CHRONIC PAIN AND ILLNESS
DeLee Lantz, Ph.D.
If you're in pain or have a serious illness, you know that you are not only
physically distressed, but psychologically distressed as well. You may feel
depressed, frightened, worried and out of control. Others in your life may
have a hard time understanding why you aren't able to do what you used to
do and why it's taking so long to get better. Or, they may feel frightened
themselves about what's happening to you and unable to support you as you'd
most like.. Necessary medical procedures sometimes cause their own pain and
distress. Communication with your health care team and with your loved ones
is often difficult or absent. Despite your own distress, you sometimes wind
up having to take care of the others. You may feel you must hide your own
pain and fear to keep from overwhelming them.
Or, your loved ones may lean in the other direction and become overly involved
in your condition. Their concern leads them to see you mainly as a "patient".
You become a "person in pain" and lose your role as a whole person
who is more than your pain or illness.
With the medical team, your family and your friends all focusing on the one
aspect, you, yourself can become identified with this role of "sick
person" and little more.
Your illness or your pain is a physical condition. Of course your body does need attention and treatment. But you are more than a physical body. Is the rest of you getting the attention and treatment it needs? Never has it been more important to support the rest of you, even as you do all you can for your body.
PAIN MANAGEMENT GROUPS
Groups provide a place of support and understanding from others with similar
experiences. Together, group members develop new kinds of pain management
skills. Relaxation training, meditation and creative expression are included,
as well as discussion of improving communication with health care providers.
Emphasis is on experiencing and expressing yourself as a whole person, not just a body in pain. Body, emotions and spirit are all seen as important, as is relationship to oneself, others and the world. Groups provide an opportunity for you to enhance the healing of others as well as yourself.
Dr. Valerie Kay leads the pain management groups.
PSYCHOTHERAPY
Many people are dealing with depression, anxiety, anger and isolation that
so often accompany pain. A one-to-one relationship with an understanding
therapist can provide great help and support. We're able to hear your real
feelings and experiences, unlike others you may have to protect. Therapy
is adapted to your unique set of needs and includes pain management. We
focus not on the "pain patient," but on the whole person who
has pain.
It can sometimes be forgotten that partners, parents of children in pain and children of parents or siblings in pain are in great need of a supportive and therapeutic place of their own. They generally have their own fears, anger and conflicts and often can't talk about them with family members. Individual therapy can be a great help to them as they go through their own difficult experience.
All Associates provide psychotherapy.
BIOFEEDBACK
Biofeedback is the use of electronic sensors to measure what's happening
in your body ("bio-") and feed back this information to you on
a computer screen ("-feedback"). It can measure such things as
muscle tension, breathing, heart rate, skin temperature and brain wave activity.
Biofeedback is commonly used to help in the treatment of pain. It can be
used to identify and retrain pain-producing or maintaining body habits. Examples
of this are excess muscle tension or misuse of muscles, breathing patterns
that heighten anxiety and poor blood circulation. It is also used for learning
to relax, quiet and calm yourself through your own control of your mind-body
system. Retraining focuses on how you use your body during common activities.
For instance, excess muscle tension and imbalance and faulty breathing during
your activities may need to be retrained.
Associates providing biofeedback are Dr. Thomas Browne, Dr. DeLee Lantz, and Sheridan Adams.
NEUROFEEDBACK
Neurofeedback, or EEG or brain wave feedback, is a special form of biofeedback.
It has been found to be very effective for relief from many types of pain
and from the anxiety that accompanies it. It identifies whether some parts
of the brain are firing in ways that accentuate pain and anxiety. Through
the feedback of this on a computer screen and the guidance of an experienced
neurofeedback therapist, you can learn to change the way your brain is
functioning. Because only you can make the actual changes, both neurofeedback,
and general biofeedback help restore your sense of control.
Dr. Thomas Browne is our neurofeedback provider.
PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING
Psychological testing provides important information about your response
to pain and illness and your particular combination of resources and difficulties
in dealing with it. This information can be used to increase your ways
of coping with your pain or illness. The results can also help you, your
family and your health care team understand you better so they can do what
is more helpful to you. Testing can range from brief questionnaires assessing
physical and psychological symptoms, coping styles, beliefs, levels of
distress, readiness for surgery, etc., to longer inventories assessing
how individual personality style may affect response to illness and pain.
If you or a loved one is living with chronic pain and/or serious illness, we would like to be of help to you. Please call us about one or more of these services designed for people just like you. There is help.
I.P.A. Services:
Psychotherapy
Couples Therapy
Life Coaching
Biofeedback
Integrated Psychology Associates (I.P.A.) Offices
Main Office: 2859 Sacramento Street, San Francisco, CA 94115
(Please use this address for general correspondence.)
Main Telephone and Facsimile: (415) 331-5433
(See phone numbers for individual Associates on their pages. Use number above for general questions and for faxes.)
Other Offices:
405 Clement St., Suite 2, San Francisco, CA 94118
45 Camino Alto, Suite 203, Mill Valley, CA 94941
2424 Dwight Way, Suite 7, Berkeley, CA 94704
(Additional East Bay offices in Walnut Creek and Oakland, CA)