When something hurts, pain isn't the only thing that happens.
The body responds.
We may brace. Guard. Hold our breath. Reduce movement. Become more vigilant. Pull away from certain sensations or movements.
None of this is wrong.
These are intelligent protective responses.
But sometimes, the protection itself can begin to participate in the experience of pain.
There is the pain — and there is everything your body begins doing around the pain.
This is the territory I want to explore with you.
What is the body bracing from?
When pain appears, the body doesn't only register sensation. It responds.
We may brace. Guard. Hold our breath. Reduce movement. Become vigilant. Pull away from certain sensations or movements.
These are intelligent protective responses.
The problem isn't that the body protects us.
The problem begins when protection itself becomes part of the pain loop.
Sometimes the protection resolves as the pain resolves.
And sometimes the system continues to organise around protection — even after the original situation has changed.
Bracing creates more tension. Fear changes movement. Vigilance amplifies what we notice. Pain creates more protection, and protection can contribute to more pain.
This is the loop.
And it can be one of the processes that contributes to pain becoming persistent.
In this free live masterclass, we'll explore:
Why pain changes more than the place that hurts.
How bracing, guarding, vigilance and changes in movement can become part of the pain loop.
Why working only with the place that hurts may sometimes leave an important part of the picture untouched.
How previous experiences, stress and emotional protection can influence the way the body responds to pain — without reducing physical pain to “something psychological.”
And what begins to change when, instead of only asking:
“How do I get rid of this pain?”
we also begin asking:
“What is my body doing — and why?”
This won't only be a conversation about pain. I'll also guide you through an embodied exploration so you can begin noticing some of these responses in your own body.
I'll also share some of what fifteen years of living with chronic pain — and the years I've spent working with people in pain since — have taught me about protection, the body, and our capacity for change.
Pain is complex and can have many biological, structural, psychological and contextual contributors. This masterclass explores one often-overlooked part of that picture: the body's protective response to pain.
Join Breaking the Pain Loop
Thursday, September 10
18:00 Portugal / UK · 19:00 Central Europe
Live on Zoom · Free
Held By
Dana
Biechonski
Fernandes
Somatic Psychotherapist • Supervisor • Educator
Dana has worked for over fifteen years at the intersection of body, psyche, trauma and pain.
Her work is grounded in Bodynamic Analysis — the Danish school of somatic developmental psychology rooted in psychomotor research — alongside extensive training in fascia, the nervous system, developmental and shock trauma, movement and hands-on bodywork.
She has worked internationally with people living with pain syndromes, psychosomatic symptoms and complex patterns of tension and disconnection from the body, and today also supervises practitioners working somatically with others.
Her understanding of pain is personal as well as professional: Dana lived with chronic pain for fifteen years before somatic work fundamentally changed her relationship with her body and pain.
