Effective Mind-Body Techniques for Chronic Pain Relief: Somatic Practices, Mindfulness, and Polyvagal Theory
Chronic pain is not just a physical issue; it's an experience that affects the entire person—mind, body, and spirit. While traditional pain management often focuses solely on physical symptoms, newer approaches like somatic practices, mindfulness, and polyvagal theory address the whole person. These approaches can help calm the nervous system, retrain your body’s response to pain, and allow you to heal in ways that go beyond simply masking symptoms.
Let’s dive deeper
. . . and explore how each of these interventions works and explore specific techniques you can incorporate into your life to better manage chronic pain.
1. Somatic Practices: Reconnecting with Your Body’s Wisdom
Somatic practices focus on the mind-body connection by specifically tuning into your body’s sensations in a way that promotes healing. By listening to and engaging with bodily sensations, you can release physical tension or emotional blocks that contribute to pain. These practices teach you how to become more aware of your body's reactions and use that awareness to bring about change.
Research shows that somatic techniques, such as mindful movement, can help reduce pain and stress. These practices encourage emotional release, which in turn can lessen the intensity of chronic pain (Van der Kolk, 2014).
Source: Van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking.
Mind-body method you can try:
Grounding through Movement
One somatic practice that can be particularly helpful is grounding through gentle movement. For example, standing and gently swaying from side to side, or walking slowly and deliberately, can help re-establish a sense of connection with the earth and your body. This movement activates your sense of proprioception (the body’s ability to sense its position in space) and helps release tension, especially in areas where pain may be chronic. By paying attention to how your body feels during movement, you can begin to shift habitual patterns that might contribute to pain.
2. Mindfulness: Changing Your Relationship with Pain
Mindfulness involves being present with whatever you are experiencing, without judgment or resistance. For chronic pain, mindfulness provides an opportunity to detach from the negative mental and emotional patterns that often accompany pain. Instead of reacting to pain with frustration, fear, or anger, mindfulness teaches you to observe it without automatically becoming overwhelmed by it.
Studies have shown that mindfulness-based practices can alter the brain’s response to pain, reducing both its emotional and physical impact. By changing the way you relate to pain, mindfulness can help reduce the intensity and frequency of pain episodes (Zeidan et al., 2015).
Source: Zeidan, F., Johnson, S. K., Diamond, B. J., & David, Z. (2015). Mindfulness meditation and its therapeutic implications in the management of chronic pain. Journal of Pain Research, 8, 21–29. https://doi.org/10.2147/JPR.S82773
Mind-body method you can try:
Observing Without Judgement
A specific mindfulness technique for chronic pain is observing pain with curiosity instead of judgment. You can practice this by noticing where you feel pain in your body and paying attention to its qualities—its intensity, texture, and sensation—without labeling it as "good" or "bad." By simply observing the pain, you can help distance yourself from the emotional charge that can often come with unpleasant sensations. This practice creates space between you and the pain, allowing you to feel less overwhelmed by it and more equipped to respond vs react.
3. Polyvagal Theory: Calming the Nervous System
Polyvagal theory, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, offers a unique understanding of how our autonomic nervous system affects our experience of pain. Chronic pain often results from dysregulation in the nervous system, where the body is stuck in a state of hyperarousal (fight-or-flight). By engaging in techniques that activate the vagus nerve, which controls the parasympathetic nervous system (responsible for "rest and digest"), you can help shift the body into a more relaxed, healing state.
Research supports the idea that polyvagal techniques, such as deep breathing or intentional humming and sounds, can help reduce pain and stress by shifting the nervous system toward relaxation. Regular practice of these techniques can help reduce the intensity of chronic pain (Porges, 2011).
Source: Porges, S. W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-regulation. Norton & Company.
Mind-body method you can try:
Humming or Chanting to Stimulate the Vagus Nerve
A simple polyvagal technique is humming or chanting. The vibrations produced by humming activate the vagus nerve and promote a relaxation response in the nervous system. By humming for a few minutes each day, you can directly stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, helping your body move out of the "fight-or-flight" response and towards a state of calm.
Integrating These Approaches for Healing
Chronic pain is complex—it doesn’t just affect the body. It can shape how you think, feel, move, and relate to others. That’s why healing often requires more than one tool, more than one lens. Somatic practices, mindfulness, and polyvagal-informed techniques each open a unique pathway toward reconnecting with your body, regulating your nervous system, and shifting how pain is processed and experienced.
These approaches aren’t about “fixing” or erasing pain, but instead transforming your relationship to it. Rather than staying trapped in cycles of tension, fear, or shutdown, you begin to build capacity—for safety, flexibility, and ease in your body and mind.
integrating mind-body approaches to healing
Somatic practices help you notice and gently unwind patterns of physical guarding or disconnection. They offer the body new options—beyond bracing, beyond numbing.
Mindfulness strengthens your ability to stay present with what’s happening, even when it’s hard. It allows you to observe pain (and the stories that come with it) with curiosity and compassion, rather than reactivity.
Polyvagal-informed tools support nervous system regulation through breath, movement, and safe connection. These techniques help shift the body from states of overwhelm or collapse into greater steadiness and resilience.
Pain is both a sensory and emotional experience. By working at that intersection—through the body, the breath, and the mind—you’re not just managing symptoms. You’re laying the groundwork for a different experience of being in your body. One that’s more spacious, more empowered, and more whole.
This is what integrative healing looks like—not fighting the body, but listening to it and working with it.
Learn more about the modalities we work with and see if any of these might be your right next step.
If you’re ready to explore how online therapy for chronic pain can make a difference, I invite you to schedule a free 15-minute consultation. It’s a chance to ask questions, get a feel for how I work, and see if therapy might be a helpful next step. (No pressure. Just an open door.)
You don’t have to carry this alone. Let’s find your way forward—together.
Alcove Mental Health provides psychological evaluations and online therapy for chronic pain, health-related stress and individuals coping with complex medical conditions in over 40 states, including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.