Health and pain
Complex pain management
Chronic pain that has not responded to physical treatment alone, where pain, sleep, mood, and activity have begun to reinforce one another.
How I see this presentation
Complex pain is one of the domains I have worked in longest. Most of the people I see have already exhausted the physical-only routes: medication, physiotherapy, repeat investigations. They arrive when the pain has become woven into how they sleep, how they think, and how they relate to ordinary daily life. The clinical task is rarely to “remove” pain in isolation; it is to interrupt the cycles by which pain, distress, sleep, mood, and reduced activity reinforce each other.
How I tend to work with it
The lead modality is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy with a pain-management framework, drawn from the work I trained in at Maudsley NHS, the leading European unit for fibromyalgia, complex pain, and chronic fatigue. The work covers pacing, the cognitive style around pain and its meaning, sleep, and the relationship to activity and identity. I draw on ACT and REBT where the work is about the relationship to persistent pain and the values that continue alongside it.
What a course might look like
Sessions are 50 minutes, online, typically weekly. Pain work tends to settle into a structured course with a clear formulation in the first one or two sessions and progress reviewed every four to six sessions. The duration varies per person.
Next step
If what you have read here fits what you are experiencing, getting in touch is straightforward. I respond to all enquiries personally, typically within one working day. An initial call carries no commitment.
Sessions are bookable directly, or you can send a brief enquiry first.
When you're ready
Book your first session with Henry.
You don't need to know what you want from therapy before you book. The first session is for getting that clear.