Making Sense of Pain: Introducing Pain Reprocessing Therapy for Pelvic Pain & Endometriosis

Making Sense of Pain: Introducing Pain Reprocessing Therapy For Pelvic Pain and Endometriosis

If you’re living with endometriosis, suspected endometriosis, painful periods or another form of persistent pelvic pain, you’ve already been through a lot. Maybe you’ve seen specialists, followed treatment plans, tried new diets, or even been told that everything “looks normal”—while you still don’t feel okay. Or perhaps you’ve accessed thorough care but still have unresolved physical and emotional symptoms.

But when we focus only on symptoms, we miss the whole human experience. That’s where psychotherapy can fill the gap between key supports like medical care, physiotherapy, and diet. This is because persistent pain often carries emotional weight: anxiety, exhaustion, grief, identity loss, relationship strain, and the feeling of not being fully believed. This experience can be exhausting, confusing, and lonely. It’s one I have heard from clients and lived through myself.

I’m excited to share that I am bringing Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) into the work I do to support you with pelvic pain and endometriosis. Along with emotional processing, trauma support, self-trust building, and identity work—the heart of my approach—PRT gives us a way to explore the full picture of your experience: making sense of pain, feeling safer in your body, and reconnecting with what’s possible.

What is pain reprocessing therapy?

Pain Reprocessing Therapy is a therapeutic approach based on how our nervous systems respond to perceived danger. When pain becomes chronic, it’s not always because of ongoing tissue damage—in many cases, the brain continues to send pain signals even when it doesn’t need to [2].

Research shows that chronic pain can involve changes in brain areas related to emotion, memory, and perception, including the prefrontal cortex and limbic system [1,6]. This is known as central sensitization—and it can lead to an amplified and persistent experience of pain even after the original injury or condition has healed [2,5].

Check out this video by BC Women’s Health for a more detailed explanation.

Pain is also deeply tied to our emotional landscape. Brain regions that process emotion are activated during pain experiences, which helps explain why emotional distress often intensifies pain [3]. Have you noticed that period pain or another type of pain typically flares up or worsens during times of high stress? That is this cycle in action. We can also look at this cycle as your body doing its best to protect you—but that protection system may have become overly sensitive over time.

In fact, "the more we fear pain, the more sensitive the brain becomes to potential signs of danger, causing the brain to err even more on the side of caution than it did before, which ultimately causes us to feel even more pain. In this way, pain causes fear, which causes more pain, which causes more fear and so on. This is the pain-fear cycle—where fear is the fuel that keeps pain burning" [7,8].

This doesn’t mean the pain is in your head—it means we need to look beyond the body to the nervous system to reduce your pain.

PRT helps retrain the brain and nervous system to interpret signals that more accurately reflect your body’s capabilities. We do this through techniques like:

• Somatic tracking (gently noticing sensations without fear)

• Mind-body education (understanding how pain and stress are linked)

• Emotional exploration (working with fear, grief, or trauma that may be stuck)

• Self-compassion (building a sense of safety within yourself)

By tapping into your brain’s ability to rewire we can break the cycle of fear and pain and move past feelings of frustration and shame. From there, we can create a sense of well-being and comfort [8]. It’s a process that blends neuroscience with compassion—creating room for both physical and emotional healing.

Ways we support your whole experience in psychotherapy

Do I Need to Be in Constant Pain to Access This Work?

Not at all. For many people, pain is only part of the picture—the emotional toll can be just as heavy. This can include the impact of not being believed, relationship stress when pain affects daily life, anxiety or depression, and a sense of identity loss.

Pain is complex—it doesn't just affect the body; it touches how we see ourselves, how we relate to others, and how we navigate the world.

How Do I Know if This Work Will Help Me?

You don’t need a specific diagnosis to explore this work. You might find PRT supportive if you:

• Experience persistent pelvic or period pain, or endometriosis

• Have been told “there’s nothing wrong” but still feel pain

• Struggle with flare-ups during stress or emotional events

• Feel disconnected from your body or afraid of your pain

• Notice signs of nervous system dysregulation, such as chronic fatigue, irritability, people-pleasing, shutdowns, or hard-to-name anxiety

Even if you’re unsure about your potential for recovery, giving yourself permission to explore techniques focused on harnessing the mind-body connection can foster a new relationship with pain [8].

In our work together, we won't just focus on symptoms—we'll explore how your nervous system, emotions, relationships, and life story interact. Together, we’ll help your body feel safer, unpack emotional triggers, and understand what’s happening underneath the pain.

A Note from Lived Experience

This work is personal for me, too. My own journey with endometriosis taught me how complicated and invisible persistent pain can be. It also taught me the importance of safe, validating spaces—places where you don’t have to explain or justify your experience.

That’s the kind of space I aim to offer. Not just as a therapist, but as someone who truly understands that pain is never just physical. It touches every part of your life—and so healing must include every part, too.

If You’re Curious

If you’re tired of feeling stuck and alone with your pain, you're not alone—and you don’t need perfect words to begin. I welcome you to reach out.

Whether we focus on pain, anxiety, relationships, or simply creating space to breathe again, this work can help you reconnect to your body, your story, and your strength.

You don’t have to do it alone. Reach out today if you are ready for support.

References

[1] Apkarian, A. V., Baliki, M. N., & Geha, P. Y. (2009). Towards a theory of chronic pain. Progress in Neurobiology, 87(2), 81–97. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2728361/

[2] Woolf, C. J. (2011). Central sensitization: Implications for the diagnosis and treatment of pain. Pain, 152(3 Suppl), S2–S15. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11989268/

[3] Price, D. D., & Drevets, W. C. (2010). Neurocognitive and emotional mechanisms of pain and depression. Brain Research Reviews, 61(1), 17–41. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7370081/

[4] Sturgeon, J. A., & Zautra, A. J. (2013). Social pain and physical pain: shared paths to resilience. Pain Management, 3(2), 145–157. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11704080/

[5] Stratton, P., & Berkley, K. J. (2016). Chronic pelvic pain in women: still a challenge. Human Reproduction Update, 22(6), 556–574. https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/31/11/2577/2274319

[6]Noditi, A. R., Bostan, I. S., Scurtu, F., Ionescu, D., Mehedintu, A. M., Petca, A., Mehedintu, C., Bostan, M., & Rotaru, A. M. (2025). Analysis of the Biopsychosocial Impacts Associated with Endometriosis to Improve Patient Care. Journal of clinical medicine, 14(7), 2158. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm14072158

[7] Gordon, A., & Ziv, A. (2021). The Way Out: A Revolutionary, Scientifically Proven Approach to Healing Chronic Pain (Unabridged). 

[8] Blackstone, V. M., & Sinaiko, O. S. (2024). The pain reprocessing therapy workbook: Using the brain's neuroplasticity to break the cycle of chronic pain. New Harbinger Publications.