Chronic pain & illness
Pain that has outlasted its cause
When pain persists past the healing of the injury, the nervous system itself has usually become part of the problem. That changes what helps. We treat the pain and the weight of living with it, alongside the team you already have.
- Alongside
- your existing pain and primary care team, not instead of them
- Multi-modal
- medical, procedural, psychological, and integrative together
- Not opioids
- we are not a pain-medication practice
01Why persistent pain is different
The nervous system learns pain
Pain that lasts beyond the expected healing time often involves central sensitization: the nervous system becomes better and better at producing the signal, until the pain is no longer a reliable report on tissue damage. This is not the same as the pain being imagined. It is a real, physical process, and it is why treatments aimed only at the original site can stop working.
It also explains why chronic pain and mood are so entangled. Depression, anxiety, poor sleep, and pain amplify each other in both directions, and treating one while ignoring the others tends to underperform. Conditions where this pattern shows up include fibromyalgia, neuropathic pain, CRPS, and long-tail pain after surgery.
Our role is usually adjunctive. We are not a replacement for your pain physician, your surgeon, or your rheumatologist. We work on the parts of the picture that a procedure-focused practice often has no time for.
Pain that lasts beyond the expected healing time often involves central sensitization: the nervous system becomes better and better at producing the signal, until the pain is no longer a reliable report on tissue damage. This is not the same as the pain being imagined. It is a real, physical process, and it is why treatments aimed only at the original site can stop working.
It also explains why chronic pain and mood are so entangled. Depression, anxiety, poor sleep, and pain amplify each other in both directions, and treating one while ignoring the others tends to underperform. Conditions where this pattern shows up include fibromyalgia, neuropathic pain, CRPS, and long-tail pain after surgery.
Our role is usually adjunctive. We are not a replacement for your pain physician, your surgeon, or your rheumatologist. We work on the parts of the picture that a procedure-focused practice often has no time for.
02What we offer
The routes open to you, in the order we would suggest them
Which of these is right depends on your history and what you have already tried. That is decided in a consultation with a physician.
- 01Integrative medicineAcupuncture, trigger point injections, and nervous-system regulation, plus nutrition and sleep. The physical end of persistent pain.
- 02Pain-focused psychotherapySomatic and pain-focused modalities that work on how the nervous system holds pain — which is genuinely modifiable.
- 03Ketamine-assisted psychotherapyConsidered where chronic pain sits with treatment-resistant depression or trauma. Ketamine has a long history in pain medicine, and the psychological layer is what we add.
- 04Psychiatry & medication managementSleep, mood, and the depression that chronic pain so reliably produces. Treating those well tends to move the pain too.
03Is this for you
Where this helps, and where it does not
Yes
Often a good fit
- Pain that has persisted well beyond the expected healing time
- Fibromyalgia, neuropathic pain, CRPS, or central sensitization
- Chronic pain with depression, anxiety, or a trauma history alongside it
- Persistent pain after surgery, or before a procedure you are dreading
- You want someone to treat the toll of it, not only the site of it
No
Not the right tool
- Opioid prescriptions — we are not a pain-medication practice
- Undiagnosed pain that has not been medically worked up — get the workup first
- Acute injury or a new, unexplained symptom — that needs urgent assessment
- Replacing your pain specialist — we work alongside them
We coordinate with your existing physicians, and with your consent we send clinical summaries back to whoever is managing your care.
04Common questions
Are you saying my pain is in my head?
No. Central sensitization is a physical change in how the nervous system processes signals — measurable and involuntary. What it means is that treatments aimed at the nervous system can help even when treatments aimed at the original site have stopped working.
Do you prescribe opioids?
No. We are not a pain-medication practice and we do not manage opioid prescriptions. If you are currently on them, that stays with your prescribing physician; we will coordinate with them.
What are trigger point injections?
A small injection into a taut, tender band of muscle that is generating pain locally or referring it elsewhere. It is a quick outpatient procedure, done in clinic, and most useful as one part of a broader plan.
Will this replace my pain doctor?
No. We are adjunctive: we work on the parts of chronic pain that a procedure-focused practice often does not have room for. With your consent, we keep your existing team informed.