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Here's What Reviewers Are Saying!

As a licensed mental health counselor, I found Debra Burdick’s The Psychotherapy Toolbox for Chronic Illness and Chronic Pain to be an invaluable, comprehensive guide for clinicians supporting clients living with long-term medical conditions. The book’s integration of CBT, ACT, mindfulness, and pain reprocessing therapy offers both depth and practicality. I can immediately use the worksheets and assessments, in session. Burdick’s approach is compassionate, organized, and deeply grounded in evidence-based care. This resource belongs on every therapist’s shelf who works with clients navigating the emotional and physical challenges of chronic illness or chronic pain. Amanda Willse, LMHC

The Psychotherapy Toolbox for Chronic Illness and Chronic Pain is a must-have for every clinician. The impacts of chronic pain and chronic illness affect more of our clients than we often realize, regardless of our specialty. Debra Burdick provides a wealth of practical, evidence-based skills and provides examples, reflection prompts, and handouts that translate easily into clinical practice. This book provides the tools to empower both therapist and client toward greater resilience and well-being - it's a resource I will return to again and again in my work.

— Taylor M. Ham, LMFT, author of The Health Anxiety Workbook: Practical Exercises to Overcome Your Health Worries

The Psychotherapy Toolbox for Chronic Illness & Chronic Pain is an essential and must have resource for clinicians that effectively addresses the gap in practical, multifaceted strategies for the complex psychological challenges associated with chronic illness and pain. Its brilliance is showcased in the 77 skills that readily combine several approaches such as ACT, CBT, DBT, MI, and Pain Reprocessing Therapy into this user-friendly toolkit. I strongly recommend Debra Burdick’s latest publication; it is truly an essential edition to the clinician’s toolbox.

Bharati Shah Chakraborty, Ed.D., Adjunct Professor and Behavioral Health Clinician.

As a trauma therapist, I appreciate how The Psychotherapy Toolbox for Chronic Illness and Chronic Pain goes beyond symptom management to address the full humanity and experience of both client and clinician. The author brings empathy, clarity, and structure to an often-overlooked area of mental health care. It’s the kind of resource you’ll return to again and again for practical interventions and grounded inspiration. Julia Israelski, LCSW, PMH-C

The Psychotherapy Toolbox for Chronic illness and Chronic Pain is a wonderful resource for therapists treating people with chronic illness of any type. It is practical, comprehensive and very clearly written, addressing the needs of clients and practitioners together. Debra Burdick provides us with a step-by-step guide to helping clients build their own mind-body skills, while demonstrating the importance of those skills in the healing process. Leo Galland, M.D., author of The Allergy Solution. 

As a physician, my focus is on performing procedures and other treatments for the patient’s physical malady. Helpful or not, these actions do not address the patient’s response to their disease or how they manage it. Debra Burdick’s book, The Psychotherapy Toolbox for Chronic Illness and Chronic Pain, helps fill this void by providing clinicians with an excellent scaffolding, appropriate examples, and helpful tools to assist people with management of their condition as well as their responses to their situation.  I highly recommend this book to all professionals that care for people with chronic disease states.  Paul E Beebe, MD. Interventional Pain Management

The Psychotherapy Toolbox for Chronic Pain and Chronic Illness is a fantastic resource. It is well-organized and comprehensive and at the same time, clear and practical. It is chock full of excellent information and skills that will help loads of people who suffer from chronic pain and illness. Howard Schubiner, MD, author of Unlearn Your Pain; Clinical Professor Michigan State University College of Human Medicine

Here's what is in the book!

The Psychotherapy Toolbox for Chronic Illness and Chronic Pain

Table of Contents

Introduction    

Section 1: Therapeutic Issues Specific to Working with Clients with Chronic Medical Illness or Chronic Pain       

Skill 1.1 Compassion Fatigue and Burnout    

Skill 1.2 Assessment   

Skill 1.3 Defining Treatment Goals    

Skill 1.4 Tracking Progress    

Skill 1.5 Client Self-Advocacy           

Skill 1.6 The Interplay Between Mental and Physical Illness            

Skill 1.7 When Clients Are Too Ill to Attend Sessions          

Skill 1.8 Addressing Bias: Gender, Sexual Orientation, Race, Age   

Skill 1.9 Choosing Medical Treatment Options          

Skill 1.10 Mindfully Compassionate Language          

Section 2: Mental Health Skills          

Skill 2.1 Set Intentions That Reflect Goals    

Skill 2.2 De-Stress      

Skill 2.3 Change the Channel 

Skill 2.4 Dealing with Loss     

Skill 2.5 Identify and Motivate Change         

Skill 2.6 Reframing Thoughts 

Skill 2.7 Mindfulness of Emotions     

Skill 2.8 Accepting What Is    

Skill 2.9 Release the Past        

Skill 2.10 Secondary Gain      

Skill 2.11 Relationships          

Skill 2.12 Mindset and Imagining Wellness   

Skill 2.13 Let Thoughts Go By on a Lazy River       

Skill 2.14 Staying Calm During Medical Tests and Procedures        

Skill 2.15 Laugh         

Section 3: Behavioral Health Skills

Skill 3.1 Working with the Medical Community       

Skill 3.2 Get an Accurate Diagnosis  

Skill 3.3 Create a Healing Team        

Skill 3.4 Manage Fatigue       

Skill 3.5 Set Mindful Limits  

Skill 3.6 Eat to Support Health          

Skill 3.7 Sleep Hygiene          

Skill 3.8 Keep Moving           

Skill 3.9 Remembered Wellness        

Skill 3.10 Progressive Muscle Relaxation      

Skill 3.11 Body Scan 

Skill 3.12 Relaxation Response         

Skill 3.13 Replace Self-Sabotaging Behaviors          

Skill 3.14 Ask for Help          

Skill 3.15 Social Support       

Section 4: Chronic Pain Skills

Skill 4.1 Assess Pain Type     

Section 4.A Pain Management for Nociceptive or Neuropathic Pain           

Skill 4.A.1 Awareness of Pain Without Judgment    

Skill 4.A.2 Distraction           

Skill 4.A.3 Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Pain Management     

Skill 4.A.4 Mindfulness for Pain Management         

Skill 4.A.5 ACT for Managing Pain  

Skill 4.A.6 Neurofeedback for Chronic Pain 

Section 4.B Pain Management for Nociplastic Pain  

Skill 4.B.1 Understand and Rewire Nociplastic Pain

Skill 4.B.2 Increase Tolerance for Pain Symptoms    

Skill 4.B.3 Change Your Relationship with Pain      

Skill 4.B.4 Turn Down Pain-Related Fear     

Skill 4.B.5 Pain Reprocessing Therapy          

Section 5: Mind-Body-Spirit Skills   

Skill 5.1 Identify Values        

Skill 5.2 Identify Health Beliefs        

Skill 5.3 My Reasons 

Skill 5.4 Be of Service           

Skill 5.5 Healing Images        

Skill 5.6 Healing Meditation  

Skill 5.7 Intuition       

Skill 5.8 Connect to Nature   

Skill 5.9 Tapping into Religious or Spiritual Beliefs  

Skill 5.10 Tapping into Spiritual Energy        

Skill 5.11 Preparing to Die     

Section 6: Positive Affirmations        

Affirmation Overview           

Affirmation 6.1 I Am Getting Well   

Affirmation 6.2 That Feels Better     

Affirmation 6.3 I Do What I Need To          

Affirmation 6.4 I Can Feel Better     

Affirmation 6.5 I Am Thankful         

Affirmation 6.6 All Is Well   

Affirmation 6.7 It’s Going to Be Alright      

Affirmation 6.8 I Feel Happy

Affirmation 6.9 I Am Kind to Myself           

Affirmation 6.10 Things I Say to Myself      

Affirmation 6.11 I Am Safe  

Affirmation 6.12 I Love Myself        

Affirmation 6.13 My “Why” 

Affirmation 6.14 Rewire Nociplastic Pain    

References     

Acknowledgments     

About the Author