Chronic Pain & Anxiety
Therapy for Chronic Pain and Anxiety in Newport Beach
Arolyn Burns, LMFT, LPCC is a Newport Beach psychotherapist who works with chronic pain and the anxiety that grows around it, using clinical hypnotherapy, EMDR, and somatic regulation. Practicing since 1997, she sees clients at her Corona del Mar office and virtually across California, alongside — never instead of — their medical care.
Written and clinically reviewed by Arolyn Burns, LMFT, LPCC
Psychotherapist · EMDR Certified · Certified Hypnotherapist · Author of Anxiety Annihilated · Practicing since 1997
Pain and anxiety feed each other
Persistent pain keeps the nervous system on alert. An alert nervous system amplifies pain signals, tightens muscles, disrupts sleep, and narrows life down to what is safe to attempt — which then produces more pain and more fear about it. This is a physiological loop, not a sign that the pain is imaginary.
Therapy intervenes in that loop. The goal is not to talk you out of real pain; it is to reduce the amplification, restore sleep and activity, and take the fear out of sensations that currently trigger alarm.
What this work addresses
- Chronic pain conditions and pain-related anxiety
- Psychosomatic pain amplification and the fear-tension-pain cycle
- Adjustment to a chronic illness or a new diagnosis
- Insomnia and rumination driven by pain
- Medical trauma — procedures, hospital stays, frightening diagnoses
- Grief for the level of function or the life you had before
- Depression and isolation that develop alongside long-term pain
Methods used
Clinical hypnotherapy is the primary tool for pain perception, and it has one of the longer research histories in this area. Sessions target the intensity and quality of the sensation, the anticipatory tension around it, and sleep.
EMDR is used when medical trauma is part of the picture — an emergency, a botched procedure, the moment a diagnosis was delivered. Somatic and mindfulness-based work rebuilds a tolerable relationship with body sensation, and paced activity planning helps you expand what you do without provoking flare-ups.
Working alongside your medical team
Psychotherapy for chronic pain complements medical treatment; it does not replace diagnosis, medication, physical therapy, or pain-management care. With your written consent, communication with your physician or pain specialist is welcome, and any new or changing physical symptom is always referred back to medicine first.
Who you would be working with
Arolyn Burns, LMFT, LPCC is a Newport Beach psychotherapist specializing in anxiety, phobias, trauma and chronic pain. She provides EMDR therapy and clinical hypnotherapy and has been practicing since 1997.
- CA LMFT #MFC40173, LPCC #LPC54
- M.A. Clinical Psychology, Azusa Pacific University
- 10× Best Newport Beach Therapist
- 2333 E Coast Highway #C, Corona Del Mar, CA 92625
Creator of The A.R.O.L.Y.N. Method™, the framework behind this work.
Frequently asked questions
Related pages
Ready to take the first step?
In-person appointments at 2333 E Coast Highway #C, Corona Del Mar, CA 92625, and secure video sessions anywhere in California. Mon–Wed 11am–8pm, Thu 11am–2pm (by appointment only).