For Practitioners
Welcome, Practitioners, to the PRT Wiki!
By being here, on this page, you have shown yourself to be interested in mind-body medicine. Neuroplastic Pain is the label for physical pain and disability that is caused by, or aggravated by, psychological etiologies.
We hope to provide you with a source of group support, mutual referrals, and resources for you and your patients.
Please explore this website, take what information would be helpful to you, and feel free to contribute.
We are eager to hear your thoughts about how best to achieve our mission, and want you to feel comfortable referring your patients to the wiki. If you have any concerns or questions, please don't hesitate to email us at (link added later)
What is Neuroplastic Pain?
Pain functions as a danger signal generated by our brains to alert us to bodily threats. And sometimes, we can be in pain even when there is no actual threat to the body.
On this site, we call brain-generated pain “neuroplastic pain” because changes (plasticity) in neural pathways are the primary cause of pain. Even though neuroplastic pain is generated by the brain, it is not imaginary. All pain is real.
What is Pain Reprocessing Therapy? (PRT)
Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) is a set of techniques aimed at breaking the pain-fear cycle. PRT is appropriate for patients with neuroplastic pain.
The central technique of PRT is somatic tracking. Somatic tracking involves a particular way of thinking about and paying attention to the pain. Typically, when we pay attention to pain, we are bracing ourselves: How bad is it now? Will it get worse? Somatic tracking allows us to flip the script. Instead of attending to the pain through a lens of danger, we do so through a lens of safety.
Resources
- Much more information about PRT and the basics of its treatment can be found in the article "How the Brain Causes Chronic Pain & How to Stop It" on practicalpainmanagement.com
- Professional training can be found at https://www.painreprocessingtherapy.com
- If you have received structured training in PRT, you can be listed in our Practitioner Directory.