How Chronic Pain Gets Stuck in the Nervous System

Therapy in a Nutshell

Therapy in a Nutshell -Emma McAdam

Mental Health, Health & Fitness, Education, Health & Fitness:mental Health, Self-improvement

4.8 • 657 Ratings

🗓️ 20 February 2026

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Back pain and other chronic pain can be managed with pain reprocessing therapy. Alan Gordon’s book The Way Out can teach you how to retrain your brain to manage chronic pain The Pain Psychology Center: https://painpsychologycenter.com/ The Way Out book: https://a.co/d/053sW1L0 Chronic Pain Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiUrrIiqidTXq4l8CetR1bQqoQfONrh4c Somatic Tracking Exercise: https://youtu.be/HeNRMr8uJbI Learn the skills to Regulate your Emotions, join the membership: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/membership Chronic pain isn't "just in your head"—it's often neuroplastic pain caused by a nervous system stuck in a danger-pain cycle. Discover Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) from Alan Gordon's book, The Way Out. Learn the 7 techniques to retrain your brain and find relief from chronic back pain, neck pain, and headaches. Find out how somatic tracking and messages of safety can help you unlearn pain and heal your nervous system. Looking for affordable online counseling? My sponsor, BetterHelp, connects you to a licensed professional from the comfort of your own home. Try it now for 10% off your first month: https://betterhelp.com/therapyinanutshell FREE Mental Health Resources: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/free-resources Therapy in a Nutshell and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health. In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger Institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life's direction. And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services. Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	In his mid-20s, author and therapist Alan Gordon developed debilitating low back pain,
0:05.4	and then headaches, and a slew of doctors gave him a slew of diagnoses,
0:09.7	but his pain got worse and spread to other parts of his body.
0:13.2	He stopped hanging out with friends, he couldn't hold a job, and he moved back in with his parents.
0:18.0	When his mom gave him a book about the mind-body connection with chronic pain,
0:22.6	Alan literally threw it across the room. His pain was real and he didn't need anyone telling him that it was just in his head.
0:31.6	And decades later, after healing his chronic pain and running research studies on chronic pain, he would tell you that he was right.
0:40.0	At least partially.
0:41.5	Chronic pain isn't just in your head and it's not just anxiety and it can't be magically cured by just meditating more.
0:49.5	But what he did learn, the piece that massively decreased his back pain, was that pain can't exist without the brain.
0:59.0	When we hurt, we all feel pain in that part of the body, our back, our neck, our knees.
1:05.0	But the only reason we feel pain is because the messages get sent up to our brain where our brain interprets them.
1:12.6	If you had a complete spinal cord injury and you hurt your leg, you wouldn't feel any pain because that message couldn't make it to the brain.
1:20.6	So where am I going with this?
1:22.6	There are two types of pain. Acute pain and neuroplastic pain.
1:26.6	One of them is caused by an injury and the other is caused by a There are two types of pain. Acute pain and neuroplastic pain.
1:27.5	One of them is caused by an injury,
1:29.5	and the other is caused by a nervous system dysfunction,
1:33.6	where pain signals and your brain's interpretation of them
1:37.4	become wired through fear to make your pain louder and louder.
1:42.5	So how do you know if your pain is real? Simple. Do you feel pain? Yes?
1:48.2	Then it's real. Alan's pain like yours was real. Chronic neuroplastic pain can literally be seen
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Therapy in a Nutshell -Emma McAdam, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Therapy in a Nutshell -Emma McAdam and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.