In this April issue of my email newsletter, I share my spring teaching calendar. I announce two important training events in May: the next cycle of my distance learning course "Advances in Energy Psychology" beginning on May 4, and the May 21st teleseminar with Marty Rossman on "How Guided Imagery Opens New Healing Pathways for People with Chronic Pain."

Also in this issue, I share new discoveries related to phantom pain and invite you to become a "full member" in my www.reversingchronicpain.com website.

Stay well,

As you read this, I will be winging my way to mainland China--first stop Shanghai. I am teaching a workshop there on Healing Trauma through the Body with Somatic Experiencing and Energy Psychology. Then I fly on to Singapore where I'll be teaching for two days on From Pain to Potential: Reversing the Effects of Persistent and Chronic Pain, then to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to teach Treating The Pain of Trauma. My last stop in that area is Hong Kong, where I have the pleasure of starting the first training group on Somatic Experiencing� in Asia! I'm very excited about these events, and if that wasn't enough, I will end my trip in Nepal where I will be teaching at a medical conference on trauma and pain. Perhaps some of you will be meeting me there!

Fortunately, you don't need to travel around the world to have a first-rate training experience. I am happy to announce that I will once again be teaching my distance learning course, Advances in Energy Psychology, sponsored by the National Institute of Clinical Applications of Behavioral Medicine (NICABM). The class will begin on May 4 and complete on June 28, with 8 weeks of content-rich learning experiences. Whether you are new to Energy Psychology or have taken other EP courses, this program is designed to deliver both breadth and depth. You will be in the good company of professionals from all over the world. Here's feedback from one recent participant:

"This was an extremely well planned course that allowed me to learn the basics and then build upon my progress each week. Maggie Phillips certainly knows her subject! I not only accomplished my goals for this course, but exceeded my expectations. Even though we've never met, it was fascinating how the student's personalities came through in the message boards. I'd recommend this course without hesitation -- and already have!"
--Beth O'Boyle, Hoboken, NJ

Please mark your calendars and contact www.nicabm.com for more information and registration. Please don't miss this! If for any reason you can't commit during this time period, the course will be offered again from September 28-November 22. Come join me!

Those of you who participated in the March 26 teleseminar with Peter Levine and me, Solving the Puzzle of Pain: Healing the Trauma-Pain Connection, shared a very stimulating and intensive learning event. Some of the participant comments included:

"This seminar was really well organized. I appreciated your focus and abiilty to keep things moving! The printed guide was very helpful. Obviously you could have done an entire seminar on any one of those questions(!), but this covered a lot of ground. I left feeling much better prepared & inspired for working with people w/chronic pain."

"Congratulations on doing such a terrific job. When I read the great questions in the study guide I thought, no way will they ever even touch on all these complex issues in 90 minutes. But you both did it and so thoroughly. I can't thank you enough."

The next teleseminar will be on Wednesday, May 21, from 8 am - 9:30 am Pacific time, right after I return from Asia. I'm delighted to announce that my co-presenter will be Dr. Marty Rossman, MD, who has long been a pioneer in the area of interactive guided imagery. We will be focusing on recent breakthroughs in this evidence-based treatment modality for chronic pain. Please visit www.thehealingmind.org and www.academyforguidedimagery.com to see why Marty Rossman is a speaker that you won't want to miss. Our topic is How Guided Imagery Opens Healing Pathways for Chronic Pain. Mark your calendars and watch your email for further announcements.

The fee is $50 and includes a study guide, unlimited audio replay for 30 days after the seminar (through June 21), and an opportunity to submit the questions most important to you in advance. We are in the process of changing the way we are handling registration so please look for clearly marked emails coming soon to let you know how to enroll. Mark this event on your calendar so that you can sign up early to join us live. Some of you were unable to get on the live call with Peter Levine due to late registration. We want all of you to be able to share the latest research findings and treatment techniques for one of the most flexible and effective methods for treating pain in the world today.

Phantom Pain and the Brain

I've just read a fascinating article published in the January, 2007 edition of the American Psychological Association Monitor on "Phantom Pain and the Brain." Most of you are familiar with the phantom pain phenomenon where people feel pain even in an area, such as a limb, which has been amputated.

Author Sadie Dingfelder reports research studies which show that the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) registers physical sensations but also compiles sensory illusions generated elsewhere in the brain. As far as S1 is concerned, there's no difference between real or imaginary touch. Other researchers have found similar results for primary visual cortex. This data suggests a deeply integrated brain that begins making sense of information at the earliest stages of perception.

For an interesting experiment that you can do yourself, tap another person's arm rapidly (but gently) at the wrist and then at the elbow, and they will feel a phantom tap right in the middle. Then ask them to do the same for you. Did you experience the phantom tap?

The researchers who conducted this experiment placed electrodes at 3 points between each person's elbow and wrist. While research participants lay in a functional MRI machine, pulses were delivered to the electrodes, In one condition, participants experienced real sensations hopping up their arms as researchers sent impulses to all three electrodes. In another condition, participants imagined that they felt the sensation hopping up their arms while researchers stimulated only the electrodes near their wrist and then to their elbow.

An interesting finding was that participants reported feeling the illusory touch and the real one equally strongly. In fact, though S1 showed no differences in activation during real and imagined touch, the right premotor cortex demonstrated increased activation during the illusory touch condition. The researchers speculate that neural feedback loops from higher-level brain structures may influence the primary sensory cortex.

Professionals who study visual experience noted similar outcomes. Participants were shown a faint pattern on a similar background or just the background alone. Their brain activation was the same whether they actually saw the faint pattern or believed they had seen it.

These results help to explain why false sensory perceptions feel so real. For example, if you believe you feel a sensation, like pain, or are afraid that you do, it is likely that lower-level primary sensory areas associated with false perceptions actually come "on line," thus clouding perceptual accuracy. Future research will reveal whether these more primitive areas connected with false sensory and visual perception might be targeted in order to help patients differentiate sensory perceptions more accurately. And, if phantom pain stems from the lowest levels of the sensory system, intervening in those areas might actually resolve various types of phantom pain.

For those of you who haven't yet visited www.reversingchronicpain.com, please take this opportunity. We are building individual training modules that will contain all the information and practice exercises that are needed to reverse any given pain condition. Each module helps to create a skill set that extends beyond the scope of the RCP book and creates a highly effective learning system for putting the book's methods into practice. You can purchase each module as it becomes available for $7.99 each, or buy access to the entire 10-module program for $59.99.

As a special bonus for becoming a "full" member, you will receive free monthly phone consultation with me to help you further tailor the RCP program to your individual needs and to answer specific questions about your pain condition. This option is not available as part of our paid teleseminars, so this bonus adds value worth almost as much as the complete ten module program in the very first month you use it! And please feel free to forward this information to someone who might especially benefit such as a client, colleague, friend, or loved one.

It is my hope that you are interested in hearing from me periodically with news; however, if at any time, you wish to stop receiving emails from me, just follow the instructions below.

To be removed from Maggie Phillips' email list, please email assistant@maggiephillipsphd.com with the word "unsubscribe" in the title or body of the email or use the options at the bottom of this email to instantly unsubscribe.