SPIRIT: Living Well (Enough) with Chronic Pain

Tuesday, May 20, 2025  12 noon EDT.

Living Well (Enough) with Chronic Pain

• What does it mean to live Well (Enough) with Chronic Pain?
• What supports are helpful to people living with Chronic Pain?
• What is not helpful?
• Who needs a support group anyway?

PRESENTED BY: Michele Cohen, LCSW, FIPA, Anne Brazer Ciemnecki, MA and Janet (Jan) Stubbs

Michele Cohen, LCSW, FIPA, is a psychotherapist/psychoanalyst in private practice, based in New York City, with an interest in group work as well as individual adult treatment. She is a graduate of the Psychoanalytic Training Institute of the Contemporary Freudian Society (CFS) in New York City and a Fellow of the International Psychoanalytic Association. Michele is a Training and Supervising Analyst at the Contemporary Freudian Society. She has taught in both CFS’s Psychoanalytic Training Institute and its 2-year Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Program. She has also supervised and taught at the Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy (MITPP). Michele also has an ongoing interest in understanding the mind–body duality as it interfaces with patients suffering from physical pain conditions, an area of practice that is often misunderstood by physicians as well as by mental health professionals. She has presented her work in this area at NEFESH International (2018) and at the FPA’s National Conference (2019). She currently facilitates online support groups for individuals with neuropathic facial pain.

Anne Brazer Ciemnecki, MA, is a retired senior fellow from Mathematica, where she specialized in health and economic policy. Her mother and grandmother had trigeminal neuralgia. Anne has seen treatment evolve from the ineffective alcohol injections her grandmother used to the high-tech magnetic resonance imaging, microvascular decompression (MVD), and gamma knife ablation that alleviated her pain. She serves on the New Jersey Commission on National and Community Service and the Womanspace Advisory Counsel. She is a member of the Mercer County Medical Reserve Corps, an advocate for domestic violence victims, and a therapy dog handler. Anne is Secretary of the FPA Board of Directors and has been a peer mentor and support group leader for the FPA. She has been instrumental in designing the FPA Patient Registry. Anne is the coeditor of two books, Facial Pain: A 21st Century Guide (Lulu, 2020) and Facial Pain: Living Well with Neuropathic Facial Pain.

Janet (Jan) Stubbs started having health issues when she developed rheumatoid arthritis at 20 years of age. She developed peripheral neuropathy and TN 18 years ago. She also had a below-knee amputation of her left leg 15 years ago because of a methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection. She has been a life-long volunteer with her church. Now in her 80s, she continues to volunteer at church and in clubs in her retirement village. An important volunteer activity is driving people to their health appointments. Her TN was under control with Neurontin for several years until the drug depleted her sodium to dangerously low levels. Through a member of her son’s church, she found a brain surgeon who performed a successful MVD in 2018, and she has been pain-free from TN since then. She is a member of an online TN support group.

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This program is dedicated to the memories of Moshe Ben Dov Ber (a”h) and Shayna Mirel bas Aharon (a”h) (Melvin and Mirele Steinig)

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The information provided by the OU SPIRIT program is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as advice on any legal/medical/nutritional/mental health/ financial/halachic or other subject matter.  You should not act or refrain from acting on the basis of the information you learn during a SPIRIT program without seeking legal/medical/nutritional/mental health/financial/Rabbinic or other appropriate professional advice.

Partnering Synagogues:
Anshei Chesed Congregation, Boynton Beach (FL)
Anshei Emuna Congregation, Delray Beach (FL)
Beth David Synagogue, West Hartford (CT)
Bialystoker Synagogue, New York (NY)
B’nai Israel-Ohev Zedek, Philadelphia (PA)
Congregation Agudath Sholom, Stamford (CT)
Congregation Ahavas Sholom, Columbus (OH)
Congregation Aitz Chaim, West Palm Beach (FL)
Congregation Anshe Sfard, New Orleans (LA)
Congregation Anshe Sfard Kehillat Torah, Glendale (WI)
Congregation Beth Hamedrosh, Wynnewood (PA)
Congregation Beth Aaron, Teaneck (NJ)
Congregation Beth Ora, Montreal (QUE)
Congregation Beth Sholom, Providence (RI)
Congregation Bnai Yeshurun, Teaneck (NJ)
Congregation Etz Chaim of Kew Gardens Hills (NY)
Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, New York (NY)
Congregation Machane Chodosh, Forest Hills (NY)
Congregation Ohav Zedek, Wilkes-Barre (PA)
Congregation Ohr Torah, West Orange (NJ) 
Congregation Tiferet Israel, Austin (TX)
Congregation Torah Ohr, Boca Raton (FL)
Congregation Zvi Jacob, Utica (NY)
Darchei Noam, Minneapolis (MN)
East Denver Orthodox Synagogue (EDOS), Denver (CO)
Fleetwood Synagogue, Fleetwood (NY)
Jewish Center of Atlantic Beach (NY)
Kehillat New Hempstead (NY)
Kehillat Shaarei Torah of Toronto (ONT)
Keneseth Beth Israel, Richmond (VA)
Ner Tamid Greenspring Valley Synagogue, Baltimore (MD)
Suburban Orthodox Congregation Toras Chaim, Baltimore (MD)
Suburban Torah, Livingston (NJ)
United Orthodox Synagogues, Houston (TX)
Young Israel of Bal Harbour, Surfside (FL)
Young Israel of Brookline (MA)
Young Israel of Deerfield Beach (FL)
Young Israel of East Brunswick (NJ)
Young Israel of Elkins Park (PA)
Young Israel of Fort Lee (NJ)
Young Israel of Hillcrest (NY)
Young Israel of Hollywood/Ft. Lauderdale (FL)
Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills (NY)
Young Israel of New Hyde Park (NY)
Young Israel of Plainview (NY)
Young Israel of Queens Valley (NY)
Young Israel of Southfield (MI)
Young Israel of Stamford (CT)
Young Israel of West Hartford (CT)
Young Israel of West Hempstead (NY)

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