Specialty
Chronic Pain & Persistent Physical Symptoms Therapy
When pain keeps making decisions for you
Chronic pain is exhausting in a way that people who have not lived it rarely understand. It is not only the pain itself. It is the planning around it, the canceled plans, the mornings spent assessing your body before you even get out of bed, and the quiet fear underneath it all about what the pain means and whether it will ever ease. *
Maybe you live with migraines, back or neck pain, recurring tension, dizziness or symptoms that flare when life gets stressful. Maybe you have been through rounds of tests and treatments, and you are worn out from searching for answers. Over time, many people begin to fear their own sensations, watching the body closely for the first sign of trouble, and pulling back from activities they used to love. *
Your pain is real. It is not imaginary and it is not a character flaw. At the same time, pain and the nervous system are deeply intertwined. Fear, hypervigilance and cycles of avoidance can amplify pain and shrink your life around it, and those patterns can be changed. Therapy works alongside your medical care, never instead of it. *
People do get better. Not by pretending the pain is not there, but by changing their relationship with their body, calming the alarm systems that keep pain loud, and slowly reclaiming the parts of life that pain took over. *
Signs chronic pain & persistent physical symptoms may be affecting your life
- Pain, migraines or physical tension that keeps returning despite treatment
- Dizziness, stomach distress or other symptoms that worsen with stress
- Constantly scanning your body for the first sign of a flare
- Fear or dread about what a sensation might mean
- Planning your days, work and relationships around symptoms
- Avoiding movement, travel or activities in case they trigger pain
- Feeling exhausted from appointments, tests and searching for answers
- Frustration or shame that your body will not cooperate
- Difficulty trusting your body after it has let you down
- Feeling that doctors, or people close to you, do not fully believe you
- Noticing your world getting smaller as the pain stays the same
Our approach to chronic pain & persistent physical symptoms
Persistent pain often involves a nervous system that has learned to stay on high alert. The original injury or illness may have healed or stabilized, yet the alarm keeps ringing, and fear of symptoms keeps it ringing louder. Treatment starts with understanding your specific history, your medical picture and the patterns that have formed around your symptoms. Nothing about this approach questions whether your pain is real. It is, and it deserves care on every level. *
Therapy is individualized rather than protocol-driven. Clinical hypnosis is especially relevant here, with a strong evidence base for changing how the brain processes pain and for releasing patterns of tension and bracing. Somatic and experiential work helps you rebuild a sense of safety in your body, and EMDR may be incorporated when frightening medical experiences or symptom episodes have left a lasting imprint. *
The goal is meaningful, lasting change rather than symptom management alone. That usually looks like less fear, more trust in your body, a quieter baseline of tension, and a life that is organized around what matters to you rather than around the next flare. *
Clinician who specializes in chronic pain & persistent physical symptoms
ACT · EMDR · Hypnosis
Dr. Laura Faiwiszewski specializes in the mind-body dimensions of chronic pain and persistent physical symptoms. She helps people interrupt the cycle where pain fuels fear and fear fuels pain, often integrating clinical hypnosis with psychotherapy. Her work is a fit if you are tired of choosing between "it is all physical" and "it is all in your head", because it is neither. *
Full profile →Modalities
Therapy approaches that may help
We integrate these techniques, custom-tailored to you, in the order your nervous system can use first.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
- Does seeing a psychologist mean my pain is in my head?
- No. Your pain is real, and nothing about therapy suggests otherwise. All pain involves the brain and nervous system, which is exactly why psychological approaches can change how much pain you feel and how much space it takes up. Therapy addresses the real, physical experience of pain from a different angle than medication or procedures. *
- Should I keep seeing my doctors while doing this work?
- Yes. Mind-body therapy complements appropriate medical evaluation and treatment, it does not replace it. New or changing symptoms should always be medically evaluated, and we are glad to work as part of a broader care picture that includes your physicians. *
- Can therapy actually reduce physical pain?
- For many people, yes. Approaches like clinical hypnosis have research support for reducing pain intensity and pain-related distress. Even where pain does not disappear, people often find it takes up far less of their attention, their fear decreases, and their daily functioning improves meaningfully. *
- What if no one has found a clear cause for my symptoms?
- That is common, and it does not make your symptoms less real. Stress-affected and persistent symptoms without a single clear cause are exactly the kind of experience mind-body therapy is built for. We work with what your body is actually doing, not with whether a scan can explain it. *
- What does clinical hypnosis for pain actually involve?
- It is a focused, collaborative state of attention, not a loss of control and nothing like stage hypnosis. In that state, your clinician helps you shift how sensations are processed, ease protective tension and practice experiencing your body differently. Most people find it calm and surprisingly practical. *
- How long does treatment take?
- It depends on how long the patterns have been in place and what your goals are. Some people notice shifts in how they relate to symptoms within weeks, while deeper change in longstanding pain cycles usually unfolds over months. Your clinician will discuss a realistic arc with you early on. *
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