Clarissa James - RSW - Pain Reprocessing Therapy Practitioner

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Clarissa James - RSW - Pain Reprocessing Therapy Practitioner

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Unlocking lasting relief from chronic pain and trauma through nervous system healing

Counselling | Psychotherapy | Consultation For Mental Health Professionals

Founder - Chickadee Therapy

PRT Practitioner | EMDR Therapist | RSW Clarissa James, RSW — Founder of Chickadee Therapy

Unlocking lasting relief from chronic pain and trauma through nervous system healing

Counselling & psychotherapy for chronic pain and trauma
Consultation for mental health professionals

Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) Practitioner
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapist

1 of 8 mental health professionals in Ontario with advanced PRT training

10/16/2026

When someone has chronic pain in multiple parts of the body, it’s easy to think:

“Okay… so I have a problem with my head, my back, my stomach, my pelvis, my joints…”

At some point, it can start to feel like your body has opened a franchise of medical problems. 😂

But here’s something really important:

Multiple chronic pain conditions occurring in the same person can actually be one of the strongest clues that a sensitized nervous system is playing a major role.

Why?

Because your nervous system is the one thing all of those body parts have in common.

The nervous system can become sensitized and start responding to sensations throughout the body with an increased threat response.

So instead of:

“Something is wrong with five completely separate body systems,”

we can sometimes consider:

“Could one sensitized nervous system be contributing to symptoms across all of them?”

This doesn’t mean the symptoms aren’t real.

They absolutely are.

And it doesn’t mean every person with multiple conditions has neuroplastic pain.

But when multiple chronic symptoms appear across different body systems without a clear structural explanation for all of them, that pattern can be an important clue that the nervous system itself may be a major driver.

And this is where Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) can be so interesting.

Rather than needing to convince five different body parts to calm down individually, we can work with the nervous system that is communicating with all five.

Because sometimes the problem isn’t that your body has five completely unrelated problems.

Sometimes your nervous system has simply become REALLY good at sounding the alarm.

Like… suspiciously good. 😂🚨

The goal isn’t to fight your body.

It’s to help your brain and nervous system learn that not every sensation requires a full emergency response.

There is a lot more hope for change than you may have been led to believe. 🧠💙

www.chickadeetherapy.ca

10/14/2026

Why does pain sometimes seem to get louder at night? 🌙🧠

Because apparently your brain has decided that bedtime is an excellent time to conduct a full-body inspection. 😂

There are two big reasons this can happen:

1. Learned associations and pain-fear cycles

If you’ve experienced pain repeatedly at night, your brain can start learning:

“Nighttime = pain.”

Over time, bedtime itself can become a cue for increased monitoring and threat prediction.

You notice a sensation → you wonder what it means → you start paying closer attention → your brain detects possible danger → the nervous system increases its protective response.

And suddenly your brain is running a 2 AM meeting that nobody scheduled.

“Okay team, let’s review every sensation in the body.” 😂

The pain is real. The brain is simply doing what brains are very good at: learning patterns and making predictions.

2. There’s less distraction

During the day, your attention is pulled in a hundred different directions.

Work. Conversations. Errands. Chores. Messages. Finding your keys for the 47th time.

At night?

Crickets.

And suddenly that little sensation you barely noticed at 2 PM has become the most interesting thing happening in your entire universe. 😂

When there’s less competing for your attention, you may notice sensations more.

And if you’re already worried about what those sensations mean, that extra attention can feed into the pain-fear cycle.

So if your symptoms seem worse at night, it doesn’t necessarily mean something has suddenly become more physically wrong.

Sometimes your brain has simply learned:

“It’s nighttime. Better keep an eye on things.”

The good news?

Learned associations can change.

Through approaches like Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), we can work toward teaching the brain that sensations can be uncomfortable without automatically meaning danger.

Your brain doesn’t need to turn bedtime into a 2 AM investigative documentary. 😉🌙

www.chickadeetherapy.ca

10/12/2026

Your brain at night: “Perfect. Time to investigate every sensation.” 🕵️‍♀️🌙

A tiny ache?

Interesting.

A twitch?

Noted.

A random tingle in your leg?

Well, obviously we need to convene an emergency committee. 😂

Sometimes, the moment everything gets quiet, your brain suddenly has LOTS of time to notice what’s happening in your body.

And if you’ve experienced chronic pain, illness, injury, trauma, or prolonged stress, your nervous system may have learned to pay especially close attention to bodily sensations.

But here’s the important part:

A sensation can be uncomfortable without being dangerous.

It can be noticeable without needing to be investigated.

And it can be there without you needing to make it go away.

With Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), part of the work can involve learning to notice sensations with less fear and less urgency.

Instead of:

“Why am I feeling this? What does it mean? Is something wrong?”

We can begin moving toward:

“Oh. There’s that sensation. I can let it be here.”

That doesn’t mean ignoring your body or assuming every sensation is harmless. It means learning that you don’t have to respond to every sensation as though your brain has just discovered breaking news. 😂

For people who have experienced trauma, EMDR can also help process traumatic memories so the brain and nervous system can better distinguish between what happened then and what is happening now.

Your body is allowed to have sensations.

You don’t have to solve them.

You don’t have to fight them.

And you don’t have to make them disappear before you’re allowed to feel safe. 💙

Sometimes the most helpful response to your brain’s 2 AM investigation is simply:

“Yep. I notice it. And it’s okay for it to be here.” 🌙

www.chickadeetherapy.ca

10/09/2026

When Your Brain Won’t Clock Out at 2 AM… 🌙

Ever lie in bed at night and suddenly your brain decides now is the perfect time to review every possible problem you’ve ever had… plus several you haven’t? 😂

After trauma, illness, injury, chronic pain, or prolonged stress, the brain can become especially attentive to potential threats.

And when the distractions of the day finally quiet down, that protective thinking can become much more noticeable.

You might find yourself:

🧠 Replaying conversations
🌙 Worrying about tomorrow
🔎 Checking your body for changes or sensations
💭 Running through every possible “what if?”
📋 Making contingency plans for situations that may never happen

This doesn’t mean your brain is broken, or that you’re “just an anxious person.”

Your brain is doing something it was designed to do: learn from experience and try to keep you safe.

The encouraging part? A brain that has learned to stay on high alert can also learn that it doesn’t need to remain there forever.

With approaches such as Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) and EMDR, therapy can help address different pieces of this process.

PRT can help people develop a new understanding of chronic pain and learn to respond differently to sensations that have become associated with danger.

EMDR can help process traumatic experiences so they can become more integrated as memories from the past, rather than experiences the brain and nervous system continue to respond to as though the danger is still happening.

Sometimes the goal isn’t to convince your brain that nothing bad could ever happen.

It’s helping your brain learn:

“I can handle uncertainty. I don’t have to solve everything tonight.” 💙

And perhaps most importantly…

You are allowed to go to sleep without completing the 47-item risk assessment your brain created at 2:03 AM. 😂🌙

www.chickadeetherapy.ca

10/07/2026

Yes—potentially. But sometimes the answer is “not quite yet.” And that distinction matters.

If someone is still in the stage of recovery where their brain needs significant rest and their doctor has advised them to limit stimulation and activity, we wouldn't want to jump into EMDR processing right away.

First comes letting that brain heal. 🧠💤

Once someone has recovered enough and their healthcare provider has cleared them for this type of activity, EMDR can potentially be adapted to make it more comfortable and manageable.

And here's another important adaptation:

We don't necessarily need to use visual bilateral stimulation.

Following a therapist's fingers, a moving ball, or flashing lights can be more visually demanding—and for someone recovering from a concussion, that may not be the best fit.

Instead, we can use things like:
👉 tactile bilateral stimulation (such as alternating tappers/buzzers)
👉 auditory bilateral stimulation
👉 other appropriately adapted forms of bilateral stimulation

Basically, EMDR doesn't come with a mandatory “stare at the moving thing until your eyeballs file a complaint” requirement. 😂

The goal is to adapt the approach to the person's brain and current capacity—not push through symptoms.

🧠 Recovery first. Adaptation second. Processing when the brain is ready.

10/05/2026

If you've ever had a doctor say, "Well... your tests look normal," you may have left the appointment thinking...

"Great... so apparently I've hallucinated this back pain for the last five years." 🙃

Let's clear something up.

Normal scans do not mean your pain isn't real.

In fact, lots of people have pain with relatively unremarkable scans, while others have scans that look like a horror movie... and feel completely fine.

(Our bodies clearly didn't get the memo that MRI findings are supposed to predict pain. 😅)

Pain is the brain's protective output.

Usually it's responding to tissue injury.

Sometimes it's responding to an overprotective nervous system.

Either way...

The pain is real.

Your brain isn't trying to trick you.

It's trying to protect you.

And the really hopeful news?

Just as the brain can learn pain, it can also learn safety.

Healing isn't about proving your pain exists.

It already does.

Healing is about helping your nervous system realize it doesn't have to keep sounding the alarm.

💙 www.chickadeetherapy.ca

10/02/2026

Your brain is designed to protect you.

When something overwhelming or threatening happens, your brain does an incredible job of helping you survive.

But sometimes, after trauma, the brain can continue acting like the danger is still happening.

It may keep scanning:

👀 "Am I safe?"

⚠️ "Is something wrong?"

🚨 "Do I need to prepare?"

This threat detection system can be incredibly protective—but when it stays activated long after the danger has passed, it can contribute to ongoing nervous system activation, distress, and for some people, persistent pain.

This is where trauma therapy and pain-focused approaches can work beautifully together.

✨ EMDR can help the brain process traumatic experiences so they feel less emotionally charged and less like an ongoing threat.

✨ Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) can help the brain update its predictions about pain and sensations, creating new experiences of safety.

Together, these approaches can support the nervous system in learning:

💙 "That was then. This is now."

💙 "I can experience sensations without assuming danger."

💙 "My body does not need to stay on high alert forever."

Healing isn't about pretending nothing happened.

It's about helping the brain and body recognize when protection is no longer needed in the same way.

And sometimes, the path toward pain recovery involves helping the nervous system feel safer—both with the memories it carries and the sensations it experiences.

💙 www.chickadeetherapy.ca

09/30/2026

What if you have aphantasia and you can’t actually see mental images?

Can you still do EMDR?

Absolutely! 🙌

EMDR doesn't require you to visualize the traumatic memory like you're watching a movie in your head.

For someone with aphantasia, we can adapt EMDR to work with the parts of the memory they can access.

That might include:
🧠 Thoughts
💓 Emotions
🫀 Body sensations
👂 Sounds or auditory memories
…and other sensory or emotional aspects of the memory.

Because trauma memories aren't necessarily stored as one big, perfectly organized video file. 😂

Your brain might remember:
“What I thought.”
“What I felt.”
“What I heard.”
“What happened in my body.”

…without giving you a nice little mental slideshow of the event.

And that's okay.

EMDR can be adapted to the way your brain actually experiences and accesses the memory rather than requiring you to visualize something that your brain simply doesn't visualize.

So if your brain says, “Mental pictures? Sorry, we're fresh out.” 😂

That doesn't mean EMDR is off the table.

✨ Sometimes therapy isn't about making the person fit the treatment.
It's about adapting the treatment to fit the person.

09/28/2026

Trauma and chronic pain are deeply connected—but not because pain is "all in your head."

Pain is real.

The symptoms are real.

The suffering is real.

What we are learning is that the nervous system plays an important role in how pain is experienced, maintained, and recovered from.

When someone experiences trauma or prolonged stress, the nervous system may become highly skilled at detecting danger.

That skill can be protective.

It helps us survive.

But when the nervous system remains stuck in protection mode, it may continue sending strong danger signals even after the original threat has passed.

This can contribute to changes in:
✨ Pain sensitivity
✨ Stress responses
✨ Muscle tension
✨ Sleep
✨ Emotional regulation
✨ The way the brain predicts and interprets sensations

This does not mean someone is imagining their pain.

It means the brain and body are connected—and the nervous system is always trying to protect us.

Healing is not about blaming yourself.

It is about helping your nervous system learn:

💙 "I can be safe now."

💙 "My body does not have to stay on high alert."

💙 "Change is possible."

The same nervous system that learned protection can also learn recovery.

💙 www.chickadeetherapy.ca

09/25/2026

Have you ever been told to...

✨ "Just calm your nervous system."

✨ "Practice deep breathing."

✨ "Stay in the present moment."

Sometimes those suggestions are genuinely helpful.

And sometimes...

Your nervous system isn't overreacting.

It's reacting to a life that actually feels unsafe.

If you're living with ongoing stress—an abusive relationship, financial hardship, discrimination, caregiving, housing insecurity, chronic illness, or another situation that doesn't simply "go away"—your nervous system isn't confused.

It's adapting.

Our brains are incredibly good at helping us survive difficult circumstances. The challenge is that when stress becomes chronic, our nervous system may have fewer opportunities to fully settle and recover.

That's why healing isn't about convincing yourself that everything is okay when it isn't.

It's about helping your nervous system find pockets of safety within the reality you're living.

Maybe that's one trusted relationship.

Maybe it's your therapist's office.

Maybe it's sitting with your dog, watching the sunset, laughing with a friend, or wrapping up in your favourite blanket with a cup of tea.

No, those moments don't erase what's hard.

(If only a weighted blanket could also pay the bills... 😅)

But they do remind your nervous system that safety still exists.

Those small moments matter.

They help build capacity, making it a little easier to cope while you work toward changing what can be changed.

Healing isn't about pretending your life is easy.

It's about honouring what's hard while helping your nervous system discover that even in the middle of struggle, moments of safety, connection, and regulation are still possible.

💙 www.chickadeetherapy.ca

Address

Paris, ON

Website

https://cobblestonemedicineandrehab.janeapp.com/locations/cobblestone-medicine-and-rehab-paris-hub/book?fbclid=PAb21jcAM

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