Wherever you are on this continuum, we hope to help you further integrate your learning in this last module so that you can feel confident about moving forward on your own with an effective protocol to continue reversing the effects of your pain condition.

When I work with clients in person, the last session is spent reviewing the work we have done together, including what was not helpful as well as what really worked well. We spend time celebrating the changes made and kept and we set the compass toward future learning.

This module will help you create a culminating experience to integrate further the changes you’ve been making as well as discovering what principles might serve as the fuel to propel further forward momentum. The first section helps you begin to pull together some of the tools you’ve been using by reviewing how the process of integration works.

Learn More About How You Integrate Change

The RCP program has given you many, many tools to use to work with your emotional and physical pain. Now the question is, how do you pull them together to create the most effective, lasting change?

To answer this question it’s important to understand the process of how changes become internalized or integrated most effectively. There is surprisingly little accessible information about this topic. The most promising recent model I’ve found has been created by Daniel Siegel, the neuroscientist whom you met in module 5 (if you hadn’t encountered him before) that he calls “The Eight Domains of Self-Integration.”

All forms of personal growth and self-treatment aim to maximize the integration of learning because it helps create wholeness and a sense of well-being through lasting results. Siegel goes even further and suggests that integration is the key mechanism that explains both the absence of illness and the presence of well-being.

As we explore each of the eight levels, we include questions to help you reflect on how the RCP program has helped you to develop self-integration at that particular level. You may want to keep your journal handy for insights you receive as you move through this section.

1. The first level of Siegel’s integrative model is the integration of awareness or consciousness. How we learn to focus our attention is how we create choice and change. We can create a “hub of awareness,” for example, that keeps us centered and helps us to acknowledge states of discomfort without being taken over by them. This hub also helps us to see things as they are, rather than being limited by our expectations of how they “should be." In the RCP’s module 5, you learned many skills of observation that are connected with creating a mindful focus. You explored methods created by Jon Kabat-Zinn and Eckhart Tolle designed to help you focus on any given moment. You also explored radical self-acceptance and some simple techniques like “turning your mind toward,” ways of finding your compassionate observer, and techniques for welcoming your uninvited inner guests. Practices of gratefulness were also emphasized as pathways to mindfulness.

What have you retained from the “Observe” module? What forms of mindfulness do you practice without thinking as you move through your day? Which ones do you practice intentionally and what kinds of results do they bring?

2. The second level of self-integration involves collaboration between right and left brain functions so that we have a balance between linear thinking and planning, and creativity and nonverbal experience. In the first three modules of the RCP online program, we focused on the wisdom and resources of the body to change your sense of pain, and your responses to your pain experience. The skills you learned ranged from breathing techniques to the use of the felt sense and Somatic Experiencing techniques like tracking and pendulation. Module 3 presented a menu of approaches to relaxation. Most of these skills we practiced center on non-linear, right-brain experience. In module four on “Imagine,” we explored ways that the mind, or more linear brain, can help the body to to shift its perceptions of pain through the practice of imagery. In fact, imagery is one of the best ways to right and left brain functions. During that module, you explored guided imager, interactive imagery, and intuitive or spontaneous imagery as well as self-hypnosis.

In what ways do you feel you have combined your creative and thinking minds when you approach your pain now when compared to the very beginning of the RCP program. What works best for you in bringing your thinking mind and experiencing body together to help you cope with pain more effectively?

3. The third level involves integration between the 3 structures of our triune brain—the brainstem, limbic areas and the neocortex thinking brain. Without this type of integration we would ignore what our senses, emotions and body sensations share with us. Remember that the triune brain evolved first from the reptilian brain and its primitive rhythms. You learned many breathing techniques designed to help you re-regulate these rhythms which become disrupted by trauma and pain. Are you still using some of these breathing practices? If so, which ones? The limbic brain, our second brain, regulates emotion and movement. There have been many sections on these skill areas throughout the first nine modules. Module 3 explored the emotional sense of threat and trauma, especially stress and anxiety. Module nine focused on “Love” and ways to develop self-love and heart coherence, among other skills. How have you expanded your practice and experience of love during the RCP online program? Our third brain, the neocortex or thinking brain, is capable of finding meaning, synthesizing information, making decisions and evaluating the results. Throughout the RCP online program, we have shared extensive information about the neuroscience of pain and trauma, the essence of mind, body, heart, and spirit healing, different types of meditation and other healing techniques.

As you think about your experiences of the past nine modules, what new information has most influenced your self-treatment of pain in a positive direction? What new decisions or changes have you made as a result?

4. The fourth level concerns memory integration. Bringing together past layers of implicit, nonverbal memory with mental shaping of factual memory. This type of integration is especially important in resolving trauma, which disrupts memory circuits. Module 8, “Connect,” guided you in discovering the links between your pain symptoms and past trauma. You explored the function of the amygdala, learned ways of blanacing the functions of the polyvagal nervous system, and practices to cultivate resiliency, happiness, and optimism. The last practice exercise focused on linking your current reactions to pain to post-traumatic symptoms that are intrusive (connected to reliving pain, anxiety and fear), avoidant (examples are numbing, loss of interest, and inactivity), or have qualities of hyperactivation (such as irritability, startle, anger, edginess).

What links between pain and trauma have you identified? How have you learned to work with these connections? What differences do you believe this focus has made in your responses to pain?

5. Narrative integration involves the creation of stories about yourself and the life you are living in a way that makes sense in a deep way. Understanding how the stories you tell yourself about pain are in alignment (or in misalignment) with your highest intentions for healing is an important part of the process of your recovery and reversal of pain. In module four, “Imagine,” you explored the use of interactive imagery to understand the deeper meanings of your pain, to dialogue with it, and to interact with inner wisdom and guidance about your pain and its healing. You may have chosen to create an inner pain coach to help you complete these steps.

At this point in your healing process with physical and/or emotional pain, what is the main narrative story line that appears to shape and reflect your healing process? What clues point in this direction? How would you like to modify your story line at this point?

6. The sixth integrative level is the assimilaton of states that we might think of as ego states or parts of the self. Here, we need to learn ways of welcoming parts of ourselves rather than rejecting or denying ones that are difficult or which are connected to distressing emotions in the past as an attempt to resolve pain or stabilize a sense of security. During the 9^th module, “Love,” you focused on ways to love yourself. One approach you practiced was the use of Energy Psychology methods to clear reversals that are energetic barriers that oppose a positive intention. Touching specific acupoints while expressing positive intentions such as “I want to love and accept myself” or “even though I still have this back pain, I deeply and completely love and accept myself” was one method you explored. The Tapas Acupressure Technique (TAT) was another energy method you may have used to accept and forgive the parts of yourself who have contributed to your pain problem. Several skills and related practice exercises from module 5 “Observe” might also have contributed to increased self-acceptance. These include development of the “compassionate observer” and the “Welcoming Uninvited Guests” meditation based on Rumi’s poem “The Guest House.”

At the time you are working with this last module, what would you say is the most effective way you have found to accept all of yourself in relation to what is left of your emotional/physical pain? What would allow you to practice self-acceptance even more effectively?

7. Interpersonal integration at level seven involves developing our resonance circuits so that we can feel the inner world or others as well as our own, and to see how past patterns restrict our current relationships. Daniel Siegel believes that couples, for example, can be taught to identify their primitive brain driven states of reactvity and then to develop the flexibility and receptiveness for more flexible, complete intimacy. In module nine on “Love,” you learned more about ways of loving others in addition to yourself. One method for achieving this was to explore metta meditation and prayer as a way of sending intentions of loving kindness to others, even to individuals who are very difficult for you.

How do you believe that your relationships have expanded during your work with the RCP program? Verify the changes you have noticed by checking in with at least one loved one to clarify whether they have observed the same changes you have. Has the quality of your sharing about your pain condition changed in a positive direction during your involvement with RCP online. If so, how? Please consider sharing any changes on the RCP blog.

8. Time integration has to do with the understanding of the impermanence of life and to form comforting connections in the face of uncertainty. We learn to face death even as we find deeper meaning in our everyday lives. Opportunities for this level of integration during our program have centered on the spiritual meaning of your pain and spiritual practices that have helped you recover, including the pratice of mindful gratitude (module 5), and the use of The Empowerment Dynamic, and positive intentions (module one).

Has your work during the RCP program helped you to expand and deepen your spiritual awareness? If so, please take time to describe some of the spiritual growth you have made before going on to the first exercise below.

Test Yourself on Self-Integration:
Exercise 1 (Journaling)

As part of ending the RCP online program, please use this exercise to evaluate how well you are integrating what you have learned. Choose 3-5 of the eight levels of integration discussed above and listed below, and journal about your progress on each, using the following questions as a guide.

1. What have you learned about how to focus your attention differently on pain? What differences has this made in the quality of your life? In your pain levels?

2. How have you achieved a balance between your right and left brain functions so that you can both make optimal choices about treating your pain as well as discovering creative ways of experiencing it.

3. Think of a recent challenge your pain condition has offered you. As you look back at how you coped, were all 3 brains included in the ways you reacted? Were any of the three brain functions underrepresented? If so, how could you involve all three areas while creating balance between them?

4. How has your memory process related to pain shifted during the RCP program? Have you been able to unhook trauma from your memories that contribute to emotional or physical pain? How have you accomplished this? What further work do you need to do in this area?

5. How have your stories that you tell yourself and others about your pain changed during this online training? What changes do you anticipate in the next five years? The next ten?

6. How have you brought different parts of yourself together as a result of your experiences in this course? What difference has this made? What work is left for you to do?

7. How have your relationships changed during this training program? Do you find that you have more ability to attune to the states of others as well as yourself? How has this happened?

8. Has your sense of time shifted in your pain experience? Is there more expansion and how does this affect your everyday life?

Please feel free to share any of your discoveries from this exercise on the RCP blog. We’d love to hear how this approach to self-integration goes for you. For more information about Daniel Siegel’s model of integration, visit psychotherapynetworker.org/magazine/currentissue/744-complexity-choiror consult his book Mindsight.

Embrace Positive Psychology

During the last decade, the numbers of books published on the topic of happiness have exploded from only 50 books released in 2000 to more than 4,000 volumes in 2008. The most popular classes at major universities like Harvard and Stanford feature positive psychology, and more and more lay people are enrolling in workshops or sessions with life coaches that promise a focus on happiness.

Although happiness can be a slippery concept, the research that has emerged offers some practical guidelines for enhancing your quota of satisfaction and contentment, and each guideline also refers back to one or more building blocks of the RCP program. Please consider how you can incorporate some of the suggestions below to further reverse the effects of your pain condition.

1. Make personal relationships a priority because good relationships can mitigate the damaging effects of life’s downturns and setbacks (Love).

2. Include gratitude practice as part of your daily routine. Journal on gratitude, write a letter to someone expressing your gratitude, and perform acts of kindness on a regular basis (Observe, connect)

3. Avoid predicting what will make you happy which is very difficult because we base our predictions on our memories of positive past experience, that can often be distorted by traumatic events over the course of time. Make sure you are living in alignment with your current values. If you’re not sure what they are, Julie Harris, author of The Positive Power of Negative Thinking suggests that you answer the following question: “Imagine that you could wave a magic wand and be guaranteed the approval of everyone on the planet, forever. How would you live your life? What would be different from how you are living right now? (Imagine, Connect)

4. Pursue what you actually value rather than “the pursuit of happiness” which can prove to be a trap, as you may end up struggling against reality, which sometimes includes emotional and physical pain. If you want to live a rich, satisfying and meaningful life, allowing the entire range of feelings will help you more than striving to keep your physical and emotional feelings positive (Feel).

5. Mindfulness, or being present in each current moment, with openness and curiosity instead of judgment can defuse the impact of negative feelings. So give yourself permission to feel the full range of emotions and practice mindfulness to help regulate them (Feel, Observe).

6. Embrace your natural coping style versus trying to be a successful person. If you are a highly anxious person, for example, you can use your anxiety as energy to get things done in alignment with your goals so that you also reduce the anxiety at the same time. It’s also important to cultivate other reliable ways of relaxing that are not necessarily related to your goals, including exercise and other “feel good” activities to create better balance in mood (Energize, Relax)

7. Lead from your best self. Leading with your strengths is linked to greater feelings of happiness as demonstrated by one of Dr. Marty Seligman’s research projects (go to authentichappiness.com). Individuals who wrote their strengths down and reviewed them once a day for one week increased their happiness ratings significantly. Completing this practice for longer than a week is believed to increase good feelings over a longer period of time because this habit can connect you with your ideal,conflict-free self. To try this experiment, think about a time in the past at any point in your life when you believe you were at your best and identify the strengths that you exhibited at that time. Try reviewing these strengths every day for a week. If it’s helpful, practice even longer (Imagine, Connect). You might also want to check in with Neil Fiore’s work with “Your Strongest Self” through his book, Awaken Your Strongest Self, and his websites neilfiore.com and yourstrongestself.com.

Exploring Positive Psychology:
Exercise 2 (Journaling)

Choose two of the suggestions above to practice for one week. Be intentional about why you are choosing the two steps you select. For best results, choose one to begin with and continue focusing until you have created momentum. Journal your results, noting what seemed to help you build momentum. Then add the second of the seven steps. Apply any strategies for self-encouragement or self-coaching that helped create momentum with the first step. What happens with the second strategy? Does your momentum strategy help? How or how not?

Make sure you journal your results with both steps to applying positive psychology as well as the mometum strategy that helped you reach success.

Refer back to this strategy as you continue through the rest of this module.

Build on the Ways Your Brain Heals Itself

In the last ten years, neuroscience has exploded on the mindbody health scene with important implications for the healing of pain. There are many relevant suggestions that follow from the research that can support you to use your mind in an effective way to help your brain.

Phantom Limb Pain

One intriguing application includes the study of phantom limb pain. The medical profession has long been intrigued by pain appearing in limbs or areas of the body that are no longer intact, usually occurring through amputation.

Dr. V.S. Ramachandran has explored the possibility that, when part of the body is lost, the surviving brain map sprouts new connections because of brain plasticity, and cross-wiring occurs, depending on their proximity to brain maps of existing body area.

In order to reverse cross-wiring errors, Dr. Ramachandran invented a mirror box that creates a mirror image of the remaining limb, which will appear to be the missing limb. Ramachandran has found that, with practice, this approach can even unfreeze the most severe phantom pain, which has often “locked in” excruciating elements of the injury that created the need for amputation in the first place.

One of many health professionals who has experimented with Ramachandran’s mirror box is Andrew Austin in the UK. Andrew found that many of the phantom limb patients who consulted him could not make use of the box because of a phenomenon he calls “contracture.” This refers to the fact that the brain map of the phantom limb might be in hugely contracted or constricted position related to the injury or accident that resulted in the loss of the limb. He has discovered that helping patients to make a “mirror image” of the missing limb, based on the position and felt sense of the “good remaining limb” allows the phantom to gradually unwind, releasing much of the pain, so that the patient can make use of the mirror box.

One of the implications of this approach with chronic pain is to consider how you might begin to use your brain to make a different image of the areas of the body where your pain is located. You do not need a mirror box to achieve these effects (although it might be intriguing to explore that possibility). Hypnosis, for example, is a powerful tool that can help people change their perceptions of pain, including longstanding chronic pain, by influencing the conscious mind through creative imagery.

Through self-hypnosis, which you explored earlier in module 4, it is possible to build your inner strength, strengthen coping, relieve tension and stress, resolve inner conflicts to take the “struggle” out of pain, shift negative thought patterns related to pain, use your creative imagination to create deeper comfort, and transform the experience of pain sensations.

Self-Hypnosis for Pain Transformation:
Exercise 3 (Audio & Journal)

Raise one hand with the back of your hand facing you. Concentrate on one finger with your eyes open (staring at it) or closed (imagining or remembering it). Let the other fingers fade away from your awareness. You might view your hand and arm with curiosity as if it were a statue or a work of art.

As you continue to concentrate, feel your raised hand and arm becoming heavier. Allow your arm to lower SLOWLY. As it does, you enter into a comfortable state of relaxation that deepens as your arm slowly lowers. By the time your hand comes all the way down and settles comfortably on your lap, your eyes are closed and you feel comfortably relaxed. Now focus on your breathing. Feel your breath moving in and moving out very easily and naturally.

To relax more deeply, with your eyes still closed, imagine slowly walking
down a set of stairs. Perhaps you feel the thick, plush carpeting under your feet or the smooth, polished wood of the hand railing.

With each step, your level of relaxation deepens. At the bottom of the stairs, you find a door. You open it and enter a place where you feel most happy, content, safe, comfortable, and pleased (for some, a balmy beach, for others, a cool mountain meadow, for others, a sidewalk café, a country inn, or a corner of your own home. Imagine this pleasant place in detail and stay there and enjoy it with all of your senses for as long as you want to or need to.

Imagine your shadow. It moves with you and is attached to your body, yet it is not inside of your body. It is attached but separate. It is outside of you. Imagine putting your pain into your shadow. Use whatever image works for you. Perhaps you can see the discomfort flowing out of your physical body into your shadow.

Then imagine yourself floating away from your shadow and any discomfort. The
pain is now in your shadow and not in your body. Now practice watching the pain flow out of the shadow that is now separate from your   body. When all the pain has flowed out and evaporated, imagine merging back with your shadow again. You feel much more comfortable now. You can repeat this exercise any time
you like.

When you are ready to emerge from this hypnotic state and become fully conscious, walk back up those stairs, counting up if you like. You will feel more and more awake and alert with each step. When you reach the top, you’ll feel alert, refreshed and relaxed. The feelings of comfort you experienced will last for some time after you reorient to the room around you.

NOTE: The more often you repeat this self-hypnosis exercise, the more effective you will become. It is best to practice twice a day for around 10-15 minutes each time. Also practice sending your discomfort into your shadow spontaneously when you have not scheduled a formal practice.

Take a little time to journal your results. Can you modify this exercise in any way  to make it even more effective?

This exercise is based on ones by Dr. Bruce Eimer, hypnotic pain specialist. For more information, please visit hypnosisgroup.com.

Healing Beyond Your Body

An offshoot of positive psychology is the area of positive intentions and affirmations. A Japanese scientist named Masaru Emoto has conducted a comprehensive study of the use of positive messages to purify water. For many years, he conducted laboratory experiments which involved photographing water crystals that had been altered only by the application of positive words (such as “love and gratitude”) and negative messages such as “hatred” and “oppression.”

Dr. Emoto’s books have been translated into 45 languages and he has launched a worldwide peace project based on his work. His books have presented the concept of “hado”, which literally translated, is Japanese for “vibration” or “wave motion” has been involved in the study of quantum physics, world peace, and global ecology.

For more information, please visit the official website of Dr. Emoto at masaru-emoto.net/english/e_ome_link.html. Emoto’s research focuses on the power of water to memorize and carry information, and the education of human beings to cultivate sustainable energy from water through heightened feelings of love and gratitude, the use of healing messages in his work may have even broader implications that link to the act of manifesting positive intentions toward yourself. The next exercise will give you an opportunity to explore the healing power of positive messages.

The Power of Healing Messages:
Exercise 4 (Video & Journaling)

If you have not yet explored this approach to healing, and are willing to be open to any and all results, please watch this video and then take part in your own healing messages experiment. You may choose one of the experiments below or create your own!

1. Choose a powerful word (or words) that resonates fully with you in terms of a healing focus. Write the word or words down on a slip of paper (or type it into your computer and print it out), and then affix it to a particular part of your body that is unobtrusive to others. Wear this label every day for several days. At the end of this time, write down any changes you have noticed in your pain condition, mood, or overall health in your pain journal.

2. Another option is to explore the power of healing messages to facilitate growth of living things. Plant two identical flowers or plants in identical soil samples in identical planters. Place a label on one pot that reads “love and gratitude” while leaving the other pot blank. Make sure to give the two plants identical amounts of food, water, sunlight and attention. What is the outcome of this experiment? How do the plants appear to be affected by the healing message or lack thereof? Do your results add to your understanding of ways that healing messages contribute to your healing, to the healing of other people and life forms on the planet? Note your observations and reflections in your journal.

Find Daily Inspiration

The journey to a pain-free life will continue on long after you complete your last exercise. One of the ways you can ensure that you stay on the path, no matter how challenging or difficult, is to aim toward a daily practice of finding inspiration.

There is inspiration that flows naturally through every day. You don’t really need special tools to find inspiration. You just need to remember to look.

Many years ago, I first met Brother David Steindl-Rast (see module 5) at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. Brother David and I sat on the lawn and ate our lunch together. I was focused on enjoying delicious food and his company, yet Brother David found several ways to expand what we shared by calling my attention to several natural surprises—a feather nestled in the grass, a ladybug crawling on his hand, the shape of a cloud drifting by. I was very impressed by his way of looking each day for at least one experience, plant, animal, food, person, or object for which he had never before been grateful.

I can think of no better sendoff on your continuing journey toward reversing the effects of physical and emotional pain than to discover more ways to find and focus on inspiration each and every day.

Staying Inspired:
Exercise 5 (Audio & Journaling)

Practice one or more of the following methods to increase your intake of daily inspiration and journal your results. As with other positive emotions, it is impossible to feel inspired and be in pain at the same time!

1. Take a 5 minute daily break to “look” for inspiration in the natural world around you. You might want to step outside at lunch time, unplug from your computer for a few minutes and look around, or even use your computer to look for inspiring nature photos or quotations for a few minutes each day. OR take a 30 second break to look at the grass, sky, trees, and birds, and offer thanks.

2. Treat each day like a precious gift to unwrap. What if today was one of the last days of your life (which, of course is true)? How would you want to spend it? Spend a week focused on these questions and the answers you live.

3. Reach out to others you don’t usually connect with. It’s amazing to discover that someone you touch can touch you back. Explore opportunities on mass transit, in your neighborhood, in your spiritual community, in your volunteer work. Basically, form the intention of widening your field of connection.

Tips for Designing Your Pain Protocol

Have you ever read a book or seen a movie where the ending seemed as if the author just “ran out of steam?” Encountering this phenomenon can seem disappointing and anticlimactic. We hope to help you avoid this outcome. Our goal for this last module is to help you create the finishing touches for now, even though we hope your RCP pain protocol will continue to be a “work in progress.”

We are closing now with some tips to help you refine further the elements of pain methods you have found effective throughout this course. As always, please feel free to modify or deviate from any suggestions in ways that bring you the very best results.

1. A little goes a long way. One rule for designing anything complex is to make sure that you stay focused on what is MOST important. Spend a few minutes now to consider what your all-time most effective pain strategy might be. This may be a technique that you were using before you began the RCP program and have further developed, or one that you discovered and have been mastering, as you worked your way through the previous nine modules. As a review, write down techniques, methods, or strategies that you recall using successfully related to each building block on the left. Be spontaneous and don’t cheat by looking back at module materials just yet.

        Rank                             Technique

Breathe:

Feel:

Relax:

Imagine:

Observe:

Energize:

Move:

Connect:

Love:

Next, put a star next to the #1 most effective building block module in your pain recovery and specify the technique that has been most helpful in refining that skill. You may also want to review directly now your RCP materials to remind you of techniques you found useful along the way, and maybe intended to come back to. Add those to the list above if you’d like.

2. This is not a contest and there is no finish line. Are you still comparing your progress to someone else’s or to a standard that someone other than you set? Along the way, a professional, friend, family member, or self-help book may have suggested how long your recovery should take. How seriously have you taken this information? How can you use what you’ve learned in this program to counter this kind of arbitrary deadline that may be impeding your progress? What is a positive image, metaphor or blueprint of how you want your recovery to unfold from here?

3. Practice, practice, and practice some more. We’ve emphasized the practice effect throughout the RCP online program. The single most important skill that will take you to the next level of healing is regular practice. If you are at or nearing a plateau in your progress, consider how you can modify the practice you are already doing. Your answer may be to add something new to your pain reversal equation (consider your list in step one above) OR to practice skills you are using so that they are even more effective (for example, making sure that you are fully present and engaged during practice and not “multi tasking” can maximize the benefits of any practice session).

4. Requires Assembly. The word “assemble” means to bring together various parts into a whole. If you’ve made it this far in the RCP program, you have probably been assembling aspects of our program all along. What you might not have considered is the sequence of the tools you are using. In order to complete this step, think about your experiences during the last week or so. What tool did you notice your mind drifting toward when you’ve thought about regulating your pain? Did you override this intuitive leap? If so, how? Experiment in the next week with how you can more freely let your intuition guide your pain plan. What changes do you notice in your pain experience?

5. Build on Success. In order to build on your success, you must first affirm how you’ve already been successful. As you review the weeks that you’ve been participating in the RCP online program, what has been the high point in your success? How do you know? What are some other key experiences you recall during this time? How did you achieve them? How can you build on your strengths to help you become even more successful? Please take time to record your responses to these 5 tips in your pain journal or in the online blog.

Before You Go On…

Of course, there really can be no formal ending to this program since you will be continuing to add to your knowledge and practice of skills in many ways. Yet it might be helpful to take a few minutes to write down some steps of the pain protocol that has evolved during your involvement with our program before you put away your RCP materials and journal for now.

Perhaps the following questions can serve as a guideline to help you specify your pain protocol before you move on:

1. What is the skill you practice most consistently on a regular basis without really thinking about it? (Consider breathe, feel, relax, imagine, observe, energize, move, connect, love, and build).

2. What step or steps have you added to modify this skill beyond what was provided here in the RCP modules?

3. What is the skill you turn to when your pain begins to worsen? Why do you think that skill is so effective for you?

4. What is the skill or skills that you add when you begin to feel that your pain is spiraling out of control? What consistent effects do you obtain?

Thanks so much for joining us for this program. We hope you have found support, new knowledge and skills, and that you feel enriched by your experiences.

Please continue to visit our site from time to time to take advantage of free audio downloads, the online community through the blog, and other resources. If you would like to go further with the Reversing Chronic Pain model, please consider participating in our 10 week pain coaching program to help you keep your skills strong. Signup information is located on the recp website home page. You may also want to take advantage of teleseminars, e-courses, and e-workshops. For more specific information about our offerings, please visit maggiephillipsphd.com and also check our monthly newsletter for more possibilities. We hope to “see” you in the future!