Thanks so much for being with us, Jessy.
Many, many people will downplay their feelings and move away from dealing with them. One thing that may help is if you can help them see that talking about these feelings or exploring them will often create some tension in their body (like neck discomfort or stomach tension). Another thing to try is to give examples from your own life (or others) about how everyone has anger towards their own children at times. And when that anger is seen as being wrong or inappropriate, it gets suppressed, and pain can result. Again, tell stories about that, just like I did with getting fired from my job and laughing it off, and then getting back pain due to suppressed anger. I told you all that story, right?
In a similar vein, one of the best ways to deal with skepticism about the diagnosis is to show people the connection, rather than telling them about it. So, I use provocative (or neural circuit) testing, as described in the Ovid app to demonstrate the relationship between the brain and the symptoms. You can also ask them to look for the FIT criteria occurring in their life between visits, such as triggered pain with weather, stress, simple movements, etc. OR pain that shifts or moves or spreads, etc. Over time, these findings will likely occur and then you have evidence for a mind-body cause for their symptoms.
Does that help?
Best, Howard