“Can a psychologist help with chronic pain?”

Though a therapist will not be able to help with the actual cause of the physical pain, he/she can help with your coping strategies with it, and therefore, your experience of it, plus your daily managing of it. How to live successfully with something you cannot change is one of the best hallmarks and features of what psychotherapy can help you with.

Yes, psychologists, many of us, have training consistent with chronic pain management. 

Yes, search for a psychologist who specializes in health and pain psychology.

This is a complicated answer: it depends on the kind of pain. I do a lot of work with chronic pain, and have, as a person with post-polio syndrome, suffered with chronic pain myself. I also used to have severe migraines, now cured. So in self- interest I learned all there was to learn about psychological techniques as well as physical interventions for others.

Please consult a psychologist with training in using hypnosis for chronic pain. YES, really. Pain is processed in the brain, so teaching the brain how to perceive and not perceive it is real and valuable. Consult the American Society For Clinical Hypnosis for a referral. Zoom is actually excellent for this kind of treatment. Do not go to quacks. There are lots of them out there. Also, some hospitals (Beth Israel in Boston, for ex) have departments of medical hypnosis. My personal experience is that nerve pain does not respond to hypnosis. But other sources of pain usually do.
Best of luck to you.


Peace,

Dr. Marian Shapiro

See this link...
https://www.apa.org/topics/pain-management#:~:text=People%20often%20think%20of%20pain,physical%2C%20emotional%20and%20psychological%20aspects.