Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) in Grand Rapids, Michigan

Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) is a neuroscience-based approach for managing chronic pain and physical symptoms that are thought to be caused by something caused “neuroplastic pain,” which is a type of pain that is caused and maintained by the brain rather than ongoing tissue damage. This type of pain shows up often for many people living with chronic pain who have been told “nothing is wrong” structurally—yet the pain persists.

PRT is a compassionate, grounded, evidence-based approach that helps clients understand their pain in a different way, which then helps them reduce pain by retraining the brain and nervous system to orient toward safety rather than danger.

As a PRT-trained therapist, I am so excited to be able to provide Pain Reprocessing Therapy to adults in Grand Rapids, and to clients throughout Michigan via telehealth.

What Is Pain Reprocessing Therapy?

Pain Reprocessing Therapy is a neuroscience-based approach to treating chronic pain, designed to help your brain unlearn pain that is generated by “stuck” neural pathways rather than actual physical injury or disease.

In many cases of chronic pain:

• The body has healed from the original injury, and no tissue damage remains, yet the pain persists

• The nervous system remains stuck in a danger response, always waiting and expecting more pain or danger to show up

• The brain continues to produce pain signals at the original injury site as a protective habit

PRT helps the brain reinterpret these signals as safe, reducing or eliminating pain over time.

The Brain–Pain Connection

Pain is real—but not all pain means damage. This can be confusing at first, but it’s a vital aspect of understanding how neuroplastic pain works, and how it is sustained in our bodies and minds.

The brain creates pain based on:

• Past injury or illness

• Learned associations—for example, last time I moved my head that way, my neck hurt; therefore, if I move my head that way again, my neck will probably hurt again

• Stress and emotional threat, such as a major loss, death, life transition, periods of heightened stress, chronic stress, or trauma

• Fear and hypervigilance, such as with individuals who have endured trauma

When the nervous system remains activated, pain can persist even after the original cause has resolved.

What Types of Pain Can PRT Help With?

PRT is commonly used to help pain associated with:

• Chronic back, neck, or joint pain

• Tension headaches or migraines

• Fibromyalgia-type pain

• Pelvic pain

• Repetitive strain pain

• Stress-related or unexplained pain (pain with no known injury or cause associated with it)

PRT is not always appropriate for all pain conditions, so it’s important that you’ve been evaluated by a doctor before beginning treatment.

Pain, Stress, and Trauma

Chronic stress and complex trauma can create an environment where your nervous system is hyper-sensitized to threat, increasing pain responses and your sensitivity to pain.

Let me be clear: trauma does not mean pain is “imagined.” It means the brain has learned to stay on high alert and send pain signals, even when injury or threat is not actually present. PRT works by helping the brain feel safe enough to turn down these signals to a more manageable level.

How Pain Reprocessing Therapy Works

PRT is a multifaceted therapy that combines a variety of evidence-based treatments into one. It includes:

• Pain neuroscience education. This is a vital aspect of “frontloading” your thinking brain, helping you better understand how and why neuroplastic pain occurs, even long after the original trauma has passed. The more “on board” your thinking brain is, the more set-up for success we are when we move into…

• Somatic awareness (also known as somatic tracking, or bodily awareness). This includes bringing gentle awareness to different parts of the body, without judgment or a need to change those sensations.

• Safety reappraisal. In safety reappraisal, we help your body and brain learn that pain signals don’t always mean danger. This is often paired with somatic awareness exercises, typically when pain levels are at a manageable level.

• Emotional processing. Often, chronic pain is paired with big emotions, like stress, overwhelm, grief, anger, fear, or sadness. Whether your chronic pain is intensified by current stressors, or trauma and difficulties that happened to you in the past, we will help you process the emotions that have primed your nervous system for fear, adaptation, and pain.

• Cognitive and behavioral techniques to manage pain flares, relapse prevention, and more. This might include learning cognitive challenging or reframing techniques, cognitive defusion (learning not to identify with your thoughts), and behavioral activation (like “doing the thing” even if your pain or fear of pain tells you not to.)

• Relapse prevention education. As you learn how to manage your pain and the emotions associated with it, you may find that you have relapses of pain that catch you by surprise or scare you. In PRT, we make sure to talk through relapse prevention exercises that keep your mind and body calm, even if pain flares occur.

This powerful combination of techniques helps the brain reinterpret painful sensations as less threatening and less impairing, allowing pain pathways in the nervous system to “quiet” and become more manageable over time.

What to Expect in PRT

PRT is collaborative and paced. Sessions may include:

• Understanding how your pain developed. This will likely include a thorough history-taking and evaluation, including any collaboration with doctors or other providers who can give important information about your care.

• Tracking the patterns of your pain while learning to reduce the amount of fear you feel. This includes identifying the environments, stimuli, thought patterns, emotions, situations, and more that make your brain send out the pain signal.

• Gently teaching your body and mind to respond differently to pain sensations. This is where we practice grounding, somatic awareness and tracking, and safety reappraisal techniques.

• Addressing underlying stress or emotional challenges, to reduce the intensity of flares and manage relapses of pain over time. This may look like traditional talk therapy, where we process emotions and traumas associated with your pain.

As a note: you are never asked to ignore pain or “push through it.” If your pain becomes too intense, we’ll work together to find SOS-style coping skills to help manage the pain so you don’t retraumatize your system.

Is Pain Reprocessing Therapy Evidence-Based?

PRT is supported by growing research, including randomized controlled trials showing significant reductions in chronic pain for many participants.

As with all therapies, results vary based on individual factors, nervous system readiness, and clinical fit. We’ll need to meet face-to-face and talk more in-depth about your symptoms to determine whether you’re a good fit for PRT.

Who Is PRT Best For?

PRT may be helpful if:

• Medical tests show no ongoing structural damage or cause for your pain (this might read as “idiopathic” on your medical records”)

• Your pain isn’t consistent, or it fluctuates with stress or emotion. This is specifically relevant if the pain worsens when you’re more stressed or having more negative emotions, or reduces when you’re less stressed

• The pain began during a stressful or traumatic period but was not caused by any specific physical trauma.

• You feel fearful of, or hyper-focused on, your bodily sensations. This can include grappling with the pain, feeling frustrated or annoyed by it, worrying that it will never go away, or living in fear of a pain flare. This may also include shaping your life around your pain, so as to avoid pain flares.

Pain Reprocessing Therapy for Chronic Pain in Grand Rapids and Online in Michigan

As a PRT-trained therapist, I am so excited to provide Pain Reprocessing Therapy to adults in Grand Rapids. I also offer online sessions to clients throughout Michigan. As an LPC in Michigan trained in PRT, with an extensive background and training in trauma therapy, I love helping my clients find more calm, ease, and safety in their bodies with PRT.

About Me as a PRT Therapist

I am an LPC trained in Pain Reprocessing Therapy, as well as other nervous system–informed trauma therapies, such as Brainspotting and EMDR. My work integrates trauma-informed principles, somatic awareness, and respect for each client’s lived experience of pain.

As someone who also deals with and manages a life with chronic pain flares, I am uniquely aware of how chronic pain can unfairly dictate how one’s life seems to go. When I learned how to manage my own chronic pain through PRT principles, I knew I had to learn how to provide this amazing therapy to my own therapy clients with lived experiences of chronic pain.

Frequently Asked Questions About Pain Reprocessing Therapy

Is the pain “all in my head”?
Nope! The pain you feel is very real. Although the pain signals originate in the brain, your lived experience in your physical body is a vital aspect of this work. PRT works with how the brain produces pain signals, and the ways in which the body and brain have a reciprocal relationship with one another. We work with both to calm pain in both.

Will PRT work for everyone?
Not always. There are some conditions where pain is caused by a structural issue, physical trauma, or a disease process where PRT may not be as applicable or appropriate. A thorough assessment of your background, symptoms, and goals will help me determine whether you’re a good fit for PRT.

Can PRT be combined with trauma therapy?
Yes! PRT and trauma-focused therapies often complement each other well, as chronic pain is a common issue faced by folks with trauma histories. This may be especially true for those with complex or developmental trauma. A complete assessment of your trauma background, pain symptoms, and treatment goals will help me determine whether you’re a good fit for a combination of PRT and trauma therapy.