Jacobson’s Progressive Muscle Relaxation for Enhancing Coping Skills and Reducing Pain in Women with Chronic Pain Conditions: A Narrative Review

Abstract

Chronic pain in women is increasingly recognized as a sustained biopsychosocial condition that affects not only physical functioning but also emotional regulation, cognitive processing, identity, and long-term coping capacity. Women living with chronic pain are frequently exposed to prolonged physiological arousal, cumulative emotional labour, and sociocultural expectations that emphasise endurance and role fulfilment over emotional expression and self-care. Over time, these pressures heighten stress reactivity, reinforce maladaptive cognitive patterns such as catastrophizing and hypervigilance, and contribute to emotional exhaustion, reduced perceived control, and diminished psychological resilience. As a result, effective pain management requires interventions that address the psychological and psychophysiological mechanisms through which pain is experienced and regulated.
This narrative review integrates psychological theory and empirical evidence to examine the role of Jacobson’s Progressive Muscle Relaxation (JPMR) in enhancing coping skills and reducing pain among women with chronic pain conditions. The review synthesises findings across psychophysiological, emotional, and cognitive domains to clarify how JPMR functions as a mind–body intervention within women those lived with experiences of pain. Evidence consistently suggests that JPMR reduces muscle tension and autonomic hyperactivation, facilitating a state of physiological calm that supports emotional regulation, cognitive clarity, and more intentional coping responses. These regulatory shifts are associated with improvements in coping self-efficacy, reduced emotional distress, and more adaptive engagement with persistent pain.
Importantly, JPMR emerges not merely as a relaxation technique but as a coping-enhancement strategy that restores psychological agency often eroded by chronic pain. Its structured, accessible, and self-directed nature makes it particularly suitable for women managing chronic pain alongside caregiving responsibilities, emotional labour, and limited access to specialised psychological care. By strengthening self-regulatory capacity and reducing stress-driven reactivity, JPMR supports sustainable psychological adjustment to long-term pain.
Overall, this review positions Jacobson’s Progressive Muscle Relaxation as a psychologically grounded and clinically meaningful intervention that addresses core psychophysiological and emotional mechanisms underlying chronic pain in women.