Living with chronic pain or a long-term health condition can feel relentless. The physical discomfort is just one part of the picture — the emotional and mental toll is often equally challenging. Fatigue, anxiety, frustration, and fear can all compound the experience of living with persistent symptoms. In my work as a Consultant Health Psychologist,…
Last time we discussed how to build trust and rapport and saw how important the trust relationship between the client and the therapist is for success. Building on this I am going to look at social influences on this relationship in more detail. This will cover the demeanour, beliefs and behaviour of the therapist and...
We start a new series today looking at social psychology and the therapeutic relationship. For the first part, we are going to focus on rapport and building trust, but before that, let’s take an overview of the whole subject. The role of social psychology in the therapeutic relationship Social psychology tells us how an individual...
Living with chronic / persistent pain can feel like fighting a battle on two fronts. During the day, you manage symptoms and try to live as fully as possible. But at night, pain can interfere with sleep, leaving you exhausted, frustrated, and caught in a cycle where poor sleep makes pain feel worse. We often...
I’m really looking forward to speaking at the 2nd European Pain Supported Self-Management Conference on 18th October, organised by the inspirational Pete Moore of the Pain Toolkit. This year I’ll be talking about two things that often go hand-in-hand: pain and sleep. If you live with persistent pain, you’ll probably know that sleep can be...
September is recognised as Self-Care September, an ideal time to reflect on how we look after ourselves. For people living with chronic/persistent pain, self-care is far more than a luxury – it is a vital part of managing pain, protecting mental health, and improving quality of life. When you live with persistent pain, the term...
In the last few blogs, we have seen that different personality traits can affect how well the hypnotherapeutic process works. This is an important insight, but it can turn into a trap which narrows our vision of what hypnotherapy can do. People are very complex, and it can be difficult to identify their particular personality...
Absorption and imagination play a central role in successful hypnotherapeutic work. To clients, they can sometimes feel like mysterious abilities — something they must actively “do” — which may put them off from seeking treatment. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. Every one of us has the capacity to imagine scenarios unique...
If you’ve ever sat in the GP’s waiting room, wide awake at 3am, or curled up on the sofa trying to make sense of your pain — chances are this thought has crept in: “Why is this happening to me?” It’s such a human question, isn’t it? We ask it in frustration, in sadness, in...
One of the hardest things people living with chronic/ persistent pain tell me either in person at my pain psychology clinic in Milton Keynes or online — sometimes in a whisper, sometimes through tears — is this: “I don’t think people believe me.” It’s not just strangers. Sometimes it’s doctors. Sometimes it’s colleagues. Often, it’s...
