The Central Role of People-Pleasing in Neuroplastic Pain Workshop Summary:
People with neuroplastic pain often identify as people-pleasers. The thesis of this talk is that people-pleasing is more than just a common personality trait among people with neuroplastic pain; rather, it can be the central contributor to pain which has significant implications for healing. This talk will explore the core ways people-pleasing can generate and perpetuate pain, as well as the underlying psychological and emotional dynamics that give rise to being a people-pleaser, including a disconnection from the authentic self, fears of rejection, and guilt. It will also discuss how breaking free of people-pleasing is much more complex and nuanced than simply “being more assertive,” and how people-pleasing dynamics can occur in the practitioner-client relationship.
Learning Objectives:
- At the conclusion of this session, attendees will be able to define people-pleasing and explain
why it is different from excessive niceness. - Attendees will be able to describe why people- pleasing can be a core contributor to mindbody pain and explain the developmental context that facilitates people-pleasing.
- Attendees will be able to describe the interconnection ofguilt, disconnection from the authentic self, and pain. 4. Attendees will be able to identify effective interventions that guide clients towards greater authentic self-experience and self- differentiation as core elements to healing from chronic people-pleasing and pain.
Teaching the Brain Safety Through the Body: Using Movement, Sensory Input, and Graded Motor Imagery to Reduce Threat Workshop Summary:
This session will explore an integrative, body-based (somatic) approach to treating neuroplastic symptoms that complements pain reprocessing therapy (PRT) and emotional awareness and expression therapy (EAET). Drawing from a physical therapy and manual therapy background, the talk introduces the HEAL Method, with particular emphasis on Activity as a mechanism for communicating safety through graded movement exposure, sensory input, neurosomatics and graded motor imagery. Attendees will learn how graded movement, sensory-system engagement (visual, vestibular, proprioceptive), and motor imagery can support patients who struggle to respond to cognitive or emotional interventions alone.
Learning Objectives:
- Explain and demonstrate how sensory-system engagement can downregulate nervous system threat and reduce symptom amplification in neuroplastic conditions.
- Describe and demonstrate how neuro-based movement strategies using visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive input can recalibrate prediction error and modify threat perception.
- Identify the role of graded motor imagery (left/right discrimination, visualization, and mirror therapy) in refining cortical maps, reducing nervous system threat, and supporting safe re-engagement with movement.
