Chronic Pain Illness Counselling & Therapy

Chronic Pain and Physical Illness Counselling: The effects of chronic pain and physical illness can lead to severe emotional and physical distress and dysfunction at work, in relationships, and in everyday life.

Make sure you consult your doctor to ensure there is no physical injury that needs medical attention

Whether the cause of your pain or physical symptoms are known or not, therapies such as CBT, Person Centred Therapy, Neurofeedback and EMDR can help

In Manchester or Online, I can offer these therapies that can help you manage your mood, reduce feelings of pain and overwhelm, and deal with the associated difficulties that come with physical pain and physical health problems. 

Chronic Pain Counselling

While these methods are generally considered most relevant for Chronic Pain, there are many other talking therapies that can help you cope with problems for chronic pain and illness.
 
These methods have been very useful for dealing with:
  • pains in the muscles or joints
  • back pain
  • headaches
  • tiredness
  • feeling faint
  • chest pain
  • heart palpitations
  • stomach problems – pain, feeling bloated, diarrhoea and constipation.

These aren’t the only medically unexplained symptoms.  Other problems include collapsing, fits, breathlessness, weakness, paralysis, numbness and tingling.

chronic pain illness

We can give a name or a “diagnosis” for symptoms when:

  • they occur together in a particular pattern in many people, or
  • when they share a similar cause.

Diagnoses for certain patterns of medically unexplained symptoms include:

  • Irritable bowel syndrome – troubling stomach symptoms
  • Fibromyalgia –  widespread bodily pain and tenderness
  • Non-epileptic attack disorder – in epilepsy, fits are caused by problems with the electrical activity of the brain.  In non-epileptic attack disorder, someone has fits that look like epileptic fits, but the electrical activity of the brain is normal.

Examples of diagnoses that may be made because of possible causes of these symptoms include:

  • Somatisation disorder and somatoform disorder – where stress is thought to be a major cause of the symptoms, especially when the symptoms go on for a long time or are particularly severe.
  • Dissociative disorder (also called ‘conversion disorder’ or ‘dissociative-conversion disorder’) – where it is thought that symptoms that look like they are caused by a disease of the nervous system (e.g. fits, paralysis, loss of memory), but are in fact caused by stress.
  • Health anxiety (sometimes called hypochondriasis) – where someone worries a lot that their symptoms mean they have a serious physical illness, despite reassurance that they are not physically ill.
  • Body dysmorphic disorder –  where someone is overly concerned about an aspect of their appearance, which causes them considerable distress or gets in the way of everyday life.

Other diagnoses can be given for medically unexplained symptoms, but it is common to use a general term to describe the symptoms, such as “medically unexplained symptoms”. 

Another common term is “functional” – the symptoms are due to a problem in the way the body is functioning, even though the structure of the body is normal.

Chronic Pain and Physical Illness Counselling

At David Peak Counselling and Psychotherapy I provide support for chronic pain & illness within a professional and understandable environment.

I can help you change the way you process thoughts and feelings, which in turn changes how your brain processes pain and helps you improve your overall quality of life. There are also various relaxation methods to reduce the tension and anxiety that accompany pain and illness.

We also offer online Counselling via Skype and Zoom for those unable to make it to our clinic to see us or who wish to continue their therapy while away.

chronic pain illness

Are You Ready to take the initial steps to cope with Chronic Pain Illness

It is possible to improve your quality of life in the face of chronic pain & illness, including a reduction of your symptoms, better-quality sleep, and finding meaning in life with effective therapy for chronic pain & illness offered 

Pain and illness can be overwhelming and difficult to manage, but we can help you take advantage of proven strategies to help you live a better life despite adversity.

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The counselling was really great, and I was even put in contact with a person who would support me with my inquiry at work, and represent me if needed. Having professional support in this matter took such a load off my mind.

Anon

Manchester

Pain is often misunderstood. This misconception has led to hundreds of millions of chronic pain patients being misdiagnosed and consequently receiving treatments that attempt to treat symptoms while completely ignoring the cause. To address this, you must first understand what pain really is.

Together we will find the best solution to help you overcome your Chronic pain or illness. You can see more information on all the Common Psychophysiologic Disorders

Recent studies have shown that one in every three people over the age of 50 suffers from medically unexplained chronic pain. If you are one of these people the good news is that, although physical therapy cannot help alleviate your pain, because there is no identifiable damage to your body, psychological therapy can help you to “unlearn” your chronic pain, and so reduce your suffering. Conscientiously working on a range of techniques with your therapist has been shown to weaken the grip of the pain experience and because of that reduce the devastating and debilitating effect that medically unexplained chronic pain can have on your life.

Get In Touch

As always please see links for other pages on this website, and if you need to talk about your own personal experiences or would like to arrange to see a counsellor in Manchester, or Online, then please leave me a message on the contact form or give me a call. 

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How to find the Manchester Practice