The Chronic Pain Experience Podcast copertina

The Chronic Pain Experience Podcast

The Chronic Pain Experience Podcast

Di: Deana Tsiapalis
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Conversations about chronic pain management, the chronic pain experience and interviews with experts to inspire, motivate and change your relationship to pain.©2020-2026 Pain 2 Possibilities Igiene e vita sana Psicologia Psicologia e salute mentale
Episodi
  • From Chronic Pain Recovery Coach To Patient – Navigating A Rare Autoimmune Disease

    From Chronic Pain Recovery Coach To Patient – Navigating A Rare Autoimmune Disease
    Oct 22 2026
    Scroll to the bottom of the page to listen to the Audio version of this blog post. Foreword: A heartfelt thank you to the wise and wonderful Alesia Briggs for generously sharing her time and for the thoughtful, meaningful conversation about my health journey. Alesia is an incredible coach, and I’m so grateful for her curiosity, compassion, and the opportunity to share my story through her eyes. What happens when the tools you teach others meet a serious illness of your own? You find out that knowing the science does not make you immune to being human. I help people understand persistent pain, work with their nervous systems, and find a way forward. Then I was diagnosed with granulomatosis with polyangiitis, or GPA, a rare form of vasculitis, and suddenly I needed to draw on that knowledge myself. There was fear. There was uncertainty. There were moments when I could not take in what doctors were telling me. Being a coach did not mean I should somehow handle all of that perfectly. The tools helped, absolutely. But they did not give me every answer. They helped me take the next step while I was still frightened, still learning, and still very much a person going through something she had never chosen. Understanding Pain Beyond the Physical Symptoms What gap were you trying to fill through your work and the Chronic Pain Experience Podcast? There is so much information emerging about pain, and it does not always reach the people who need it. Some people have never been introduced to the newer science of pain. Their doctors may not have had much training in it either. That is not about blaming anyone. It is about recognizing a gap. During lockdown in 2020, I spent more time learning alongside other pain providers, and that deepened my work enormously. I love a good conversation, so a podcast felt like a natural way to share what I was learning. Reaching fifty episodes was a happy accident. I had not pictured that milestone when I started, and I have learned a tremendous amount along the way. How did you come to work with people living with chronic pain? My interest started well before this diagnosis. I am also a Pilates instructor, and people often came to movement looking for something that felt safe and accommodating. One woman, Michelle, taught me so much. She had lived through fibromyalgia, cancer, and a long list of other health challenges. Getting to know her helped me recognize how many parts of the illness experience were not being addressed. I had also experienced migraines and headaches, and my mother lived with migraines. So pain was not unfamiliar to me, even though I was not living with constant pain myself. What fascinated me was everything beyond the biological piece: the psychological experience, the nervous system, and the impact of difficult life experiences. Getting sick made that wider picture even more real. Where do chronic pain and chronic illness overlap, and where are they different? They are not interchangeable. Someone can have debilitating persistent pain without imaging providing a clear explanation. With an illness like mine, doctors eventually identified a disease process affecting my body. But there is overlap in the uncertainty, the fear of a flare, the changes in daily life, and the way we relate to our bodies. Living with either can affect how alert we feel to symptoms and how confident we feel about doing ordinary things. So far, I have not been living with persistent pain from vasculitis, although there was certainly pain during my illness. What has helped is recognizing that pain education and nervous system tools can support my experience without replacing the medical treatment I need. From an Ordinary Illness to a Long Hospital Stay How did your illness begin? At first, I thought I had the same cold or flu-like bug my family had. My husband and children got through it. I seemed to be getting through it too, until I was not. I travelled to Winnipeg with my daughter and kept going downhill. I lost about ten pounds, could not keep food or fluids down, was coughing terribly, and became so exhausted I could barely get off the couch. That was definitely not me. When I went to hospital, lung cancer was raised as a possibility almost immediately. Hearing that was frightening, especially before we had a clear explanation. Then more problems appeared: my lungs, my kidneys, a major digestive tract bleed, fluid buildup, and concern about my heart. It was a cascade of things, rather than one straightforward symptom. How long did it take to get a diagnosis? I was hospitalized for about six and a half weeks. It took roughly four weeks before there was a clearer understanding of what was happening, and even then there were competing possibilities. I had care across two hospitals, with different teams contributing. I am grateful for that. The benefit is that you have people bringing different perspectives. The difficult part is that you also have a lot of information and opinions to...
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    33 min
  • Beyond Medication: Exploring Evidence-Based Alternatives for Chronic Pain

    Beyond Medication: Exploring Evidence-Based Alternatives for Chronic Pain
    Aug 14 2026
    Scroll down to the bottom of the page to listen to the audio If you have lived with persistent pain for months or years, you may know this cycle far too well: a diagnosis, a prescription, perhaps a specialist referral, and then back into daily life still hurting and still wondering whether this is really all there is. It is not all there is. That does not mean conventional medicine has no place in pain care. It absolutely does. But far too many people are never told about the wider landscape of treatments that may help them. The goal is not to reject medicine. It is to expand the conversation so you can make informed decisions about your own healing. ​Why Many Doctors Do Not Discuss Alternative Pain Treatments One of the most common beliefs in chronic pain is this: If an alternative therapy really worked, my doctor would have mentioned it. Unfortunately, that assumption does not hold up well. Many doctors receive remarkably little education about pain during medical school. Their continuing education may be shaped by pharmaceutical-funded journals, conferences, and representatives. Meanwhile, the major medical publications often give limited attention to integrative and alternative pain therapies. That does not make doctors uncaring. Most are busy, overwhelmed, and doing their best within a system that has not equipped them to address chronic pain comprehensively. In one survey of primary care physicians at academic medical centers, a majority reported that they did not feel competent treating pain. So when a doctor does not mention acupuncture, biofeedback, mindbody approaches, chiropractic care, movement therapy, energy psychology, or other options, it may simply mean they do not know enough about them. It does not mean those approaches have no value. Alternative Therapies Are Not Just Placebos There is a deeply ingrained belief that natural or integrative therapies are somehow less legitimate because they do not work like a drug. But chronic pain is not just a chemical problem. It is a complex experience involving the brain, nervous system, immune system, muscles, tissues, memories, stress levels, movement patterns, and more. Research support for pain treatments can be surprising. When comparing broad categories of chronic pain treatment, mindbody therapies have substantial research support. In one review of peer-reviewed research using an AI research tool, 73% of studies found mindbody therapies effective for chronic pain, while the remainder found they were possibly effective. None concluded they were ineffective. Opioids, by comparison, had much more mixed findings. That does not mean opioids never have a role. It means they are not the simple, evidence-backed answer many people were led to believe they were. Mindbody approaches do not mean pain is imaginary or “all in your head.” Pain is real. But your nervous system is always part of the pain experience. When the body is stuck in fear, stress, vigilance, and overwhelm, pain can intensify. Learning to calm that system can make a meaningful difference. Stress Changes the Body This is not blame. It is physiology. Stress and fear can create muscle tension, reduce circulation, interfere with digestion, disrupt sleep, and make healing more difficult. Relaxation and nervous system regulation can help reverse some of those patterns. That is why tools such as biofeedback, guided relaxation, trauma-informed therapy, and gentle mindbody practices can be so valuable. For some people, simply realizing they have some influence over their pain experience is a turning point. Feeling completely helpless can make pain even more frightening. Regaining even a small sense of control can begin to change the whole picture. Pain Can Be Structural, Nervous System Driven, or Both It is important not to swing too far in the other direction. Not every pain problem is caused by stress, trauma, or nervous system sensitization alone. Sometimes pain has a structural component that needs to be identified and addressed. Sometimes tissues are injured, shortened, overloaded, inflamed, or functioning poorly after surgery or an accident. Sometimes a treatment aimed only at nervous system regulation will not resolve the underlying physical issue. But even when pain is structural, the nervous system still matters. Long-lasting pain often brings fear, avoidance, deconditioning, frustration, grief, and hypervigilance. Those reactions are understandable, and they can compound suffering. The most helpful question is not, “Is my pain physical or psychological?” The better question is: What pieces are contributing to my pain, and which ones can I address now? For many people, the answer involves more than one piece: Medical evaluation for injuries, disease, and structural concernsGentle movement to rebuild strength and confidenceNervous system regulation and stress reductionSupport for trauma, anxiety, sleep problems, or depressionHands-on therapies, devices, or other ...
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    15 min
  • Why Chronic Pain Persists & How To Retrain The Brain For Relief

    Why Chronic Pain Persists & How To Retrain The Brain For Relief
    Jul 21 2026
    10 min
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