News from Maggie Phillips, Ph.D.
October 2007


In This Issue:
  • The Book is Out!
  • Coming Soon
  • News From the Pain Front
  • More Travels
  • Dear Colleague,

    In this issue of my email newsletter, I celebrate the publication of my new book Reversing Chronic Pain with a press release, and hope that you will share the news about this groundbreaking book with your friends and colleagues.

    Also in this issue, I announce my forthcoming interactive website and teleseminar series as well as summarize some important results from the front lines of pain research (and offer some tips on reversing chronic pain).

    And finally, I offer a report on my travels in Europe during September, and hope to see some of you at upcoming conferences in Germany and Arizona.

    Warmest Wishes,

    Maggie Phillips
  • The Book is Out!
  • Book Cover

    I'm happy to report that my new book, Reversing Chronic Pain is officially on the market. I am including a press release that you can send to your friends (or to your clients if you are a practitioner). I am pleased that so many people have asked to write reviews and I will be contacting those of you who have volunteered as soon as I have access to complimentary books that I can get out to you.

    Here are more endorsements by well-known authors in the pain, trauma and energy healing worlds:

    "Maggie Phillips has written the first truly multi-modal, mind-body therapy self-help book for people with chronic pain. She offers usable, nuts-and-bolts techniques that can be used by readers in pain and pain professionals alike. I could not put this book down."
    -- Bruce N. Eimer, PhD, ABPP, author of Hypnotize Yourself Out of Pain Now and Pain Management Psychotherapy

    "Reversing Chronic Pain is a tremendously helpful guide for dissolving fear and trauma that perpetuate chronic pain. Maggie Phillips's gentle and soothing style is wonderfully reassuring and healing. Simply reading this book will lend some relief, but when you use the techniques, well-deserved miracles are bound to happen."
    -- Fred Gallo, PhD, author of Energy Psychology and Energy Tapping for Trauma

    Order the book online at amazon.com.

    Click here to access the press release for this book.
  • Coming Soon
  • Live Teleseminars:

    October 31
    November 28
    December 12

    My staff and I are working on a new website that will offer interactive support for Reversing Chronic Pain. There will be an opportunity to access new material created since I wrote the book, including new advances in the treatment of pain, a series of interactive learning modules that supplement each chapter of Reversing Chronic Pain and feature audio and video clips, an online support group, and opportunities to share tips and wisdom readers discover as they work through the book and web learning program. The site will also post radio interviews and clips from some of my workshops on pain. Please watch for updates in this newsletter.

    There are also a series of teleseminars (or conference calls) scheduled to give readers who prefer this format an opportunity to ask questions, receive ideas for applying the methods in Reversing Chronic Pain, and learn from other readers. Please visit my website at www.maggiephillipsphd.com to get more information and enroll.

  • News From the Pain Front
  • website image

    Most articles written recently about the treatment of pain emphasize the importance of educating patients about the mechanics of pain. For example, nerve pain is considered one of the hardest types of pain to treat, but do you know why? One of the reasons is that injury, and the pain that results, can change sensory nerves, causing them to send out false alarms that feel real but are in fact error messages. Pain signals can also become embedded in the spinal cord like any other type of painful memory. When this happens, a hypersensitivity called windup results from changes in nerve chemistry. This means that all pain is experienced as more severe and sensations that were not painful before become so.

    What can be done? It is very important to find treatment that works as soon as possible. For some people, this can mean using adequate medication. Many patients believe that once they receive a diagnosis, this will lead to cure that can take the pain away. Sadly, this is not the case.

    It is important to understand the mechanics of pain but also to realize that all pain, regardless of where it is located, operates in roughly the same fashion. Most leading pain experts recommend that patients focus on self-treatment which might include specific exercises, nutritional changes and supplements, homeopathic remedies, and simple focusing on body experience. It is amazing how breathing techniques, for example, can shift pain temporarily and permanently once the methods are fully integrated by the body. Reversing Chronic Pain features lots of these simple practice exercises.

    Recovery from pain requires self-acceptance of current circumstances before forward progress can be made, and most pain patients make the mistake of doing too much too soon as they begin feeling better, then relapsing and finding it harder each time to propel themselves forward again. For example, it might be best to increase daily exercise by ONE minute per week, starting with 5 minutes or less until that workout feels comfortable. Remember, in this case, more really is less. If you stop a physical or mental focusing session wanting more of the experience, you will be more likely to continue on a regular basis. It is far more effective to focus on small successes than to focus on what is not working. For extra help in developing this kind of attitude toward self-treatment, you may want to sign up for a teleseminar to examine what isn't working for you (see www.maggiephillipsphd.com), or to plan to explore the interactive web tutorials on the new website (coming soon).

  • More Travels
  • website image
    Upcoming Presentations

    November 15-18
    Bad Lippspringe
    Germany

    December 5-8
    Phoenix
    Arizona

    I am just returning from another teaching trip. During this time, I was one of the four keynote speakers at a trauma conference in Bad Honnef, Germany, joining colleagues Onno van der Hart and Ellert Nijenhuis from the Netherlands and Luise Reddeman from Germany. It was a wonderful conference, and I was able to present some of the methods from my new pain book as well as to share my belief in the importance of working to unify a self divided by past trauma, which can create a variety of symptoms including chronic emotional and physical pain. I also presented similar information at the first Energy Psychology conference in Germany held in Heidelberg. There were excellent speakers, including Fred Gallo and many others from the EP world.

    In between, I taught a workshop in Paris on The Body as the Ultimate Healer of Trauma and Pain and led a consultation group in the use of Ego-State Therapy in Rottweil, Germany. It was an inspiring trip, and I am grateful for these professional opportunities. It was good to see many of you during these events.

    From November 15-18, I will be presenting at the annual conference of the DGH, one of the German hypnosis societies, in Bad Lippspringe, Germany (for more information, visit dgh-hypnose.de). If you are in the US, I will be teaching at the Ericksonian hypnosis conference in Phoenix from December 5-8 (for more information, visit www.erickson-foundation.org/10thCongress). Both presentations will focus on using the methods in my new book to resolve and even reverse persistent and chronic pain conditions. Please join me if you can.

       
    Maggie Phillips, Ph.D.
    2768 Darnby Dr.
    Oakland, CA 94611
    USA
    510-655-3843

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