become intertwined. Trauma triggers can trigger chronic pain, and pain can be its own form of trauma. I can work with you on your trauma and chronic pain in a balanced way that respects and treats the aspects and challenges of both.
Pain or Symptoms that are Intertwined with Childhood Emotional Neglect
Childhood emotional neglect can result in behavioural patterns that can fuel chronic pain, such as perfectionism, inner pressure, a harsh inner critic, etc. I can work with you on some of the common patterns that were defense mechanisms from growing up with emotional neglect and now can be fueling your chronic pain.
Pain or Symptoms that are Intertwined with Emotion and/or Nervous System Dysregulation
I can work flexibly with your current challenges, offering skills and tools to help you regulate your emotions and nervous system. We can help you understand how emotion and nervous system dysregulation affect your pain or symptoms, and provide tools to improve regulation and reduce chronic symptoms.
Grief, Depression, Anxiety and Fatigue
Unfortunately, grief, depression, anxiety and fatigue are real and common challenges of living with chronic pain and other chronic conditions. I can work with you to process and manage these challenges.
What Results My Clients See With Chronic Pain Therapy
- Reduced pain, symptoms, flares, and intensity.
- Increase in hope and purpose in their lives
- Gaining more skills to improve their ability to cope with their pain and feeling more in control of their lives.
- Increased awareness and knowledge of what is behind their pain and what they can do to improve their pain.
- Improved sleep and ability to relax
- Better boundaries, improved self-care, increased function, and better quality of life.
- Reduction in some of the emotional and psychological components of chronic pain and chronic conditions, such as grief, fatigue, shame, depression, anxiety, anger and guilt.
Take The Next Step and Get More Out of Your Life
I believe you can live a life with more ease and less pain. I have the knowledge to figure out a path to get you there. Please invite me to take part in the next stage of your healing journey by booking a consultation or contacting me with any questions or concerns.
Related Chronic Pain Blog Posts
Related Chronic Pain Blog Posts:
- What is Nociplastic Pain and is it Treatable?
- What is Chronic Pain?
- Why Your Coping Techniques May Not Be Working for You?
- What is Pain Reprocessing Therapy?
- The Connection Between Trauma and Chronic Pain
- The Grief of Chronic Pain
- Your Pain is Real: Understanding the Pain System
- The Fatigue of Chronic Pain
- How EMDR Can Be Used for Chronic Pain