One of the first tasks Thebarge's patients face is to accept that they have chronic pain. The sooner you can accept it, the more chance you have of reducing suffering and making effective choices about what to do with your life. They see themselves as chronic-pain patients. It's hard to see anything else but pain. Because these patients can be depressed, out of work, stuck at home doing nothing, their isolation and immobility only make their pain worse.
Depression is a very common consequence of chronic pain.
Thebarge tries to show the way out by teaching life-management skills that can enable people to function in spite of their pain. For example, most people with chronic pain have trouble sleeping. Sleep deprivation, in turn, worsens the pain, in a vicious circle of suffering. He teaches ways to improve the quality of sleep. Others may not notice a change in the pain, but they notice a difference in how they're responding to it.