Back in Control with David Hanscom, MD

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with pain psychologist Les Aria about treating chronic pain. He shares his approach to treating patients based on the Polyvagal Theory. He explains that pain is the body’s neurophysiologic response to feeling unsafe. He discusses how he works with patients to get them to calm down the nervous system and commit to a daily program of dealin...

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with pain psychologist Les Aria about the neurophysiologic nature of pain as the brain’s response to perceived danger in the environment. This results in an increase in stress chemicals in the body causing anxiety and suffering. He shares the story of his own struggle with chronic pain, as well as patient stories that illustrate how his approach to treating...

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with Dr. Jeff Lazarus about medical hypnosis. Dr. Lazarus explains why chronic pain is the condition it is most effective for treating. He talks about how it can help patients focus on an outcome they want, amplify that desire in the mind,  and allow them to self-regulate to feel better and achieve their desired outcome. He details the sp...

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Dr. Jeff Lazarus about medical hypnosis and how he uses it to successfully treat a wide variety of conditions from headaches and irritable bowel syndrome, to Tourette's syndrome and chronic pain. He explains what medical hypnosis is, and the technique he uses with patients to help them train their minds so they can get better. He shares several moving...

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with performance coach David Elaimy. In 2016, he worked as a performance consultant with the University of Washington Women’s Golf Team. He discusses how he worked with the team members to apply his performance principles to achieve their goal of winning a national championship. He shares the team’s ups and downs on their journey to winni...

TIn this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with David Elaimy, a performance consultant who specializes in training the minds of high level performers in athletics, business and surgery. He explains the three key principles he uses with his clients to help them achieve maximum performance, and discusses how you  can use them to improve your life. David Elaimy specializes in training the minds of hig...

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion with Dr. John Stracks, about how he applies his integrative, mind body approach to treating chronic pain, both in an individual and group setting. He explains that the key first step in the healing process is getting patients to understand what pain is, and that it can have a non-physical dimension. Once they see how stress impacts their...

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Dr. John Stracks, a family practitioner and an early pioneer in the use of mind body methods for treating chronic pain. He discusses his early struggle with chronic pain and how his work with Dr. John Sarno led him to a new approach to treating patients that takes into account the non-physical dimension of pain. He shares some patient success stories t...

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his discussion about consciousness and health with Bruce Lipton, a stem cell biologist and author of the best-selling book, The Biology of Belief. He discusses how quantum physics underlies our consciousness and ultimately our health. He explains how stress hormones can interfere with the immune system, and how we can use different learning modalities t...

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Bruce Lipton, a stem cell biologist and author of the best-selling book, The Biology of Belief. He discusses the science behind how our consciousness impacts our health. He explains how stress hormones can shut down the immune system, and examines the role that the neurochemistry of the blood and epigenetics play in regulating our health and behavior....

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom continues his conversation with Dr. Rozina Lakhani, a psychiatrist who specializes in the treatment of stress and is the author of the book, Stress to Joy: Your Toolkit to Restore Peace of Mind in Minutes. She discusses the 7 most common sources of workplace stress and provides 5 questions you can ask yourself to determine whether and to what degree you are suffe...

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Dr. Rozina Lakhani, a psychiatrist who specializing in the treatment of stress and is the author of the book, Stress to Joy: Your Toolkit to Restore Peace of Mind in Minutes. She discusses her 3-step approach to coping with stress. She explains the concepts of "circle of concern", "circle of influence" and the "emotional coping account" which are centr...

Dr. David Hanscom talks with John Gribbin, CEO and a founder of Curable Health - a company which offers educational software programs to help manage chronic pain. He discusses the principles of a more holistic approach to chronic pain treatment that were used in creating the software. He also shares statistics that illustrate how the software works to heal chronic pain over time. For more informat...

Dr. David Hanscom talks with John Gribbin, CEO and a founder of Curable Health - a company which offers educational software programs to help manage chronic pain. He shares his own journey through many years of chronic pain and the insights about overcoming his pain that led him to found the company. For more information, visit: https://curablehealth.com John Gribbin is a founder and the CEO of Cu...

In their second interview, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Emerald GreenForest about the process of personal transformation she discovered during her own period of emotional and spiritual healing from a personal crisis, and now shares with others to help them heal. She details the individual stages of clarity, courage, coaching, creation, checking-in, choosing and celebration. To learn more, visit he...

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Emerald GreenForest who shares her own spiritual and emotional healing journey from personal crisis, and how it led her to discover a powerful process of transformative change. For more information, visit: http://www.emeraldgreenforest.com/gift. Emerald Peaceful GreenForest is an internationally known Speaker, Transformation Artist, Executive Producer...

Dr. David Hanscom talks with Rene Beth Poindexter – an expert in designing collaborative learning environments for social transformation - about the work she is doing and its application in the areas of holistic health and healing. To learn more, visit her websites at: https://www.reneebethpoindexter.com and https://www.livingthepotential.com. Renee Beth Poindexter is the founder of Living the Pot...

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Joel Konikow, MD, a family practitioner who specializes in treating pain. Dr. Konikow discusses the specific techniques he employs in the treatment of chronic pain that have resulted in successful outcomes for his patients. These include: listening to the patient, expressive writing, and motivational interviews. He believes that pain has meaning for th...

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Joel Konikow, MD, a family practitioner who specializes in treating pain. Dr. Konikow discusses how his understanding and treatment of pain evolved over time and how the DOC principles changed his practice. He shares the remarkable success he and Dr. Hanscom experienced when they partnered to treat chronic pain patients using this approach. Dr. Joel Ko...

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Kendra Bloom, LMCH, a somatic psychotherapist who specializes in trauma. She discusses how she uses the DOC principles in her practice to help patients heal their pain. She works with patients to separate the pain patterns they experience from who they are and gives them specific ways to use their body to help in the healing process. She shares some re...

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Kendra Bloom, LMCH, a somatic psychotherapist who specializes in trauma and uses the DOC principles in her practice. Her early practice focused on how emotional, psychological and physical issues interact during treatment. She explains how the DOC framework has changed the way she practices and now incorporates its phases of transformation during thera...

In this episode, Dr. David Schechter, a pioneer in the practice of Mind Body Medicine, interviews Dr. David Hanscom about the ideas in his new book, Do You Really Need Spine Surgery. Together, they examine the circumstances that often lead patients to undergo unnecessary spine surgery. Dr. Hanscom discusses how the book evolved and provides a detailed explanation of the spine surgery grid tool whi...

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Dr. David Schechter, a physician focused on Family Medicine and Sports Medicine, and a pioneer in the practice of Mind Body Medicine.  He was first exposed to Mind Body Medicine as a patient of Dr. John Sarno. He shares the approach he uses with patients suffering from chronic pain and explains how emotions can create a “circuit of pain.” He also discu...

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks further with Deborah Mellen about her journey through a dark and painful period after suffering a car accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down and the death of her husband two years later from a heart attack. Her father, a Holocaust survivor, counseled her to keep moving forward and never ask “why?” as a way to get through her struggle. During h...

In this episode, Dr. David Hanscom talks with Deborah Mellen. In 1989 Deborah’s life changed in an instant when she was paralyzed from the waist down in a car accident in Italy. Then, two years later her husband died from a heart attack. It was after her injury when she moved to Miami for her rehabilitation that she fell in love with sailing through the organization, Shake-A-Leg, a nonprofit adapt...