Chronic Pain Therapy in Lee’s Summit, Missouri: Mind-Body Approaches That Help
If you're reading this, you probably know what it's like to hurt in ways that don't show up on scans. You've probably heard some version of "we can't find anything wrong" or "you just need to manage your stress" or worst of all, "maybe it's all in your head."
Here's what we want you to know: Your pain is real. And the brain's role in pain is also real. These aren't contradictory statements—they're actually the key to your healing.
At Aspire Counseling, our therapists work with people experiencing chronic pain throughout Missouri, including in-person therapy at our Lee's Summit office and online sessions for clients anywhere in the state. We use evidence-based approaches like Internal Family Systems (IFS), Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), and Mindfulness Oriented Recovery Enhancement (MORE) to help your brain recalibrate its pain signals while honoring the very real experience you're living with every day.
This isn't about "positive thinking" or pretending your pain doesn't exist. This is about understanding how your brain interprets signals from your body—and learning that those interpretations can change.
Can Therapy Really Help with Chronic Pain?
Yes. And we understand if you're skeptical—most of our clients are at first.
Here's the short answer: Research shows that 80% of chronic pain is neuroplastic, meaning it's generated and maintained by patterns in the brain rather than ongoing tissue damage in the body. When pain persists for months or years after an injury has healed, or when medical tests can't identify a clear physical cause, therapy can address what's keeping that pain stuck.
But therapy for chronic pain isn't about talking through your feelings and hoping the pain goes away. It's about working with specific, evidence-based approaches that help your nervous system calm down, your brain reinterpret signals from your body, and your whole system move out of high alert.
The approaches we use—Internal Family Systems, Pain Reprocessing Therapy, and Mindfulness Oriented Recovery Enhancement—have all shown effectiveness in clinical research for reducing chronic pain. More importantly, they help people like you get back to living their lives without pain calling all the shots.
This doesn't mean your pain was "imaginary" or that you caused it. It means your brain's alarm system got stuck on, and therapy can help turn the volume down.
How Does Chronic Pain Therapy Work If My Pain Is Physical?
This is one of the most important questions to understand. Your pain IS physical—you're actually feeling it in your body. But the source of that pain signal often isn't where you think it is.
Think about how a smoke alarm works. When it detects smoke, it sounds an alarm. That's helpful when there's a fire. But sometimes smoke alarms malfunction and go off when there's no fire—maybe from steam in the shower or burnt toast. The alarm is real and loud, but there's no actual danger.
Chronic pain often works the same way. Your brain's alarm system—designed to protect you by creating pain when there's tissue damage—can get stuck in "on" position even after the original injury has healed. The pain you feel is real. The alarm is genuinely going off. But the fire went out months or years ago.
Here's how therapy addresses this:
We help you understand the brain-pain connection. When you learn that pain is an output of the brain rather than a direct reading of tissue damage, it changes everything. This isn't minimizing your pain—it's actually explaining why your pain has been so confusing and hard to treat.
We address the fear-pain cycle. When something hurts, it's natural to fear that pain. But that fear actually amplifies pain signals. Your brain interprets fear as confirmation that there's danger, which makes it send even stronger pain signals. Therapy helps you break this cycle by gradually teaching your brain that the sensations you're feeling don't mean danger.
We work WITH your whole system, not against it. Our approach recognizes that you probably have conflicting parts—one part that wants the pain gone, another part that's scared to hope, another part that's angry this is happening, another part that's exhausted from fighting. We welcome all of those parts. We don't ask you to fight yourself. When you can pay attention to your experience without constant fear or resistance, the nervous system naturally begins to settle.
What Types of Chronic Pain Respond to Therapy?
Almost any chronic pain condition can benefit from therapy, especially when medical treatments haven't provided complete relief. Our Lee's Summit therapists work with people experiencing:
Migraines and chronic headaches - Including tension headaches, cervicogenic headaches, and migraines with or without aura. Therapy can help reduce frequency, intensity, and duration of migraine episodes.
Fibromyalgia - The widespread pain, fatigue, and brain fog of fibromyalgia respond particularly well to mind-body approaches because fibromyalgia is now understood to be a condition of central sensitization—your nervous system amplifying pain signals.
Chronic back and neck pain - Especially pain that persists after an injury has healed or pain without a clear structural cause. Many people with chronic back pain have perfectly healthy spines on imaging but intense pain experiences.
Autoimmune-related pain - Conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and other autoimmune diseases often create pain that fluctuates unpredictably. While therapy can't cure autoimmune disease, it can help you manage pain flares and reduce the distress that makes pain worse.
Nerve pain (neuropathy) - Including pain from diabetes, post-surgical nerve damage, or idiopathic neuropathy. Even when nerve damage exists, therapy can reduce how much that pain interferes with your life.
TMJ and jaw pain - Jaw clenching, facial pain, and TMJ disorders are often made worse by stress and muscle tension. Therapy addresses both the physical and emotional components.
Pelvic pain - Including conditions like endometriosis, interstitial cystitis, chronic pelvic pain syndrome, and pain after childbirth. The brain-body connection is especially important with pelvic pain.
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) - One of the most severe pain conditions, CRPS is increasingly understood as a condition of the nervous system rather than ongoing tissue damage, which makes it very responsive to the approaches we use.
Post-surgical pain - When pain continues long after surgery has healed.
Any chronic pain without a clear medical explanation - If you've been told "we can't find anything wrong" but you're still hurting, therapy can help.
The key factor isn't what type of pain you have. It's whether you're open to the idea that therapy can affect physical pain, and whether you're willing to look at your thoughts and feelings about pain in a new way.
Is Chronic Pain Therapy Just "Positive Thinking"?
Absolutely not. We're not asking you to think happy thoughts and hope your pain goes away.
Chronic pain therapy—especially the approaches we use—is grounded in neuroscience. It's about understanding how your nervous system works and giving it new information. Here's what it actually looks like:
Somatic tracking - This is one of the core techniques in Pain Reprocessing Therapy. You learn to pay close attention to the actual sensations in your body—heat, pressure, tingling, tightness—while actively reminding your brain that these sensations are safe, not dangerous. This isn't ignoring pain. It's looking directly at pain with curiosity instead of fear.
Working with parts - In Internal Family Systems, we recognize that different parts of you have different feelings about your pain. One part might be terrified the pain will never end. Another part might be furious that this happened to you. Another part might be trying to push through and pretend everything's fine. We don't ask any of those parts to go away. We help you understand what each part is trying to do for you, and we welcome all of them. When your internal system feels less conflicted, your nervous system settles.
Mindfulness practices - But not the "just breathe and relax" kind you've probably already tried. The mindfulness we teach is specifically designed for pain—it helps you separate the actual sensation you're experiencing from your emotional reaction to it, which can dramatically reduce how much pain bothers you.
Education about pain - Understanding how pain actually works in the brain changes how you relate to your pain. When you learn that pain isn't always a reliable indicator of tissue damage—especially chronic pain—it reduces the fear that makes pain worse.
Nervous system regulation - We help your body move out of constant high alert. When you've been in pain for months or years, your nervous system gets stuck in a state of threat. We use specific techniques to help your system return to a state of safety.
This is active, skill-based work. It's learning to pay attention differently, interpret signals differently, and respond to pain differently. And the research shows it works.
What Should I Expect in My First Chronic Pain Therapy Session?
Your first session is about understanding your pain story and determining whether our approach is a good fit for you.
Here's typically what happens:
We'll ask about your pain history. When did it start? What tests or treatments have you tried? What helps, even a little? What makes it worse? This isn't about proving your pain is "real enough"—we already believe you. It's about understanding the patterns.
We'll explore the mind-body connection in your specific situation. Does your pain get worse when you're stressed or anxious? Does it improve when you're distracted or relaxed? Are there times the pain seems to shift or change in ways that don't match what you'd expect from a purely physical problem? These clues help us understand how much of your pain has a neuroplastic component.
We'll talk about your goals. Some people want complete pain relief. Others want to be able to work or sleep or play with their kids even if some pain remains. We'll discuss what success would look like for you, keeping in mind that progress is rarely linear.
We'll introduce the approach we'll use. Depending on your specific situation, we might focus on Pain Reprocessing Therapy, Internal Family Systems, or Mindfulness Oriented Recovery Enhancement—or some combination. We'll explain how these approaches work and why they're effective for chronic pain.
We'll address your skepticism. Most people come in feeling some version of "I don't see how talking about my feelings could possibly help my back pain." That's completely understandable. We'll explain the neuroscience in a way that makes sense, and we'll be honest about what therapy can and can't do.
We'll create a plan. This might include practice between sessions—paying attention to your pain in specific ways, noticing what makes it better or worse, or trying new ways of responding when pain flares.
The first session is as much about you interviewing us as it is about us understanding your pain. You should leave feeling like this approach makes sense to you and like we genuinely understand what you're dealing with.
How Long Does It Take for Therapy to Help with Chronic Pain?
This is probably the most important question to ask—and the hardest to answer precisely.
Here's what we know from research and clinical experience:
Some people notice changes quickly. It's not unusual for someone to experience less pain or less distress about pain within the first few sessions. This often happens when someone gains a new understanding about their pain that reduces fear, or when they have an experience of noticing that pain can fluctuate based on what they're paying attention to.
But quick wins can sometimes create unrealistic expectations. If your pain improves dramatically in the first couple weeks, it's easy to expect that every session will bring that kind of progress. When progress inevitably slows or you have a setback, it can feel like failure. It's not. This is the nature of working with chronic pain—progress is non-linear.
Most people work with us for several months. We typically recommend starting with 10-12 sessions and then reassessing. For some conditions like migraines or chronic back pain, people might see significant improvement in 2-3 months. For more complex conditions like fibromyalgia or CRPS, it might take 6 months or more to see sustained changes.
The goal isn't always zero pain. Sometimes the most meaningful change isn't that the pain completely goes away, but that it stops controlling your life. You might find that the pain is there but you're not afraid of it anymore. Or that you can do activities you'd been avoiding. Or that you sleep through the night even though you're still aware of discomfort. These are real, valuable changes.
Setbacks are part of the process. Even when therapy is working, you'll have bad pain days. Those days don't mean you're back to square one. They're opportunities to practice responding to pain differently than you used to. Each time you respond with curiosity instead of panic, you're retraining your nervous system.
One thing our therapists emphasize: Slow is fast. It might sound contradictory, but when we take time to really understand your pain patterns and work with all parts of you—including the skeptical parts and the scared parts—lasting change happens more reliably than when we try to rush past those feelings.
Can I Do Chronic Pain Therapy Online in Missouri?
Yes. Online therapy for chronic pain works just as well as in-person therapy, and in some ways it's even better.
Here's why telehealth is effective for chronic pain treatment:
The work is largely educational and skill-based. Unlike physical therapy where a therapist needs hands-on access to your body, chronic pain therapy is about learning new ways to understand and respond to pain. You can learn these skills just as effectively over video.
It reduces barriers. When you're in pain, getting dressed, driving to an office, and sitting in a waiting room can feel overwhelming. Online therapy means you can connect from your own comfortable space.
It increases consistency. When pain flares, people are more likely to cancel in-person appointments. With online therapy, you can still keep your session even on a bad pain day.
It allows for real-time practice. We can guide you through somatic tracking or mindfulness exercises while you're experiencing pain in real-time, which can be more effective than describing the pain later in an office setting.
You can access specialized care from anywhere in Missouri. Not every therapist understands how to work with chronic pain. Online therapy means you're not limited to therapists in your immediate geographic area.
Our therapists provide online sessions for chronic pain to clients throughout Missouri. Sessions are conducted via secure, HIPAA-compliant video. You'll need a private space, a reliable internet connection, and a device with a camera and microphone.
Many clients actually prefer online therapy for pain management because it removes the physical demands of getting to an appointment—which can be especially difficult when you're hurting.
Will a Therapist Tell Me My Pain Is "All in My Head"?
No. Absolutely not. And if anyone has told you that, we're sorry—that's both inaccurate and harmful.
Here's what we actually believe and what the research shows:
Your pain is real. You're not making it up. You're not exaggerating. You're not weak or dramatic. Your brain is creating real pain signals, and you are actually feeling pain in your body.
The source of persistent pain is often the brain's alarm system, not ongoing tissue damage. This is very different from saying pain is imaginary. Your brain is creating pain as a protective mechanism. That pain is as real as pain from a broken bone—but the solution is different.
Understanding the brain's role in pain doesn't minimize your suffering. In fact, understanding the neuroscience often helps people feel validated for the first time. It explains why your pain has been so confusing, why it seems to get worse with stress, why it moves around, why treatments that should work don't, and why doctors couldn't find "what's wrong."
The phrase "all in your head" is inaccurate even when talking about neuroplastic pain. Pain is an experience that involves your entire nervous system—brain, spinal cord, nerves throughout your body—and it's influenced by emotions, beliefs, and past experiences. It's not "in your head" like you're imagining it. It's a complex, whole-body experience.
What we're offering is a different explanation for why you hurt—one that's based in current neuroscience and that actually provides a path forward. We're not dismissing your pain. We're explaining it in a way that makes treatment possible.
The research is clear: for many types of chronic pain, the brain has learned to produce pain even when there's no longer tissue damage requiring that alarm. And because the brain learned to do this, the brain can also learn to do something different.
That's not the same as "it's all in your head." That's recognizing the brain's incredible role in pain—and its incredible capacity for change.
How Is Therapy for Chronic Pain Different from Seeing a Pain Management Doctor?
This is a great question, and the short answer is: they should work together.
Pain management doctors typically focus on the physical and medical aspects of pain. They might prescribe medications, order imaging, perform injections or procedures, refer you to physical therapy, or recommend surgery. All of these can be helpful, and we would never ask you to stop medical treatment.
Therapy for chronic pain addresses what happens when medical treatments aren't enough—or when medical tests can't find a clear explanation for your pain.
Pain management doctors ask "What can we do to the body?" Therapists ask "What can we teach the brain?"
Pain management is often about symptom control. Therapy is about addressing the underlying patterns that keep pain stuck.
Pain management typically treats pain as the problem. Therapy treats pain as a signal—and we work to change what that signal means and how you respond to it.
Many of our clients work with both a pain management doctor and a therapist. They might use medication to manage severe flares while using therapy to reduce the frequency and intensity of those flares over time. They might continue physical therapy for strength and mobility while using therapy to reduce fear of movement and pain catastrophizing.
The most important thing to understand is this: if your body has been thoroughly evaluated by doctors and they haven't found significant structural problems that explain your level of pain, that's actually good news. It means your pain is likely neuroplastic, which means therapy can help. It doesn't mean doctors were wrong to check. It just means the solution isn't more medical procedures—it's retraining your nervous system.
We always recommend coordinating your care. Sometimes we'll suggest you see a pain management doctor if you haven't already been evaluated. And we hope pain management doctors will increasingly refer to therapists when medical options have been exhausted.
Your pain is real. And both medical care and therapy can play important roles in your recovery.
What Happens If Therapy Doesn't Work for My Pain?
This is an important question to ask, and we appreciate your honesty in wondering about it.
Here's the reality: therapy works for most people with chronic pain, but not everyone responds the same way or to the same degree.
First, let's define "working." For some people, therapy means their pain reduces significantly or goes away completely. For others, the pain level might stay similar but it stops interfering with their life as much. For still others, the pain improves but doesn't disappear entirely. All of these are meaningful outcomes, even if they don't match the "completely pain-free" goal you might have hoped for.
If you're not seeing progress after several sessions, we'll reassess. Maybe we need to adjust our approach. Maybe there's a specific fear or belief that needs more attention. Maybe we need to work more with the emotional impact of chronic pain rather than focusing only on the pain itself. Sometimes what looks like "not working" is actually progress happening in a different form than expected.
If therapy genuinely isn't helping, that's valuable information. It might mean:
Your pain has a larger structural or medical component than we initially thought, and you need additional medical evaluation
This particular therapeutic approach isn't the right fit for you, but another approach might be
The timing isn't right—maybe you need to stabilize other areas of your life before you can focus on pain retraining
You might benefit from a more intensive treatment approach, like a pain rehabilitation program
The important thing is that we're honest with each other. If you're not experiencing any benefit after 8-10 sessions, we'll talk openly about that. We won't keep doing something that isn't working. We'll either adjust the approach or help you find other resources that might be more effective for you.
One thing we've learned: sometimes "it's not working" actually means "I had a setback and I'm scared." Progress with chronic pain is never linear. Bad pain days will happen even when therapy is working. We'll help you understand the difference between a temporary setback and truly not making progress.
What we can promise: We'll be honest with you, we'll adjust when needed, and we won't waste your time or money on treatment that isn't helping. Your trust matters to us, and part of honoring that trust is being realistic about what therapy can and can't do.
Frequently Asked Questions About Chronic Pain Therapy in Lee's Summit
How much does chronic pain therapy cost?
Our therapists charge $100-$150 per 45-minute session depending on the clinician. We're a private-pay practice, which means we don't work directly with insurance, but many clients submit receipts to their insurance for out-of-network reimbursement.
Do I need a referral from my doctor?
No, you don't need a referral. However, we do recommend that you've been medically evaluated to rule out serious conditions that require medical treatment rather than therapy.
How often will I need to come to therapy?
Most clients start with weekly sessions for the first month or two, then gradually space sessions out as they begin seeing improvement and building skills. The specific frequency depends on your needs and progress.
Can you prescribe pain medication?
No. Our therapists are licensed mental health professionals, not medical doctors. We don't prescribe medication. We work with the approaches that address the nervous system directly—education, somatic awareness, mindfulness, and addressing the emotional and cognitive factors that influence pain.
What if I can't sit comfortably for a full session?
We can work with that. You can stand, lie down, move around—whatever you need to be as comfortable as possible. For online sessions especially, you have complete freedom to position yourself however helps.
Will you ask me to stop my pain medication?
No. We never tell people to stop medication. That's a decision between you and your prescribing doctor. Some people find they naturally need less medication as therapy progresses, but that's not a goal we push.
What if I've had pain for 10+ years? Can therapy still help?
Yes. The length of time you've had pain doesn't determine whether therapy can help. In fact, long-term pain is often the clearest indication that the pain has a significant neuroplastic component. Your brain has had a long time to learn these pain patterns, which means it might take time to unlearn them—but change is absolutely possible.
Do you treat pain from accidents or injuries?
Yes. Even when pain starts with a clear physical cause—like a car accident or sports injury—therapy can help when that pain persists long after tissues have healed. In fact, understanding that the original injury has healed can be the key to recovery.
What's the difference between your approach and CBT for pain?
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for pain is evidence-based and helpful. The approaches we primarily use—Internal Family Systems and Pain Reprocessing Therapy—go deeper than traditional CBT, although at times your therapist may also use CBT techniques. Essentially, rather than just changing thoughts about pain, we work to change your brain's interpretation of body signals and to address the internal conflicts that keep you stuck. Many of our techniques do include cognitive work, but within a broader framework.
Can therapy help if I also have anxiety or depression along with chronic pain?
Absolutely. In fact, pain, anxiety, and depression often occur together because they're all influenced by the same nervous system patterns. Addressing all three together often leads to better outcomes than treating them separately.
Getting Started with Chronic Pain Therapy in Lee's Summit or Online in Missouri
If you've read this far, you probably recognize something in what we've described. Maybe it's the fear-pain cycle. Maybe it's the frustration of trying medical treatment after treatment without lasting relief. Maybe it's just the hope that there might be another way.
We want you to know: There is another way. Your pain doesn't have to call all the shots forever.
The therapists at Aspire Counseling understand chronic pain—not just the physical experience of hurting, but the grief of losing activities you loved, the fear that you'll never feel normal again, the isolation of explaining pain that others can't see, and the exhaustion of fighting your own body every day.
We work with people who have been in pain for months or decades. We work with people who've tried everything else. We work with people who are skeptical that therapy could possibly help.
And we see changes. Not overnight. Not without setbacks. But real, meaningful changes that allow people to reclaim their lives.
Here's what makes our approach different:
We welcome all parts of you. The part that's hopeful and the part that's given up. The part that wants to try and the part that's exhausted from trying. The part that's angry and the part that's scared. We don't ask you to fight yourself. When your internal system feels less conflicted, healing happens more naturally.
We believe slow is fast. We don't rush past your experience or pressure you to "just relax" or "stop thinking about it." We help you pay attention to your experience in new ways. When we move slowly and really listen—to your body, to your fears, to the patterns in your pain—lasting change happens more reliably.
We understand that even difficult experiences have meaning. Chronic pain changes you. That's real. We don't minimize how hard this has been or rush you to "get over it." Sometimes the work is as much about grieving what changed as it is about reducing pain.
We use approaches that actually work. Internal Family Systems, Pain Reprocessing Therapy, and Mindfulness Oriented Recovery Enhancement aren't random techniques we made up. They're evidence-based approaches with research showing they reduce chronic pain and improve quality of life.
Chronic Pain Therapy in Lee's Summit, Missouri - Schedule Your Consultation
If you're ready to explore how therapy can help with your chronic pain, we'd be glad to talk with you.
We offer:
In-person therapy at our Lee's Summit office for clients who prefer face-to-face sessions and may live in Lee’s Summit, Blue Springs or the surrounding area.
Online therapy throughout Missouri for clients who need the flexibility of telehealth or who live outside the Kansas City area
Your first step is a free consultation with our Client Care Coordinator. You'll talk about what's bringing you in, what you've already tried, and whether our approach seems like a good fit. There's no pressure, no commitment required. Just a conversation about whether we might be able to help.
Schedule your consultation for chronic pain therapy in Lee's Summit or call us at 573-328-2288.
You can also learn more about our therapist who specializes in chronic pain by Adam’s About Page.
Mind-body therapy for chronic pain - Available in Lee's Summit and online throughout Missouri. We're here when you're ready.
This article was written by a member of the clinical team at Aspire Counseling, a trauma- and anxiety-focused therapy practice in Lee's Summit and Columbia, Missouri. Our therapists specialize in evidence-based approaches including EMDR, IFS, and Pain Reprocessing Therapy to help clients find relief from chronic pain. We serve clients in person at our Lee's Summit location and online throughout Missouri.
