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Therapy in a Nutshell

Meditation for Chronic Pain- Somatic Tracking Exercise to Replace Fear with Curiosity

Therapy in a Nutshell

Therapy in a Nutshell -Emma McAdam

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

4.8657 Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2026

⏱️ 11 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If you have chronic pain including back pain you can benefit from this somatic tracking exercise from Alan Gordon’s Pain Reprocessing Therapy Pain Psychology Center: https://painpsychologycenter.com/ The Way Out of Chronic Pain, by Alan Gordon: https://a.co/d/6suF8CC Learn the skills to Regulate your Emotions, join the membership: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com/membership ⚠️ Important note: This exercise is intended for people whose pain has been medically evaluated and is not caused by active injury, infection, fracture, or disease. Pain Reprocessing Therapy does not replace medical care. Chronic pain and back pain aren’t just problems of the body — they’re problems of a nervous system stuck in protection mode. In this episode, I’ll guide you through a somatic tracking exercise, a core skill from Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), designed to help calm neuroplastic pain by teaching your brain that your body is safe. Somatic tracking is not about ignoring pain, pushing through it, or forcing relaxation. Instead, you’ll practice noticing pain with curiosity, neutrality, and safety, which helps interrupt the fear–pain cycle that keeps chronic pain going. 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 Learn more in one of my in-depth mental health courses: https://courses.therapyinanutshell.com 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

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0:00.0

This episode is a guide exercise. If you're driving or need your attention elsewhere for safety,

0:05.4

don't listen right now. Save it for later when you can carefully focus.

0:09.6

Welcome back to another episode of the Therapy in a nutshell podcast. I'm Emma McAdam and I'm a

0:14.7

licensed marriage and family therapist. And this podcast is all about taking the life-changing,

0:19.7

but usually kind of complicated topics of

0:22.2

therapy and boiling them down into simple, easy-to-understand concepts that you can use in your daily

0:27.6

life. If you find today's episode as helpful to you, please pass it on to someone else who

0:31.8

could benefit from it as well. Each podcast episode comes from a corresponding video you can

0:36.0

find on the Therapy in a Nutshell YouTube channel.

0:38.7

Also, these podcasts are educational and don't replace the advice or direction you may be receiving from a therapist or other health professionals.

0:45.5

Now please enjoy the episode. This exercise is designed to help you rewire the cycle of chronic pain, neuroplastic pain.

1:08.0

Our brain often confuses the signals of danger, fear, worry, or anxiety with those of pain

1:16.6

signals. And that can make our pain signals louder and louder. And in order to help you tell the

1:23.5

difference and retrain your brain to turn down the dial on those pain signals,

1:30.3

we're going to teach your brain to tell the difference between fear and pain by practicing,

1:39.3

treating those physical sensations with curiosity and observing them with gentleness so that your

1:48.3

brain can learn those signals are actually safe and this will help your brain and body turn down

1:54.1

those sensations of pain. Alan Gordon designed and recorded this exercise. He's the creator of pain reprocessing therapy,

2:03.6

and I'm grateful that he was willing to share this exercise with us.

2:08.6

Close your eyes and slow your breath down for just a sec.

2:14.6

Good. Breathe in a couple times. to kind of center yourself. That's oftentimes

2:21.4

just kind of slowing down your breath just a bit and focusing on the breath coming in and

...

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