Chronic pain is pain that persists beyond normal healing time, usually longer than three months, even if it comes and goes.
It can be:
Many people with chronic pain don’t hurt all the time.
But the anticipation, vigilance, or fear of pain returning can keep the nervous system under ongoing stress.
Many people already understand a lot about themselves and how they live with chronic pain.
They know their history
They recognise their patterns.
They may even understand why their pain or anxiety began.
And yet, their body still hurts.
Their nervous system still reacts.
This is where combining Life Script work with psychotactile psychotherapy can be especially supportive.
In Transactional Analysis, we talk about life scripts, unconscious patterns shaped early in life that influence how we cope, relate, and survive.
Life scripts aren’t stories we consciously choose.
They’re patterns the nervous system learned when it needed to adapt.
For people with chronic pain or anxiety, these scripts often include messages like:
These patterns once made sense.
They may have helped you function, belong, or stay protected.
But over time, they can quietly tax the nervous system, contributing to tension, hypervigilance, exhaustion, and pain.
Understanding a life script can help reduce shame and self-blame.
But many people notice something frustrating:
“I know where this comes from, but my body still reacts.”
That’s because life scripts don’t live only in thoughts.
They live in the body.
In our muscles, breath patterns and in holding, bracing, collapse, or vigilance.
This is where psychotactile psychotherapy becomes essential.
Psychotactile psychotherapy works directly with the felt experience of the body, alongside psychological awareness.
Rather than trying to override pain or anxiety, we:
Touch (when used) is not corrective or forceful.
It’s a way of supporting the nervous system to feel met rather than managed.
For many people with chronic pain or anxiety, this helps the body experience something new:
“I don’t have to stay tense right now.”
That experience, repeated gently, matters more than insight alone.
When these approaches are combined, something shifts.
Life script awareness helps you:
Psychotactile work helps the body:
Together, they support both meaning and physiology.
The nervous system doesn’t have to choose between understanding and sensation, it gets both.
This work isn’t about eliminating parts of you.
It’s about helping:
Over time, people often notice:
Not because they tried harder, but because their system learned something new.
Chronic pain and anxiety are not personal failures.
They are adaptations shaped by experience.
By combining life script work with psychotactile psychotherapy, we address both:
This is foundational work, and for many people, it’s the missing link between understanding themselves and actually feeling different.
Learn how psychotactile psychotherapy and life script work can support your chronic pain - explore here.
