The Solution Behind the Symptoms
Oct 6, 2026 · 46 min · 11 segments
In this episode, Dr. Mark Lumley explores the emotional roots of chronic pain and how emotional awareness and expression therapy can help resolve underlying conflicts. He treats a real patient with…
John GasienicaHostSo she's telling a story of when she was raised in Croatia as an eight-year-old girl.
The teacher completely unjustly slapped her in front of the class, right? And she has obviously a response, and, uh, she's upset, she's embarrassed, she's hurt, and she's been thinking about it to this day.
And so as I meet with her 10 or 15 minutes into our first session, she seems to want to tell some story, and so this is the story that pops out.
I'm hearing sort of a sense of surprise and, "Well, how could this be?" And then there's another thing that comes in and she, then she starts to get upset physically.
And it was really quite telling that she says, "Oh, my stomach is starting to go.
I feel like I might need to throw up." Sort of classic with people with irritable bowel syndrome.
This sort of intestinal activity gets going is when they get emotionally activated.
But it told me this was a very important emotional experience, and I wanted to see what she was doing with the emotions.
I, I maybe shouldn't have done this, but I paused her briefly to sort of go a little more cognitive and talk about her experience and ask her some questions.
I could have just shut up and let her move on to the pro- part where she tells me that she was relieved that the teacher died, but I asked a few questions to try to provide her some structure, including leader, leading her down and wondering about whether she was angry.
So I inquired about it, and she shared that little piece, which is really telling.
She said that, "I, I, you know, heard that the teacher died, and I was happy about that, and that's so sad for me." That phrase, I forget the first part, when she was relieved or sort of happy about the news of the teacher's passing, followed immediately by, "That's so sad for me.
So she's telling a story of when she was raised in Croatia as an eight-year-old girl.
The teacher completely unjustly slapped her in front of the class, right? And she has obviously a response, and, uh, she's upset, she's embarrassed, she's hurt, and she's been thinking about it to this day.
And so as I meet with her 10 or 15 minutes into our first session, she seems to want to tell some story, and so this is the story that pops out.
I'm hearing sort of a sense of surprise and, "Well, how could this be?" And then there's another thing that comes in and she, then she starts to get upset physically.
And it was really quite telling that she says, "Oh, my stomach is starting to go.
I feel like I might need to throw up." Sort of classic with people with irritable bowel syndrome.
This sort of intestinal activity gets going is when they get emotionally activated.
But it told me this was a very important emotional experience, and I wanted to see what she was doing with the emotions.
I, I maybe shouldn't have done this, but I paused her briefly to sort of go a little more cognitive and talk about her experience and ask her some questions.
I could have just shut up and let her move on to the pro- part where she tells me that she was relieved that the teacher died, but I asked a few questions to try to provide her some structure, including leader, leading her down and wondering about whether she was angry.
So I inquired about it, and she shared that little piece, which is really telling.
She said that, "I, I, you know, heard that the teacher died, and I was happy about that, and that's so sad for me." That phrase, I forget the first part, when she was relieved or sort of happy about the news of the teacher's passing, followed immediately by, "That's so sad for me.
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