The Pain Companion: Everyday Wisdom for Living With & Moving Beyond Chronic Pain

By Sarah Anne Shockley

Living with chronic pain is a very demanding path on all levels: physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual. It is relentless and unforgiving, and tests our ability to cope with extreme challenges on a daily basis. How do we live with chronic pain and not fall into depression and hopelessness? How can we take this journey with less hardship and create more ease and well-being in the midst of persistent pain?

The Pain Companion is a practical and compassionate guidebook to living with and moving beyond chronic pain based on the author’s 8 years of managing debilitating nerve pain. It contains a wealth of insights and wisdom to mitigate the impact that living with chronic pain has on well being, self-image and relationships, including 33 specific ways to alleviate pain’s emotional and mental stresses and 11 simple meditative exercises to help change the relationship with pain from enemy to ally in healing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sarah Anne Shockley
• Release date: Jan 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9780964127920

Sarah Anne Shockley

A native of Connecticut, Sarah Anne Shockley is a multiple award winning producer and director of educational films, including Dancing From the Inside Out, a highly acclaimed documentary on disabled dance. She has traveled extensively for business and pleasure. She holds an MBA in International Marketing and has worked in high-tech management, as a corporate trainer, and teaching undergraduate and graduate business administration. As the result of a work related injury in the Fall of 2007, Sarah contracted Thoracic Outlet Syndrome (TOS) and has lived with debilitating nerve pain since then. She is a regular columnist for Pain News Network, and currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her son. 

Reviews for The Pain Companion

[beckvalleybooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A guide to help you not just cope with pain but to understand it as well. The writer users her own experience and techniques to compile this book which can help others. I would like to say thank you to the author for being so honest with her own history of pain which makes the book so sincere.The chapters are broken down into sections which have excellent descriptions and steps to use in order to help alleviate the pain and at the end of each chapter a summary of the key points which can be used as reminders to move forward. The language and text is very easy to read and is simple to follow. As pain is different for each person the techniques that are described can be used by anyone.I have good days and bad days with my hips and have found myself going back to the book and reading the chapter which is relevant to me and found it has helped.Anyone who is going through a major change in their life where an illness or operation is required then this book is a must read, whether you are the patient or being affected by the patients recovery. It will help you understand both sides of pain, the patients and what effect this has on their outlook on life.