Can You Reshape Your Brain's Response To Pain?

Can You Reshape Your Brain's Response To Pain?

Patti Neighmond

EAET was developed in 2011 by psychologist Mark Lumley at Wayne State University and his colleague Dr. Howard Schubiner. It combines some techniques from traditional talk therapies (such as probing a patient's life experience for insight and context) with those of cognitive behavioral therapy, which focuses more on skills training and changing harmful patterns of behavior.

It's an emotion-focused treatment, Lumley says, aimed at helping people who are in widespread, medically unexplained pain.

In a 2017 study of patients with fibromyalgia, Lumley and his colleagues found that EAET decreased widespread pain and other related symptoms for some patients. "In summary," the researchers concluded, "an intervention targeting emotional awareness and expression related to psychosocial adversity and conflict was well-received, more effective than a basic educational intervention, and had some advantages over CBT on pain."

Lumley believes the treatment might also help patients who have other sorts of pain, though that's yet to be proved.

So, how does it work?

An anesthesiologist in italy, Dr. Enrico Facco, has carried out minor surgeries without anesthesia using hypnosis instead. These facts have been well documented and he published the results on medical journals of value. So I'd say that it can be done.

An anesthesiologist in italy, Dr. Enrico Facco, has carried out minor surgeries without anesthesia using hypnosis instead. These facts have been well documented and he published the results on medical journals of value. So I'd say that it can be done.

The use of  hypnosis for pain control, and especially chronic pain management seems to be quite widely recognised.