Your pain is real.
Pain Reprocessing Therapy
Your pain is real. And your brain may be able to learn a different response.
Chronic pain can affect nearly every part of your life—from work and sleep to relationships and the activities you once enjoyed. And when you've tried treatment after treatment without lasting relief, it can be difficult to know where to turn next.
Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) is an evidence-based approach that helps people understand how the brain can create and sustain certain forms of chronic pain—and teaches the brain to interpret those signals differently.
Rather than simply managing symptoms, PRT works to interrupt the cycle of pain and fear that can keep the nervous system on high alert.
What is Pain Reprocessing Therapy?
Pain Reprocessing Therapy is based on a growing understanding of neuroplastic pain—pain that can continue even after an injury has healed or when there is no ongoing structural cause that fully explains the symptoms.
This does not mean the pain is imaginary or "all in your head."
The pain is real. But in some cases, the brain and nervous system have learned to interpret safe signals from the body as dangerous, triggering pain as a protective response.
PRT uses a combination of education, mindfulness-based techniques, somatic tracking and emotional awareness to help the brain recognize that these sensations are safe. Over time, this can help reduce the brain's alarm response and break the pain-fear cycle.
Your brain learned pain. It can learn safety, too.
PRT helps you begin changing your relationship with pain through three important steps:
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Learn how the brain and nervous system can create and reinforce chronic pain—and why understanding where pain comes from can be an important part of changing it.
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Instead of responding to sensations with fear, avoidance or anticipation, you'll learn techniques that help send signals of safety to your nervous system.
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As fear around pain decreases, you can begin building confidence in your body and returning to activities you may have avoided because of pain.
No surgery. No injections. A drug-free, evidence-based approach to chronic pain.
Is Pain Reprocessing Therapy right for me?
PRT may be helpful for people experiencing chronic pain that persists without a clear ongoing structural cause, particularly when previous treatments haven't provided lasting relief. It may be used with conditions and symptoms such as:
Back, Neck & Musculoskeletal Pain: Chronic back pain, neck pain, repetitive strain pain
Headaches & Nerve Pain: Headaches, nerve pain, complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS)
Chronic & Widespread Pain: Fibromyalgia, persistent or unexplained pain
Pelvic & Gastrointestinal Pain: Pelvic pain, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
Because chronic pain can have many causes, we recommend appropriate medical evaluation to rule out structural or medical conditions before beginning PRT.
Your experience will be individualized based on your symptoms, history and goals. There isn't a one-size-fits-all approach.
What does PRT look like?
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Initial assessment
We’ll talk about your pain history, symptoms, previous treatments, and how pain is affecting your daily life to determine whether PRT may be a good fit.
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Understanding the pain
You’ll learn how the brain can create and reinforce chronic pain, and how fear and avoidance can keep those pathways active.
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Reprocessing pain
Using techniques such as somatic tracking, we’ll help your nervous system respond to sensations with greater safety while also exploring stress or emotional factors that may be contributing to the pain cycle.
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Returning to life
As your brain begins responding differently to pain signals, we’ll work toward helping you feel safer and more confident returning to the activities pain may have kept you from doing.
The research behind Pain Reprocessing Therapy
One of the most significant studies of PRT, the Boulder Back Pain Study, examined adults experiencing chronic back pain.
Following treatment, 66% of participants receiving PRT were pain-free or nearly pain-free, compared with 20% receiving placebo treatment and 10% receiving usual care. Researchers also found that many of those improvements were maintained one year later.
The findings offer promising evidence that changing how the brain processes pain can produce meaningful improvement for some people experiencing chronic pain.
Common questions about PRT
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No. Your pain is real. PRT doesn't suggest otherwise. Instead, it recognizes that all pain involves the brain's interpretation of signals from the body. For some types of chronic pain, the brain's protective system can remain activated even when there is no longer an ongoing physical threat.
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PRT is specifically designed to address chronic pain. Therapy focuses on understanding the brain's pain response and changing the fear, attention and behavioral patterns that may be reinforcing it.
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We recommend having your symptoms medically evaluated so that appropriate structural or medical causes can be identified or ruled out. PRT is intended primarily for pain believed to have a neuroplastic or centralized component.
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Yes. PRT is available through telehealth for clients located in Oklahoma, making it possible to participate from home.
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Synergy Wellbeing accepts many major insurance plans. Coverage varies by plan, so our team can help you determine your benefits before your first appointment.
You don't have to build your life around pain.
After months or years of chronic pain, it's understandable to become cautious about movement, activities or situations that might make it worse.
Pain Reprocessing Therapy offers a different possibility: helping your brain and body rediscover a sense of safety.
If chronic pain has kept you from living the life you want, we'd love to talk with you about whether PRT may be a good fit.