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 lost hope of escape. What drives me is not just that patients heal, but that it happens to a breathtaking degree. People thrive and continue on their paths. Your body knows how to heal.
Letter #1
I received this first letter many years ago, and don’t recall any details.
Hi Dr. Hanscom. I just wanted to thank you for your book and your work in the field of chronic pain. I was a back pain sufferer for over 20 years and miraculously healed from that condition, in no small part because of your work. Your book was pivotal in my journey, and I’m so thankful that you were brave and persistent enough to write it. What a great service to others! I just wanted you to know that you have helped me regain a life that I only dreamed about for so very long, and I’m sure you have done the same for countless others.
God bless you, my friend
Letter #2
I received this letter this week. She describes her journey out of pain. I am continually amazed every time I witness it, and feel privileged to be able to pass on these healing concepts. What I am also excited about is her sharing her issues with OCD. OCD is considered an entity to be managed and rarely solvable.
Repetitive Unpleasant Thoughts (RUTs) were the worst aspect of my 15-year ordeal. I was battered by extreme intrusive thoughts every few minutes towards the end. I also escaped and have learned to help others out of this miserable situation.
My new book on RUTs will be published later this year. There is a lot of data supporting the way out, and what the medical profession has overlooked is that threat physiology is the driving force. It is solvable by separating from your thoughts, calming down the nervous system, softening your ego, and stimulating neuroplasticity.
People who engage in The DOC Journey course often have fewer RUTs and less anxiety. I am committed to streamlining the process.
Hi Dr. Hanscom, I have been meaning to reach back out to you for years to thank you for how you’ve changed my life. I saw you for one visit back in 2012 – it was a post-op visit from a back surgery I had in the Midwest right before moving to Seattle. I’ll never forget meeting you, having you look at my scans, and looking me in the eye to tell me I had an excellent chance at recovering and living pain free. I’d never heard that from a surgeon before (I’d never heard it from any providers I’d seen over 10 years of ongoing chronic pain and searching for answers).
You then handed me your book and also connected me to one of your MD facilitator doctors for follow up and ongoing visits as I managed my pain. I’ll admit, I did not want to read some book to help me with my pain. I’d tried everything, but there was no way a book was going to do the trick. However, my husband began to read it, and eventually he told me, “You need to read this book! I think you also struggle with anxiety!”.
I reluctantly read it, and immediately appreciated how you explained chronic pain as a real experience for the person in pain, and yet how neural pathways can amplify the pain (the real pain). Very few people get that right, and it was so common to feel like no one believed you and your pain.
I followed the protocol in your book – I read all the books included (The Talent Code being my favorite). I began to dig into my past, which I had never done before. I met with your facilitator MD and followed her instructions as well. I got good sleep for a month, I started free writing (and I couldn’t believe what my thoughts actually were). I told all of my family to read the book (4 siblings and a mom), who I now know have severe mental illness (ranging from OCD to anorexia and depression).
Long story short, I eventually came out of most of my pain. The pain I have left I am no longer scared of – I know how to manage it, and feel in control. I know how to still get strong, continue being strong physically. Most importantly, I ‘woke up’ for the first time in my life. I slowly became psychologically healthy (a long process given a traumatic childhood). I left the harmful and traumatic religion that I had been raised in (even though it cost me a lot). I realized I had dreams. Although I had two young girls, I went back to community college and eventually transferred to the University of Washington to finish my bachelor’s degree in psychology, all because of what I learned starting in your program.
Tangentially, I began to break cycles in how I parented my daughters, compared to how my single mom of 5 parented me, and her parents parented her. I began to actually connect with my little girls, and they began to securely attach to me. They are now 10 and 13, and some of the most alive and healthy kids I’ve seen. I began to take responsibility for my issues in my marriage, grow strong enough to support my partner, become regulated, and committed to a healthy, equal relationship. During all of this, I continued to fall in love with psychology (including the mind/body connection) and related research. I began to grow some confidence, a sense of self, and experience happiness/joy in life in ways I’d never before.
I applied for a Fulbright research fellowship and was awarded a Fulbright research fellowship to New Zealand, which was later cancelled due to COVID-19. I pivoted and applied for the extremely competitive PhD program in clinical psychology at UW. I was accepted there and have been thriving ever since. I applied for a National Science Foundation 3-year, funded fellowship and was awarded that as well.
During my time in the clinical program, I found out that I have struggled on and off with OCD (and have shared this with my sibling, 3 of whom struggle with the same thing, as well as some of my nieces, who are now in treatment). I’ve been able to manage and approach OCD with success and I am now a student clinician in the OCD IOP at Seattle Children’s. I’ve wanted to share all of this with you, because without your willingness to ask questions and pursue out of the box answers and ways of thinking while within the medical system, I would have a very different life trajectory. I would be in a lot more pain, have difficult relationships, most likely never have pursued a meaningful career, and still be in a very toxic religious community. Thank you for all you did to create your program and share it with the world. I will forever be grateful for it and hope that others continue to discover it and you/your work for a long time.
I wish you all the best.
I am committed to learning more about chronic pain and finding better ways to present the concepts leading to deep healing. Our world needs you to heal. It is the only way real change will occur.