Welcome to the Ask A TMS Therapist subforum

Hi everyone,

A group of TMS Therapists from the Pain Psychology Center (PPC) in Los Angeles has offered to volunteer their time to answer questions on our forum for free. If you've ever wanted to ask a question directly to a licensed TMS therapist, now is the time!

Via our "Ask a TMS Therapist" program, your question will be assigned to one of four PPC therapists. Their response, along with your original question, will then be posted publicly in the Ask a TMS Therapist subforum.

Anyone can submit a question by filling out the Ask a TMS Therapist form:
http://www.tmswiki.org/forum/forms/ask-a-tms-therapist.1/respond (Ask A Question | TMS Forum (The Mindbody Syndrome))

The more questions we have the better this resource will be, so please submit your questions! In fact, if you see anyone else who needs help, please encourage them to submit their questions as well.

Incidentally, the PPC therapists generally use the approach in the TMS Recovery Program donated to our nonprofit by Alan Gordon. I highly recommend both the program itself and the community resources that we have constructed around it for anyone who would like to learn more.

Update:
The Therapists:

Alan Gordon, LCSW

Bio: My passion for understanding chronic pain started 12 years ago with the onset of my own psychogenic symptoms, and continues today as an educator and therapist around the subject. I have authored several publications on the treatment of chronic pain, and have presented on the topic at conferences and held trainings throughout the country. I am a professor at USC, and a practicing psychotherapist and Executive Director of the Pain Psychology Center.

• All posts by Alan
• Alan's entry in our Find a TMS Doctor or Therapist list
• Page about Alan in the TMS Wiki
• Featured Answers by Alan: "Tried Everything...I'm Desperate" and "How to get rid of your pain in 7 minutes"

Derek Sapico, MFT

Bio: My career has been largely focused on working with chronic pain patients in a psychological capacity. For 5 years I specialized in treating headaches as the lead therapist at the California Headache and Pain Center. I have since presented on the topic of pain at universities throughout California and served as the Clinical Placement Coordinator for the USC MFT Program. I am currently an active board member of the Psychophysiologic Disorders Association (PPDA). In 2014 I helped found the Pain Psychology Center and continue to help people that suffer from chronic pain as a psychotherapist in our Los Angeles office and worldwide via Skype.

• All posts by Derek
• Derek's entry in our Find a TMS Doctor or Therapist list
• Featured Answers by Derek: "Is Depression a TMS Equivalent?" and "How do I overcome the desire to get rid of my pain?"

Alex Bloom, MSW

Bio: Acutely recognizing the connection between mind, body and emotions, I strive to empower my patients so that they can understand and ultimately overcome the underlying causes of their physical distress. My approach to therapy uses a variety of techniques, with focus on a psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral model. I practice psychotherapy in Los Angeles and via Skype at the Pain Psychology Center.

• All posts by Alex
• Alex's entry in our Find A TMS Doctor or Therapist List
• Featured Answers by Alex: "How do I feel my feelings?" and "Overcoming obsession with cracking neck to relieve pain"

Amber Murphy, MSW

Bio: I like to use a highly integrated approach to treat chronic pain sufferers, combining psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral and trauma informed approaches while leveraging the practice of mindfulness to assist patients in overcoming their pain. Having recovered from psychogenic pain myself, I have a unique insight into the mind-body connection and understands the fear and frustration that often accompanies it. I practice in Los Angeles, CA and worldwide via Skype with the Pain Psychology Center.

• All posts by Amber
• Amber's entry in our Find a TMS Doctor or Therapist list
• Featured Answers by Amber: "TMS and yoga" and "What TMS approach should I focus on?"
• Amber has taken over as manager of the Ask A TMS Therapist program. Thank you, Amber!

Daniel Lyman, MSW

Bio: I specialize in the treatment of complex body and mind dynamics and their relation to chronic pain from a neuroscience perspective. With a background in working with LGBT couples and individuals, my approach is inclusive and sensitive to the individual. I earned both a master’s degree in Social Work and in Public Administration from the University of Southern California and practice via Skype worldwide, and in person in the Los Angeles area with the Pain Psychology Center.

• All posts by Daniel
• Daniel's entry in our Find a TMS Doctor or Therapist list
• Featured Answers by Daniel: "Losing hope" and "Dealing with a difficult parent"
• Contributed blog post: "10 Days of Silence: Meditation & Pain" Part 1, Part 2.

If you'd like to read some of the best Ask A TMS Therapist posts, here are a couple of the answers that have been "most liked" by our members:

• Tried Everything...I'm Desperate Excerpt: I know what you mean about not having that escape. In my TMS days, I had really bad back pain, but when I laid down I could get... (read more)
• Losing hope Excerpt: Hope. Probably the most important thing to remember in times of extreme, long-lasting pain is that there is ALWAYS hope. I’ve... (read more)
• Overwhelmed with stressors from a move Excerpt: Sometimes North Star, it's okay to be a mess. Buddha said that most suffering is caused by the gap between what is and what we... (read more)
• What's the real cause of TMS? Excerpt: Thanks for your question. This is an important concept that many people have differing opinions on. Here are my thoughts on... (read more)

 

Heya, Northstar, thanks for your kind words. It's wonderful people like you who make it worth building.

Regarding privacy, we absolutely want people to be able to have whatever level of privacy they desire. If people don't want to be referred to by their usernames in the response, that is 100% fine. Regarding the details, I'll have to get in touch with Alan to see if what sort of system they want to use for giving people temporary pseudonyms. However, in the meantime, I can personally guarantee that if anyone submits a question and says, "Don't mention my username in the answer," their request will be honored.

When someone submits a question via the link above, the question is sent to a special hidden subforum so that only the therapists and forum administrators can see it. To ask a question completely anonymously, people can just log out of their forum account before submitting the question. This way, absolutely no one will know who posted the question. The downside of this is that we have no way of getting in touch with the asker if we need to ask a follow up question. My gut says that needing to do this (even if for merely administrative reasons) will be much more common than we expect.

A second, preferred, 100% anonymous way of submitting a question is to make an account at a free email service like Hotmail, Gmail, or Yahoo Mail. Then you can email the question to
askatmstherapist@tmswiki.org . It only takes a minute or two to set up a new account like this. If people use this method, I strongly encourage them to make a habit of going back and checking the email address in case we have attempted to get in touch with you.

Of course, while we do offer two 100% anonymous ways of submitting questions, the if people feel comfortable, the simplest thing is just to use the regular web form when logged in or to email the question from your regular account. That way we can get in touch if we need to and if you don't want us to mention your name or username, you (i.e. whoever is reading this) can just mention it when you submit the question.

How does that sound?

 

Thank you both so much for your support. Like I said, the more questions we have, the better the resource will be.

 

Heya, NIClubber, that's a great question and something worth clarifying. Your questions have been successfully received and are waiting for a therapist to answer them. The way that it works is that questions submitted to the Ask A TMS Therapist program aren't posted publicly until they are answered by a therapist. Because the therapists are volunteering and to keep administrative burden to a minimum, new answered questions appear in the General Discussion subforum on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays at roughly 8:00 AM. This provides a regular schedule for the therapists, staff, and forum participants. I hope this helps!

 

There's no need. We're used to this happening and will take it in stride.

 

I wish we could make guarantees like that, but unfortunately the volunteer therapists aren't able to donate enough time to provide that sort of speed. I would suggest that you think of this like an advice column in a newspaper. It's a free service that supports our forum and is meant to help people and stimulate discussion. I've been thrilled with the quality of answers that the therapists have provided.

You mentioned that you had an appointment with Georgie Oldfield in another thread. She should be able to help.

 

The best way to get a sense of the average waiting time is to look at existing posts to see how long it took for them to be answered. The first time in grey at the bottom of the first post is when the question was asked and the time in grey at the bottom of the bottom post is when it was answered. The difference between those two times tells you how much time passed between when the question was submitted and when it was answered. Just look at a bunch of questions that were answered recently and you'll get a sense of how long it takes.

 

Hi Eric,

Yes, more questions are submitted than we have resources to answer. New answered questions appear in the General Discussion Subforum on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays at 8:00 AM.