What is mind body medicine?
Mind body medicine is a treatment approach that recognizes that the mind and the body are not separate and distinct entities - what affects the mind will affect the body and vice versa.
A wealth of research now demonstrates that psychological treatments, lifestyle interventions, and mindfulness practices improve outcomes in a wide range of medical conditions including cardiovascular disease, cancer, functional bowel diseases and pain syndromes. Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) is a new, evidenced based psychological treatment for chronic pain which incorporates a mind body approach.
Rsearch shows that stress is linked to the development of a number of chronic physical illnesses and mental health disorders by its effects on the immune system and the brain signaling pathways that process emotions, physical movement and bodily sensations. Stress can result from adverse experiences in childhood or adulthood including trauma, abuse, relationship, work or school problems, or the experience of racism or other types of discrimination. In addition, the experience of living with a chronic medical condition can itself create significant stress.
The relationship between stress and physical illness is bidirectional - stress can lead to the development of physical symptoms, and chronic physical illness creates stress which can then worsen symptoms.
Who can benefit from a mind body approach?
This approach can be particularly helpful for the following types of issues:
- mood or anxiety issues related to an underlying medical disorder
- difficulty with adjustment to chronic illness or medical diagnosis
- functional neurological disorders (FND) or functional gastrointestinal disorders such IBS
- chronic pain syndromes including migraine headaches, back pain and pelvic pain/interstitial cystitis
- chronic fatigue syndrome
-psycho-dermatologic disorders
Services:
An initial consultation to review the medical and psychiatric history, current symptomatology and any social and environmental contributors, provide a diagnosis and a proposed treatment plan.
Individual psychotherapy which incorporates a variety of evidence based treatment modalities including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), P Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), mindfulness practices and exposure therapy.
I work collaboratively with patients and their current healthcare providers to create a treatment plan that is evidence based, involves a comprehensive understanding of my patient's medical and psychiatric issues, and is in line with the patient's goals and values.
What you can expect from psychotherapy:
*A greater understanding of how your brain works and how your emotions, thoughts, and behavior are intricately involved in the experience of pain and other physical symptoms
*Understanding the effect of past and current stress on the body
*Reduced frequency and severity of pain or other symptoms
*Reduced impact of symptoms on the quality of your life
*Reduced reliance on medications to manage symptoms
Medications:
Low mood and anxiety are common and normal responses to the experience of chronic pain and other uncomfortable chronic physical symptoms. Generally, as physical symptoms improve, mood and anxiety also improve. However, in some cases where psychiatric symptoms persist or appear to represent a separate disorder, medications can be helpful.
Medical disorders, such as autoimmune and endocrine disorders, can cause mood or other psychiatric symptoms and medical treatments such as chemotherapy can frequently have psychiatric side effects. Psychiatric medications can at times also be helpful for these types of issues.
As psychiatric medications can have side effects and potentially interact with other medications, my approach is to minimize the number of medications prescribed and use the lowest effective dose.
I do not prescribe medications to manage pain or other physical symptoms, or manage tapers off of pain medications prescribed by other providers.