Welcome to the continuing series Why You Should See a Pain Management Psychiatrist.  This week we’ll look at how supportive therapy can be useful to you.

Supportive therapy consists of helping people cope with a difficult situation through listening and support, problem-solving, and instilling hope.  Supportive therapy can be helpful in many ways to patients with pain.
1. Telling [...]

I’m continuing a new format for our monthly pain-blog carnivals.  Instead of submissions, I’m featuring some of my favorite posts from great blogs.  I hope you find these helpful to read.
Andrea’s Buzzing About writes about taking jobs just for the health insurance they provide.
Living with Fibromyalgia investigates the genetics of fibro.
The Migraine Girl writes about therapeutic yoga.
Pain [...]

Welcome to the continuing series Why You Should See a Pain Management Psychiatrist.  This week we’ll look at making changes in how you see your pain condition and the disability it causes.

When you experience ongoing pain, both the pain itself, as well as the changes it causes in your life, are challenging to cope with.  People often experience [...]

I’m sharing relaxation ideas from YouTube on Fridays.  I hope you try and enjoy them!
Today’s video is from iSSerDc, featuring one of my favorite musical pieces, Pachelbel’s Canon.

I asked a new physical therapy colleague of mine, Chad Durboraw, to write about his perspective on chronic pain.  Of particular interest for those in the NJ/PA area, he offers education group sessions for patients to learn about pain.  Chad writes:

Persistent Pain and Neuroplasticity:  A Physical Therapist’s Perspective
My name is Chad Durboraw, PT, OCS.  I’m [...]

Welcome to the continuing series Why You Should See a Pain Management Psychiatrist.  This week we’ll look at what kind of behavior changes can help you live better and get better.

1. Support your doing positive activities
It’s important that you keep up activities when you have chronic pain.  A pain management psychiatric will help you with pacing, which is [...]

I’m sharing relaxation videos from YouTube on Fridays.  I hope you try and enjoy them!
Today’s music is by Robert Norton from Positive Chillout.

As most of you probably know, there is a great deal of advertising to doctors to try to get us to choose one medication over another.  Finally, medicine is shifting away from this practice, as we doctors come to realize that much of it is not in our patients’ best interest.

More and more medical schools are [...]

Welcome to the continuing series Why You Should See a Pain Management Psychiatrist.  This week we’ll look at what psychological skills you can learn to decrease and cope with pain.

There are many types of relaxation exercises you can learn.  Breathing, basic relaxation and visualization all help in several ways:

they help you relax and decrease anxiety
they decrease the stress response associated [...]

On Fridays, I’m sharing relaxation videos from YouTube.  I hope you try and enjoy them!
Today’s video is from Eztights.  The ocean is one of my favorite places, and this video lets me look forward to visiting the shore this summer.