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Emotional and Physical Pain in the Brain

8/28/2025 | Dr. Laura

man and woman sitting on bench during night time
Photo by Christian Lue on Unsplash

Did you know that physical and emotional pain share some of the same areas of the brain1? This means that social rejection, like heartbreak, may be perceived as “painful” as acute pain or physical injury. Luckily, treating pain with psychotherapy can help both physical and emotional experiences of pain. Therapy such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance commitment therapy (ACT), and mindfulness therapy can all help decrease the intensity of perceived pain.234

What does “perceived pain” mean? Everyone experiences pain differently, as our biological, social, and psychological experiences can change the intensity of the pain we feel.5 Two people stubbing their toes can have very different levels of pain, even though the injury itself is the same. Your perception of pain is impacted by your stress, past experiences, relationships, sleep, and biology.678 This is true for both the emotional pain you experience and the physical.

Why does therapy help? As mentioned, therapy can help decrease the intensity of the pain you’re experiencing by helping change the way your brain processes pain. Negative thoughts and beliefs around pain such as, “I will never get better,” or “My whole day is ruined,” or even “Pain is taking over my life” can actually worsen the intensity of the pain you’re experiencing. By using cognitive restructuring, we are able to actively restructure the brain and begin to change the way we experience pain.910

Here at HHAWC, we have extensive training and experience treating pain and pain disorders. If you would like to learn more, or are interested in treatment, please don’t hesitate to fill out the contact form on our website. We look forward to hearing from you!

Disclaimer: These posts are for informational purposes only and are not a substitute for professional mental health care. Viewing or interacting with this post does not constitute a therapeutic relationship.

Footnotes

  1. Sturgeon, J. A., & Zautra, A. J. (2016). Social pain and physical pain: shared paths to resilience. Pain management, 6(1), 63–74. https://doi.org/10.2217/pmt.15.56 ↩

  2. E. Kross, M.G. Berman, W. Mischel, E.E. Smith, & T.D. Wager, Social rejection shares somatosensory representations with physical pain, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 108 (15) 6270-6275, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1102693108 (2011). ↩

  3. Dubey, A., & Muley, P. A. (2023). Meditation: A Promising Approach for Alleviating Chronic Pain. Cureus, 15(11), e49244. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.49244 ↩

  4. Hughes, L. S., Clark, J., Colclough, J. A., Dale, E., & McMillan, D. (2017). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for Chronic Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses. The Clinical journal of pain, 33(6), 552–568. https://doi.org/10.1097/AJP.0000000000000425 ↩

  5. Meints, S. M., & Edwards, R. R. (2018). Evaluating psychosocial contributions to chronic pain outcomes. Progress in neuro-psychopharmacology & biological psychiatry, 87(Pt B), 168–182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2018.01.017 ↩

  6. Timmers, I., Quaedflieg, C. W. E. M., Hsu, C., Heathcote, L. C., Rovnaghi, C. R., & Simons, L. E. (2019). The interaction between stress and chronic pain through the lens of threat learning. Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 107, 641–655. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.10.007 ↩

  7. Finan, P. H., Goodin, B. R., & Smith, M. T. (2013). The association of sleep and pain: an update and a path forward. The journal of pain, 14(12), 1539–1552. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpain.2013.08.007 ↩

  8. Hannibal, K. E., & Bishop, M. D. (2014). Chronic stress, cortisol dysfunction, and pain: a psychoneuroendocrine rationale for stress management in pain rehabilitation. Physical therapy, 94(12), 1816–1825. https://doi.org/10.2522/ptj.20130597 ↩

  9. Jan, F., Singh, M., Syed, N. A., Wani, D., & Bashir, M. (2022). Effectiveness of Cognitive Restructuring on Intensity of Pain in Cancer Patients: A Pilot Study in Oncology Department of Tertiary Care Hospital. Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention : APJCP, 23(6), 2035–2047. https://doi.org/10.31557/APJCP.2022.23.6.2035 ↩

  10. Feldmann, M., Hein, H. J., Voderholzer, U., Doerr, R., Hoff, T., Langs, G., Herzog, P., Kaiser, T., Rief, W., Riecke, J., & Brakemeier, E. L. (2021). Cognitive Change and Relaxation as Key Mechanisms of Treatment Outcome in Chronic Pain: Evidence From Routine Care. Frontiers in psychiatry, 12, 617871. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.617871 ↩

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