Behavioral Medicine

Offering treatment in health psychology in person and via telehealth

For clients with complex medical issues and chronic pain, CPG offers behavioral medicine services. Behavioral medicine uses evidenced-based approaches to help clients learn effective coping strategies, change thought patterns that contribute to pain and co-occurring mental health concerns like anxiety and depression, decrease problematic behaviors (e.g., smoking, maladaptive eating habits), and increase healthy behaviors such as exercise or meditation. Our specialists can also work with you to help calm sympathetic nervous system responses that trigger panic or chronic pain cycles.

Meet One of Our Specialists

Dr. Sara Acker Leo is a clinical health psychologist who works extensively with clients with medical issues, pain, health anxiety, and stress that impacts physical health. She uses a combination of evidence-based approaches including cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness-based therapies, relaxation training, biofeedback techniques, and clinical hypnosis to address clients’ unique psychological and medical needs. Dr. Leo is one of the first therapists in Massachusetts to be trained in the advanced application of Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) to treat chronic pain.

What We Offer

Individual Therapy

We offer consultation and individual therapy services for behavioral medicine in the form of ongoing weekly or bi-weekly therapy sessions.

Our therapists can work with your physicians and other healthcare providers to create a comprehensive and integrative treatment plan to address your medical, psychological, and emotional needs.

We offer treatment and support for clients with a variety of medical and health-related concerns, including:

Chronic Pain
Immune Disorders
Fibromyalgia
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (TMJ)
Migraines
Rheumatological Disorders

Cancer
Infertility/Fertility Treatments
Stress-Related Illnesses
Chronic Fatigue
Long COVID
Medical Trauma
Health Anxiety
Medical Avoidance

What is Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT)?

Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) is a new treatment shown to be 98% effective in reducing and 66% effective in eliminating neuroplastic (centralized) pain in patients with chronic back pain, in a relatively brief amount of time (Ashar et al., 2021; 2023). The treatment involves helping patients learn to re-evaluate painful sensations they experience and manage emotions that may make pain feel worse. PRT can also be used to help with other chronic pain conditions with a centralized process, including fibromyalgia, migraines, chronic headaches, and pain persisting beyond structural healing following injury or surgery.

How can relaxation training and mindfulness help me?

Relaxation training refers to a series of behavioral techniques that can help you understand and reduce the levels of stress and negative emotions that may be affecting your body’s functioning. Biofeedback treatment (monitoring what is happening in your body to learn how to have more voluntary control over specific reactions) and mindfulness meditation-based techniques (learning skills to focus on the present moment) are two examples of evidence-based relaxation techniques. Specifically, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) involves mindfulness meditation as a means of improving awareness of one’s physical responses and reducing stress related to a variety of chronic physical and mental health conditions. It has been shown to improve the health and well-being of people experiencing conditions such as hypertension, cancer, diabetes, chronic pain, anxiety, and depression (Niazi & Niazi, 2011)