Empowered Relief Gives Greg Starr a Fresh Start

Pain management had become a way of life for Bethlehem resident Greg Starr, who has degenerative disk disease. Disabled since 2008, he has been through surgery on his neck and back, epidural injections and many different medications, including a heavy-duty opioid prescription when needed. In 2011, the former salesman, husband and father of four hit a tipping point.

“I couldn’t walk,” he says. “On the pain scale I was stuck on 10, where 10 is ‘go to the hospital.’” An MRI at the emergency department at Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) also showed spinal stenosis in Starr’s lumbar region. The situation was breaking his heart, since his favorite thing to do was go fishing on his boat. But his boat sat virtually abandoned in Sea Isle City, N.J., while he could barely make it from his chair to the bathroom.

During one of many Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) emergency department visits, Starr saw his clinician, Anant Parikh, MD, Chief, Division of Pain Medicine with Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute. Dr. Parikh suggested LVHN’s Empowered Relief program might be a pain management alternative for Starr to consider.

LVHN is the only health network in the region which offers Empowered Relief classes. This program is a two-hour skills-based, single-session class that was developed by pain psychologists at Stanford University. Research has shown those who participate in Empowered Relief experience less pain intensity, better sleep and lower stress.

“I was still in a lot of pain, so I was willing to try it,” Starr says. After attending the two-hour class, Starr continued treatment for 10 sessions with behavioral health specialist and certified Empowered Relief instructor Amanda Green at the Advanced Spine Center. “I came in with my own goals,” he says.

Starr’s seven goals were:

• Reduce pain level to 5 or less
• Lose 20 pounds
• Be able to exercise and ride a bike
• Reduce use of opiates
• Be able to use my boat this summer
• Stop complaining about stuff I can’t control
• Sit through dinner and sleep through the night

During Starr’s two-hour class, he learned to do a daily 20-minute relaxation exercise with binaural technology. This involves listening daily to a relaxation exercise which contains a subtle tone alternative between each ear. This binaural technology embedded in the relaxation exercise helps to promote relaxation and deepen its positive effects on the nervous system. He also took a pain survey which identifies unhelpful pain thoughts, in which he says, “I scored horribly.”

As the sessions with Amanda progressed, Starr learned other skills such as breathing techniques and meditation. The counseling aspect, which he was able to take part in through video visits, helped him view his pain differently. “I used to describe the pain as a sword sticking in my side,” he says. “I stopped saying that. I don’t describe my pain anymore.”

He says that Empowered Relief class, “retrains your brain on how it processes and responds to pain.”

By the time Starr reached his last session in September 2025, he had met six of the seven goals he set out with, including reducing his use of opioids. He is still working on sleeping through the night and has made good progress. He was especially pleased that he was able to return to Sea Isle in the summer and spent a week on his boat with his son.

Starr says he can now recognize when he “overdoes it,” but has tools to help him find pain relief. For example, after he spent an entire day boating, he had a few painful days. “I was at the grocery store and had trouble getting to the car,” he says. “I pulled out my ‘gratitude list’ and ‘soothing actions list,’ and they really helped.”

He says he has also learned to be more compassionate with himself. “You talk to yourself as you would your friends. That helped a lot.”

Overall, Starr is pleased with the progress he has made.

“I have been dealing with this a long time and have tried a lot of things. I can relate to anyone with back issues,” he says, noting that his father, two sisters and his cousins all had spinal stenosis. “I would recommend Empowered Relief to anyone with chronic pain. That, and my care under Dr. Parikh, are the best medicine I’ve had since 2011.”