The journey of chronic pain is isolating, dark and hopeless. Trying to maintain a “normal” life with work and relationships amidst endless doctor visits, procedures and lack of interpersonal or medical support, took every ounce of dedication, motivation and resilience I could muster.

Chronic pain was such a common occurrence in my family that it did not seem out of place to me when I got diagnosed with low back pain and Scoliosis at age 11, or Migraines at age 19. Soon after this I developed Fibromyalgia and Persistent Pelvic Pain. My partner had his own struggles with chronic pain: Complex Regional Pain Syndrome and Adhesive Arachnoiditis. 

I always knew that chronic pain had a strong correlation with stress, since during hard times my subjective experience of pain would worsen. However, when I came across the work of Dr Peter Levine (developer of Somatic Experiencing), Dr Bessel van der Kolk (author of The Body Keeps The Score) and finally Alan Gordon (developer of Pain Reprocessing Therapy), it completely changed how I viewed and worked with chronic pain.

I learned how any adversity, but especially childhood adversity, has the potential to dysregulate our nervous system. I got to know that a dysregulated nervous system was the basis of most psychological disorders, physical diseases as well as chronic pain. I now work as a Pain and Emotional Recovery Coach helping people build a fulfilling and pain-free life.