Find new ways to overcome most chronic pain in an empowering group setting.

Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) Group

  • Uncover links between stress and pain.

  • Explore the mind-body connection to heal.

  • Believe in your body again.

Mondays, 6/2 - 7/21
4:30 - 6:00 PM
Capitol Hill, Denver


Description:

This group is for adults with any form of physical pain that has lasted longer than three months (i.e. chronic pain).

Participants must have already sought medical opinion and intervention, with no relief of pain or only partial relief of pain.

There will be limited time for individual sharing and discussion as the group is mostly educational.

Participants will be asked to complete up to 45 minutes of homework between sessions.

Goals:

  • Update your knowledge about what pain is, how pain works, and why healing from chronic pain often requires an approach that is different from standard medical interventions.

  • Learn and apply the Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) framework to your own chronic pain.

  • Practice a technique that can interrupt the pain-fear cycle and reduce pain over time.

  • Discover how emotions, behaviors, and personality features relate to pain.

  • Change behaviors that may perpetuate chronic pain into behaviors that may heal chronic pain.

Investment:

$500 total, insurance not accepted
(This is approximately ten hours at $50/hour. For comparison, my rate for individual therapy is $170/hour. Plus, the community of a group is highly valuable for many people in recovery from chronic pain.)

Please send a text message to Evan at 720-239-2313 to request a free phone consultation (up to 30 minutes) to determine whether this group may be a good fit for you at this time.

This group is limited to eight participants, so please get in touch soon.

If you don’t already know about Pain Reprocessing Therapy, please be sure to visit https://www.sunandshadecounseling.com/prt

About the Facilitator:

Evan Merida, MA, LPC, NCC is a counseling psychotherapist specializing in the treatment of chronic pain and trauma. His own struggle with and recovery from chronic pain inspired him to help other adults with evidence-based treatments including pain reprocessing therapy (PRT), emotional awareness and expression therapy (EAET), and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR.) He has helped many clients reverse chronic pain and live fuller lives beyond pain.

If you are in crisis or need immediate assistance, please contact Colorado Crisis Services at 844-493-8255, the National Suicide and Crisis Hotline at 988, go to your nearest emergency room, or call 911.

Outline for PRT Group 

Mondays, 6/2 - 7/21, 4:30 - 6:00 PM

Note: Content for this group is subject to change depending on the needs of the group.

Session 1

  • Group rules

  • Introductions

  • Discussion: Identity and loss of identity due to pain

  • Guided self-reflection on beliefs about pain 

  • What does recent scientific research say about pain? 

  • What is pain reprocessing therapy (PRT)? 

  • Homework: up to 45 minutes


Session 2

  • Ruling in a more hopeful diagnosis

  • Creating an evidence list that supports healing

  • Review barriers to healing

  • Making small changes

  • Homework: up to 45 minutes

Session 3

  • What can vision, hearing, smell, and taste teach us about pain? 

  • Somatic tracking: A technique to retrain your brain

  • Leaning into positive sensations

  • Fuel for healing 

  • Homework: up to 45 minutes

Session 4

  • Discussion: Troubleshooting somatic tracking 

  • Mastering the pivot

  • The good avoidance list

  • The Process

  • Extinction bursts 

  • Three steps forward, two steps back. 

  • Homework: up to 45 minutes

Session 5

  • How PRT can help with non-pain symptoms

  • A new perspective on self-care

  • Discussion: What we are learning about ourselves

  • Homework: up to 45 minutes

Session 6

  • Fear: conscious and unconscious

  • Negative behavioral patterns

  • Preoccupation

  • Discussion: What we are learning about our path to healing

  • Homework: up to 45 minutes

Session 7

  • Discussion: Sharing insights, struggles, and successes with PRT

  • What is Self-Compassion, and why does it matter?

  • Self-Compassion myths vs. realities

  • How to develop a foundation of self-compassion

  • Homework: up to 45 minutes

Session 8

  • Discussion: Intensity

  • Tending to our internal state

  • Understanding relapse

  • Relapse prevention

  • Discussion: Continuing healing after this group

  • Resources and next steps

  • Closing