Mapping Chronic Pain

Whether you are working with your own pain or helping others, this can be a useful exercise.

First establish the ACT - the Matrix point of view. You can use...

1. Who is important to you? (goes in the lower right)
2. What gets in the way of moving toward who's important to you, including pain? (lower left)
3. What have you been doing to deal with or reduce the pain? If you've been trying to think yourself out of pain, that maps to the lower left. Taking pills, exercising, stretching and such map to the (upper left).
4. What could you do to move Toward who's important to you AND have the pain? (upper right)

After that you can ask, "Where does your pain map onto the vertical line?

Notice that the vertical line goes from Sensory information coming in at the top, and then it's processed into Mental experiencing at the bottom. Pain is tricky because it can range up and down that line. It's handy to know from moment to moment where pain is mapping onto that line.

Be well,

Kevin

More information about the ACT for Chronic Pain Webinar (click).