

Designer and Illustrator waiting for the sun to come out in Seattle, WA
While there’s little doubt that emotions have an effect on the body’s health, the effects of long-term, repressed emotions are not as well researched. One 2007 study of Sarno’s theory found that, in general, chronic back pain responded well to mind-body interventions like guided journaling and psychotherapy: Pain scores decreased by 52% for those with “average” pain and 35% for people with “worst” pain. But evidence that traumatic memories are the root of chronic pain syndrome is sparse, largely beca…
…e’s not a lot of people who do what we do,” Schubiner says, adding that he hopes that will change. “The patients who come to me, when I teach them about neural circuits and I explain to them that their pain is real, there’s a real sense of relief. They say, ‘I’m so glad it’s not in my head — it’s just in my brain.’”
But Schubiner says they’ve seen positive results. When a person is exposed to their trauma and continually given messages of safety, Schubiner says, the association between emotion and pain starts to untangle. “It could take a day, a week, a year, but taking something scary and showing the patient that it’s sa…