Archives of Posts

DOC beginning The DOC (Direct your Own Care) program evolved after I discovered that, through a systematic approach that addressed all aspects of a chronic mental or physical problem, I could almost always help patients become more functional. What surprised ... Read More

It has become increasingly apparent to me that chronic pain is a family issue. Your deepest human interactions happen at home and members trigger each other. These powerful reactions have severe consequences. Partners and parents often end up acting in ... Read More

Objectives: Life is full of loss and unfulfilled wishes. Sehnsucht is intense regret. Stress of a deep loss can trigger chronic pain, and there is nothing you can do. Remaining attached to your trauma prolongs the pain. Live your life ... Read More

Pain = Frustration. In the presence of unrelenting pain this frustration can be intense. Anger is a survival reaction and it is only about your needs. You become disconnected from subtle cues in your immediate surroundings and your awareness goes to ... Read More

Overview Our conscious brain interprets our internal bodily sensations. Since we are geared to survive, most of our time is spent in survival physiology. In this state, blood flow shifts away from our highest thinking brain, and we react more ... Read More

Pain, The Gift That Nobody Wants is a book written by an orthopedic hand surgeon, Paul Brand. Through his work in India with lepers he discovered that the reason why they had such severe hand, facial, and foot deformities was ... Read More

Florence, Italy My wife lived in Florence, Italy from 1983 to 1990.  She is fluent in Italian and some of her best friends live in Italy.  We go back every year to spend time with our friends and enjoy the ... Read More

I am excited about my recent insights that have emerged from writing my new book on RUTs. It will be released in June 2026. The title is Calm Your Body Heal Your Mind: Transcend Pain, Anxiety, Anger, and Repetitive Unwanted Thoughts. I ... Read More

Surgeries being performed for axial neck, thoracic, and low back pain on normally aging spines was a major reason I quit my spinal surgery practice in 2019. Not only was the success rate low, patients were often much worse after ... Read More

Do You Really Need Spine Surgery? Take Control with Advice from a Surgeon considers all factors affecting your perception of pain and organizes them into a treatment grid that allows you to make a good decision regarding having spine surgery ... Read More

My mission falls into two broad categories. Connect mainstream medicine with existing science – most symptoms, illness and disease  are created by the body’s physiology (how it functions), and not structures. Establish the necessity of a trusting dynamic relationship with ... Read More

Objectives Processing anger is more doable if it is broken down into its components. Anger is a powerful, necessary, and hard wired survival reflex. You cannot tame it with the conscious brain. It is an acquired skill that requires ongoing ... Read More

A new, data-based dynamic approach is needed for medicine to successfully deal with our epidemic of chronic disease. It must acknowledge the interaction between circumstances and your body’s capacity to process them, which determines the makeup of your body’s neurochemistry ... Read More

The COVID-19 virus is a member of the Corona virus family that usually just causes the common cold. The problem is that we now have a strain that is potentially fatal. However, there are some strong hints of how to ... Read More

The burden of chronic disease is crushing us while we have the answers right in front of us. A recent summary reported that the total cost of chronic disease in the US is 3.7 trillion dollars a year, which is ... Read More

The DOC (Direct your Own Care) Journey is a collection of resources that reflect the ones many people have used to escape from the grip of chronic mental and physical pain, It includes: A guided course of seven legs and ... Read More

This powerful collage captures the complete arc of Rachel’s remarkable comeback story—from the hospital bed where her young daughter, Julia, kept vigil after the devastating fall, through her creative healing journey of painting horses while confined to a body brace, ... Read More

This is a river rock that I painted with the ocean scene to express “The healing journey is not linear!” There are highs and lows like the waves and the tides, progress and struggle but it’s all part of the ... Read More

Poem by Susan Angelis Photo by Susan Angelis October 29, 2023 The Walk Home The walk home from Sunday church. Walking the same path. Slightly different views each Sunday. Observing, appreciating the wondrous creations of nature. Looking beyond the iron ... Read More

This is a piece sent to me through the expressive arts gallery. My arms reach upward as the mind and hair are disintegrating, reaching through burning into the light. Grounded in the earth, I dance. My heart lifts up, surrendering ... Read More

Julie Graber, 2017: July 2016, a Mal de Debarquement. Rocking, Bobbing, Swaying … 24×7 … circling in a counter-clockwise direction. Painted in the middle of one night when something under my rib cage felt like it was trying to flip ... Read More

Julie Graber, 2016: a chronic neurological disorder after 8-day river cruise Prague to Budapest, Mal de Debarquement Syndrome (MdDS), for which “there is no cure”; rocking, bobbing, swaying like on a paddle board in the middle of Lake Michigan on ... Read More

A deep and overwhelming feeling of helplessness became anger (which usually comes out to somehow rescue me..)..So that’s what I tried to express in this painting. My commentary This is an interesting piece in that anger does rescue us from ... Read More

Painted in 1971 by Gabrielle Schang and Babs Yohai. Dancing through the ring of fire. Dancing through the ring of fire. Related posts: “The Cup Song” Spastic Bladder Resolved – Being with Anger Six Feet Apart Navigating the Entire Circle ... Read More

Pain, The Gift That Nobody Wants is a book written by an orthopedic hand surgeon, Paul Brand. Through his work in India with lepers he discovered that the reason why they had such severe hand, facial, and foot deformities was ... Read More

Rachel is a therapist, specializing in trauma. She reached out to me a couple of years ago to learn more about integrating healing concepts into her journey. She was developing her version, using her experience with horses as the foundation ... Read More

About three years ago, my staff noticed that our surgical patients who participated in The DOC Journey principles were doing much better. The outcomes were more consistent, and we were seeing fewer failures. The postoperative pain was more easily controlled ... Read More

I am sharing an email I recently received from someone I have gotten to know over about a year. I wasn’t aware of her whole story. She illustrates several aspects of self-induced deep healing. The healing process is self-directed. This ... Read More

I first met Mark at our 2017 three-day “Rewiring Your Brain” workshop at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY. He had flown in from the Netherlands. His main problem was chronic low back pain that he had experienced for over ... Read More

Dear Dr Hanscom, Having read (devoured actually) The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, I can now share with others the benefits I received through reading this book. The author demystified that very mysterious quality of world-class excellence. He teaches that ... Read More

I am sharing these letters from a former patient to explain why I continue to work to help people escape from pain. As a complex spine surgeon, much of my practice involved treating patients deeply in The Abyss who had ... Read More

I had a rough start living in a chaotic household with an angry mother who suffered from chronic pain. I did not figure out for 50 years that the migraine headache I suffered at age five would be the beginning ... Read More