California Chronic Pain Therapy Intensives
with Joshua Kohansamad, LMFT
telehealth across California, Florida + South Carolina
I’m a therapist who also lived with chronic pain for years and eventually resolved it using principles grounded in pain science research.
Has your life become smaller because of pain?
Are you constantly monitoring what you feel, worrying about what it means, or wondering whether it will ever go away?
Have you been through medical appointments and testing but still haven’t received an explanation that fully makes sense?
Chronic pain does not only affect your body. It changes how you work, connect, move, plan, and imagine your future.
Most intensive clients are done
in 3 - 12 weeks
Clients Come to Me When They’re:
Unable to get their mind off their symptoms
Avoiding activities they used to enjoy
Struggling to keep up at work
Feeling disconnected from friends or family
Worried it will continue forever
Frustrated by inconclusive tests
Told they may have neuroplastic pain
Chronic Pain Is Often Misunderstood
But sometimes the brain and nervous system can continue producing pain long after the original injury has healed—or even when there is no ongoing structural damage.
This is sometimes called neuroplastic pain.
Neuroplastic does not mean imaginary. It means the brain and nervous system have learned to interpret certain thoughts, sensations, movements, emotions, or situations as threatening.
The more dangerous the pain feels, the more closely you may monitor it.
The more you monitor it, avoid activities, tense your body, or worry about what it means, the more protective your nervous system can become.
This can create a cycle in which pain leads to fear, fear leads to more attention and avoidance, and the nervous system receives the message that it still needs to protect you.
My work is focused on helping you understand that cycle and begin changing it.
How Chronic Pain Intensives Work
How I Treat Chronic Pain
My approach combines psychological treatment with current pain science. We’ll focus on what is keeping your nervous system stuck and what can help it begin feeling safe again.
Together, we reduce the fear, attention, avoidance, and mental patterns that can keep your brain and nervous system on high alert.
Chronic pain intensives are an accelerated form of treatment for people who want more support and momentum than a traditional weekly session can provide.
Instead of meeting for 45-50 minutes once a week, we meet for multiple hours across multiple days.
This increased amount of time allows us to go deeper without repeatedly losing momentum between sessions. We spend less time catching up and more time understanding your pain patterns, reducing fear, practicing new responses, and helping you reconnect with your life.
I also provide support between intensive sessions. This additional support helps maintain momentum, increases accountability, and gives you guidance as you begin applying what we discuss to movement, work, relationships, and everyday life.
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I’ll help you understand how the brain and nervous system create pain, why symptoms can continue without ongoing damage, and how fear can unintentionally reinforce the cycle.
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Exposure therapy helps you carefully and gradually return to activities your nervous system has learned to fear. As you complete “mastery experiences,” your brain learns that certain movements, situations, and positions are safe.
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Metacognitive Therapy helps you change your relationship with thought and thinking, and helps to reduce monitoring, researching, analyzing, ruminating, and worrying, so pain takes up less of your mental space.
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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, helps you reconnect with the people, activities, and values that matter to you.
We are reducing the struggle that keeps pain at the center of every decision,
so you can begin moving toward your life again.
Chronic Pain Intensives
With Me Have Results
After working with me clients report:
Less pain
Know what to do when symptoms appear
Increasing movement
Back to activities they enjoy
Less time monitoring their body
Improved relationships and quality of life
No longer organizing the day around pain
Symptoms may fluctuate as your nervous system learns, changes, and begins responding differently.
The goal is for you to understand what is happening, know how to respond when symptoms flare, and feel confident that pain does not have to control your future.
Reviews From Previous Patients
“I went from months of continuous panic, living my life in 30 second chunks, to freedom from panic attacks and chronic debilitating anxiety. From only being able to sit in a single chair and moving my arms to lift very light objects in an 18 inch window,
to having my full physical abilities restored to do all of the things I love.
Josh is uniquely trained and prepared to lead you into recovery and restoration. I am FOREVER grateful that I can be the kind, gifted, capable person I am meant to be, no longer a burden on my family and friends, but living my life once again FREE from OCD and chronic pain.
Thank you, Josh!!!”
— Client with Chronic Pain,
California
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Joshua Kohansamad, LMFT
Psychotherapist
👋🏼 Hi, I’m Josh.
I’m a licensed psychotherapist specializing in chronic pain, OCD, and anxiety disorders. I am trained in pain science principles taught by Lorimer Moseley, one of the world’s leading chronic pain researchers, and I now train other therapists how to work with chronic pain.
Chronic pain is deeply personal to me.
I lived with it for years and experienced how quickly pain can affect your work, relationships, confidence, and sense of freedom. Today, I combine psychological expertise with advanced training in pain science to help clients understand what is happening in their nervous systems and begin moving toward recovery.
I believe chronic pain is frequently misunderstood. Effective treatment requires more than telling someone to relax, think positively, or simply push through discomfort.
It requires understanding the anxiety surrounding the pain, the way the brain has learned to protect the body, and the individual patterns that keep symptoms active.
My years of clinical experience and my own recovery allow me to go deeply into each client’s process. I understand both the science and the emotional reality of living in a body that no longer feels predictable or safe.
My approach is compassionate, structured, and grounded in helping you reclaim as much of your life as possible.
Education & Credentials
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, California
Registered Telehealth Practitioner in Florida and South Carolina
B.A. in Psychology, Chapman University
Master’s in Clinical Psychology, Antioch University
Chronic Pain Recovery Clinician Course, Untanglr
Metacognitive Therapy Training, OCD Training School
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Bootcamp
Ongoing I-CBT Consultation with Dr. Frederick Aardema, Founder of I-CBT
Member, International OCD Foundation
Member, SoCal Association for Contextual Behavioral Sciences
Get Started in 4 Steps
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Reach out to let me know what you’ve been experiencing and that you’re interested in an Chronic Pain intensive.
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We’ll talk about your symptoms, previous treatment, goals, and readiness for intensive treatment.
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We’ll discuss my approach and look at a customized schedule and treatment process that best fits your current pain situation.
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We’ll start focused treatment with consistent support, accountability, and a clear direction forward.
You Can Live Differently
Pain may feel like the dominant narrative in your life.
It’s time to write a new one.