Health psychology is a specialized branch of psychology that deals with the psychological and behavioral manifestations of health and illness. Health psychologists take a biopsychosocial approach to treatment. This means health psychologists understand health to be a product of not only biological processes, but also psychological, behavioral, and social processes. Research has found that 60-80% of all primary care visits include a behavioral health component, as such, psychologists are uniquely positioned to be able to treat the whole patient, particularly when the care is coordinated with the patient’s physician.
One subspecialty area within the field of health psychology is pediatric pain management. At the most general level, pediatric pain psychologists hold a doctoral degree in clinical health psychology. By applying the biopsychosocial model, a health psychologist can help a child suffering from chronic pain in the following areas:
- Improve functioning despite level of impairment from co-morbid medical illness
- Decrease negative emotional states often associated with various medical illnesses
- Reduce the need for medication
- Provide biofeedback training, a specialized type of treatment that utilizes technology to monitor various bodily functions such as heart rate, and muscle tension, and teach the individual how to voluntarily control them. This often results in a significant improvement in level of pain and ability to cope with pain/ negative emotions.
- Improve a child’s school functioning
- Coordinate care with the child’s physician in order to ensure integrated care
- Provide in-depth education to the parent and child regarding chronic pain in order to develop greater insight
If your child has been diagnosed with any of the following conditions, please give us a call to set up an initial appointment to learn more about how we can help:
- Chronic Migraine
- Abdominal Migrane
- Fibromyalgia
- Amplified Massculoskelatal pain (AMPS)
- Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS)
- Dysautonomia
- Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS)
- Gastroparesis
- Headaches
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
- Functional Abdominal Pain
- Postrural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)
- Sickle Cell Disease
- Post Surgical Pain
- Pain Secondary to Cancer
- Juvenile Arthritis
- Conversion Disorder
- Somatic Symptom Disorder