Pain Management Psychology Programs

Through its affiliation with Sparrow Pain Management Center, the Pain Management Center (PMC) of Lansing offers patients – particularly those who suffer from chronic back, shoulder, or neck pain, as well as those with cancer pain – the option of participating in individual or support group pain psychology sessions. Adding a pain psychologist to your team of health providers can be a very important part of your treatment plan. We understand that pain affects every aspect of your life and consequently focus our pain management psychology programs on helping you decrease the impact pain is having on you, your family, and your lifestyle. From dealing with everyday stress to gaining better control over your pain, the pain psychologists at our pain management clinic can offer you help through a variety of techniques.

Some of the pain psychology tools we use and teach include:

• Sleep Restoration Training – We can help you have a better night’s sleep through non-pharmacological approaches.
  
• Relaxation Training – Using biofeedback equipment, we can help you determine the location of muscle tension that often results from constant pain response, and teach you ways to relax these muscles.
  
• Cognitive-behavioral Restructuring Therapy – We can help you identify and reframe negative and distorted thoughts to increase activities and decrease pain.
  
• Behavior Modification – Collaborating with physical and occupational therapists, pain psychologists can help you learn different ways to do activities by changing the way they are done and “pacing” the activities to keep pain to a minimum.

Pain Psychology One-on-one Many patients living with chronic pain find that their condition causes an increase in irritability, depression, anxiety, and hopelessness. This often leads to decreased ability to tolerate pain and affects personal relationships and lifestyle. Individual pain psychotherapy sessions address these issues and help patients develop positive pain coping skills. Our pain management psychologist will help you understand the nature (or physiology) of your pain, the difference between acute versus chronic pain, and how you can redefine identity to reclaim your life back from your pain condition. The Pain Management Center of Lansing also offers animal-assisted pain therapy with certified dogs through Therapy Dogs International. Visits with pain therapy dogs are shown to brighten up a patient’s day, decrease their dependency on pain medication, provide a nice distraction, and unleash an improved level of pain relief.

Miranda is a certified therapy dog through Therapy Dogs International. Research is expanding to reveal the wide-ranging biochemical and physiological effects of animal-assisted pain therapy.

A Pain Psychology Support Group that Knows how you Feel

In addition to individual pain psychology sessions, the pain psychologists at PMC Lansing host support group sessions at our pain clinic where patients can discuss topics related to dealing with chronic back, neck, shoulder, leg, and cancer pain. During group therapy, patients find that they are able to learn from and support each other. Most importantly, they realize they are not alone in battling their way through this health challenge. Group discussion topics may include: pain coping tools, ways to manage emotions related to having pain, ways to get the family involved and to be supportive, stress management training, depression management tools, anger management tools, and assertiveness training. In a supportive group environment, patients share their experiences and encourage one another to make use of key tools that can help them live better. 

If you’re interested in psychological pain management, would like to request an individual pain therapy session, and would like to become involved in group therapy, tell the nurse practitioner and/or your treating pain management physician.

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