When someone has chronic pain (more than 3-6 mo, resistant to medical treatment), then the brain processes pain differently. Neural pathways of pain become like habits, and pain can remain even after normal healing time has passed.
But the brain is neuroplastic, and we can train it to produce less pain.
Graded exposure is one technique used in reprocessing pain and rewiring the brain.
Graded exposure is a way to slowly introduce movements back, that are usually associated with pain.
You can have a corrective experience when you try a movement previously associated with pain, but are able to interpret it differently. When you do this over and over, in progressively higher amounts, you rewire to brain to move with safety and without producing pain.
If you have pain with a certain movement, I would suggest you start your graded exposure in your IMAGINATION.
Once you get good at imagining yourself moving without pain, and paired with a joyful or positive emotion, then you will train your brain it is safe. Not dangerous. No pain signals are required.
Here is a 7 min clip of me using this graded exposure technique with a client:
https://youtu.be/lvjpMZx_MIY
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