When pain persists long after tissues have healed — or arrives without clear injury at all — the nervous system itself has usually become the amplifier. Brain circuits that process pain become sensitized, and fear, anxiety, and sleep loss turn the volume up further. None of this means the pain is "in your head." It means the head is where the dial is.
Pain psychology is one of Dr. Damian's core specialties: he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in pain psychology at San Mateo Medical Center, working inside an interdisciplinary chronic pain clinic, and built its biofeedback and neurofeedback treatment program.
Signs it may be time to reach out
- Pain lasting beyond three months, or beyond expected healing time
- A widening cycle of pain, anxiety, poor sleep, and low mood
- Fear of movement, or a shrinking life built around avoiding flare-ups
- Treatments that mask pain without changing its course
- Feeling dismissed — told nothing more can be done
How we treat chronic pain
Care combines pain-science education — understanding how sensitization works is itself therapeutic — with neurofeedback and biofeedback to retrain the nervous system's threat response, and, where it helps, talk therapy (CBT, ACT, mindfulness) with a trusted community provider to break the pain-fear-avoidance cycle. A qEEG brain map guides the training plan. We coordinate with your physicians; this work complements medical care rather than replacing it.
What to expect
Sessions are 60 minutes in Oakland or Santa Rosa. Many patients describe two turning points: first understanding, then measurable change — in pain levels, in sleep, and in how much life the pain takes up.