Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) in NYC: A New Approach to Chronic Pain
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
What PRT is, why it's changing how we treat chronic pain, and how I combine it with acupuncture at AB Acupuncture on the Upper West Side.
If you've had chronic pain for months or years — pain that doesn't respond to physical therapy, medication, injections, or even surgery — there's a good chance the pain isn't just in your tissues anymore. It's in the way your brain is processing signals from your body. That's not "in your head." It's a real, measurable, well-documented neurological pattern. And it's what Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) treats.
I'm certified in PRT through the Pain Reprocessing Therapy Center and use it alongside acupuncture in my Upper West Side practice. For the right patients, it's the missing piece.
What is Pain Reprocessing Therapy?
PRT is an evidence-based approach to chronic pain developed by Alan Gordon and studied at the University of Colorado's medical school. The core insight is neurological: after weeks or months of pain, the brain can become sensitized. Neural pathways that once responded to real tissue damage keep firing even after the tissue has healed. The pain is real, but it's being generated and amplified by the brain rather than by ongoing damage.
The good news: what the brain learned, the brain can unlearn. PRT uses specific techniques — safety reappraisal, somatic tracking, and shifting the fear-pain-fear cycle — to teach the brain that the pain signals are false alarms. Over a few weeks or months, the pain often reduces significantly or resolves entirely.
The University of Colorado's 2021 randomized trial showed that 66% of patients with chronic back pain who did PRT were pain-free or nearly pain-free at the end of treatment, with results maintained a year later. That's a stunning outcome for a condition that most treatments barely touch.
Who is PRT for?
PRT works best for what researchers call "neuroplastic pain" — pain that has no clear ongoing structural cause, or pain that persists after a structural cause has healed. This includes:
Chronic back and neck pain
Fibromyalgia
Chronic migraines
IBS and chronic gut pain
TMJ pain
Chronic pelvic pain
Post-injury pain that outlasts the injury
Symptoms that move or change locations
Symptoms that get worse with stress and better on vacation
PRT is not the right first step for acute injury, cancer pain, or pain with a clear ongoing structural cause. Your first visit is where we figure out whether PRT is the right fit for what you're working on.
Why combine PRT with acupuncture?
Acupuncture and PRT both work through neuroplasticity — the brain's ability to rewire itself. Acupuncture calms the nervous system, quiets pain signals at the neurological level, and creates the physiological safety that makes PRT work faster. PRT builds on that by teaching your brain to interpret those signals differently going forward.
In my experience, combining them produces faster and more durable results than either alone — especially for patients who have been in pain for years.
What to expect
Full PRT is a conversation-based practice, not needle-based. Sessions with me include education about how your nervous system generates pain, I explain exercises like somatic tracking, and work on the fear-pain loop that keeps chronic pain locked in place. I have recommended reading such as Alan Gordon's The Way Out. And I also partner and refer to some amazing somatic talk therapists who can work with you further if need be.
Ready to book?
AB Acupuncture is on the Upper West Side at 118 West 72nd Street. If you've tried everything for chronic pain and nothing has worked, PRT may be what you've been missing.
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