Steven Blake, a therapist in the UK, has skillfully woven together a number of therapeutic techniques by which it is possible for one to persuade the unconscious or subconscious mind to reduce or eliminate chronic pain which has outlived its usefulness. 

This technique has a number of premises including the understanding that acute (new) pain is helpful and protective, even though unpleasant, inasmuch as it is a warning that something is amiss (like an alarm signal) and needs to be sorted out, whereas, chronic (old) pain in general no longer serves a purpose, rather like something that is past its "sell-by date", or like an alarm which has malfunctioned and continued to ring long after the cause has been dealt with. Once chronic pain has been appropriately and thoroughly investigated medically and it has been determined that conventional medical therapy is either not available, effective or needed, then alternative means of relieving the suffering are appropriate, provided they are safe and effective.

Steven describes this process on his website.  This technique does not require a formal trance or hypnotic induction though it does require deep relaxation and can be combined with other therapies. 

It goes without saying that cause of a pain needs to be appropriately investigated before using these kinds of techniques to relieve the pain. The advantages of this technique include its safety, speed of onset, and remarkable effectiveness, not to mention that no drugs are involved. This technique has been effectively used in my office for a number of patients with chronic pain. Not everyone responds but there is nothing to lose but your pain. 



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Anyone who has studied introductory  psychology has heard about Pavlov's dogs and the concept of conditioning. Pavlov observed that dogs salivate when presented with food. This is an unconditioned (or innate, instinctual) response to the stimulus of food. He noted that over time his dogs would salivate when approached by his assistant (not that the assistant was a tasty morsel but that they associated the assistant with dinnertime). He then performed some experiments. He would ring a bell (a neutral stimulus) and the dogs would not salivate. Then he rang the bell while presenting the dogs with food and they would salivate. After some repetitions of this, the dogs would salivate when hearing the bell rung, even when no food was on offer, a conditioned response. This type of classical conditioning is one mechanism whereby physical pain can be produced in response to a stimulus which the unconscious mind associates with a painful experience. 

If you read some of the stories in the books and websites listed under resources in Part 1 you might come across some anecdotes which illustrate this process. I paraphrase:

A Viet Nam veteran who was injured in the leg during an incident involving a helicopter recovered fully from the injury. However, periodically over the years he would suddenly experience intense pain in the previously-injured leg which would last for several days before dissipating. One day his wife commented on the helicopter flying overhead and it dawned on him that every time he heard a helicopter's engine his leg hurt. 

One lady experienced intense pain whenever she drove through a particular town. She eventually realized that the town was en route to the in-laws' home where she often felt the same pain because of the stressful atmosphere. In time she experienced the pain when travelling that route even when not visiting the family. 

Have you every taken an instant dislike to someone whom you have never met before and wondered why? Perhaps he or she reminds you of someone with whom you have previously had a bad experience. Have you ever had memories flood back instantly transporting you in your mind's eye to someplace else in response to a song, fragrance, or scenery? This is because the parts of the brain involved with memory, pleasure and emotion are  very closely associated, and are also connected to the parts of the brain which process the flight and fight response. The limbic system is also closely connected to the thalamus which is the clearing house for the processing of painful stimuli. 

One of the questions I have learned to ask patients with unexplained pain is: "What was going on in your life when it first happened?" This sometimes gives a clue as to the meaning of the pain and how to approach it. 

Here is some info from the TMS Wiki. Please note: Myositis is not a good term for this condition as there is no inflammation present. 

An Introduction to Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS)(Redirected from An Introduction to TMS)

Have you struggled with chronic pain or another medically unexplained symptom for a long time? Have you tried everything to alleviate your pain, but nothing worked? Have you had doctors tell you they "just can’t find anything wrong?"

Then you may have Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS). TMS is a condition that causes real physical symptoms that are not due to pathological or structural abnormalities and are not explained by diagnostic tests. In TMS, symptoms are caused by psychological stress. 

You may be at your wits end. However, there is hope. We know this because the authors of this wiki struggled with chronic pain for many years, and that is exactly how we felt: hopeless. We're not doctors so, of course, we can't diagnose you, and everyone is different, but we are here to tell you what worked for us and how it did so without surgery, needles, or drugs. We found relief from pain through TMS.

Contents [hide] 

• 1 What is TMS?
• 2 How TMS Develops
• 3 Treatment
• 4 Medical Evidence
• 5 More Resources

What is TMS?
Tension Myositis Syndrome (TMS), also known as Tension Myoneural Syndrome, is a condition originally described by John E. Sarno, MD, a retired professor of Clinical Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University School of Medicine, and attending physician at the Howard A. Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine at New York University Medical Center. TMS is a condition that causes real physical symptoms, such as chronic pain, gastrointenstinal issues, and fibromyalgia, that are not due to pathological or structural abnormalities and are not explained by diagnostic tests. In TMS, pain symptoms are caused by mild oxygen deprivation via the autonomic nervous system, as a result of repressed emotions and psycho-social stress. This is not to say that the pain is “all in your head” or that it is not real. TMS symptoms are very much real, and we should know. All of the people who wrote and developed this website had debilitating chronic pain and other symptoms. We know, first hand, what it is like to have back pain, sciatica pain, RSI, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, and a wide array of other symptoms. We visited doctors and were told the same things you probably heard: "you have a degenerative disc disease, a herniated disc, you type too much, it is due to overuse, or that you are just aging." Even though we were told this, when we applied the ideas first promoted by Dr. Sarno we became pain free and regained our lives.

For more info on TMS watch The 20/20 segment on John Sarno and TMS.

How TMS Develops: At the heart of the development of TMS is our desire to be good people, loved by those we care about. This desire leads us to strive for perfection, and to put the needs of others above our own. We will cook a three course family meal after working a 10 hour day, because that is what a good mother would do. We will be the first person to volunteer to work on the weekend, because that is what a good employee would do. We will stay up all night making sure our homework is perfect, because if we don't, we won't get a good job. Our beliefs of what a good and perfect person will do directly influence our behavior on a day-to-day basis. 

But sometimes, as more and more external stress is added and our desire for perfection increases, we develop a very deep seated resentment toward these tasks. There are some nights when you come home from working a double shift and are angry that you have to cook a meal for your family, while your husband has been watching TV all night. Part of us hates telling our friends that we can't go out on Friday night, because we have to read and study for a class the next day. When our newborn baby wakes us up at 3 am for the fourth night in a row, some part of us has rage at the child, for waking us up yet again. These are all normal feelings and emotions to have. However, when a person has an emotion that goes against their belief of what a good and perfect person would do, the only option available to them is to repress that emotion. If we admit that we are angry at our family, our boss, or at doing homework, we fear that we would be considered a bad person and will be rejected by those we love or who we want to respect us. If we are not perfect, we will be unworthy of being loved. So instead of admitting that we are angry at our spouse for never cleaning up or doing the dishes, we repress it deep in our unconscious. 

Another repressed emotion might be guilt. Some of us have to care for a loved one who is injured or aging. Being a caretaker is not an easy task. If we aren't able to provide the necessary care, or the care the person not only desires but may demand of us, we may feel guilt. If we repress that feeling, especially if we are the type of person who wants to please very much, it can cause us TMS pain.

As we continue to repress these emotions, we create an immense amount of emotional tension which only increases as more and more stress is added to our lives. In order to keep you from recognizing that you have these powerful emotions of anger and rage or guilt, your unconscious creates physical symptoms, such as back pain, neck pain, plantar fasciitis, acid reflux, anxiety, depression, Dizziness, and irritable bowel syndrome. These symptoms serve as a way to distract you from the unwanted emotions by having you focus on your back hurting instead of your anger, rage, or guilt. We develop TMS because we are unable to accept and/or process these emotions.