Chronic Pain & Trauma: Gently Breaking The Invisible Link with Science

"The body's intelligent. We just have to show up. I equate it to a dance where the body leads and I follow." —Peter Stuart You can run from nagging pain, but it keeps showing up in new ways—wrecking sleep, fouling up moods, and shutting down energy. The worst part? Real answers are rare, and the world keeps telling you to just "push through" or "try harder." Maybe it's not about willpower at all—it's about listening to the actual story your body's been trying to tell for years. Peter Stuart spent decades fighting through his own injuries, dismissed symptoms, and invisible struggles before discovering gentle myofascial therapy. His hard-won insights as a chronic pain "insider" and now trauma-informed therapist reveal what really keeps people stuck and what finally helps them move forward with less pain and more hope. Get the truth about pain, trauma, and what real healing looks like, plus smart self-care tools, the science behind gentle relief, why support systems matter, how medical dismissal damages recovery, and the most overlooked reason chronic pain lingers in this episode. Connect with Donna: Website: https://www.donnapiper.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donnapiper Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedonnapiper Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedonnapiper YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedonnapiper Episode Highlights: 02:41 Pain and Identity: How Chronic Pain Changes Who You Are 10:30 Why Relief Doesn't Last: Understanding Chronic Pain Cycles 18:09 The Mind-Body Link in Pain 27:33 How Trauma Gets Stuck: The Science Behind Chronic Pain 33:22 When Emotional Release Ends Pain 42:47 Overcoming Medical Dismissal 47:17 Chronic Fatigue, Brain Fog, and Healing Brain 55:00 Support Speeds Recovery 59:19 When Pain Affects Relationships 01:06:56 Fast Action Beats Waiting 01:12:36 Connection Heals: Why Real Relationships Matter 01:17:38 Don't Wait: Heal Before It Gets Worse Resources: 🎧Listen to Peter's interview with Coach360 How Trauma Leaves a Mark and What It Means for Healing: https://www.coach360news.com/how-trauma-leaves-a-mark-and-what-it-means-for-healing/ X: Life keeps piling on until your body keeps the score. It's time to listen! Catch this week's episode as Donna and trauma-informed therapist Peter Stuart drop truth bombs on trauma, chronic illness, pain relief, holistic healing, and smart self-care. #DearBodyImListening #MCAS #Lymphedema #Lipedema #ChronicIllness #TraumaHealing #BodyWork #MyofascialRelease #InvisibleIllness Quotes: 03:31 "It's a real identity shift. Not very talked about is when you lose who you think you are to pain, the amount of depression that sets in later on." —Peter Stuart 11:56 "My body is learning to survive but creating new pathways… Chronic pain is very insidious, and it changes you." —Donna Piper 14:59 "Aggressive styles tended to flare the nervous system, and the last thing you want to do is flare the nervous system with somebody who has chronic issues." —Peter Stuart 16:40 "A low-level pressure will create a change in the nervous system over time. It's patience… Incremental change over time creates permanency in the brain to make those changes happen and establish new neural pathways." —Peter Stuart 17:08 "The body's intelligent. We just have to show up. I equate it to a dance where the body leads and I follow." —Peter Stuart 18:56 "The pelvis is the foundation of the body. If you're off in your pelvis, everything above and everything below is going to be off." —Peter Stuart 25:12 "Sometimes people just want to tell their story— they just have pushed it down." —Donna Piper 30:22 "If you ignore people's scars, then you're doing them a great disservice." —Peter Stuart 34:18 "Most people will emote without making a connection to an event. It's just stuff that we've held on to—baggage—and just feeling like they have a safe place to allow that to happen." —Peter Stuart 35:41 "As much as your brain is trying to say, your thoughts are trying to control things all the time, your emotions and your feelings need to be expressed as well for health." —Peter Stuart 37:27 "No one goes through childhood unscathed. Everyone has stuff. Life brings stuff with us." —Donna Piper 39:05 "Most people who get into my profession are very empathetic people and are on the sensitive scale pretty high— and that makes for a really good therapist to be able to understand that some people will have these traumas." —Peter Stuart 42:06 "Most women usually underdo their pain… People can't see pain." —Donna Piper 56:51 "Having a provider that has that listening aspect is supportive, too…Just by not being dismissed, that's support." —Donna Piper 01:00:02 "Let's grieve what was so we can embrace this new path." —Donna Piper 01:06:59 "Once you recognize that you've changed, if there's a shift in pattern or your inability to do activities that you normally did, get on it. The ...