Reframing Pain in the Brain: A Pilot Sensory-Cognitive Pain Management Toolkit for All

'Reframing Pain in the Brain' is a pilot sensory-cognitive toolkit for the self-management of persistent pain. This version of the toolkit is designed to be used in small-group workshops for people with persistent or chronic pain and their support networks (friends, family members, colleagues, clinicians). The toolkit involves the novel approach of using experiential body illusions, including the Anne Boleyn illusion (producing the visuotactile integration misperception of an extra finger), as a way to understand how perception is formed in the brain. Cognitive reframing is introduced as the idea of actively changing how we think about something, for example actively changing interpretations of ambiguous sensory information. Following this, pain is discussed as a protective perception, susceptible to the same perceptual inferences and distortions as other forms of awareness. The 'pain buffer' is used describe the concept that pain is the brain alerting us to perceived threat, rather than tissue damage itself. Understanding this, and other fundamental facts about contemporary pain science, can provide the basis for reframing painful sensations and contribute to reducing the nervous system's overprotective nature.