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We present interactive seminars and demonstration-rich
workshops on systemic coaching, pain control, alleviating suffering, resolving family
chaos and relationship bonds. Email us if you would like a workshop in your area.
Pain is important!
Some unfortunate people cannot experience pain.
The horrible symptoms of leprosy were mostly due to anesthesia of
otherwise painful stimuli. And some people cannot stop experiencing pain.
The symptoms of RSD (Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy) include abnormal,
long-term pain, usually following mild trauma.
Some people avoid any situation which might cause pain,
and some people deal with pain by remaining dissociated. People who cannot experience pain are at a
disadvantage. Pain alerts us to potential damage and a need to change
position. Pain (physical or emotional) provides important messages.
This article assumes that you can at least consider pain
to be a valuable message. If this is inconceivable for you, reading this
article will likely irritate you.
Drug-free pain relief may be useless for
people who believe that they deserve to suffer, or who are generally
irresponsible. A person with tooth decay may
avoid visiting a dentist until some pain threshold is reached; and people who have deliberately hurt or betrayed others may
prefer to suffer until they resolve their guilt.
Pain is both a physical experience and a
subjective emotional response. Pain motivates withdrawal from painful
stimuli, and immobilization of damaged body part. Although pain is primarily associated with body
damage, sometimes a painful location is not damaged (e.g. sciatica and
phantom pains).
Pain & Suffering
If your pain is primarily a response to a physical stimulus,
then
suffering is primarily an emotional state of enduring loss or damage. Pain usually indicates a damaged body.
Suffering usually indicates the consequences of damaged relationships -
abandonment, abuse, betrayal and guilt.
Some people feel
physical pain, while other people with the same stimulus feel comfortable.
Pain responses seem to be mostly learned in early childhood as a part of family and cultural
responses. Many children learn to suppress and hide difficult
feelings such sadness, fear and anger and may also learned to hide pain, for example when
parents react angrily about their crying. Other children find that by
expressing pain, they gain more attention or love.
Pain is difficult to measure, and may be affected by
stress, fear and anxiety. Pain responses often include
raised blood pressure and increased heart rate. Differences in pain
response are mostly due to
social, cultural, psychological and genetic factors.
Pain often follows stress
and emotional suffering. Pain may be delayed or lessened in
severity if a person better controls external stress and his or her
internal reactions to stress.
[ Control
Stress .
Emotional Intelligence ]
Acute & Chronic Pain
Acute pain includes immediate, usually short-term, intense body
responses, often connected with depressed feelings, followed by a dull,
throbbing sensations.
Chronic pain includes long-term (often defined as having persisted
for at least 6 months), intense, often throbbing sensation.
Chronic pain is often associated with medical diagnoses of cancer, multiple
sclerosis or
arthritis. It is more difficult to locate and treat. Chronic pain can
significantly alter the life of a person, sometimes leading to secondary
complications such as hypochondria, depression, sleep disturbances, loss of
appetite and feelings of helplessness.
Pain Control Medications
Pain control can be achieved using chemicals that interfere with the transmission of
painful signals, with the reception of painful signals, or with the interpretation of
painful signals. The most powerful pain control medications are opiates (e.g.
morphine and heroin) and the most common are salicylates (e.g. aspirin and
acetaminophen). Other medications commonly used during pain control
include antidepressants and tranquilizers. Many pain medications
may only be prescribed by licensed physicians.
Some herbal remedies contain medications similar to medical drugs, usually
obtained from natural sources rather than artificially constructed.
Alcohol is a traditional pain-medication in many cultures,
often used in conjunction with herbs or nicotine (tobacco) - a powerful
alkaloid that helps people dissociate.
Placebo (inert substances that look like drugs) are often
more effective in
pain control than any drug, as shown in clinical double-blind trials...
Systemic Pain Control
Soulwork Systemic Coaching offers you a multidisciplinary approach to
pain. You can create a "resourceful space" to
find freedom from pain, and to make decisions which may solve the
problems that cause pain. You can become active
in your pain assessment and control.
Do you use pain medications with little success and/or unpleasant
side-effects? You can learn to decrease your
reliance on drugs by learning how to control pain. (These skills
have enormous value in crisis and emergency situations.)
If you cannot alleviate your pain, you may experience distress,
depression or anxiety. These may worsen both
your condition and the situation for other
involved people. Most people can control pain without drugs. Pain control coaching is often
most appropriate for:
- People with chronic or recurring pain
- People who have incomplete pain relief from medication
- People with a history of adverse reactions to medication
- People who wish to avoid medication
- People with prolonged postoperative pain
If you lack meaningful relationships, any increased attention,
sympathy or support that you receive as a result of pain may motivate
you to prolong painful behavior, so that you may continue to receive relationship
benefits.
[ Depression .
Anxiety .
Side Effects of Medication ]
NOTE: Be sure to consult your physician regarding the
applicability of any of these opinions or recommendations with respect to pain,
medical symptoms or medical conditions.
Long Term Pain Relief
Pain provides a message that
something is wrong. If you receive a painful message and act upon it,
further pain may be unnecessary. It is important that you find out what is
happening before using pain control techniques. Soulwork Systemic
Coaching can supplement medical treatment; it does not replace it.
We may encourage initial "short-term" pain relief to create a
resourceful space for you to follow the steps needed for
long-term relief. Short term pain control may involve non-psychoactive
medication, massage, acupuncture and/or hypnosis. (
Summary of short-term pain relief )
1) The first goal of long-term pain relief is often to coach
you to deal with current crisis. Further pain control steps may be useless
until you end or control any crisis. A crisis may include the shock
of an accident, a medical test, an emergency, or suffering about a relationship.
2) How does your pain makes sense? Explore the causes and benefits
of your pain, and ways to preserve any benefits while relieving the symptoms.
3) Resolve any relationship chaos,
especially relationships in which you feel guilt.
4) Resolve any conflicts about pain and its
relief, while becoming specific about what you want instead of pain - and
for what purpose.
5) Resolve relationship bonds that require
pain. This is particularly important if you have a family history of chronic
or recurring pain.
6) Deal with emotional trauma. Anger, fear
and sadness inhibit concentration and relaxation, and may increase pain.
We can coach you to explore any emotions associated with your pain.
Some common issues are: anger about some person or event, sadness
about lost opportunities, fear of
unending pain and fear of death.
7) Find appropriate mentors. Some of the better
mentors for pain control are people with similar, but worse, situations to
you, who
generally have a positive attitude.
During a pain control program, we can coach you to:
- trust that your body will spontaneously create endorphins that protect vital systems and body
functions
- focus on your experience of NOW to eliminate
pain remembered from yesterday and pain anticipated for tomorrow
- learn progressive relaxation (especially important for chronic pain)
to assist your nervous, circulatory and immune systems
- create pain-free moments - and then minutes - and then hours ... and then
...
We require approval from
a medical doctor before we commence our pain control programs.
Do you want relationship coaching or systemic coach training? Do you want to coach people to resolve emotional and relationship challenges?
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