FAQ: The New Change Your Brain, Change Your Pain Book
Q. How can I use this book with my clients?
CYBCYP is intended as either a stand-alone self-help resource or something that can be used in conjunction with treatment. As an adjunct to treatment it offers your client the following;
- An explanation of where their chronic pain comes from in terms of the effects of previous stress and trauma
- Assessing the contribution of trauma and neglect (https://overcomingpain.com/self-evaluation/self-evaluation-results/
- A task-oriented approach to managing pain and its effects
- A menu of Ascending and Descending pain strategies
- Information about the role of EMDR as a trauma processing therapy
- Audio downloads to implement the self-help exercise described in the book
- Advice about self-care
- Advice and support for developing a post-pain identity.
If as a therapist you are familiar with the book you can reference these issues as they occur in therapy (rather than following the book as a linear treatment approach), although obviously some aspects, such as developing a new identity, come after some period of treatment. This discussion can be woven into the clients psychological evolution, eg; from feeling like there is something wrong with them for being in pain to realizing (as a result of reading ch’s 1 & 2) that it is a manifestation of a compromised nervous system etc.