Healing from Within Series: A Mind-Body Approach for Chronic Pain in College Students

If you’re a U of R student living with chronic pain and interested in learning more about the mind-body connection and how this can impact pain and symptoms; see stress as a potential trigger for your symptoms; and/or body-based treatments (diets, medications, surgeries, etc.) have not given you adequate symptom relief, this inaugural Mindful University Project 4-week Spring 2025 course may be for you! Designed for undergraduate and graduate students, the program explores evidence-based mind-body approaches, including Pain Reprocessing Therapy, Emotional Awareness & Expression Therapy, and mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques. Chronic pain can affect academic performance and well-being, with over 66% of U of R undergraduates and 70.8% of graduate students seeking care in 2024.

Research shows that chronic pain is not just about what is going on physically in the body—stress and emotional factors can play a key role. Studies by Hashmi et al. highlight how chronic pain shifts brain processing from nociceptive pathways to emotional circuits, where emotional factors can amplify pain perception (Hashmi et al., 2013). Craft et al. found that stress exposure, especially early in life, not only triggers chronic pain but maintains it, influencing how pain is perceived and how it persists over time (Craft et al., 2022). Other research further emphasizes the connection between chronic stress and pain severity, showing how stress can dysregulate the body’s pain pathways, potentially leading to more severe pain conditions (Icenhour et al., 2020). The good news is there are treatments that can help reverse these effects.

Initial research suggests that mind-body approaches like PRT and EAET can help to improve common chronic pain conditions:
- In a recent randomized controlled trial in 2021 studying PRT with those who had back pain, 98% of participants reported reductions in their pain severity and 66% of participants reported being pain-free or nearly pain-free after just four weeks of PRT (Ashar, Gordon, Schubiner, et. al., 2021).
- A recent study on Emotional Awareness & Expression Therapy found it more effective than CBT in reducing pain severity, especially in fibromyalgia, with more patients achieving clinically significant pain reduction (Lumley & Schubiner, 2019).
- Additional research: Yong et al. (2022), Williams et al. (2020), Lumley & Schubiner (2019), and more have highlighted the efficacy of psychological techniques in managing chronic pain.

Held on April 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th from 2-3:15 PM via Zoom. Participants will gain practical tools to reduce pain, receive a free Pain Reprocessing Therapy Workbook, and access exclusive coaching.

Please note this is an educational series and is not a substitute for medical care. The course is open to students who have experienced chronic pain for over three months, have been evaluated by a doctor.

In addition, if you have any of the following conditions this workshop may be for you: irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), headache or migraine disorders, chronic neck/back/shoulder pain, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, pelvic pain, and Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, tinnitus, TMJ syndrome. This list is not exhaustive -- many other forms of chronic pain can still be influenced by mind-body processes.

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