What Is Fibromyalgia & Can Pain Reprocessing Therapy Help
Fibromyalgia can feel overwhelming, especially when widespread pain and fatigue persist despite treatment. This article explains what fibromyalgia is and how Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) may help reduce chronic pain by addressing the brain’s role in pain processing.
Why Fibromyalgia Treatment Can Feel Frustrating
Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition characterized by widespread body pain, persistent fatigue, and challenges with memory and concentration. Even after receiving a diagnosis, many people struggle to find effective fibromyalgia treatment and often feel frustrated after seeing multiple healthcare providers. This ongoing cycle can lead to feelings of discouragement and isolation. The good news is that Pain Reprocessing Therapy has helped many individuals reduce chronic pain symptoms and find renewed hope in their healing journey (Pain Reprocessing Therapy Center, 2025).
What Is Fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia is not typically caused by ongoing injury or inflammation. Instead, research suggests it involves a hypersensitive nervous system and changes in how the brain processes pain signals. This is one reason traditional treatments like pain medication, physical therapy, or even cognitive behavioral therapy may not always provide lasting relief. The pain is very real, but it is driven by how the nervous system is interpreting signals rather than by active tissue damage (Pain Reprocessing Therapy Center, 2025).
Research suggests fibromyalgia is not just one symptom, but a pattern of widespread pain, fatigue, sleep disturbances, mood changes, and memory difficulties caused by a hypersensitive nervous system (Clauw 2014). Unfortunately, many people are misdiagnosed or told it is “all in your head,” when in reality the pain is very real and rooted in how the brain is processing signals. The encouraging part is that the brain can change, and approaches like Pain Reprocessing Therapy, focus on shifting these pain pathways.
Research shows that people with fibromyalgia often experience the following symptoms (PRT Center, 2025):
Increased sensitivity to pain
Everyday sensations that might feel mild to others can feel intense or overwhelming because the body’s pain threshold has become lowered.
Heightened nervous system reactivity
The nervous system stays on high alert, reacting strongly to physical or emotional stressors as if there is ongoing danger.
Altered pain processing in the brain
The brain begins interpreting normal signals as threatening, amplifying pain even when there is no active tissue damage.
Pain that moves or fluctuates
Discomfort may shift from one area of the body to another or vary in intensity without a clear physical cause.
Symptoms that worsen with stress
When stress increases, the nervous system becomes more activated, often leading to a noticeable spike in pain or fatigue.
Why Pain Can Persist Without Injury
Pain is meant to protect us, kind of like a car alarm that goes off when something is wrong. If you break your ankle, pain tells you to stop walking and get help. That signal is useful.
With chronic pain, though, the alarm keeps going off even when there is no ongoing injury or structural damage. Over time, the brain can learn pain patterns, especially when there has been chronic stress, trauma, anxiety, or fear around the body. Through neuroplasticity, the brain has learned to send pain signals more easily, but the hopeful part is that it can also learn to quiet them (Schubiner & Betzold, 2010). When we understand that pain can be learned, it also means it can be unlearned. This is where Pain Reprocessing Therapy comes in.
What Is Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT)
Pain Reprocessing Therapy PRT is a neuroscience based treatment designed to help people living with chronic pain related to central nervous system sensitization. Many forms of chronic pain are driven by learned neural pathways rather than ongoing structural damage. The goal of PRT is to help the brain reinterpret pain signals as safe instead of threatening. It does not dismiss pain as “all in your head.” Instead, it recognizes that the pain is real and focuses on retraining the brain to respond differently (PRTCenter 2025).
PRT can be helpful for people who have been living with persistent pain that does not fully respond to traditional medical treatments. It is especially relevant when pain has become chronic, moves around the body, or worsens with stress.
Below are some additional examples of individuals who may benefit from Pain Reprocessing Therapy.
Those who have widespread pain without clear structural cause
Those who notice that symptoms worsen with stress
Those that feel stuck despite multiple treatments
Those that experience fear of movement or symptom flare-ups
Those that are open to a brain-based understanding of pain
A Message of Hope
Fibromyalgia can be incredibly frustrating and isolating. Living with ongoing pain often takes a toll emotionally, leaving many people struggling with anxiety, depression, and the fear that things will never improve.
The encouraging news is that research in pain neuroscience shows chronic pain driven by the nervous system can be reduced. Not through willpower or ignoring the pain, but by gently retraining the brain’s sense of danger and safety. At Calming Tides Counseling, we offer Pain Reprocessing Therapy to help you take meaningful steps toward easing your pain and reconnecting with your life.
Reach out today to connect with a therapist that specializes in supporting those struggling with chronic pain.
References
Pain reprocessing therapy (PRT): Understanding Fibromyalgia: A Path to Relief. Pain Reprocessing Therapy Center. (2025, February 27). https://www.painreprocessingtherapy.com/reprocessing-project/fibromyalgia-relief-treatments/Clauw, D.J. Fibromyalgia: A clinical review. JAMA. 2014 Apr 16;311(15):1547-55. doi: 10.1001/jama.2014.3266. PMID: 24737367.Schubiner, H., & Betzold, M. (2010). Unlearn Your Pain. Mind Body Publishing.Sturgeon J, Trost Z, Ashar YK, Lumley MA, Schubiner H, Clauw D, Hassett AL. Brief pain reprocessing therapy for fibromyalgia: a feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy pilot. Reg Anesth Pain Med. 2025 Sep 18:rapm-2025-107076. doi: 10.1136/rapm-2025-107076. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40973446; PMCID: PMC12515369.
