Gentle, emotion-focused care for chronic head and neck pain
heal Houston specializes in Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET)—a structured, evidence-based method developed for chronic pain. Every therapist on our team 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.
Why not “just CBT or injections”?
Many clinics still lead with cognitive coping, mindfulness packages, or interventional procedures for chronic pain. Large reviews often show modest or inconsistent long-term pain relief from generic behavioral or procedure-first pathways for many patients—especially when emotional avoidance or stress physiology plays a central role.
Head & 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.
Research snapshot
Randomized trials and meta-analyses report meaningful pain reductions with EAET versus active comparators in several chronic pain populations; the U.S. HHS Pain Management Best Practices inter-agency task force has listed EAET among behavioral options. Emerging work also suggests EAET can help people living with functional neurological disorder (FND)—where symptoms are real, involuntary, and not explained by typical structural disease—alongside more familiar chronic pain presentations. (See e.g. NIH/PMC reviews and published trials for full context.)
We are building out scheduling details on this site. For now, please use the phone or email contact your clinician has provided, or watch this space for intake information.
A different emphasis than typical “pain management” marketing
You may see Houston-area practices promoting behavioral chronic pain programs, general psychotherapy for pain, or interventional migraine care. Those approaches help some people; they are also what many studies show produces 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. We are not affiliated with any hospital pain group or with HeadacheMD Houston PLLC; we are an independent therapy practice.
Information on this page is general education and not medical advice; consult a licensed professional for your situation.
