Being Present with Pain

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As long as we're alive, we experience pain. Unfortunately, many of our hard-wired responses to both physical and emotional pain multiply our miseries, trapping us in viscous cycles of suffering. This class will focus on ways to be present with pain that interrupt these cycles, freeing us from unnecessary suffering. Therapeutic presence arises from a clinician and clients’ increased willingness to relate to pain with flexibility versus control and avoidance.

Objectives

1. Evaluate the neurobiological effects of mindfulness practice on experimentally induced pain
2. Present cognitive, affective, and behavioral components of chronic pain cycles
3. Specify how mindfulness practice can help to interrupt chronic pain cycles

Outline

• Neurobiological effects of mindfulness practice on experimentally induced pain
• Cognitive, affective, and behavioral components
• Presence arising from teaching oneself and clients to flexibly relate to pain
• Interrupt chronic pain cycles