Pain Therapy Reinvented

After working with hundreds of patients in both a private and a clinical setting, I have innovated a therapeutic treatment model that is effective for people who suffer with a chronic pain condition. My experience ranges from working with amputees, to cancer patients, to those who have damaged nerves, to those who have vertebral injuries in either one or many locations on the spine. I have worked with men who have been crushed by heavy equipment and with women who experienced an odd fall leading to crushed discs in the back. There is no “typical patient” when working in the chronic pain field. Pain is no respecter of financial or social status. Pain will not relent if you are a person who is used to overcoming obstacles. Pain has its own rules and those rules are not kind. Pain is not submissive, …unless you know what is occurring in your body and have the tools to effectively manage it. Here is where I can help.

Without the tools you need, pain is akin to a feral animal. It is unrestrained, unrelenting, and interruptive to your life. Maybe some days you wish it would all just go away. The waking up and wondering, “How bad is it today?” Some days it is better. But then other days it is debilitating, or nearly debilitating. You have moments when you wish things were how they used to be, before the pain became a part of your daily life. Other moments you accept and go on.

You won’t be told that if you just meditate, you won’t feel your pain. That is bonkers for a person who has damaged tissues, nerve endings, discs, muscles, bones, or is missing an entire limb. Here is HOW I can help.

Meditation is one of the many tools that you will learn about and is highly effective. I have adapted various modalities for patients with chronic pain. (See testimonials below).

And you won’t be told that you “just have to live with it”. That too is bonkers, because it leaves you without any resources or avenues for HOW you are going to live with your condition. But you will learn tools to help you communicate with your neurological system so that you develop improved approaches to diminish that sense of “my pain is living my life!”. When you find yourself feeling dominated by your experience of pain, life becomes miserable. There are tools to help you shift the patterns that have habituated your neurological attempts to cope with the pain. And for those who have been told that there is nothing more than can be done, you will learn new tools and techniques that encourage your body to shift from the adaptive reactions that began at the time of the injury, the disease, or the accident. The goal is for you to experience healing in your body, your mind, your emotions, and in your energetic state. And my programs will equip you with resources, tools, and strategies that help.

HOW? HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?

HOW DO WE HELP YOU? An effective treatment synthesis of specialized movement, breathing exercises, psychological support, neurological re-training, cognitive exercises, movement therapy, and energetic support will help you develop a new knowledge base for HOW you are going to manage your chronic pain. Meditation is also part of how we help you improve the functioning of your nervous system. Our approach to meditation includes a specialized and targeted system of practices designed to induce regulatory responses within the body. By combining modern research and new scientific information, patients will be taught how to re-pattern existing neural pathways that emerged in response to the injury, disease, or damaged part of the body. Vagus nerve stimulation will also be used to support the body in releasing tension, constriction, and contraction as a result of the pain signals.

These techniques when used correctly and consistently will assist the body in its natural healing tendency. Think about what occurs when you cut your hand. The immediate response is the pain. The pain signal quickly travels up the spinal cord to the brain to draw your attention to the cut on your hand. The blood flow is a reaction to the injury which brings specialized cells to help initiate the healing process. There is no deliberate thinking involved. Rather the intelligent systems within the body initiate the healing response. In the case of a chronic pain condition, the healing response requires specialized assistance.

What is important to understand is that it is a mistake to “mentalalize” or “spiritualize” your pain.

And yet, the mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of your life are indeed part of your experience of pain. Therefore learning how to access the mind, the spirit, the energetic systems of your body become valuable resources that develop into part of your strategy for improving the quality of your life, while living with chronic pain.

We don’t want your pain to dominate your life anymore. What we do want for you is YOU LIVING YOUR LIFE and managing your pain so that it no longer dominates your thoughts, your movements, your choices, and sadly, even your relationships. I have worked with hundreds of patients in both a clinical setting and in a private setting. In each case, I have witnessed improvement in every patient. By meeting each patient exactly where they are in their life we start from zero. We start from just how difficult it is to live with pain. No magic. Just a clear-eyed look at life and pain. It is not easy and most of the time it is really hard. But I have some new tools for you. And if you listen to some of the patients who I have worked with, perhaps you will hear something that speaks to you.

There are new ways to improve your quality of life. Think of your experience with pain in terms of “undomesticated”. Up to now, you have used all available means to cope. Surgery, using medications, denial, suppression, corralling your emotions, talking to someone, looking for new medical advances, researching, trying “natural approaches”, investigating marijuana & learning about THC vs. CBD, seeing new doctors, and constantly inquiring about any new solutions. Is this you? If yes, keep reading.

There are highly complex systems within the body -many of which are operating at the involuntary level- and understanding HOW your body functions is crucial to improving HOW you live with your chronic pain. My program is a therapeutic model that recognizes the need to bring the body into balance to promote healing. Healing is the natural response of the body and yet, because you have a serious and chronic condition, your body must have help.

We don’t promise any miracles. No magic. And no cures. Serious pain and injuries take time to address. We want to help you THRIVE instead of SURVIVE your pain. And to do that we have to have a clear-eyed recognition of the underlying causes for your condition. Your history, your medical tests, the surgeries, the treatments, the pharmacological recommendations, and all of the ways you have previously tried to cope with your pain all factors in. But rest assured, we will tap in to every system in your body so that the healing mechanisms are fully awake and supported. When you are provided with training, tools, and techniques you then become empowered to develop a more livable approach to your chronic pain. As well, we want to develop a relationship with you. You will be given support and follow-care once you have completed the program.

What is important for you to know is that I want to work with you. I want to share with you what I know and have developed through years of experience. And not just as the practitioner because, I too live with pain.

But as I go about my life, my injuries are not apparent. How could that be? A lot of work. A lot of learning. And mostly, a lot of saying, “I won’t accept that.” I was told many things by well-meaning doctors. It was forecast what would happen to my body. Doctors have looked at my MRI’s for years and remarked, “You are so lucky to not be a paraplegic or worse a quad.” Believe me, I know.

In my journey to learn about physical injuries and how the body reacts to pain, I sought out anyone who could elevate my understanding of my body. Of course there were the doctors who offered surgeries and others who had only drugs for me. But little else, until I arrived at the Chopra Center in Carlsbad, CA in 2012. It was there that I learned a new way of thinking about how the body functions.

I continued to learn and study; growing through further trainings and additional knowledge from both eastern and western doctors. And I am still learning. Today I want to offer you an opportunity to find new approaches to your pain. I want to help you better understand what is happening in your body so you don’t feel compelled to resign your experience of chronic pain to what the medical tests show. You are more than the test results. Believe me, I know this!

I teach you how to work with the wisdom of your body, while acknowledging the reality of your pain. Your pain is real. Your injuries are real, and yet if you have only been exposed to the strictly western perspective for addressing your pain, you are left without many resources that can help.

MY PATIENTS:

I have worked with hundreds of patients, in a clinical setting and they have experienced improvements in their lives. Some have lowered their use of prescription medications, others have experienced more energy, allowing them to do more in their daily lives. Some patients returned to work with the skills and tools that allowed them to take care of their bodies in the work place. And other patients felt that their day-to-day lives were lived with higher levels of quality, reducing their overall depression.

Let’s be serious, living with chronic pain is hard. But without the help you need, it is worse than hard, it is depressing. But I don’t believe a life of chronic pain needs to be depressing. It might be hard some days, yes. BUT not every day. It might be challenging at times, but when you have an array of tools & resources to choose from, when you feel capable of meeting the challenges, then many days can be good.

That is what I want for you! To feel capable. To feel in control again. And to be able to live your life as you THRIVE in the face of your pain. It is possible.

It’s all about thinking about TOOLS. You will need to let go of the idea that there is ONE ANSWER or there is a doctor out there (some where) who will FIX YOU. In my programs, you will build your own TOOLKIT to help you elevate the quality of your life.

Currently your present mindset centers around your experience of pain. We are going to shift your mindset to TOOLS.

• We are not going to any extremes. Meditation, not as a solution, just a tool. Your medication also can be an important tool to help you to live as well as possible with your pain. But your mind shift must see it as only that, a TOOL, no longer as THE ANSWER

• We are going to help you find the most optimal balance for you to live with your chronic pain condition

• There are many other tools that I can teach you so that you develop a more comprehensive tool kit to help you experience life as more than just surviving. That means finding the best of both western and eastern medicine, the latest that science has to tell us, and a persistent approach to helping you integrate what works best for you

• More than SURVIVE, I want you to THRIVE. To be sure, that will look different for every person. But that is why my programs are so important. You will receive the information, education, training, and support to discover what is possible for you

  I have supported my patients in achieving a different level of quality-life-patterns as they move away from a PAIN-DOMINATED life, to a BALANCED-FOCUSED life that also includes a chronic pain condition.

So, let’s start there. Let’s start looking at your daily pain something clearly identified - you have a chronic pain condition. It is not WHO YOU ARE. However, you do have to deal with the daily challenges of a chronic pain condition. Using a three-point structure as the road map. That’s the starting place.

How Do We Get Started?

OPTION 1: ONLINE PROGRAM WITH BETH You can join the online program for people who live with chronic pain. In this program you will have recorded videos, community, and live sessions with me once, twice, three, or four times a week, depending on which program you sign up for. Additionally, everyone will have access to a community forum where support can be shared and received through posts and topics relevant to your chronic pain condition. In this forum, everyone will receive specialized feedback from me along with resources to help. The online pain programs also have rolling sign-up dates that are available for you to join.

OPTION 2: PRIVATE APPOINTMENTS WITH BETH We begin with an initial appointment via Zoom to assess your condition and whether or not my services match with your particular needs. You will be requested to provide medical reports, MRI reports, and history of your chronic pain condition. During this assessment a plan will be determined as a course of action to begin your therapy. If you live in Southern California, Beth will schedule regular home visits. For those who live outside the Southern California area, Zoom appointments will provide you with the support you need to change your relationship with your pain. For those who prefer Beth to travel to their home, arrangements can be made; however due to the COVID viral outbreak Beth has greatly decreased her travel.

For all my clients, the starting point is to develop a three-point structure around your particular needs.

What is the three-point structure?

It is a simple structure that provides you with a clear guide to your progress

• Increase in self-regulation, decrease in feeling as if everything is under the control of the pain (we work together to help you feel more in control of your life, rather than the pain controlling your life)

• Decrease in inflammation & decrease in acute break-out pain incidences

• Development of homeostasis, improvement in quality of life

Want to know more? Reach out to Beth for more information about online programs or to work with her in person here.