Do you experience migraine or headaches after emotionally demanding situations? Then it is possible that psychological treatment can help you.
Headaches always deserve a medical evaluation first: your GP can rule out underlying causes and advise on medical treatment. But for many people, tension-type headaches and migraine attacks cluster around periods of stress, conflict and suppressed emotion — and that psychological component can be treated.
How are headaches and emotions connected?
Stress is one of the most commonly reported triggers of both tension-type headache and migraine. When emotionally charged situations are handled by holding feelings in — swallowing anger, bracing through conflict — the body often responds: muscle tension, changes in breathing, and for some people, headache or a migraine attack that follows the situation with a delay.
Psychological approaches with documented effect on headache include cognitive behavioural therapy, relaxation training and biofeedback. At EGOLAB we work with emotion-focused psychotherapy — in particular ISTDP.
ISTDP — Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy
Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy helps you identify the emotional conflicts that load the body — and builds your capacity to feel and express those emotions instead of converting them into physical symptoms. Studies of ISTDP for medically unexplained symptoms, including headache, have shown systematic and significant symptom improvement — see for example this overview.
Is my migraine or headache psychologically driven?
By booking a trial session of about one and a half consultations' length, you can get a first-hand sense of whether your migraine or headache has a psychological component.
What does the trial session consist of?
In the trial session we map the interplay between specific situations, emotions and your headache or migraine — when the attacks come, what preceded them, and what happens in your body when difficult feelings show up.
You will experience for yourself whether your headache responds to the work. In some cases we can also estimate the length of treatment.
Can I expect my headache or migraine to disappear?
If your migraine or headache is psychologically driven, it is likely that treatment will give you tools to handle emotionally demanding situations in a healthier way — and that you will experience substantial improvement in your headaches. If the trial session suggests the connection is weak, we will say so honestly, and medical management remains the right path.
We can help you clarify it
We offer a clarifying interview where we map the connection between your symptoms and your emotions. The treatment method is based on ISTDP — a demanding method that requires several years of additional training, which our psychologists have.
When you contact us, please mention in the message field that you are interested in treatment of migraine and headaches.