What Therapists and Clients Need to Know About Central Sensitization
How to Help with Chronic Pain Without Getting Lost in the Medical Maze
“No one ever explained this to me.”
We hear it all the time — from clients and from clinicians.
Clients with chronic pain bounce from doctor to doctor, only to be told their pain is "in their head."
Therapists sit across from them, unsure how to help beyond validating the frustration.
And behind it all is a little-known concept that’s reshaping how we understand chronic pain:
Central sensitization.
If you’re a therapist or healthcare provider, learning this one concept can dramatically shift how you support clients living with chronic pain, invisible illness, and medical trauma.
Let’s break it down — and look at how the Adaptive Healing Method™ gives you a practical, whole-person way to help.
I do want to share that not EVERY situation is central sensitization. So don’t take this as an invitation to do wha many in the medical community are doing and “paint every scenario as central sensitization”. That would be dismissive! (See the post on medical gaslighting)
What Is Central Sensitization?
Central sensitization is when the nervous system becomes overly sensitive to stimuli — even in the absence of active injury or tissue damage.
In simple terms:
The brain and spinal cord start to amplify pain signals, and the volume knob gets stuck on HIGH.
Clients may report:
Burning, stabbing, or electric pain without clear cause
Pain that moves, flares, or changes daily
Fatigue, brain fog, and sensory overload
Increased pain from light touch, stress, weather, or food
A long history of being told “your tests are fine”
This isn’t imaginary.
It’s a result of nociplastic changes in the central nervous system — and it’s increasingly recognized in pain science literature.
Don’t know much - or anything - about nociplastic pain….then take my Foundational Course.
Conditions Commonly Linked to Central Sensitization
Your clients may not use this language, but they’re likely living with it if they’ve been diagnosed with (or suspect):
Fibromyalgia
Interstitial Cystitis / Bladder Pain Syndrome
Chronic fatigue syndrome / ME
Migraine
CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome)
Endometriosis
IBS
Long COVID
Post-viral syndromes
“Medically unexplained” pain
And often: no formal diagnosis at all
There are some programs that believe ALL these symptoms are “repressed anger” and that by journaling and releasing the anger, well the symptoms will go away. And while journaling and releasing anger is not a bad thing. I can tell you that doing that alone, will not help relieve symptoms. It takes a more comprehensive approach.
Why This Matters in Therapy
Clients with central sensitization are often misunderstood — medically and emotionally.
Here’s how this shows up in the therapy room:
They’ve been gaslit
They may come in emotionally guarded, unsure if you will believe them either.
They’re not “resistant” — they’re dysregulated
Executive functioning, memory, and emotion regulation are often impacted by pain and fatigue.
Their grief is ongoing
They’re grieving not just health loss, but medical betrayal, relational strain, identity loss, and dashed future plans — with no “closure” in sight.
Traditional tools fall short
Cognitive work alone can feel invalidating. Exposure may backfire without physiological awareness. Mindfulness may be triggering if the body feels unsafe.
I have yet to find a single therapeutic approach that works comprehensively. That’s exactly why I created this method. Most therapists don’t have the time to learn so many different approaches; let alone things that fall outside of psychology like pain science. So I’ve distilled the best of the best into one, easy to use system.
What Therapists Can Do (That Doctors Can’t)
This is where your work becomes powerful.
You don’t need to be a pain specialist to help. You need to:
Believe your client
Understand what’s happening in the brain and body
Offer tools that meet them where they are — not where a textbook says they should be
Integrate the emotional, physiological, relational, and systemic pieces
Move beyond one modality and into a flexible, trauma-informed framework
That’s what the Adaptive Healing Method™ offers.
A Framework That Actually Helps
The Adaptive Healing Method™ is designed for clinicians ready to go deeper — without burning out.
It includes the 8 ADAPTIVE Chambers™, each addressing a crucial area of healing:
Nervous system regulation
Cognitive and emotional flexibility
Grief and identity
Pacing and momentum
Self-advocacy
Relationships, intimacy and boundaries
Joy and embodiment
Long-term integration
This method is not about fixing pain — it’s about supporting the whole person living with it.
Start Here
🎓 Enroll in the Adaptive Healing Method™ Foundational Course — a 3.5-hour CE training that introduces this framework with practical, immediately usable tools.
You don’t need to become a medical expert.
You just need the right map — and the confidence to hold space for complexity.
Let’s shift how we support clients with chronic illness and pain.
One session — and one client — at a time.
WELCOME TO THE ADAPTIVE HEALING INSTITUTE™
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