What is Somatic Tracking and How Can It Help?
Chronic pain can deeply impact daily life, especially when it interferes with functioning and demands constant attention. The ongoing search for relief can feel exhausting and take a toll on mental health, particularly when answers are unclear. Pain Reprocessing Therapy is an evidence-based treatment for chronic pain, and techniques like somatic tracking have helped many clients experience meaningful reductions in pain.
“Somatic tracking teaches your brain to reinterpret signals from your body through a lens of safety, thus deactivating the pain.”
What is Pain Reprocessing Therapy?
Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) is an evidenced-based approach that helps treat chronic pain. Whether the chronic pain comes from a past injury; or a chronic illness, chronic pain often leaves people feeling hopeless, anxious, and depressed. The focus of PRT is addressing the root cause which is the brain misfiring the danger signals throughout one’s body. Instead of only focusing on managing pain the goal is to rewire the neural pathways in order to help the brain and body be in a relaxed state. In a relaxed and regulated state, one can truly heal.
The frustration for many is doing the long list of treatments such as injections, medications, physical therapies, and surgeries. Only to find themselves with temporary relief. That is because PRT believes that those treatments only focus on the body but not the root issue, which is a dysregulated nervous system that is in a constant state of fear. It is believed that all pain is real and valid but not all caused from tissue damage. Additionally, It is believed that chronic pain comes from the brain learning the habit to stay on high alert. Neuroplasticity is a term used to describe the brain’s ability to change and adapt. Just as it can learn to interpret pain the brain can unlearn it as well (Pain Reprocessing Therapy Center, 2025).
The 5 Main Steps of Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) (Gordon, 2021)
Education — The clinician provides education on how the brain has learned pain and continues to send pain signals through misfiring neural pathways.
Example: Explaining how pain can persist even after tissues have healed, using a metaphor like a “car alarm that keeps going off when there’s no threat.”Evidence — Exploring where the pain originally began and how it intersects with stress, emotions, or life experiences.
Example: Noticing that pain first appeared during a period of high stress, trauma, or loss, even when medical imaging shows no structural cause.Somatic Exercises — Reframing pain sensations using trauma-informed language while building a sense of safety in the body.
Example: Practicing somatic tracking by observing sensations with curiosity (e.g., “tight,” “warm,” “moving”) rather than fear or judgment.Emotional Regulation — Developing emotional regulation skills and processing unresolved emotions or trauma that may keep the nervous system on high alert.
Example: Using grounding, breathwork, or parts-informed processing to work through suppressed anger, grief, or fear linked to pain flare-ups.Positive Sensations — Engaging in pleasurable or joyful movement to reinforce safety and positive neural pathways.
Example: Gradually returning to activities like walking, stretching, or dancing while noticing moments of ease or comfort in the body.
Diving Deeper into Somatic Tracking
Somatic Tracking is one of the core techniques used in Pain Reprocessing Therapy for chronic pain and pain related anxiety. This approach focuses on reducing fear around pain by breaking the process into three key elements:
First, clients practice mindfulness by noticing pain sensations with curiosity rather than fear or an attempt to change them.
Second, thoughts about pain are gently reframed from danger based beliefs to a sense of internal safety, which can help calm the nervous system and reduce pain intensity.
Third, clients are encouraged to relate to chronic pain in a lighter, less threatening way, rather than as something overwhelming or mentally exhausting. These practices help create new, more supportive neural pathways in the brain, reducing fear, anxiety, and distress related to pain over time.
Getting Help with Your Pain
It can feel discouraging to see your calendar filled with medical appointments, each specialist addressing a different aspect of your chronic illness or pain. Even after following medical recommendations, many people continue to struggle and begin to sense that something deeper may be contributing. The mind and body are closely connected, and ongoing pain can increase emotional distress, just as anxiety and depression can intensify physical symptoms. Research shows that individuals with higher levels of anxiety and depression are more likely to experience chronic pain, which can significantly impact quality of life.
This is why caring for your mental health is an important part of chronic pain support. Working with a therapist who understands depression, anxiety, and the emotional impact of chronic illness can help address the full picture. At Calming Tides Counseling, we offer trauma informed therapy for chronic pain in the Winter Park and Orlando area, supporting both mind and body as you work toward greater balance and relief.
References
Pain reprocessing therapy (PRT): Proven chronic pain treatment. Pain Reprocessing Therapy Center. (2025, February 27). https://www.painreprocessingtherapy.com/pain-reprocessing-therapyGordon, A. (2021). The way out: The revolutionary, scientifically-proven approach to heal chronic pain. Vermilion.What is pain reprocessing therapy (PRT)?. PainScale. (n.d.). https://www.painscale.com/article/what-is-pain-reprocessing-therapy-prtPrevalence of depression and anxiety among adults with chronic pain: A systematic review and meta-analysis | anesthesiology | jama network open | jama network. (2025, March 7). https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2831134
