MIRECC / CoE

This is a common goal for CBT-CP! Treatment begins by helping you better understand what contributes to pain and the impact it has on different areas of your life. Treatment then teaches proven skills for helping you to take control of the pain rather than it controlling you.

Great! Many people with chronic pain avoid physical and social activities to try to limit pain. This is understandable, but can lead to isolation, loss of stamina, reduced muscle strength, and greater focus on pain. In CBT-CP, you'll learn to take small steps to gradually increase activity and improve your functioning.

Chronic pain can really impact your daily routine. Many people with chronic pain feel that pain is calling the shots in their life. Treatment will help you approach the things you want to accomplish in a more thoughtful and paced way, leading to increased productivity and fewer pain flares.

You are not alone! Individuals with chronic pain often report feeling down and irritable. CBT-CP can help you catch and change pain-related thoughts that directly affect your mood. You'll learn new ways of looking at your pain that take away its negative power. You'll also work with your therapist on doing activities that you enjoy, which research shows leads to improved mood.

Pain can take a toll on relationships and lead to isolation. CBT-CP will help you re-engage with people and activities you care about. Increasing safe activity, improving your mood, and knowing how to manage your pain can all have a positive impact on your relationships, which in turn will improve how you feel.

CBT-CP likely won't eliminate your pain completely, but will help you shift your focus to the people and activities that really matter to you. As you expand your life and grow the good things, pain will take up less space.

Many Veterans who experience chronic pain report having sleep problems. CBT-CP includes specific strategies for improving the amount and quality of your sleep. Your therapist can also connect you with additional resources if you still need more help in this area.

CBT-CP will help you establish a plan you can follow to reduce the amount of pain flares that you have and to better manage them when they occur. Together, the skills you learn in treatment can greatly improve the negative impact of pain flares on your life.

CBT-CP can help! Treatment can teach you how to manage your physical and emotional responses to pain, which can improve your pain experience. For example, specific relaxation skills taught in treatment work to calm the nervous system and reduce muscle tension. And regular, paced activity can help you regain strength and conditioning. These changes and more can turn down the volume of your pain.

Many CBT-CP skills can help you achieve this goal. Effective use of pacing can help to reduce pain flares, relaxation skills can quiet your body's harm alarm, and skills for changing pain-related thoughts can change how you experience pain. Using these many helpful CBT-CP options to manage pain will give you tools that you control so that you can rely less on medications.