Chronic Pain Solutions:
Counselling for your Mental, Emotional, and Physical Health
Helping you break free from the cycle of pain, reduce suffering, and build strength and safety in mind and body
The Counselling Process
-
Build Trust
Explore Pain Psychology
Increase Self-Awareness -
Learn about your pain
Manage symptoms
Improve Functional Movement -
Retrain your Pain System
Optimize Recovery
Maintain Lasting Change
What is Chronic Pain?
Chronic pain is an overprotective response to real or perceived danger in the body. Your pain experience is influenced by your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, history, and context which, in some cases, can contribute to a sensitized pain system. It is a biological, psychological, and social phenomenon that can feel very overwhelming.
With time, your pain system may learn to feel pain and become overprotective, but it is never too late to retrain your mind and body to understand pain more accurately. Addressing the way you think, behave, and feel in relation to pain can drastically change the way you experience it.
Common Experiences with Chronic Pain:
Your pain has persisted for more than a few months.
Your pain is not connected to easily identifiable or understandable causes.
Previous treatments have provided little durable relief.
Your pain system has become sensitized and over-protective.
You have noticed the impact of pain on your mood, stress levels, sleep, relationships, career, and general quality of life.
You notice yourself withdrawing and isolating socially.
You are moving less and spending less time on your hobbies.
Your coping strategies are feeling ineffective, unhelpful, or harmful.
Common chronic pain conditions include:
Low back, shoulder, and neck pain
Persistent sports injuries
Headache
Arthritis and joint pain
Nerve pain
Non-specific pain
Fibromyalgia
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)
Inflammatory disease
Somatic Symptom Disorder (SSD)
A Fresh Perspective on Chronic Pain
Hi. My name is Paul Seymour (he/him). I am a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC # 16595) based in Vancouver, BC. My therapeutic approach is grounded in the belief that each of us is not only capable of change, but also designed to heal. I view counselling as a collaborative process that can help us feel heard, seen, and supported. It can also help us utilize our strengths, increase self awareness, challenge limiting beliefs, and commit to action-based goals aligned with who we truly are.
Specializing in chronic pain, I recognize the significant role that trauma and distress can play in physical pain. Because of this, I am deeply committed to honouring your identity and experience as we work together. It is my privilege to move with you through your current concerns and broader life story in a non-judgmental and respectful way. I look forward to creating lasting change with you.
Counselling Services
Using modern pain science and evidence-based psychological approaches, I offer counselling, education, and symptom management training to reduce your suffering connected to chronic pain and mental health concerns. I work to help you manage the experience of pain, reduce fear, build acceptance, and move more freely through the life that you want. In addition to chronic pain counselling, I also offer counselling for general mental health needs.
Chronic Pain Counselling
General Counselling
Chronic Pain Counselling for Couples, Family, and Friends
Practical and In-Depth Pain Treatment
My approach to counselling and pain management is client-centered, non- judgmental, solution-focused, and based on acceptance of all thoughts, feelings, and sensations. I take a biopsychosocial approach to pain management while applying concepts from:
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT)
- Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
- Person-Centered Therapy (PCT)
- Cognitive Functional Therapy (CFT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- And other therapeutic approaches to help you feel confident about your healing.
Evidence-based treatments focus on retraining the brain and nervous system to experience pain differently, to reduce fear associated with pain, to help you to re-engage in meaningful activities, and to create harmony in your pain system. Our work together will help you better understand yourself, your pain, and your options for reducing the impact that pain has on your life.