Mindbody Medicine for Chronic Pain

TMS/Mindbody coach Emily Larson joins us today to address the most common healing blocks she sees in her practice. Emily offers simple, boiled-down, straightforward advice. This will be incredibly valuable for your healing.

In this Episode:

🔹 The final step that brought Emily to a full recovery: allowing the symptoms.

🔹 Get off the fence and decide that this applies to you.

🔹 Start living as the healed version of you before the symptoms go.

🔹 Be your own biggest cheerleader.

🔹 Respond to your symptoms as you would respond to your inner chil...

Dr. Sarno encouraged his patients to journal about three major topics: 1) childhood, 2) current life stressors, and 3) personality traits. For most people, personality traits were the hardest part to understand. In today’s bonus episode, in an attempt to make this clear, we’re going deep into the personality traits.

WARNING: If you’re here for some simple information about chronic pain healing, many episodes of this podcast will satisfy that desire. I must say, this episode will not. This episode is for the people who want to hang out… and slow down… and listen to stories… and have fun… an...

I’ve never really told the full arc of my chronic IBS recovery story here on the podcast. So, it’s the Season 4 Finale, and today’s the day.

Trigger warning: In this irritable bowel syndrome story, we’re talking about bodies and bowels. It's not something we usually discuss openly, but the bowels are part of my body and part of yours. Let's release the shame and just talk about it.

In this Episode:

🔹 If you struggle with IBS, and you’ve tried everything… this story is for you.

🔹 There is hope. Healing i...

Mônica is a chronic pain and symptom recovery coach. Today, she generously shares the emotional thrust of her remarkable recovery story, giving a plethora of expert advice along the way.

In this Episode:

🔹 Mônica’s overcome chronic piriformis pain, chronic IBS, digestive issues, food allergies, chronic shoulder pain, back pain, knee pain, chronic headaches, severe menstrual pain, postpartum anxiety and depression, psoriasis, and more.

🔹 She gives us the holistic story, starting with a childhood that set her up for TMS and neuroplastic symptoms.

🔹 We examine the range of experiences with TMS symp...

Today, we’re discussing the common question: Is the pain a false alarm? And we’re also addressing the deeper question underneath: …Or is the pain something else?

In this Episode:

🔹 Your brain and nervous system are misinterpreting safe signals from your body as if they are dangerous.

🔹 Your brain and nervous system are functioning perfectly. There’s nothing wrong with you. There’s nothing wrong with your brain. There’s nothing wrong with your nervous system.

🔹 But, huh? Which of the above statements is true?

🔹 Today, we explore how both are simultaneou...

Karden Rabin, along with Jennifer Mann, co-authored the book The Secret Language of the Body: Regulate Your Nervous System, Heal Your Body, Free Your Mind. Karden started his career as a massage therapist and bodyworker, focusing on anatomy, function, and kinesiology. “It was all about structure and function.” However, as his career progressed, he found “many times, it doesn’t work.”

In this Episode:

🔹 How reading Healing Back Pain by Dr. John Sarno changed Karden’s paradigm.

🔹 “In two chapters, he literally takes out a baseball bat and disassembles orthopedic assessment.”

🔹 How understanding the min...

In TMS healing, we’re working to uncover the hard-to-feel feelings. We’re looking for the “I don’t feel…” We’re looking for the emotions you’re defended against and the emotions you’re scared to feel. Today, I’m showing you how to feel what you really feel.

In this Episode:

🔹 Three examples from my life, where I start at the surface, and show what it looks like to dig deeper.

🔹 A model for you to dig deeper yourself.

🔹 I answer the common TMS question, “how do I feel my feelings?”

This is a f...

In mindbody healing, we all deal with doubt. We all deal with disbelief. The people in your life may not believe this will work. Parts of you may not believe this will work. But, if you have TMS, then psychological and emotional modalities are the way forward. In healing TMS, there’s actually no other way.

In this Episode:

🔹 Does one small change heal chronic pain? Usually not.

🔹 What heals chronic pain? A serious mental paradigm shift.

🔹 Today, we examine the complexity of the whole paradigm shift.

🔹 But, we also make it s...

Dr. Jennifer Franklin has practiced as a psychologist for over 20 years. She specializes in IBS and was one of the first Gastro-Psychologists or GI Psychologists. Today, she sits down to talk with us.

In this Episode:

🔹 Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about IBS and the gut-brain connection.

🔹 We explore the emergence of the concept of DGBIs (Disorders of Gut-Brain Interaction).

🔹 Dr. Franklin discusses her own personal recovery from IBS.

🔹 “It’s really lonely to live with a DGBI,” but you’re not alone.

🔹 Dr. Franklin is a fountain of advice f...

RuPaul says, “If you can’t love yourself…how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?” Today, we explore this concept in depth. The core message today: if it’s hard for you to love yourself, that is not your fault. I probably repeat that about 10 times in today’s episode. If you need to hear that - 10 times - then you’re like me. And you’re in the right place. Join us.

In this Episode:

🔹 We problematize Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, and I make a case for retiring his theory to the dustbin of psycho...

When Alexander Rosan became a bodyworker, he intuitively saw a connection between emotions and pain. He wasn’t trained to work with emotions, but he instinctively found his way into helping his clients process their emotions by attuning to and working with their bodies.

In this Episode:

🔹 An explanation of bodywork.

🔹 Thinking past traditional training in order to connect mind and body.

🔹 “There’s something beyond just massaging the body.”

🔹 Alexander’s story about “the first time someone started crying underneath my hands.”

🔹 Alexander helps connect the world of neuroplasticity to t...

One more thing to discuss! Because, in the last solo episode, I forgot something important. And, while we’re at it, we’re actually gonna talk about two things. Cuz there’s always more to learn about TMS. Join us for a little extra healing information and a little extra fun.

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Find Sean:

My Website

Now Enrolling: TMS Treatment & Support Group Starting February 24th, 2026

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Sean’s Free Email List: Join the List for Free Updates and Advice

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Click Here to Ask a Question on the Podcast...

My hometown is under occupation right now. Watching this nightmare unfold is… unreal… but it’s also not necessarily shocking. Today, I talk to my childhood friend Dr. Claire Branigan about the occupation in Minneapolis. Claire is an anthropology professor at Rice University. She and I reflect on the false “safety” of the white supremacist bubble in which we grew up, and we discuss waking up to the truth of the broader cultural dynamics present in Minnesota and in the world beyond. We highlight the idea of questioning your narrative. And, of course, I make the connection to that theme as a...

You know you have TMS. So now, what do you do? Great question. This episode revisits the three clear steps that heal chronic pain and chronic symptoms. We deep-dive into all three. Let your brain hear this. Then, you can apply what you learn. Then…you’ll start to feel your body healing.

In this Episode:

🔹 Understanding, internalizing, and believing the correct facts about chronic pain.

🔹 How to think psychologically, not physically.

🔹 Connecting your pain and your symptoms to your emotional life.

🔹 Accepting existential mystery in your healing and releasing the ne...

Jade Beall discovered Dr. Sarno in 2000. She was in massage school. So, she’s been in this world for a long time. She discusses her history of trauma, her history of psychosomatic symptoms, and her story of profound healing. Jade is so open, and she’s so generous with her life story. This is a really good one. You’re going to feel seen.

In this Episode:

🔹 A massage healer’s take on healing herself and on facilitating healing for others.

🔹 Jade tells her story about landing on the earth in a very sensitive body...

This is the question. How do you know if emotional and psychological modalities will help your pain and your symptoms? How do you know if your symptoms count? Right? Today, we answer exactly that.

In this Episode:

🔹 A clear definition of TMS and of Neuroplastic Symptoms.

🔹 The way symptoms arise emotionally.

🔹 The way symptoms arise psychologically.

🔹 The way symptoms arise due to a lack of attunement and alignment with the true self.

🔹 An invitation to surrender as part of your healing. Your human consciousness is limited, and you can't know...

Saahil Shenoy had “a whole bunch of rituals” to help him deal with pain. Stretching, creams, Epsom salts, two hours a day, “I need all this stuff to function”...many of you understand the feeling. And, as an athlete, Saahil’s pain was a crushing roadblock. In this episode, he tells us his pain recovery story. It seems like a miracle. But it’s really just brain science.

In this Episode:

🔹 How mindbody healing resonates for athletes specifically

🔹 How Saahil completely changed his mental perspective and eliminated so much physical pain

🔹 “Let’s just see what hap...

…But you can survive and thrive in hardship. You don’t need to be afraid of hard things. You can handle them.

In this Episode:

🔹 Two Truths:

🔹 1) In life, you are not in control. You have to surrender and allow.

🔹 2) But, in life, you do have some control.

🔹 These truths seem contradictory, but they’re both true at the same time.

🔹 Let’s use 2026 as an invitation to take control over our mindsets.

🔹 This year, let’s learn to rewrite our relationship to fear and rewrite our relationship to...

Take a peek behind the scenes of Mindbody Medicine for Chronic Pain. If you enjoy the podcast, this’ll be fun. It’s the end of the year, most people are just chillin’, so let’s chill too. And it’ll also be educational. Join in for a good time.

In this episode:

🔹 The process of recording a podcast when you have a TMS personality like me.

🔹 Mind-body reactions I've experienced while recording.

🔹 A clip from my first practice recording :)

🔹 This podcast is not intended as a substitute for medical advice.

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For those who celebrate, it’s that time of year. We’re dealing with the combo of holiday childhood nostalgia …and trauma.

Where does your chronic pain come from? And your chronic symptoms? It’s not your old injury. It’s not your undetectable embedded infection. It’s your trauma—and the patterns of self-abandonment your trauma caused.

In this episode:

🔹 Nostalgia from my childhood Christmases.

🔹 The complex dynamics of interpersonal trauma.

🔹 Trauma isn’t what you’ve been through, it’s how it impacted you.

🔹 A core impact of trauma: it leaves...

Nora’s been where you’ve been–in the depths of despair over her symptoms. She had severe back pain, terrible IBS, and truly all-consuming insomnia. Now, she’s fully recovered from all of the above. Listen to her amazing story for inspiration and for guidance.

Nora’s the co-founder and developer of a mindbody recovery app called Nervana. (Nervana, like nervous system meets nirvana.) Good, right? Nervana is brand new, it’s informed by the latest research, and it uses state-of-the-art technology to deliver mindbody healing to you. You can be one of the first to try Nervana...

Most discussions about breaking intergenerational trauma cycles are discussions about parenting. Awesome. That's great. And... what if you don't have children? What will you pass on? Does your healing matter to anyone aside from yourself? Join us for a conversation about breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma when you're gay and/or when you don't have children.

In this episode:

Amy Yarin’s had over 30 different diagnoses. Back pain, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, tinnitus, idiopathic hypersomnia, spinal stenosis, scoliosis, car accident, an extra rib, opioid addiction.... She was bed-bound with “24-hour 1500/10 pain.”

And now she’s doing great! Isn’t that wild? If you doubt the power of mind-body work, this episode is for you. Join us for Amy’s astounding TMS recovery story. This is a modern-day miracle.

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Find Sean:

Visit my website to: Request a consultation for individual therapy

Click here to: Ask a question on the podcast

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Reso...

Freedom from pain. We all talk about it. We all want it. But… what does freedom really mean? What does freedom mean to you?

In this episode:

Caryn Sherbet, LMSW (they/she) is a trans nonbinary therapist who specializes in OCD, chronic pain, and sexual trauma. Often, they work at the intersection of all three. Caryn talks about how patterns of avoidance tie all three together. They talk about the need to move away from "fixing" and "controlling" in order to heal. They talk about learning to tolerate existentially intolerable phenomena. They talk about making sacrifices in order to be true to yourself and true to your body. And they talk about how healing does not happen easily for everyone. Healing, sometimes, is a long, deep...

Don't forget your daily practice :) Healing pain is a journey. Often, it’s a journey with many steps. What steps are you taking? Here are some excellent ideas – tried and true suggestions – for you.

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Find Sean:

Visit my website to: Request a consultation for individual therapy

Click here to: Ask a question on the podcast

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…and you’re listening to Mindbody Medicine for Chronic Pain.

Therapist Sean Hershey, LCSW teaches you how to use psychological and emotional modalities to heal from chronic pain. Common conditions treated: Back...

Shame is an emotion, not a thought, not a belief. Shame is something to feel. The feeling of shame kicks off negative thoughts and beliefs...but what if you just treated your shame as an emotion? Then you could feel it... and let it move out.

Today, Ellen Ronka teaches us how to train out of chronic shame using the same Pain Reprocessing Therapy techniques we already know. We can feel it rather than fear it. We can feel it without "believing" the story behind it. For example, you don't need to believe the "story" that your...

How to deal with shame? How to heal from chronic pain and conditions? What are the “right” things to do? What if I’m doing the “right” things the “wrong” way? Why is shame so central to chronic pain healing? Today we talk with psychotherapist Ellen Ronka, LCMHC for Part 1 of How to Handle Shame.

We get into: how to feel your emotions in order to heal, your emotions mean something about you and what you need, unlearning emotional processing blueprints from your family of origin, the centrality of shame in chronic pain conditions, and so much more. This is...

It’s been a long, long road. Your symptoms have finally led you to mind-body work. We’re here now.

There’s so much to this life–so many things still to learn, so many ways still to grow. But, at least when it comes to chronic pain healing, you’ve reached the end of the line. There’s no more asking “what’s wrong with me?” and “why do I feel this way?” Because now you know. You know the answer. This is it. Allow this to be. Stay. There’s nowhere else to go. Move into the neighborhood. Y...

Deb Malkin is a massage therapist, a hypnotist, and a pain coach. She helps people unlock the skills of pain elimination through understanding (and embodying) the neuroscience of the mind-body connection. It’s the same exciting stuff we talk about on this podcast. Deb gets it.

Deb’s also active in the world of body liberation and fat liberation. She brings that mindset to her work with the Association for the Treatment of Neuroplastic Symptoms. She and our colleague Amy Schere, LCSWA spoke on anti-fat bias at the ATNS conference and, honestly, caused a bit of a stir...

Dr. Gabor Maté is a physician in Canada. He’s an expert on addiction, childhood development, and trauma. His teachings highlight the conflict between two fundamental human needs: attachment and authenticity.

(And, no. He's not actually an interview guest. We're just talking about his work.)

People who struggle with chronic pain are the kinds of people who were taught somewhere along the line that we’re not truly allowed to be ourselves. We’re the kind of people who had to give up some (if not a lot) of our authenticity in order to maintain our att...

Skylar Whitman was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis (also called juvenile idiopathic arthritis) in 6th grade. She was 11. Her story started young. On top of the RA, she’s struggled with migraines, musculoskeletal pain, joint pain, severe wrist pain, and much more. Given her history with these symptoms, her story of recovery is seriously profound.

Listen as Skylar moves from “these are the cards I’ve been dealt,” and “I’m a victim” to true, robust mind-body healing. Mind-body medicine has the power to shift the symptoms of autoimmune conditions. If you want proof, Skylar’s story is for you. She...

Doubting your ability to recover? Totally normal. You're not alone. Listen to my latest journey through doubt for a little comfort, a little normalization, and a little proof that the doubt is wrong. Mindbody medicine works for chronic pain. Period.

If you're ready to take your healing deeper, become a 1-on-1 therapy client. Visit my website to request a consultation: www.mindbodymedicineforchronicpain.com

…and you’re listening to the Mindbody Medicine for Chronic Pain Podcast.

Therapist Sean Hershey, LCSW teaches you how to use psychological and emotional modalities to heal from chronic pain. Comm...

Grace has a truly amazing mindbody recovery story. She gets it. She’s been there. She’s recovered from so many different symptoms including Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Pain, Food Sensitivities, Mold Toxicity, Severe Headaches, and more. Her story’s inspiring. And now she can help you. She’s a therapist and leads a weekly group coaching program called the Mind-Body Healing Method.

If you’re stuck in your healing, I have a solution for you. I say this with love: stop trying to do it alone. Reach out to Grace. Reach out to me. There is help and support. Y...

You're invited! We're celebrating the culmination of 2 podcast seasons with a live, in-person party. I had a bunch of friends over, we had a great time, and we even recorded a brief bonus episode. Join the fun.

Contact me:

If you're ready to take your healing deeper, become a 1-on-1 therapy client. Visit my website to request a consultation: www.mindbodymedicineforchronicpain.com

…and you’re listening to the Mindbody Medicine for Chronic Pain Podcast

Therapist Sean Hershey, LCSW teaches you how to use psychological and emotional modalities to heal from chronic pain...

I'm going to throw out a hypothesis: You Deserve To Be Your True Self.

Right? Doesn't everyone? I hope so. Now, I don't know all the existential laws of the universe. But I'm learning to tune into my body, which is part of this universe. And I'm helping you learn to tune into your body, also part of this universe. Let's learn to trust our bodies. Today we're exploring the traumas that cut us off from our true selves... and we're talking about how to heal. We're getting existential today, it's the season finale, and you're gonna...

Katie Estridge, PT, PYT is a physical therapist, professional yoga therapist, pain coach, and meditation teacher. She shares her amazing journey from a severe regular migraine sufferer to chronic-migraine-free. And you already know what cured her: Mind-body work. Now she offers this as part of her physical therapy practice. Join the conversation as Katie tells us how she recovered, talks about the mind-body lens turning her professional world upside down, feels "this is negating my whole profession," and then finds a way to beautifully blend the physical, the psychological, and the emotional to help her patients recover from pain...

This is a 9.5-minute Somatic Tracking exercise. Listen now, and save it for later. Allow yourself to fully experience this one. Maybe many times over. Allow this practice to help you.

Somatic tracking is most helpful when your symptoms are mild or moderate. With somatic tracking, the goal is to feel your symptoms and sensations through a lens of safety. It can be hard to feel truly safe when your symptoms are severe. That's why somatic tracking's recommended at times when symptoms are mild or moderate. But, you know you. Try this practice. Experiment with it. Remember...

We're diving deep into somatic tracking today. Learn about the three parts of somatic tracking: 1) mindfulness, 2) safety reappraisal, and 3) positive affect induction. This is a powerful way to bring the psychological work into your life and make it concrete. Join us and learn how to implement somatic tracking in your healing.

Also, today, we take a look at your daily practice. How's that going? Getting out of pain, for most of us, takes work. It takes a serious mindset shift. And that takes some effort. It might even take the *effort* of relaxing, the *effort* of letting...

What is Pain Reprocessing Therapy? What is Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy? What is the Boluder Back Pain Study? Good questions. Dr. Michael Dow takes us inside for a closer look at all of the above. Join us. I'm sure you'll learn something new. I know I certainly did.

Find Michael:

If you're a practitioner interested in a professional supervision or consultation group, Michael offers exactly that! And he'd love to have you join. He also has some spaces open for individual therapy clients. Reach out to him at: michaelmdow@gmail.com or https://drmichaeldow...