656: The connection between pain & the brain | Rachel Zoffness, Ph.D.

“Anatomy and physiology always matter when it comes to pain. They're just not the whole story,” says Rachel Zoffness, Ph.D. Zoffness is a pain scientist, pain psychologist, and thought-leader revolutionizing the way we understand and treat pain. She's an assistant clinical professor at UCSF, lectures at Stanford, and consults on the development of pain management programs around the world. Dr. Zoffness’s new book, Tell Me Where It Hurts, is out now, and in the process of being translated into over 25 languages. 00:00 - Everything we know about pain is wrong 05:48 - Pain is biopsychosocial 09:45 - Building your personal pain recipe 15:00 - Emotions can turn pain volume up & down 18:14 - Your thoughts affect your physiology 25:29 - How cancer cured a kidney stone 31:51 - Optimism & letting go of outcomes 37:47 - What the placebo effect really is 39:45 - A daily protocol for pain resilience 44:35 - Why friends are medicine 48:05 - When words make pain worse 51:00 - Rachel's own pain story Referenced in the episode:  For more about Zoffness, visit her website: https://www.zoffness.com/  Buy her book here: https://a.co/03dKuChz  We hope you enjoy this episode, and feel free to watch the full video on YouTube! Whether it's an article or podcast, we want to know what we can do to help here at mindbodygreen. Let us know at: podcast@mindbodygreen.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices