Synopsis
Discover how to conquer debilitating chronic pain by using a groundbreaking, self-directed approach pioneered by Dr. David Hanscom. His methods have been used by hundreds of patients to eliminate chronic pain and regain control of their lives.
Episodes
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From Terror to Curiosity to Possibility- a Healing Journey
21/06/2023 Duration: 29minIn this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Dr. Kirk Schneider, an integrative existential psychotherapist. He shares the early experiences he had that later shaped his approach to his psychotherapy practice. He describes the impact of his older brother’s untimely death that led him to his first visit to a psychoanalyst at the age of 6. Though he managed this early trauma fairly well, he had a nervous breakdown in graduate school that led to panic attacks and cognitive distortions. Through his work with an existential therapist, Dr. Ann Gustin, he was able to heal and move from terror to curiosity to possibility. Dr. Kirk Schneider is a leading spokesperson for existential-humanistic and existential-integrative psychotherapy. He is an adjunct faculty at Saybrook University and Teachers College, Columbia University. He is also the author or coauthor of 14 books, including Existential-Humanistic Therapy (with Orah Krug), Awakening to Awe, and his most recent book Life-Enhancing Anxiety: Key to a Sane Wo
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The Clues to Healing Within Patient Drawings
14/06/2023 Duration: 29minIn this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with world renowned surgeon and best-selling author, Bernie Sigel, MD. He discusses how patient drawings offer key insights into how the patient feels about their illness and treatment, as well as key events that have shaped their lives. He shares stories that illustrate these insights and how he used them to help patients tap into their innate healing power. He suggests that physicians should use patient drawings as a way to build trust and understanding with the patient. Bernie S. Siegel, MD, is a well-known proponent of integrative and holistic approaches to healing that heal not just the body but also the mind and soul. He attended Colgate University and studied medicine at Cornell University Medical College. His surgical training took place at Yale–New Haven Hospital, West Haven Veterans Hospital, and the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. In 1978 Bernie pioneered a new approach to group and individual cancer therapy called Exceptional Cancer
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The Healing Power of the Doctor-Patient Relationship
07/06/2023 Duration: 36minIn this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with world renowned surgeon and best-selling author, Bernie Sigel, MD. He shares stories that illustrate the importance of the doctor-patient relationship. He stresses the key role of understanding the patient’s story – their life situation, challenges, motivations and fears to the healing process. He expresses his belief that listening to the patient and helping them tap into their innate ability to heal is the real business of medicine. Bernie S. Siegel, MD, is a well-known proponent of integrative and holistic approaches to healing that heal not just the body but also the mind and soul. He attended Colgate University and studied medicine at Cornell University Medical College. His surgical training took place at Yale–New Haven Hospital, West Haven Veterans Hospital, and the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. In 1978 Bernie pioneered a new approach to group and individual cancer therapy called Exceptional Cancer Patients (ECaP), which utilized patients’ drawings, dr
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Healing through Understanding and Action
24/05/2023 Duration: 28minIn this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with Dr. David Schechter, a pioneer in the practice of Mind Body Medicine. He shares the approach he uses with patients suffering from chronic pain. He outlines his treatment approach which involves a lengthy interview with the patient to get a fuller understanding of their context, followed up by providing them with a customized resource guide to help them better understand the nature of chronic pain and the role they play in the healing process. The elements of healing involve establishing trust with the physician, calming the nervous system and engagement with the healing process. Dr. David Schechter graduated with a degree from Princeton University. While a medical student at NYU in the early 1980's, he was first exposed to a stress related disorder-- his own! After successful treatment as a patient of Dr. John Sarno, he performed a telephone follow up study, in Dr. Sarno’s office. In addition to his new book, The MindBody Workbook, Volume Two,
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Mind Body Healing for Teens
17/05/2023 Duration: 27minIn this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Dr. David Schechter, a physician focused on Family Medicine and Sports Medicine, and a pioneer in the practice of Mind Body Medicine. He was first exposed to Mind Body Medicine as a patient of Dr. John Sarno and used that experience to fashion his own mind / body approach to treating chronic pain. He explains the work he is doing with teens and how he is trying to help them understand the impact that emotional health has on their physical health. In future, he believes that teens with this knowledge could learn to better help their peers. Dr. David Schechter graduated with a degree from Princeton University. While a medical student at NYU in the early 1980's, he was first exposed to a stress related disorder-- his own! After successful treatment as a patient of Dr. John Sarno, he performed a telephone follow up study, in Dr. Sarno’s office. In addition to his new book, The MindBody Workbook, Volume Two, Dr. Schechter is the author of Think Away Your Pain, The
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Building the Foundation for Thriving
10/05/2023 Duration: 32minIn this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with internist Dr. Matt Lederman and Oriental Medicine and family practitioner Dr. Alona Pulde. They explain their areas of focus in getting patients beyond “normal limits” to thriving. These include: self-awareness, internal state, connection, work and spirituality. They share their belief that healing can be fostered when we learn to value human connection and authentic sharing above all else. Alona Pulde, MD is a board-certified practitioner of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine & Family Medicine Physician and Dr. Matthew Lederman is a board-certified Internal Medicine physician & CNVC Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication. After ten years of serving Whole Foods Market as corporate Vice Presidents, helping launch their national comprehensive medical & wellness centers, coaching and retreat programs, and integrated hospital and insurance networks, Dr. Pulde and Dr. Lederman moved on to co-found their new venture, WeHeal and their new book W
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Going from Wellness to Wonderful
03/05/2023 Duration: 28minIn this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with internist Dr. Matt Lederman and Oriental Medicine and family practitioner Dr. Alona Pulde. They share their approach to healing that begins with understanding the physical and emotional context of the patient and helping them develop awareness about how this affects their health. Learning to deal with uncomfortable emotions and seeing how feelings are generated by needs is key. Their goal is to help patients learn to thrive – to experience joy and be happy. Alona Pulde, MD is a board-certified practitioner of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine & Family Medicine Physician and Dr. Matthew Lederman is a board-certified Internal Medicine physician & CNVC Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication. After ten years of serving Whole Foods Market as corporate Vice Presidents, helping launch their national comprehensive medical & wellness centers, coaching and retreat programs, and integrated hospital and insurance networks, Dr. Pulde and Dr. Lederman moved on to co-fou
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A Cultural Code for Healing
26/04/2023 Duration: 26minIn this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussino with psychological anthropologist and ethnomusicologist Dr. Tamara Turner. She explains the cultural context of the Algerian Diwan community’s approach to healing from pain and trauma through trance dancing. She found that one of the most important factors in making this an effective healing tool was the community’s belief that suffering is an accepted part of being human. The Diwan cultural code discourages talking much about suffering and feeling like a victim. Instead it emphasizes a focus on gratitude as well as a very strong sense of family and community. Trance dancing is a form of community support to help its members release the emotions tied to their suffering so they can heal. Dr. Tamara Turner is a psychological anthropologist and ethnomusicologist who has spent more than 15 years researching the role of music and dance in healing across cultures. Her award-winning research in North Africa focuses on Sufi music and dance rituals designed
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Dance of Healing
19/04/2023 Duration: 27minIn this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with psychological anthropologist and ethnomusicologist Dr. Tamara Turner. She shares the origins of her award-winning research into the role of dance and healing in North African communities. Her initial focus was on a career in classical music. But she developed an interest in other types of music that eventually led her to study the music of West and North Africa. She discovered that in Morocco and Algeria, certain communities used music and trance dancing as a healing modality for pain and trauma. These healing rituals could last 8-9 hours. The movement of the dance would lead to an altered state and the level of trance ranged from light rapture all the way to complete dissociation. Dr. Tamara Turner is a psychological anthropologist and ethnomusicologist who has spent more than 15 years researching the role of music and dance in healing across cultures. Her award-winning research in North Africa focuses on Sufi music and dance rituals designed to deal with inter-
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Discovering How Our Brains Process Chronic Pain
15/03/2023 Duration: 44minIn this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with pain psychologist, neuroscientist and co-founder of Aivo Health, Melissa Farmer. Or eight years, she has worked with world-renowned neuroscientist Dr. Vania Apkarian on how our brains process chronic pain. She shares the important discoveries resulting from that work including how, over time, the brain shifts the processing from sensory centers to the older emotional learning areas. This is an adaptive strategy that the brain uses to free up threat processing resources. Thus, pain becomes an emotional memory hard wired into our neural circuits. The good news is that this is reversible using techniques we have control over. Melissa Farmer, PhD is one of about 5 people in the U.S. who is both a pain psychologist and neuroscientist. With 16 years of experience working with people who live with hard-to-treat chronic pain. Dr. Farmer was trained at one of the few multidisciplinary pain clinics in North America, at McGill University, where she treated patients with a
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The Healing Balance
22/02/2023 Duration: 31minIn this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with internationally renowned Ayurvedic clinician, Zeeba Khan. She describes how doshas (mind body spirit compositions) can indicate the types of illnesses or disorders you might be susceptible to. She identifies the 3 doshas – Vata Dosha, Pitta Dosha and Kapha Dosha – and gives examples of what they might signify for health. The first step in working with a client is to diagnose their doshas. From there she will work to bring the most out of balance dosha into balance. To do this, she questions her clients about diet, sleep, stress, what brings them joy and how often they engage in those things. She also asks them why they want to get better. She has discovered there is always an element of forgiveness and compassion in the healing process. Zeeba is an internationally renowned Ayurvedic clinician, meditation teacher, energy healer and motivational speaker who uses holistic treatment to restore her patients’ mental, physical, emotional, and spirit
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Finding the Ayurvedic Path to Health
15/02/2023 Duration: 29minIn this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with internationally renowned Ayurvedic clinician, Zeeba Khan. She shares the important role her family life played in the development of her Ayurvedic practice. Her mother was Persian and her father was Indian, and in both her parents’ cultures, the kitchen was the pharmacy. Her experiences taught her the important of food, sleep, meditation, gratitude and surrender to a higher power as the foundational elements of resilience, health and healing. Zeeba is an internationally renowned Ayurvedic clinician, meditation teacher, energy healer and motivational speaker who uses holistic treatment to restore her patients’ mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health and to prevent disease and disorders. In particular, she focuses on healing trauma, which often leads to anxiety, depression, feelings of loss, and low self-esteem. She has presented month-long workshops to corporate clients, including some well-known global leaders and has also led meditation and yoga worksh
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The Healing Light Within
04/01/2023 Duration: 35minIn this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with Daniel Atkins, an intuitive psychologist. He explains the steps he uses when working with clients to help them start on their healing journey. These include: focusing on the current issue; listening for emotional associations with the pain; encouraging them to explore new possibilities; and using experiential tools like breath work and meditation. His focus is on getting clients to see that their pain doesn’t define them and that it can be the basis for their transformation. Ultimately, he points out, our healing starts and ends with us. Daniel Atkins, Psy.D is an intuitive psychologist and invites individuals and groups of all ages to understand the lineages and layers of emotional trauma they carry. Daniel was trained as a clinical psychologist and personally navigated a 10+ year journey with a misunderstood medical diagnosis. His personal journey led him to seek beyond the traditional bounds of western medicine in order to heal himself and d
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Discovering a Better Way to Heal
28/12/2022 Duration: 27minIn this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Daniel Atkins, an intuitive psychologist. He talks about his 10+ year personal journey through pain and illness. He explains that he tried traditional Western psychotherapy approaches to heal but found they focused too much on analyzing his early childhood and were unhelpful. His healing began when he started exploring other traditions with a broader spiritual dimension. What he learned drove a major shift in the way he works with clients in his practice today. Daniel Atkins, Psy.D is an intuitive psychologist and invites individuals and groups of all ages to understand the lineages and layers of emotional trauma they carry. Daniel was trained as a clinical psychologist and personally navigated a 10+ year journey with a misunderstood medical diagnosis. His personal journey led him to seek beyond the traditional bounds of western medicine in order to heal himself and develop the tools to guide others. As a result, Daniel cultivated an integrative practice that inc
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Fixing Pain by Making It Accurate
30/11/2022 Duration: 28minIn this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with Jeff Frankart, physical therapist and founder of The Fix PT clinic. He explains the three components of chronic pain (biological, psychological and social) and shares the details of his approach to treatment. The first step is getting patients to understand how chronic pain works. The next step is having patients move and push up to, but not beyond, their pain threshold. Over time, this helps them desensitize to pain, move their pain threshold and get over their fear of movement. In this sense, he helps them make their pain “accurate.” Jeff Frankart served as a physical therapist and the Chief of Chronic Pain Physical Therapy at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, a U.S. Army hospital in Germany, from 2010 to 2018. While there, he established a triage system to quickly evaluate and treat several hundred troops a week. The three-week program required no equipment and could be done one-on-one or in groups. After 30 years of service, Jeff retired a
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Chronic Pain – Getting to The Fix
23/11/2022 Duration: 31minIn this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Jeff Frankart, physical therapist and founder of The Fix PT clinic. He talks about his work in the military with combat soldiers to help them recover mobility and reduce opioid addiction. He explains how, using a movement-based systems that only relies on body weight and no equipment, he was able to help them increase their pain threshold, lose their fear of pain and begin their healing journey. Today he uses this same process in his physical therapy clinic. Jeff Frankart served as a physical therapist and the Chief of Chronic Pain Physical Therapy at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, a U.S. Army hospital in Germany, from 2010 to 2018. While there, he established a triage system to quickly evaluate and treat several hundred troops a week. The three-week program required no equipment and could be done one-on-one or in groups. After 30 years of service, Jeff retired and founded The Fix PT, a physical therapy clinic he operates with his wife, Carla. His focus is he
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Oxytocin and Human Sociality
16/11/2022 Duration: 30minIn this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with Dr. Sue Carter, the former director of the Kinsey Institute and a world-renowned scientist. She talks about oxytocin’s important role in human social behavior. She underscores the fact that oxytocin affects every tissue of the body and is the physiologic basis for pair bonding and relationships. Under stress, the body produces large amounts of oxytocin, and can help us make better judgments about who it is safe to connect with. She shares how her understanding of oxytocin grew out of her research studies on the social behavior of prairie voles. Sue Carter, PhD is the former director of the Kinsey Institute and a world renowned scientist. Her research program has discovered important new developmental functions for oxytocin and vasopressin, and implicated these hormones in the regulation of human connection and early social experiences. She is also studying oxytocin’s implications for controlling stress and chronic pain. Learn more about your ad
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Oxytocin, Healing and Health
09/11/2022 Duration: 34minIn this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Dr. Sue Carter, the former director of the Kinsey Institute and a world-renowned scientist. She shares how the importance of oxytocin has come to be recognized in the scientific community over time. She discusses the evolutionary history of oxytocin and explains the role that oxytocin plays in lowering inflammation and reducing stress. It also helps the body to build and repair bone tissue and plays an important part in healing processes. Sue Carter, PhD is the former director of the Kinsey Institute and a world renowned scientist. Her research program has discovered important new developmental functions for oxytocin and vasopressin, and implicated these hormones in the regulation of human connection and early social experiences. She is also studying oxytocin’s implications for controlling stress and chronic pain. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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The Perils of Sugar for Health
02/11/2022 Duration: 38minIn this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with neuroendocrinologist and bestselling author Rob Lustig. He explains the different types of sugar we consume in our diet and how the body metabolizes each type. In particular, he focuses on the dangers of the sweetener fructose and discusses how it results in fatty liver disease and diabetes. The problem with fructose is that it is both toxic and addictive. Our liver has a limited capacity to metabolize fructose. However, it stimulates the production of dopamine which makes us want it more and is why food manufacturers put it into so much of our processed foods. Robert H. Lustig, M.D., M.S.L. is Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, and Member of the Institute for Health Policy Studies at UCSF. Dr. Lustig is a neuroendocrinologist, with expertise in metabolism, obesity, and nutrition. He is one of the leaders of the current “anti[1]sugar” movement that is changing the food industry. Dr. Lustig graduated from MIT in
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How Fiber Keeps Us Healthy
26/10/2022 Duration: 32minIn this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with neuroendocrinologist and bestselling author Rob Lustig. He shares how he first got interested in nutrition when he studied the role of the hypothalamus in driving obesity in pediatric patients with brain cancer. He discusses the symbiotic role of gut bacteria in our digestion, immune response and even the experience of pain. He explains six importance benefits of fiber in keeping the gut microbiome healthy, regulating appetite and protecting the gut. Robert H. Lustig, M.D., M.S.L. is Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, and Member of the Institute for Health Policy Studies at UCSF. Dr. Lustig is a neuroendocrinologist, with expertise in metabolism, obesity, and nutrition. He is one of the leaders of the current “anti[1]sugar” movement that is changing the food industry. Dr. Lustig graduated from MIT in 1976, and received his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College in 1980. He also received his Masters of Studies in Law (MSL) deg