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Week 0 Welcome to the Subforum for the Structured Educational Program

Hello and welcome @berlinale

Pick one program, and work on one of the “days” at a time. Don’t rush, and try to take the work to heart. This is so much different and more reflective than almost anything else you’ve probably ever done.
Feel free to ask questions (starting a new thread in the support forum grabs attention)

Best wishes!
 
You're not the only one who is confused by this, @berlinale! It is further confused by references in some places to Alan Gordon's original two-part "TMS Recovery Program" (on the tmswiki.org site) which is much shorter than his 21-day Pain Recovery Program (here on the forum). Both of these programs were generously donated by Alan Gordon LCSW, several years after the original Structured Education Program (the SEP) which is also on the main tmswiki.org site.

I have been indicating my bias towards the SEP for a long time, but that's primarily because it's the only program we had when I was experiencing my original TMS recovery in 2011. I have now finally read through the entire PRP, although I did not play most of the video or audio clips that are provided in each module. My impression for a long time has been that the PRP does not delve very deeply into the emotional work, and that is very definitely the case. There are no writing exercises. This appeals to many people! However, many of us believe (based on our own experiences) that developing an emotional writing skill is essential to true recovery unless you have the emotional ability to develop a significant mindfulness protocol that you can maintain on a regular basis. Most of us can't do that - but we can quickly go to our emotional writing skills when we experience setbacks. (BTW, this is most frequently referred to as Journaling, or if you follow Nicole Sachs, she calls it JournalSpeak).

All that being said, the PRP is a truly excellent, fairly short, and very easy-to-follow compendium of recovery techniques addressing all of the essential topics - check out the titles at the main page: Pain Recovery Program | TMS Forum (The Mindbody Syndrome) It is 21 modules, labeled "days" but honestly, you could do more than a day at a time - always with the caveat that you need time to let the information sink in, so don't do what I did and skim through it all in a couple of hours.
Here's what Alan says on the last day:
Alan Gordon LCSW said:
Over the past three weeks, we’ve covered a lot of different topics: pain, fear, safety, empowerment, cognitive soothing, somatic tracking, gradual exposure, conditioned responses, overcoming repression, and embracing joy.
As comprehensive as the program is, it may leave you with the following question: “Where do I start?”
Now that you’re familiar with the layout of the program, it can be helpful to skim through it a second time.
As you review the different topics, see what speaks to you: Do you prefer communicating messages of safety, or taking a strong stance of empowerment? Are you more interested in leaning in to emotions, or tackling conditioned responses?
You don’t need to do everything. This is an overview of different paths to recovery, and you can choose the parts that resonate with you.
Above all, have patience. It can take time to develop neural pathways, but trust in your capacity for change. Like Winnie the Pooh said, “Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.”
Click to expand...

SO - I have no doubt that the knowledge and skills which can be obtained by doing the PRP are quite valuable. Just know that in the thirteen years I've been hanging out here, we also often see people who return with serious setbacks after recovering in the past - sometimes many years in the past - and it turns out that they really need to go deeper and really do "THE work". And the best free resource for doing "the work" is the SEP - the Structured Educational Program on the main tmswiki.org site.

I actually think you can probably do the PRP and the SEP side-by-side. For better or worse, there are no hard and fast rules (this is frustrating to many people, who desperately want clear guidelines!). Trust your own judgement as to how the "Days" match up with each other. You can take a break from one, and only do the other. The information presented in the SEP is quite different, perhaps more dense, and, after the first few modules, it asks for participation in writing exercises. We generally recommend that the SEP literally be done one Day at a time. Rushing through it is not effective.

If you experience an increase in symptoms while doing the SEP, go directly to Day 19 in the PRP and read about Extinction Bursts. Then keep going. That's the second most important thing, right after treating yourself with kindness and compassion.
 
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DAY#1 SEP PROGRAM..

I am back after about 4.5 years doing this SEP program again.
This time, I am much wiser after learning so much about TMS these past years.

Here is a current list of symptoms I am experiencing on and off, mostly on.

-Head to toe muscle/joint pain and stiffness
-A crinkling noise in my right ear
-Tinnitus
-Sensory system hyperactive including: Auditory( I can hear a leaf fall from down the block), smell( sensitive to chemicals including something quite a distance away, sight( sensitive to bright sun/light, touch(amplifies think "princess and the pea") taste(at times overpowering sweet especially)
-Cognitive difficulties
-Digestive issues( low appetite, feeling of being bloated in my stomach) -Struggle to keep weight on
-Some muscle weakness, overall
-Bi-lateral feet pain on the bottoms of my feet.. in the winter colder temps far worse. My feet feel like ice blocks and my hands very cold until spring.
-Gait change with instability in my balance
-Early morning aching in my upper legs
-Temperature sensitivity to weather(hot and cold)
-Pain and tightness in ribcage
-I feel every movement I make in my body
-Hypervigilance in general involving my whole body
-General circulation issues

As a background, I have a history of childhood trauma and anxiety
 
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Hey @kimbob369
Welcome back.
I totally relate to almost all of your symptoms, and almost all of my symptoms have vanished. A few like to come and modestly re-visit from time to time, but like an old friend, I just give them a hug and welcome them in. Luckily, so far, they haven't overstayed their welcome.
Have you acquainted yourself with Claire Weekes yet? She along with ETF tapping (a short session in mornings, that's when I noticed my anxiety the most really brought me through some pretty awful anxiety. The way she describes going about one's day, even with some pretty distracting symptoms really helped me a lot. I was pretty quickly able to use her techniques to re-direct my attention away from much of the hyper vigilance by finding things to occupy my brain. When the negative thoughts would come up, I forcefully turned my attention back to the task at hand. It took awhile, but my brain did realize that this was WAY more fun and quite safe. It really reduced the suffering. That level of anxiety sucks.
 
Day#3 SEP program..

Regarding the question to ponder for today,

I exercise by walking every day without fail.
It makes me feel invigorated.
When I walk with my dog however, I am tense/guarded due to being pulled down a couple of times so that is a challenge..
I walk each day on my own walk and am free of those tense feelings :)
 
DAY #1 SEP PROGRAM

After long days battling my mind how i could begin again and be committed to the program, I'm here today finally!! YAay !!
And i just figured out that that battle was the trick my mind was playing to keep me in its "false safe zone" : familiarity with fear.
I know i can make it, and I'll Will for sure!
 
Day 1: struggling to figure out to post as suggested in structured program…this looks like it’s working, so here goes.

I’ve lurked on the site for several years, and read all of Sarno’s work which I stumbled on in 2018 while desperately caring for my dying husband. My personal health issues began in earnest around 2017 and have behaved just as most others on this site. To date, I’ve experienced atrial fibrillation, low and mid back pain, buttock pain, burning feet, GERD, burning mouth, shoulder pain, and the like. Topping it off is anxiety and often, depression. I see a very good therapist as of late, I have often journaled, walk regularly, do breath work, meditate and so on. Still, I find myself suffering from more of the same.

I have toyed with doing the program before, but today is the day…so tired of my pain. Thanks for being here. Will keep you posted.
 
JanAtheCPA said:
You're not the only one who is confused by this, @berlinale! It is further confused by references in some places to Alan Gordon's original two-part "TMS Recovery Program" (on the tmswiki.org site) which is much shorter than his 21-day Pain Recovery Program (here on the forum). Both of these programs were generously donated by Alan Gordon LCSW, several years after the original Structured Education Program (the SEP) which is also on the main tmswiki.org site.

I have been indicating my bias towards the SEP for a long time, but that's primarily because it's the only program we had when I was experiencing my original TMS recovery in 2011. I have now finally read through the entire PRP, although I did not play most of the video or audio clips that are provided in each module. My impression for a long time has been that the PRP does not delve very deeply into the emotional work, and that is very definitely the case. There are no writing exercises. This appeals to many people! However, many of us believe (based on our own experiences) that developing an emotional writing skill is essential to true recovery unless you have the emotional ability to develop a significant mindfulness protocol that you can maintain on a regular basis. Most of us can't do that - but we can quickly go to our emotional writing skills when we experience setbacks. (BTW, this is most frequently referred to as Journaling, or if you follow Nicole Sachs, she calls it JournalSpeak).

All that being said, the PRP is a truly excellent, fairly short, and very easy-to-follow compendium of recovery techniques addressing all of the essential topics - check out the titles at the main page: Pain Recovery Program | TMS Forum (The Mindbody Syndrome) It is 21 modules, labeled "days" but honestly, you could do more than a day at a time - always with the caveat that you need time to let the information sink in, so don't do what I did and skim through it all in a couple of hours.
Here's what Alan says on the last day:


SO - I have no doubt that the knowledge and skills which can be obtained by doing the PRP are quite valuable. Just know that in the thirteen years I've been hanging out here, we also often see people who return with serious setbacks after recovering in the past - sometimes many years in the past - and it turns out that they really need to go deeper and really do "THE work". And the best free resource for doing "the work" is the SEP - the Structured Educational Program on the main tmswiki.org site.

I actually think you can probably do the PRP and the SEP side-by-side. For better or worse, there are no hard and fast rules (this is frustrating to many people, who desperately want clear guidelines!). Trust your own judgement as to how the "Days" match up with each other. You can take a break from one, and only do the other. The information presented in the SEP is quite different, perhaps more dense, and, after the first few modules, it asks for participation in writing exercises. We generally recommend that the SEP literally be done one Day at a time. Rushing through it is not effective.

If you experience an increase in symptoms while doing the SEP, go directly to Day 19 in the PRP and read about Extinction Bursts. Then keep going. That's the second most important thing, right after treating yourself with kindness and compassion.
Click to expand...


Hi Jan,

Is the SEP currently being revised? On the corresponding page it says the following:

Note: We are currently reformatting this program to better incorporate the TMS Recovery Program recently donated by Alan Gordon, LCSW.
 
Can you give me a link to where you saw that? I do not think it's referring to the SEP, which was updated last year. It may refer to Alan's original two-part program which was short and had no exercises or "days".
 
Ah, yes - you're right!. I knew I had seen that somewhere, but forgot that it was associated with the SEP. However, I can't answer your question without doing a keyword search on all 42 days of the SEP, which isn't going to happen. I'm sure that this project was high on Forest's wish list at some point, but he's only one person, and other more urgent projects in his life (particularly his participation in the founding and the development of the PPDA) took precedence - so I can't really say if anything ever came of this.

I don't create SEP content, but I can edit the pages, and I will delete that paragraph, because it's confusing if it didn't happen, and not that important if it did (and I'm reasonably sure it did not get done).

Now, if anyone out there wants to volunteer to match any or all of the 21 Days in Alan's program to related Days in the SEP, let me know and I will run it by Forest and reactivate my SEP documentation spreadsheet to make it happen. Last year I was approached by someone who had noticed numerous dead links in the SEP, and she volunteered to proof-read and test the links on all 42 Days last year. With her help and using the tracking spreadsheet we put together, I followed behind her to replace or remove the dead links to non-existant web sites and articles and to update certain obsolete information. She also documented a bunch of typos and grammatical errors that had been around since the SEP was published :D
 
Thank you @JanAtheCPA for the welcome and to all those who created, contribute to, and maintain this wiki. I’ve started my SEP journey and will be on Day 5 on the spring equinox, the day of equanimity.
My pain started with an intense sharp “groin injury” during the third week of a strength training class. I had just retired from a high powered science career and committed myself to being my father’s full time caretaker. He was descending into increasing cognitive decline. My husband and I had moved into Dad’s house just before Covid 7 years ago and stayed to help him out. Now, a year after innumerable physical therapy sessions and x-rays, MRIs, etc to deal with my “groin injury”, my pain has gotten progressively worse and spread from my right groin to my right hip, then to my left groin/thigh/hip, then burning all along the sciatica nerve, and now lower back. It went away during the most intense of days of my father’s dying then came back after he died with an intensity that paralyzed me. After a week immobilized in bed I read “Healing Back Pain” and then filled 50 8x11 journal pages with tiny handwritten reflections , then I read Divided Mind, then I discovered this wiki!!! Oh wow!! Thank you
 
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