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The Role of Emotions in Pain Management
Wednesday, April 28, 2021, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EDT
Category: Events

The Impact of Emotions on Pain and Restoration of Functioning

Speakers: Mark Lumley, PhD & J. Bruce Hillenberg, PhD, ABPP

Register HERE!

Learning Objectives:

  • Understand links between emotional processes and learning, and pain, and how emotions, emotional processes and emotionally-driven behaviors can cause or amplify pain
  • Identify the similarities and differences between nociceptive/neuropathic and centralized/nociplastic pain
  • Describe techniques to improve emotional awareness and expression, and extinguish conditioned-emotional responses to reduce pain


Mark A. Lumley, PhD, is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, where he also directs the PhD program in clinical psychology. After graduating in Clinical and Health Psychology from the University of Florida in 1990 and doing a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan, he joined Wayne State University. His research program is internationally recognized for understanding how emotional processes, such as the lack of emotional awareness (“alexithymia”) and lack of expression is related to somatic symptoms. Along with his colleagues and students, he has developed and tested various emotion-focused psychological interventions, such as written or spoken emotional disclosure and most recently Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET), which has been supported by clinical trials and is recognized by the US Department of health and Human Services as an evidence-based treatment for some types of chronic pain. He has been funded for by the NIH for many years and has over 170 per-reviewed articles. He has mentored 40 doctoral students to the PhD and received both local and national awards for excellence in mentoring. Dr. Lumley is on the editorial boards of numerous journals in pain, health psychology, and psychosomatic medicine; is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and Society of Behavioral Medicine; and has served on the Executive Committees of the American Psychosomatic Society, the Society for Health Psychology, and the Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology.

J. Bruce Hillenberg, PhD, ABPP is a board-certified clinical health psychologist. He retired in June 2019 as Director of Psychology and Chief of Pain Management for Beaumont Health in Michigan. He maintains a part-time clinical practice specializing in chronic pain, coping with chronic health conditions, and promoting resilience among healthcare professionals. He graduated with a PhD in clinical health psychology from the APA-approved program at West Virginia University in 1984. He completed his internship in clinical health psychology from the APA-approved psychology internship at the Mid-Missouri Health Sciences Psychology Consortium in Columbia, Missouri. He has 37-years of experience providing clinical services, teaching, conducting research and leading practice innovation in the areas of pain and chronic disease management. He is the Chair of Pain Psychology Task Force for the Michigan Psychological Association and the Immediate-Past President of the Midwest Pain Society.