Pain Reprocessing THerapy in Bothell and Online Throughout Washington State
Chronic Pain Therapy in Tacoma
Your Body Was the One Thing You Could Always Count On
You built your life around being physically reliable. Whether that meant hauling gear at JBLM, working a shift on your feet at the port, coaching your kid's soccer team in Lakewood, or just being the person your family counted on to handle the heavy lifting, your body was your tool and it worked.
Now there's pain that won't quit. Your back locks up after an hour of driving. Your knees ache on the stairs. Your neck and shoulders are so tight by the end of the day that you can't get comfortable enough to fall asleep. Some mornings you wake up feeling like you didn't sleep at all, stiff and sore before the day has even started.
You've handled it the way you handle most things: you pushed through. You took the ibuprofen, did the stretches your doctor recommended, maybe tried a chiropractor in Puyallup or physical therapy in University Place. You told yourself it's just wear and tear, just age, just the cost of a physical life. But the pain isn't getting better, and the explanations you've been given, "degenerative disc disease," "repetitive stress," "you're just getting older,” don’t sit right. Something changed, and nobody can tell you what.
Learn more about my approach to treating chronic pain here.
When the Diagnosis Doesn’t Match the Pain
About 85% of people with chronic back pain don't have structural damage that accounts for their symptoms. The same is true for many cases of neck pain, migraines, fibromyalgia, and repetitive strain injuries.
What you're feeling is real. Brain imaging studies confirm that people with this kind of pain show the same brain activity as someone with a clear physical injury. The pain isn't in your head, and you're not exaggerating.
The difference is in what's driving the signal. When pain persists long after an injury has healed, or develops without any injury at all, your brain may have learned to keep firing danger signals even when there's nothing structurally wrong. The brain gets better at producing pain through repetition, the same way any repeated pattern gets stronger over time. And the way you respond to pain can make this worse: when you grit your teeth and push through it, when you tense up in anticipation of the movement that usually hurts, when you stop doing the things you used to do because you're afraid of what they'll cost you, your brain reads all of that as confirmation that there's a real threat.
The pain stays. Your range shrinks. And you start organizing your whole life around managing something that nobody can quite explain.
This process can reverse. Your brain learned this response, and with the right approach, it can unlearn it.
Pain Reprocessing Therapy: a different approach for chronic pain
I use Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), an evidence-based approach specifically designed to address pain generated by the nervous system rather than structural damage.
PRT works by helping your brain relearn how to interpret what your body is telling it. When your brain has learned to sound a false alarm, specific techniques can teach it that those signals are actually safe. The cycle between pain and fear breaks, and the pain itself can decrease or stop entirely.
I also bring in body-based therapy and trauma treatment (EMDR) because chronic pain rarely exists in a vacuum. For many people in the Tacoma area, the pain showed up during or after a period of intense stress: a deployment, a physically demanding career, a major life transition, years of running on adrenaline without ever really slowing down. Pain Reprocessing Therapy combined with trauma work addresses both the pain signal and what's been keeping your whole system on high alert.
We look at the full picture: not just the pain itself, but what was happening in your life when it started, how your body responds to stress, what emotions you've been carrying without anywhere to put them, and what's keeping your system stuck on high alert. For some people, that means addressing old experiences your body never fully processed. For others, it means learning how to let your guard down after years of staying braced.
In a clinical trial published in JAMA Psychiatry, 66% of participants reported being pain-free or nearly pain-free after treatment, and 98% experienced significant reduction. Those results held a year later.
Your Life Can Change After Therapy for Chronic Pain
You throw the football with your kid at Point Defiance Park without stopping to stretch every ten minutes, without the mental math of whether you'll be able to move tomorrow. You throw it until he's tired of catching, and you walk back to the car feeling normal.
You work a full shift without the slow buildup of tension that usually has you counting the hours until you can sit down. Your back doesn't start screaming at the four-hour mark. You finish the day and you've still got energy to mow the lawn or help with homework.
You sleep through the night. Not the fitful, position-shifting, pillow-rearranging sleep you've gotten used to, but actual sleep. You wake up and your first thought is about coffee, not about how bad your neck feels.
You drive to your mom's place in Puyallup for Sunday dinner without dreading the thirty minutes in the car. You sit at her table for two hours, you eat seconds, you help clean up, and you drive home without your lower back seizing on the way.
You sign up for the gym again. Not the cautious, modified, "only the machines that don't hurt" version, but the actual workout you used to do: squats, deadlifts, the full thing. You're sore the next day in the good way, the way that means you worked hard.
You stop saying “I can’t” before anyone even asks. When someone needs help moving a couch, loading a truck, or building the deck, you don’t automatically opt out. You show up, and it feels like getting a part of yourself back that you thought was gone.
Schedule Your First Session
Schedule Your First Session
Who is Pain Reprocessing Therapy For?
You have chronic pain that doesn't have a clear medical explanation, or pain that's stuck around long after an injury should have healed. This includes back pain, neck pain, knee pain, migraines, IBS, fibromyalgia, repetitive strain injuries, pelvic pain, post-surgical pain that persists despite successful surgery, and conditions where Tacoma-area doctors haven't identified a structural cause.
You might have a gut sense that stress, past difficult experiences, or the way you carry tension in your body has something to do with your pain. Or maybe the mind-body connection is a new idea for you, and you're open to trying it because the treatments you've already done haven't given you lasting relief.
You want to get back to being the person who shows up, who handles things, who doesn't have to plan their life around whether their body will cooperate.
This approach isn’t the right fit if you’re involved in ongoing legal matters related to your pain, such as disability claims, worker's comp, or lawsuits. It also isn't right if you're only interested in medical or pharmaceutical solutions and aren't open to exploring how your brain and body work together, or if you haven't had a medical evaluation to rule out conditions requiring medical treatment.
You don't need to be fully convinced your pain is connected to your brain. What matters is being willing to explore it.
Get Started in Chronic Pain Therapy
I work with clients throughout Tacoma and Pierce County via telehealth, so you can access chronic pain therapy from University Place, Lakewood, Puyallup, Spanaway, Bonney Lake, Gig Harbor, or anywhere in the area without a commute. I also see clients in person at my Bothell office.
If you're dealing with pain that doctors can't fully explain and you're looking for a different kind of answer, reach out. We'll talk about your situation and whether this approach makes sense for what you're dealing with.
Serving Tacoma and Pierce County
Including University Place, Lakewood, Puyallup, Federal Way, Auburn, Spanaway, Parkland, Bonney Lake, Gig Harbor, Fife, Sumner, Graham, Steilacoom, and Joint Base Lewis-McChord.
Questions?
FAQs About Chronic Pain Therapy
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Individual sessions are $300 for 50 minutes. I don't accept insurance directly, which means I'm not limited by what an insurance company decides is medically necessary or how many sessions they'll approve. You pay at the time of the session, and I provide a superbill you can submit to your insurance for potential out-of-network reimbursement. Many PPO plans reimburse a portion after your deductible is met. I recommend calling the number on the back of your insurance card before your first session to ask about your out-of-network mental health benefits.
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Most pain management programs assume the pain is permanent and teach you to cope with it: pacing strategies, relaxation techniques, medication, learning to accept a smaller life. Pain Reprocessing Therapy has a different goal. Rather than helping you build your life around the pain, PRT works to reduce or eliminate the pain itself by retraining the brain patterns that are generating it. In the clinical trial published in JAMA Psychiatry, 66% of participants were pain-free or nearly pain-free after treatment, and those results held a year later.
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No. You can continue with any medical care, physical therapy, or other treatment you’re receiving. Some clients find that as their pain decreases, they naturally need less of their other interventions, but that's a decision you make with your other providers over time.
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A few indicators: your imaging or tests have come back normal or don't fully explain the level of pain you're experiencing. Your pain has persisted long after an injury should have healed. Your pain moves around, or it started during or after a stressful period in your life. You've noticed that stress makes it worse and distraction or relaxation makes it better. You don't need all of these to be true, but if a few of them sound familiar, your pain may respond well to this approach.
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You don’t need to be convinced, you just need to be open. Many of my clients come in skeptical, and that’s fine. The research is strong enough that you don’t have to take it on faith. What matters is a willingness to try something different after the conventional route hasn't given you lasting results. Where this approach tends not to work is when someone is certain that only a medical or surgical solution will help and isn't willing to explore other possibilities, or when there's an active legal case connected to the pain, like a disability claim or lawsuit, because the incentive structure works against the recovery process.
About Ingrid Johnston, LMFT, MDFT
Tacoma chronic pain therapist
I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Washington State, specializing in chronic pain therapy.
I’ve completed Pain Reprocessing Therapy training and hold advanced certification in Medical Family Therapy and Collaborative Medicine. My approach combines somatic therapy, trauma treatment, and nervous system regulation.
I understand this work both professionally and personally. I've navigated my own path through chronic pain and learned firsthand how pain can take over your identity, your plans, and your sense of what's possible for your life.
I’m a member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) and the Washington Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (WAMFT).
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist: Washington State License #LF61033631
Get started in chronic pain therapy today in Tacoma or anywhere in Pierce County.
If you’ve tried other approaches and you’re still in pain, this might be the missing piece. Reach out to ask questions or schedule a first session.
Get In Touch
Contact Ingrid
Please complete the form, and I will be in touch within 48 business hours.
Office and mailing address:
19803 North Creek Parkway, Suite 205
Bothell, WA 98011
In-person in Bothell & online across Washington