Psychotherapy, a requirement/do I need it

First a little about myself. In retrospect, I have probably been suffering from TMS for about 30 years, I am 38. I have lived a life with constant pain, except for a couple of occurences, not excruciating pain luckily.

I am not sure if this is TMS, but I developed a speech/writing independent around that age, and sometime later (it came gradually) I developed gastritis, the latter being by primary pain for around 10 years until my late teens.

I eventually got pills to help with the gastritis, and started to eat more healthy, and the pain today is mild compared to back then. Just recently, before I learned about TMS, I stopped with the pills, and luckily the pain has not increased.

I could live with the stomach pain, and I would probably never had investigated TMS as I got used to pain, and the pain, usually, didn't hinder me.

I have read "Healing Back Pain" and started to read "The Divided Mind", and I have learned that when you remove one pain, it usually festers in other parts of the body. And that is what happened to me.

After a buddy invited me to play squash, my first time, I woke up the next day with two swollen wrists. The swelling eventually went away, the body healed, and the pain was gone. However, a month later it came back. The pain was so bad I had to stop my bachelors degree, and my professional carrier was halted by over 10 years before I finally got back up again. I tried "everything" to get well, all kinds of doctors, etc. the story we all have, before I found acupuncture, which did keep it somewhat in check, the pain was manageable with it.

Eventually my life got back on track, and I got a really good job, which I enjoyed and thrived in. And I had 2 great years, and kept my wrist pain in check by going the acupuncture.

Gradually a new pain came crawling, shoulder pains; which is my primary concern now. In the beginning I tried healing it with acupuncture, but found that it did not work as good on my shoulder as on my wrists, I have also seen my doctor, took MRIs, found nothing wrong, the regular story, without help. I still have my job, and I've manage to mask my increasing issues for over 4 years, today I am at ~10% capacity of my normal working capacity.

I have been investigating TMS now for about a week, and the shoulder is getting better, at least I am telling myself that. I might be fooling myself, but I believe it is.

Over the years I've also had other issues, and still have some: back issues after a prolapse , chest cramps, troubles with my right leg making driving a car difficult (on top of the shoulder issues), issues with sore throat, issues with feet/achilles, etc. Except for my back, herniated disk, not a single doctor has found anything wrong with me.

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tl;dr, with all my issues over the years, do I need psychotherapy? I am asking as I live in country where I cannot find anyone offering TMS-treatment. And my medical insurance and/or free health care does not pay from trips or treatments offshores. I would also prefer therapy in my own native language (not english), and also to have the first sessions face to face to build a relationship.

 

Psychotherapy is not a requirement, as Sarno says, only some of his patients need it.
If you decide to go that route, Internal Family Systems, EMDR and ISDTP therapists are mind/body understanding.
There are two free programs on this website, the Pain Recovery Program: https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/painrecovery/ (Pain Recovery Program)
And the Structured Educational Program
https://www.tmswiki.org/ppd/Structured_Educational_Program (Structured Educational Program)

If you choose, you can start on one, and it is best to complete it. You can do one or choose to do both, whatever you decide. They can help you sort through the inner work if you feel you need guidance.

Good luck!

 

Thank you for answer. A couple of days ago I was in contact with my wives psychiatric therapist, and she called the people involved with TSM quacks and the process as a scam. I think, sadly, that is the answer in my country from most therapist, so it looks like I might be on my own :/

I have started "Pain Recovery Program", and find it insightful. I thought the "Structured Educational Program" was replaced by Adams program though? If not, best to take in succession, or at the same time?

 

I’m not sure who Adams is?
The structured program is longer and slightly different.
The Pain Recovery Program is basically Alan Gordon’s Pain reprocessing approach (similar to his book).
Do one program, one day at a time. TMS folks tend to want to rush and intellectualize, fix pain now and do it perfectly. Taking the program as a process and working in deeply feeling it, letting it resonate is best. If you feel you want more emotional work after doing the pain recovery you can do the Structured Educational Program which is more journaling and digging but doing both is not necessary at all.
Remember just because one therapist called TMS quacks doesn’t mean every therapist in your country is like that. If you feel you need help you may need to open your mind to seeking help outside of your country.
There are many TMS coaches around the world who can help, via Zoom. Take it one step at a time you may be able to heal well like so many have with Sarno and a program and support from TMSwiki.

 

I of couse meant Alan, not Adam.

> TMS folks tend to want to rush and intellectualize, fix pain now and do it perfectly.

I can say I identify with that statement. I started about a week ago, and I have processesed so much information already, that I feel stress from all the different treatments and options. I guess that is normal after so many years of pain and dispair, then you start to see some progress, then you go all in! I want to learn it all, because I want quick results. Not that all my pains has to disappear at once, but seeing quick results helps me to believe in the process.

I have an appointment at the hospital next week, at the same hospital I had an ACT course a couple of months ago. I did not feel that helped me a lot, but I do recognise some of the technics, like somatic tracking. Hopefully the doctor I will see there will be more open minded.

 

"> TMS folks tend to want to rush and intellectualize, fix pain now and do it perfectly."

Definitely in part due to the medical model, insurance, per session cost, and trying to make progress fast in every session when literally most healing happens at random times and has no correlation with the number of sessions or how much money you've spent. This is frustrating to grasp because you can't model the data or picture trends on a chart like you can with other projects.