ACT for pain
A clinician-led acceptance and commitment therapy for persistent pain. You practice making room for difficult sensations while moving toward a valued life.
Catalog
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Each page teaches a short definition, numbered steps for beginning or finding a clinician, and a caution. Notes stay conservative about what the evidence can and cannot claim.
Activity pacing
A clinic habit of breaking tasks into sustainable pieces so a good day does not create a two-day crash. Mixed evidence as a standalone cure; still widely taught.
Breath prayer
A complementary Christian practice that pairs a short prayer with an ordinary slower breath. It is not an RCT-backed pain treatment.
CBT for pain
A clinician-led course of cognitive behavioral therapy aimed at living with persistent pain—thought skills, activity plans, and problem-solving, not a claim that pain is imaginary.
Coping with catastrophic pain thoughts
A beginner CBT skill for noticing “this will never end / something terrible is happening” thoughts and answering them with a calmer, more accurate sentence.
Curable app
A commercial pain-education and skills app. One independent wait-list trial reported small-to-moderate benefits. It has not been shown to beat an active therapy.
Empowered Relief
A single ~2-hour Stanford class, taught by a certified instructor, that teaches a short set of pain-CBT skills. It is not 8-week CBT, not a self-paced app, and not a claim that pain is imaginary.
Explain Pain (Butler and Moseley)
A widely used book that teaches how pain works in the nervous system. It is an education resource, not a clinical trial and not a promise of recovery.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction
An eight-week clinic attention class that trains noticing breath, body, and the present moment. On this site it is described as a clinical skill, not a spiritual path.
Pain neuroscience education
A teaching approach that says pain is real, and that a nervous system can stay alarmed after tissues have had time to heal. Learning this is not the same as being told the pain is imaginary.
Pain reprocessing therapy and somatic tracking
An emerging, clinician-led approach that teaches people to attend to pain sensations with less threat. Pain is treated as real. Medical evaluation comes first.
Praying the lament psalms
A complementary Christian practice of praying the psalms that complain, weep, and ask “how long.” Not a substitute for medical or psychological care.
Progressive muscle relaxation
A beginner method of briefly tensing and then releasing muscle groups, used to notice where the body is bracing around pain.
Self-compassion practice
Kind, honest self-talk on a hard pain day. Not self-worship, not empty positivity, and not a claim that you caused the pain by being unkind to yourself.
Slow diaphragmatic breathing
A beginner relaxation skill: slower breaths that gently move the belly, used to lower tension and alarm that often travel with pain.
The Way Out (Alan Gordon and Alon Ziv)
A popular book that explains pain reprocessing therapy and somatic tracking for a general audience. It is a popularization, not a clinical trial.
Values-based daily action
A beginner ACT skill: pick one value that still matters—faith, family, work, friendship—and take one small action toward it on a painful day.
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