Behavioral, Psychological, and Social Dimensions

BPS-02 - Physiological, Psychological and Behavioral Approaches: Mind-Body Medicine from Acute Trauma to Chronic Persistent Pain

Wednesday, September 9, 2026

1:50 PM - 2:40 PM PDT

Co-Presenter(s)

Carrie R. Hyde, MD

Chief Medical Officer
Gentiva Hospice, Illumia Health, Empatia Palliative Care
North Little Rock, Arkansas
Mel Pohl, MD

Chief Medical Officer
The Pointe Malibu Recovery Center
San Diego, California
Les Aria, PhD

Chief Psychological Officer
The Pointe Malibue Recovery Center
Sacramento, California

Trauma reorganizes the nervous system in ways that persist long after the precipitating event shaping autonomic tone, altering threat prediction, and priming the conditions for chronic pain. This session uses case presentations to trace that trajectory from the acute neurobiological response to trauma, through the mechanisms that drive central sensitization, to evidence-based mindbody interventions that address the whole person. Drawing on polyvagal theory, predictive coding, and ACT, presenters will explore how physiological, psychological, and behavioral approaches can be integrated across the continuum from acute injury to chronic persistent pain in both palliative and non-palliative settings.

Learning Objectives:

Describe the neurobiological mechanisms by which traumatic experience alters autonomic regulation and establishes the conditions for chronic pain.
Apply acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and other evidence-based psychological approaches to pain catastrophizing and experiential avoidance in trauma-exposed patients.
Identify trauma-informed pain care strategies appropriate across the palliative and non-palliative continuum, including substance use, and explain how mindbody approaches can be integrated into each with or with substance use.
Explain the transition from acute nociception to central sensitization and chronic persistent pain, including the role of predictive coding and top-down nervous system dysregulation.