In this issue of my email newsletter, I announce my March 26 teleseminar with Peter Levine on the topic of healing the trauma-pain connection.

I also encourage you to visit my new RCP website in the next 3 days in order to take advantage of the special sweepstakes offer and reduced pricing on the learning modules.

Also in this issue, I share new developments in the field of pain reversal and their impact on the treatment of troops returning from Iraq.

Be well,

I'm very excited to announce that the March teleseminar in the "Ask the Experts" series features Dr. Peter Levine. Peter is the creator of the Somatic Experiencing method of healing trauma and author of the landmark book, Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma, as well as 5 more recent books and CD programs. For more information on Peter, his books, and his training program, go to www.traumahealing.com.

Peter and I have enjoyed teaching together for more than 25 years, most recently leading weekend and week-long workshops at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur. The topic of our teleseminar on Wednesday, March 26, is "Solving the Puzzle of Pain: Healing the Trauma-Pain Connection." The seminar will take place from 10 am - 11:30 am Pacific time, with a 60 minute presentation by Peter and me followed by a 30 minute question and answer segment. The fee is $50 and includes the following benefits: A study guide to help you get the most out of this call, access to the audio replay for a month following the call, and opportunities to submit your most challenging questions about trauma and pain before the call and during the live 30 minute Q&A session. To enroll, click here.

Obviously, we are delighted to get comments like this one about www.reversingchronicpain.com. Yet what we really look forward to hearing is that this new online learning program is making a real difference in working with pain. We need you to make that happen.

Please take a brief tour now (is there really a better time?). Once you join as a member by giving us your email address, we invite you to do two things. First, close the member box and scroll down the "Welcome" homepage to discover a free sample of the RCP program, complete with audio files, so that you can see whether this program might be a good fit for you, or those you want to refer. To take advantage of this week's specials through March 7, click on "Sign up" in the upper right hand corner at the top of the RCP home page. There you can make your payments for the first module or all ten. Feel free to refer friends, colleagues, clients, and family.

The topic of this month's teleseminar is an important one. There is increasing evidence that many people who don't heal from chronic pain struggle with unresolved trauma. This issue is even more visible now that more and more wounded troops return home from Iraq.

The June 4, 2007 issue of Newsweek has an excellent article on "The Changing Science of Pain." This article points out that more than 90% of soldiers are surviving combat, only to overwhelm chronic pain clinics when they reenter the United States. In today's San Francisco Chronicle, a psychiatrist specializing in treating PTSD in soldiers, claims that up to 30% of troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan are likely to be diagnosed with PTSD and require more help than the VA is able to give them.

Although the demand is high, the military is becoming more sophisticated in their diagnosis and treatment of pain and trauma. There is consensus that the brain and spinal cord rewire themselves in response to injuries, forming pathways that become progressively more hyper-reactive. The military's response to this finding is to use drugs such as nonaddictive nerve blockers, push-button pump dispensers of pain medication, and alternative methods like "prolotherapy," acupuncture, and meditation to interrupt or sever these entrenched pathways. Although such treatments may be effective, for many people the effects may be temporary. The Newsweek article concludes, as many experts have, that most forms of chronic pain require multiple treatment methods for full effectiveness.

The RCP program is an example of this kind of combination approach. We go further, however, by recognizing that one important source of the hyperactivation in pain pathways is due to the body's unresolved traumatic responses. My belief is that if someone is in severe pain and nothing seems to work for them, the place to focus is on the unresolved trauma of what caused the pain in the first place, or the trauma that is created by living in unrelenting pain.

Somatic Experiencing is the best path I've found to rebalance the nervous system's response to all kinds of stress, including traumatic stress, and for resolving acute pain as well as chronic conditions. Please mark your calendar for March 26 and the telephone seminar with Peter Levine.

Also please note that we have extended the deadline to 11:59 pm Pacific time on Thursday, March 6, to register your name and email address as a basic member at www.reversingchronicpain.com and enter the sweepstakes. We will announce the winner of all 10 modules of the RCP program on Friday morning March 7.

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