One of the essential points I have learned in my many years as a health psychology practitioner is that pain resides in the brain. Even if there is no objective evidence of injury or illness, the patient can experience pain.

Is phantom limb pain real? Are most headaches imagined? Almost universally client reports of suffering need to be respected rather than ignored. There are several inventories that can assess pain quality and quantity. However, the easiest way to understand the nature of a client’s pain is simply to ask him/her. Pain usually coexists with a chronic depression. Also, it is estimated that 50% of back pain is due to a depressed state. Relatives and friends of the client may be accurate reporters of the consequences of pain. This includes testiness, social isolation, unproductiveness, and feelings of gloom. Except for extreme and acute pain, medications are largely ineffective. Relaxation, biofeedback, and hypnosis are excellent treatments. Support groups are also useful. In particular, I prefer hypnosis as a treatment method.

As an example, I was referred a patient who was in the hospital for an inflammation of the pancreas. She was experiencing severe pain and was not being cooperative with the nursing staff. I gave her a brief course of hypnotherapy using two twenty minute sessions. The pain disappeared. She returned to her home town, a rural area over 300 miles away. Approximately, one year later, upon the request of her family physician, this same patient flew back into town, rented a hotel room for one day and made an appointment to see me. She was having a reoccurrence of her extreme pain. She had one more twenty minute session of hypnotherapy with complete success. Again, the pain disappeared. Was this pain real? To the patient it sure was, and so to for the family physician who was wise enough to send her to me for a “booster” session.