Chronic pain and other persistent health problems can be very difficult to live alongside. People often ask how clinical psychologists can help individuals manage a problem that is physical and/or incurable. Together, we work with people to find a shared understanding of how your physical difficulties affect your thoughts, feelings and behaviours. We consider how self critical beliefs might prevent you making changes and help you develop tools to overcome these. We know that certain beliefs about illness can affect our experience and expectations of pain and other health problems and by identifying these we can help people find new ways to cope.