Dr. Rachel Zoffness

speaker

360 appearances 1 recordings 1 series first heard Jul 2026 last heard 20 Jul

Dr. Rachel Zoffness’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.

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Hidden Brain · How to Combat Pain · 20 Jul 2026 podcast

70% of studies on pain and optimism show a real connection between hopeful thoughts and reductions in pain intensity, pain frequency, and even disability.

One of my favorite strategies for dealing with pain voice is this strategy called using detective questions.

And by that, I mean pain voice likes to speak in hyperbole and negative predictions that actually aren't rooted in reality.

And the only way sometimes for us to see for sure that the thought is just a thought and not a fact is to test its veracity and

And by testing its veracity, I mean I'm going to sit down and ask those thoughts some questions.

And I call these detective questions because I want to investigate whether the thought is true or whether it's a trap.

Because chances are high, if it's pain voice, it's trapping me into being scared and immobilized in order to protect me.

Again, pain voice isn't mean.

It's just trying to protect you and keep you immobilized until you get the help you need.

So one detective question that I like to recommend is, is this thought a fact?

And by fact, I mean unquestionably, undeniably, absolutely true.

So the thought you offered, I'm broken, I'll never get better.

Is that a fact?

And I think anyone, once they're critically looking at that thought, can tell you that is not a fact.

It is not a fact that I will never, ever get better.

That can't possibly be true because I don't have the ability to predict the future.

Kai was a patient I had, I believe he was in his 40s, and he was wheeled into my office by his sister, Aiko.

He had a condition called Fabry disease, and he wasn't able to go to work.

And his pain was so terrible that he couldn't wear shoes or even cut his toenails.

So he had these extremely long toenails that looked like talons, and it really just stood out to me because he wasn't even able to touch his own feet.

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