Getting Out of Your Head & Into Your Body

Pain isn’t just something that lives in your body - it lives in your mind too. Chronic pain can hijack your attention, influence your emotions, and change the way your nervous system responds to even the simplest movements. Where your focus goes, your body follows: over time, the nervous system can amplify sensations, making harmless motions feel threatening and everyday tasks feel difficult. Understanding pain as both a physical and a neurological experience helps us see that healing isn’t just about fixing tissues - it’s about retraining the brain, calming the nervous system, and reclaiming confidence in your body’s ability to move safely.

About 25% of people in the United States experience chronic pain (about 100 million people), so if this is you, know that you are not alone.

When Pain Lives in the Body - And the Mind

“Pain is not just a signal from the tissues -- it’s a story your nervous system tells about threat, safety, and meaning.”

Chronic pain often stops being only a “physical” problem. Over time it can take up space in your thoughts, change how your nervous system responds, and even alter the way your brain maps your body. Where your attention goes, the nervous system often follows — and pain has a way of turning up the volume on sensory signals so that simple movements, previously harmless, begin to feel threatening. This isn’t weakness or imagination; it’s neurobiology.

The Brain is a Builder of Experience - Not a Passive Receiver

Classic models like Melzack’s neuromatrix theory emphasize that pain is a multidimensional experience produced by distributed brain networks that integrate sensory input with emotion, memory, and context. In other words, pain is not just a one-way signal from tissue to brain - the brain actively constructs the experience of pain based on incoming signals plus expectations, prior experience, and current emotional state.

Thoughts, Beliefs, and Emotions Change The Body

Your mind shapes your pain experience more than you might realize. Thoughts like “I’m fragile” or “I’ll hurt myself if I move” aren’t just mental—they influence how your nervous system responds. Studies consistently show that fear, worry, and catastrophizing are linked to more intense pain and greater disability. The good news? We can retrain those pathways. Simple, repeated exercises in thought and movement can signal to your brain that you are safe -- and that movement is not a threat.

Small Practices That Can Change Your Story

Here are some simple ways to start challenging the past:

1. Reframe your self-talk: Try saying, “I am strong, I am capable, my body can handle this.” Repetition matters.

   
   

2. Micro-movements: Start small — a minute or two of gentle movement several times a day builds confidence in your body.

   
   

3. Mindfulness: Even five minutes of scanning your body with attention, without judgment, helps calm your nervous system.

   
   

4. Gradual exposure: Break feared movements into tiny steps and increase slowly — your brain learns movement is safe.

   
   

I'm happy to help you regain confidence in your body back, and address the components that make movement feel scary. I've been trained in Mindfulness-Based Pain Relief practices and can help you start to see the light at the end of the tunnel you may be feeling.

A Clinician's Role: Mind and Body Together

Physical therapy isn’t just about muscles and joints -- it’s about retraining the nervous system alongside building strength and mobility. The most powerful approach combines safe movement, attention to thoughts and beliefs, and strategies that calm the nervous system. When done together, this approach changes both how you move and how you experience your body.