Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT)
You’ve done the doctor visits, scans, and treatments—yet the pain or other symptoms are still there. Whether your symptoms began without any clear injury or started with an injury that has long since healed, your experience is real.
For some people, persistent symptoms are being generated or amplified by learned patterns in the brain and nervous system. This is often referred to as neuroplastic pain or neuroplastic symptoms. Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) is an evidence-based approach designed to help the brain reinterpret these signals through a lens of safety rather than danger.
I work with adults and teens experiencing chronic pain, migraines, fibromyalgia, pelvic pain, IBS and other digestive symptoms, dizziness, fatigue, and other persistent symptoms. Through Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), I help you understand your symptoms, calm your nervous system, and retrain your brain’s response to these signals. Techniques like somatic tracking, mindfulness, and emotional processing help rewire the brain, break the pain–fear cycle, and reduce sensitivity over time. Together, we use these evidence-based tools to reduce fear, build safety, and support lasting relief.
If you’re curious whether this approach could help, you’re welcome to book a complimentary 15-minute connect call to ask questions and see whether working together feels like a good fit.
Common Questions About PRT
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If you’ve been living with chronic pain or other persistent symptoms, you may be wondering whether Pain Reprocessing Therapy could help.
PRT focuses on symptoms that are influenced or maintained by learned patterns in the brain and nervous system. Some clues that your symptoms may have a neuroplastic component include:
Symptoms that move, change, or fluctuate in intensity
Symptoms that increase during stress or emotional strain
Symptoms that worsen with fear, attention, or worry
Symptoms that improve when you’re relaxed, distracted, or engaged in something enjoyable
Symptoms that began during or after a stressful period
Symptoms that persist after an injury has healed
Medical evaluations that haven’t identified a clear explanation for your symptoms
These patterns can offer helpful clues, but they aren’t enough on their own to determine whether symptoms are neuroplastic. Appropriate medical evaluation is an important part of understanding persistent symptoms.
Want to explore these signs in more detail?
Read How Do I Know If My Symptoms Are Neuroplastic?
Not sure whether this applies to you?
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Absolutely. Many chronic symptoms — such as fatigue, headaches or migraines, dizziness, nausea, IBS and other gastrointestinal issues, tinnitus, neuropathy, insomnia or other sleep difficulties, vertigo, POTS-like symptoms, skin changes, and other persistent medically unexplained sensations— share the same brain-based mechanisms that maintain chronic pain. PRT helps retrain the nervous system’s response to these sensations, often leading to noticeable improvement.
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Neuroplastic pain is real physical pain that develops when the brain and nervous system interpret safe sensations as dangerous, even when there is no ongoing tissue damage causing the pain.
Pain is designed to protect us, but sometimes the brain’s protective system becomes overactive. It can learn to produce pain in response to sensations, movements, or situations that aren’t actually harmful.
The encouraging news is that the brain can learn new patterns, too.
Learn more: What Is Neuroplastic Pain?
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PRT sessions are collaborative and tailored to you. We may explore how your brain is interpreting symptoms, practice responding to sensations with less fear, work with patterns of attention or avoidance, and find practical ways to apply what you’re learning in your everyday life.
Curious what working together might actually look like?
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Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) is an evidence-based approach designed to help retrain the brain’s response to sensations it has learned to interpret as dangerous.
Rather than focusing on managing symptoms alone, PRT works at the level where chronic pain is being maintained — the nervous system and brain.
In our work together, we may use tools such as:
• Somatic Tracking — noticing sensations with curiosity instead of fear
• Cognitive Reframing — shifting the brain’s danger interpretations
• Safety Signaling — reinforcing cues of physical safety
• Emotional awareness — processing underlying stress patterns
• Gradual exposure — rebuilding trust with movement and activity
This approach helps interrupt the pain-fear cycle and supports long-term relief.
Curious about the research behind PRT? Read Is Pain Reprocessing Therapy Evidence-Based?
Learn more: What Is Somatic Tracking?
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Yes.
Pain Reprocessing Therapy is designed to treat neuroplastic pain, but it can also be helpful for people who have both structural conditions and a mind-body component to their symptoms.
In situations where a medical condition exists — such as arthritis, MS, injury history, or post-surgical pain — PRT does not replace medical care.
Instead, it helps reduce the additional distress created by:
• Fear of pain
• Nervous system overactivation
• Muscle tension
• Hypervigilance
• The brain’s amplified danger response
Many people with “mixed pain” experience meaningful relief when the nervous system learns that it is safe again.
PRT can be used alongside medical treatment.
Learn more: Does Structural Damage Rule Out Neuroplastic Pain?
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Healing timelines vary for each person, but research offers helpful guidance.
A randomized controlled trial published in JAMA Psychiatry found:
• 98% of participants improved with PRT
• 66% were pain-free or nearly pain-free after treatment
• Most improvements remained one year later
Many clients begin noticing meaningful shifts within 8–12 sessions, though progress depends on factors such as nervous system sensitivity, fear patterns, and life stressors.
This work is collaborative and paced to feel supportive — not rushed.
Amberleigh is a truly wonderful PRT practitioner. She is warm, kind, understanding, and I feel like she has truly helped me reduce and make sense of my chronic pain. She always brings you lots of tools and resources to use, but never makes things overwhelming. I cannot recommend her enough!
— Alexandra A.
Have Another Question?
Wondering about session options and cost? View session pricing and packages →
Not Sure Where to Start?
If you’re wondering whether Pain Reprocessing Therapy might be right for you, you don’t have to have everything figured out before taking the next step.
You can schedule a free 15-minute connect call to ask questions, share a little about what you’ve been experiencing, and see whether working together feels like a good fit.
Or, if you’d rather learn more first, explore my free resources on neuroplastic symptoms, Pain Reprocessing Therapy, and the brain and nervous system.