How Therapy can help with Chronic Pelvic Pain
Lilla Jones, MA, LPC
Pelvic pain flares can feel overwhelming. They drain energy, increase worry, and make everyday tasks harder. The good news is that small practical actions often reduce pain amplification and help you feel more in control quickly. Below are five things you can try today that are simple, evidence informed, and useful for many people living with endometriosis, pelvic floor challenges, or chronic pelvic pain.
Safety note
These are general coping strategies and educational suggestions, not individualized medical advice. If any activity increases your pain or causes new symptoms, stop and consult your medical or pelvic health provider.
Therapy Can Help!
Therapy shapes how the brain responds to pain.
Pain is not only a physical sensation. The brain helps decide how big of a threat a sensation feels like. Therapy, including approaches like pain reprocessing techniques and cognitive behavioral strategies, helps you notice unhelpful thoughts, try small behavioral experiments, and slowly retrain the nervous system to respond with less alarm. Over time this often reduces the intensity of the experience and improves tolerance.
Therapy builds concrete skills you can use today
Therapy is full of practical tools. Breathing and grounding exercises calm the nervous system in the moment. Pacing and activity planning help you reduce boom and bust cycles so you have more reliable energy. Problem solving and communication skills make it easier to get the support you need from health care providers and loved ones. These skills are things you can practice between sessions and see real results.Therapy supports the whole you not just the symptom
Chronic pain affects identity, roles, and sense of future. Therapy helps you grieve losses, reframe expectations, and rediscover meaningful activities in ways that fit your energy levels. It also helps with relationships. When partners, family, or coworkers know what you need and how to support you your environment becomes less stressful which often reduces pain indirectly.
Five quick flare tools
1. Breathing to calm the nervous system (two to five minutes)
When pain spikes the nervous system commonly moves into a state of alarm and that alarm can amplify sensations. Try paced breathing: inhale for four counts then exhale for six counts. Repeat for two to five minutes. If counting feels hard place a hand on your belly and focus on slow full exhales. Slower exhalations help activate the bodys relaxation response and can reduce sensitivity. Even two minutes can change how the body feels.
2. Gentle movement that is tolerable (five to ten minutes)
During a flare big exercise can feel impossible. The goal here is tiny consistent movement you can tolerate. Choose something like a slow five to ten minute walk, pelvic tilts while lying down, gentle hip circles, or a couple of supported stretches. The aim is to preserve mobility and interrupt stiffness without pushing into more pain. Track how you feel afterward. The goal is gradual maintenance not immediate fixes.
3. Pair soothing with a mild distraction (ten to twenty minutes)
Combine a soothing physical tool with a gentle cognitive distraction. For example spend fifteen minutes with a warm heat pack while listening to a short familiar podcast episode or an audiobook chapter. The warm sensation can be calming while the distraction moves attention away from the pain loop. This pairing helps lower the brains pain amplification by both regulating the body and shifting focus.
4. Name the thought and separate story from fact (thirty to sixty seconds)
When pain flares it is common to land in catastrophic thinking such as “This will never get better” or “I will lose my job or relationship.” Pause and label the thought: That is a catastrophic thought. Naming it creates distance and often reduces the emotional spike. Then ask what is one small practical thing I can do right now. Even a tiny action such as making a snack or setting a fifteen minute rest timer can break the spiral.
5. Make a short flare plan and pick a go to supporter (five minutes to create)
Write three or four steps you will use during a flare and identify someone who can check in by text or call. Keep the list visible on your phone wallpaper, fridge or in a bedside drawer. A simple plan may look like:
• Heat pack plus fifteen minutes of a favorite podcast
• Five minutes of gentle movement such as pelvic tilts or a short walk
• Drink water and have a small snack
• Text a friend: I am flaring can you check in in twenty minutes
Having the plan reduces decision fatigue and increases the chance you will actually do something helpful when overwhelmed.
Try a short experiment for two days
Pick one of the five actions and try it for 48 hours. Notice what changes such as sleep mood perceived pain intensity or ability to do tasks. Small experiments build evidence. When you collect that evidence it becomes a natural antidote to catastrophic predictions.
A brief note about Pain Reprocessing Therapy and other approaches
Some clients benefit from Pain Reprocessing Therapy, also known as PRT, which explores how the brain contributes to persistent pain and uses education plus targeted exercises to lower pain amplification. I incorporate PRT when it seems like a good fit and after assessing readiness. I also use pain focused cognitive behavioral techniques and acceptance based strategies alongside pacing, interoceptive grounding, and care coordination with pelvic floor physical therapists or medical teams.
How Fort Collins Therapy complements medical care
Therapy works best when it fits alongside your medical care rather than replacing it. Medical providers address the physical causes and tests that are needed. Therapy addresses how your body and mind respond to pain and builds skills to improve daily functioning. In practical terms that means therapy can help you prepare for a doctor visit so you get the most out of your appointment. It also helps you describe symptoms clearly document patterns such as what worsens or eases pain and advocate for appropriate referrals such as pelvic floor physical therapy or a specialist consultation.
If you and your medical team choose a combined approach the results are often better. For example using pacing and activity planning learned in therapy can make physical therapy exercises more manageable. Or learning grounding and breathing techniques can make medical appointments less overwhelming so you can share important details. Therapy can also help you process medical uncertainty grief and frustration which often makes it easier to stick with treatment plans and recover emotional energy.
If you feel unsafe or that something is seriously wrong
You know your body better than anyone. If at any time you feel like your life is at risk you cannot care for yourself or you think you need immediate help please call emergency services right now or go to the nearest emergency department. If you are in crisis or thinking about harming yourself call 988 the US Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or your local emergency number now.
Get support and build a personalized pain plan
You do not have to manage pelvic pain alone. If you want one on one support, I can help you build a practical, personalized pain plan that fits your life and energy levels. We can map a short flare plan you can use immediately, then create a focused skills plan you can work through over a few sessions to reduce pain amplification and improve daily functioning.
Book a free 15 minute consult and we will talk through your biggest challenges, decide what will help most right now, and outline next steps together. I offer both telehealth and in person appointments and accept many major insurances. If you prefer, call me at (970) 818 8039 or email oldtowncounseling@gmail.com and I will follow up as soon as possible.
