Change Your Brain, Change Your Pain

by Mark Grant

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Wyong, NSW Australia: Mark Grant 2009. 212pp  Notes 13 pp   US$30  

An associated CD can be purchased separatelyMark Grant, a psychologist in Sydney, Australia, shares his understandings of how EMDR and related methods can release physical and psychological pains. His detailed presentation on the prevalence and contributors to pain is methodical, and his discussion of therapeutic approaches includes helpful, step-by-step exercises. For instance, Grant surveys research showing that people who are stressed are more likely to experience pains of all sorts, as well as various diseases.

Stress is anything that threatens your ability to satisfy your survival needs. 
Five main types and effects of stress which lead to pain:
     1. lack of safety and support
     2. emotional disconnection
     3. increased physiological arousal
     4. negative thinking
     5. trauma (pain memories). (p. 16)

Five basic strategies for overcoming pain:
     1. safety and support
     2. reconnecting with your feelings
     3. learning how to  control stressful feelings and pain
     4. changing your thinking
     5. building resilience (p. 17)

Grant reviews research on

…the complex, multi-layered nature of traumatic pain… recommend[ing] a phase-oriented approach incorporating safety, exposure and emotional regulation skills training, and reintegration (learning to think and behave more adaptively). Each phase of treatment addresses a different element of the problem, with all the phases forming a comprehensive treatment strategy. Drawing on the phase-oriented approach, and what we know about the different types and effects of stress which maintain pain, the following five-stage strategy is recommended:
     1. safety and support
     2. reconnecting with your feelings
     3. learning how to control stressful feelings and pain
     4. changing your thinking
     5. building resilience. (p. 54)

Grant observes that bilateral stimulation of the body markedly facilitates releases of pains, when a person mentally focuses on negative feelings and/or cognitions. Similarly, it facilitates replacements with positive ones. Both careseekers and caregivers will find this book rich in suggestions for ways to apply these principles.

While WHEE (www.paintap.com) is much simpler in its explanations and applications, Grant's book provides a broad variety of suggestions that are very helpful to anyone seeking help in dealing with pain.

Review by Daniel J. Benor, MD
IJHC Editor in Chief

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