heal Houston is preparing to open its doors at 2410 Ella Blvd in Houston Heights. Our founding clinicians are completing onboarding now — please join the waitlist to be first in line when intake opens.
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Emotion-focused care for chronic head and neck pain
Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET) in Houston, Texas
In a 2024 randomized trial,63% of EAET patients achieved clinically meaningful pain reduction — compared with 17% receiving CBT.
heal Houston specializes in Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET) — a structured, evidence-based method developed specifically for chronic pain. Every clinician in our network is trained in EAET principles and techniques.
How they meet: EAET treats mind and body as one loop—emotional expression and resolution are linked to measurable shifts in comfort and function. That is why we pair psychological depth with attention to where you feel symptoms in the body.
What is EAET?
Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy helps people identify avoided or unexpressed emotions, process them safely, and reduce the stress that can amplify pain. It combines elements of experiential, psychodynamic, and exposure-informed work—distinct from “think positive” coping skills alone.
EAET was developed by Mark Lumley, PhD (Wayne State University) and Howard Schubiner, MD. heal Houston is grateful for their research and teaching; we are an independent practice and not endorsed by them.
Our mission
heal Houston exists because too many people with chronic head and neck pain cycle through treatments that never address what's actually sustaining their symptoms. We were founded on three convictions.
Emotion is physiology, not weakness. Unprocessed grief, anger, fear, and relational stress change how the nervous system regulates pain. Addressing these patterns isn't an alternative to "real" medicine — it is medicine.
Chronic pain deserves a consistent method. Patients shouldn't have to wonder which therapeutic framework they'll encounter session to session. EAET provides a coherent, trainable model that clinicians and patients can follow together from intake through resolution.
Therapy and neurology should work in the same building. heal Houston operates independently under Conect LLC and maintains a clinical association with headacheMD Houston, a neurology practice specializing in head and neck pain. Sharing a clinical home means your therapist and neurologist can coordinate when it matters — without one replacing the other.
We are not affiliated with the developers of EAET. We are practitioners who believe their research deserves a dedicated clinical home in Houston.
What EAET adds to standard care
Cognitive-behavioral therapy, mindfulness programs, and interventional procedures all have a place in pain treatment — and they help many people. EAET targets the emotional–physiological cycle that other methods may not reach.
Large reviews show that for a significant share of chronic pain patients, especially those whose symptoms are tied to emotional avoidance and stress physiology, these approaches alone often produce modest or inconsistent long-term relief.
EAET was designed to address the gap. Rather than replacing what's working, it targets the emotional–physiological cycle that other methods may not reach. For patients already receiving neurological care, EAET can be the missing layer.
Head & neck pain
heal Houston provides Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy for patients in Houston, Texas experiencing chronic headache, migraine, tension-type headache, cervicogenic headache, and neck pain.
Tension, migraine, and cervicogenic patterns are closely tied to the stress–muscle–emotion loop. EAET was designed around how chronic pain is maintained in the body; we apply it with particular attention to head, neck, and face-related pain syndromes.
Consistent EAET methods
To our knowledge, heal Houston is rare in using EAET as the consistent therapeutic backbone—not an occasional add-on—so your care follows one coherent model session to session.
What to expect
No referral required. EAET is delivered in individual sessions, typically weekly, with a structured course of 8–16 sessions. Most patients begin noticing shifts within the first several sessions.
Referral. You can join our waitlist directly or be referred by your neurologist. No referral is required, but we coordinate closely with headacheMD Houston when patients are seen in both practices.
Intake. Your first session focuses on your pain history, emotional patterns, and treatment goals. We want to understand what you've already tried and where you feel stuck.
Sessions. EAET is typically delivered in individual sessions, though group formats may be offered in the future. Session length and frequency are tailored to your needs — most patients begin weekly.
Duration. EAET is not open-ended talk therapy. The method is structured, and many patients begin noticing shifts within the first several sessions. A typical course runs 8–16 sessions, though your clinician will adjust based on progress.
Cost & insurance. Details on session fees and insurance will be published when intake opens. Join the waitlist to be notified.
Common questions
Answers to frequently asked questions about insurance, referrals, how EAET differs from talk therapy, and whether this means your pain is "all in your head." (Spoiler: the opposite.)
Is EAET covered by insurance?
Session fees and insurance details will be available when we open intake. Waitlist members will be the first to know.
Do I need a diagnosis or referral?
No. You can self-refer. If you're already a headacheMD Houston patient, your neurologist can coordinate with your EAET clinician directly.
Is this the same as talk therapy?
No. EAET is a structured, manualized method — not open-ended psychotherapy. It uses specific techniques (emotional exposure, expressive writing, experiential exercises) to change how your nervous system processes pain. Sessions have direction and a therapeutic arc.
Will I stop seeing my neurologist?
No — and you shouldn't. EAET is designed to work alongside neurological care, not replace it. The goal is to address the emotional and physiological patterns that medical treatment alone may not resolve.
Is this "all in my head"?
The opposite. EAET is built on the premise that chronic pain is real, physical, and maintained by identifiable processes in the nervous system. Emotions are not separate from the body — they are expressed through it. Working with those patterns is as concrete as any other intervention.
heal Houston is not yet accepting appointments. Join the waitlist below to be notified the moment intake opens — one email, no spam.
Enter your email below to be notified the moment intake opens — no spam, one email.
Research snapshot
What the evidence shows
EAET was developed by Mark Lumley, PhD (Wayne State University) and Howard Schubiner, MD in the early 2010s. Over a decade of randomized trials and meta-analyses has followed. Below is a plain-language summary of key findings relevant to chronic head and neck pain care.
12+
Clinical trials evaluating EAET across neuroplastic pain conditions
63%
Of EAET patients achieved clinically significant pain reduction vs. 17% in CBT group
Patients across 37 trials in a systematic review and meta-analysis of short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy for functional somatic disorders
Emotion-focused modalities showed larger effects in subgroup analyses.
RCT
EAET vs. CBT for fibromyalgia
Lumley MA, Schubiner H, et al. Emotional awareness and expression therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and education for fibromyalgia: a cluster-randomized controlled trial. Pain. 2017;158(12):2504-2517. doi:10.1097/j.pain.0000000000000988.
In a cluster-randomized controlled trial, EAET produced greater reductions in widespread pain, fatigue, and functional impairment compared to cognitive-behavioral therapy and an education control — establishing EAET’s superiority in a large, well-powered chronic pain population.
RCT
EAET achieves greater pain reduction than CBT in older adults
Yarns BC, Lumley MA, Schubiner H, et al. Emotional awareness and expression therapy achieves greater pain reduction than cognitive behavioral therapy in older adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain: a preliminary randomized comparison trial. Pain Med. 2020;21(11):2811-2825. doi:10.1093/pm/pnaa021.
In a randomized comparison trial of older adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain, EAET produced significantly greater pain reduction than CBT. Patients with higher baseline depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms showed the greatest benefit from EAET — the very patients most likely to present in a headache neurology practice.
RCT
EAET for somatic symptom disorder with centralized symptoms
Maroti D, Lumley MA, Schubiner H, et al. Internet-administered emotional awareness and expression therapy for somatic symptom disorder with centralized symptoms: a preliminary efficacy trial. Front Psychiatry. 2021;12:620359. doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2021.620359.
Maroti D, Lumley MA, Schubiner H, et al. Emotional processing and its association to somatic symptom change in emotional awareness and expression therapy for somatic symptom disorder: a preliminary mediation investigation. Front Psychol. 2021;12:712518. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.712518.
Two trials evaluated internet-delivered EAET for patients with somatic symptom disorder — the diagnostic category that includes many patients whose neurological symptoms are real but unexplained by structural disease. Significant reductions in somatic symptoms, pain, depression, insomnia, and anxiety were observed. Emotional processing was confirmed as a partial mediator of symptom change.
Meta-analysis
Emotion-focused therapies for functional somatic symptoms
Abbass A, Lumley MA, Town J, Holmes H, Luyten P, Cooper A, Russell L, Schubiner H, De Meulemeester C, Kisely S. Short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy for functional somatic disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis of within-treatment effects. Psychother Psychosom. 2021;90(3):157-175. doi:10.1159/000512998.
Across 2,094 patients, somatic symptoms improved significantly from pre-treatment to short-term follow-up with a large effect size — and that improvement was maintained at long-term follow-up. This is the evidence base most directly applicable to patients whose functional symptoms have not responded to standard biomedical treatment.
Review
EAET listed among behavioral options by U.S. HHS Pain Task Force
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Pain Management Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force Report: Updates, Gaps, Inconsistencies, and Recommendations. Published May 9, 2019.
The federal inter-agency task force convened by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has listed EAET among recommended behavioral treatment options for chronic pain — placing it in the same tier as established approaches such as CBT and acceptance-based therapies.
A different emphasis
You may see Houston-area practices promoting behavioral chronic pain programs, general psychotherapy for pain, or interventional migraine care. Those approaches help some people. But research consistently shows limited durable improvement for a large share of chronic pain patients — especially when the driver is unprocessed emotion and nervous-system load rather than tissue damage alone.
EAET directly targets that emotional–physiological link with a manualized, trainable method. heal Houston is operated by Conect LLC and maintains a clinical association with headacheMD Houston PLLC.
Information on this page is general education and not medical advice; consult a licensed professional for your situation.
