Scarred,
Ok, this will sound crazy but most of us therapists are to begin with
but try having a conversation with your pain. No, PaLady has not completely lost it - not completely but close! LOL - it is a technique you can use to help understand and see what you can learn from it.
Act like you're playing two characters in a play. Your pain is one character - with its own voice, etc. And your other character should be kind of like a neutral reporter doing an interview - asking very basic who, what, where, why questions, but in a detached way. Even take notes. It takes awhile to get the hang of doing this, and you may want to do it when no one's watching (or blame it on the crazy lady from the forum!), but it can at least give voice to your pain and help break it up a bit. Break up some of that stuck tension.
so -
Who are you? (You can even ask your pain's name)
What are you?
Where are you located? Where did you come from?
Why are you here? What purpose do you serve (if any)?
These are just SUGGESTED questions. You can make up your own. And you have to go back and forth between characters like you were playing two different ones on a play. It can help to sit in two different chairs. You may have two completely different body postures, etc.
Just try to calm when you "become" the reporter or interviewer, and do it as if you have no investment in it other than to write an article about
it.
See what happens.
Just a thought from the crazy lady!
Hugs,
PaLady