Chronic pain worksheets that treat pain as real — and re-trainable.
Ten worksheets built on modern pain science: Pain Reprocessing Therapy, ACT for chronic pain, pacing, flare planning, illness identity, and medical trauma. Free, printable, clinician-designed.
Pain Neuroscience Education
Real, and re-trainable
Modern pain science explained plainly: central sensitization, fear-pain loop, and what changes treatment.
Somatic Tracking Worksheet (PRT)
Curiosity, not fixing
The core PRT exercise — bring curious attention to the sensation, add safety, notice shift.
ACT for Chronic Pain Worksheet
Clean pain vs suffering
Separate the sensation from stacked suffering; take values-aligned action with pain present.
Pacing Plan Worksheet
Baseline done on good days too
Establish baseline, hold it in bad and good weeks, add 10% per flare-free week.
Pain Flare Plan
Ride, don't spiral
Recognize flare signs, follow a pre-agreed protocol, use a safety-cueing sentence.
Illness Identity Worksheet
You are more than the illness
Re-diversify roles: what shrank, what can still be touched at any dose, one tiny non-sick act this week.
Medical Trauma Processing Worksheet
This is trauma, not overreaction
Structured first pass at medical-system trauma with symptom checklist and next-steps plan.
Coping with New Chronic Diagnosis
Grief + team + right-sized info
Hold the grief, prepare three questions, name the team, right-size the research intake.
Chronic Pain Communication Worksheet
A shared code with loved ones
Green/yellow/red pain code with what you need — and don't — at each level.
Daily Pain-Mood-Sleep Log
Two weeks reveals what memory misses
Pain + mood + sleep + movement log with pattern analysis prompts.
Frequently asked questions
Does 'pain is in the brain' mean the pain isn't real?+
No. Modern pain science makes clear that chronic pain is real neurobiology — central sensitization, altered nervous system signaling. These worksheets take the pain as real AND treatable, which acute-injury models often fail to.