Chronic pain and the nervous system
Chronic pain can be complicated. Sometimes the original injury or illness has healed, yet the pain continues. This is because pain isn’t simply a measure of damage — it’s also an output of the nervous system, influenced by our experiences, emotions, stress levels, beliefs and sense of safety.
For some people, the nervous system can become increasingly protective, continuing to produce pain even when there is no longer an ongoing tissue threat. This is sometimes described as neuroplastic or neuropathic pain.
Understanding this can be incredibly helpful. It doesn't mean your pain isn't real — quite the opposite. It gives us another way of understanding what your body may be doing, and another avenue for support.
There are some wonderful resources available that explore the relationship between the brain, nervous system and chronic pain.
I’ve put this little collection together because I know how exhausting it can be to live with persistent pain or other chronic symptoms, particularly when you find yourself going from specialist to specialist, trying one approach after another. Sometimes you’re helped a little. Sometimes something helps for a while and then the symptoms return. And sometimes, despite everyone’s best intentions, you can find yourself feeling no better — or even worse.
Over the years, alongside living with my own chronic pain, I’ve continued to learn about pain and the nervous system because I wanted to understand more about what was happening in my own body, and find ways of supporting myself.
As part of that journey, I undertook practitioner training in neuroplastic pain with Howard Schubiner and Hal Greenham. The training explores how chronic pain can sometimes be maintained by a sensitised nervous system, and how education, awareness, emotional processing and safety can become part of working with persistent symptoms.
I wanted to bring some of what I’ve learned into the massage and yoga work I offer here in Lancashire, but I also wanted to make some of these resources available more widely.
So this page is simply a place to start.
I’ve gathered together some free material I’ve created myself — including an audio and workbooks to help you explore the relationship between stress, the nervous system and persistent symptoms.
They’re not intended to replace medical care or tell you what is causing your pain. They’re here to offer another perspective, a little education and, hopefully, some support if you find yourself somewhere along this road.
Everything on this page is free.
Take what feels useful, leave what doesn’t, and go gently.
Explore your relationship with pain and stress
The webinar and workbooks offer a gentle, practical way of exploring the relationship between chronic symptoms, stress and the nervous system.
The first can be filled out alongside the webinar and helps you become more aware of how stress shows up in your body, what your nervous system experiences as threatening, and some of the patterns that may keep your system on high alert.
The second workbook, which can be used after the webinar, takes that awareness into everyday life, helping you notice symptoms without automatically interpreting them as danger, practise simple safety signals and develop a kinder response to your body.
This isn't about telling yourself that your pain isn't real, or trying to think your symptoms away. It's about understanding more about how the nervous system can become protective and sensitised, and exploring what happens when we begin to meet those signals with curiosity, safety and compassion.
You can work through them slowly, returning to the exercises that feel most useful to you. There is no need to do everything perfectly — the practice itself is part of learning a different relationship with your body.
In this foundational session, we explore the science and soul of your nervous system. You'll learn why your body reacts the way it does under stress, how past experiences shape your responses, and why building safety from the inside out changes everything. This is not about fixing yourself — it's about understanding yourself with clarity and compassion.
Perfect for anyone living with chronic stress, fatigue, pain, anxiety, or emotional overwhelm — and ready to begin the journey toward healing.
MEDITATIONS FOR YOU
BEFORE
Sometimes there is a moment when you notice something has changed.
Perhaps you’ve eaten something that doesn’t usually agree with you. You’ve done a little more exercise than usual. You’ve had a poor night’s sleep. Or you recognise those familiar early warning signs that, in the past, have often meant a bout of pain or symptoms is on its way.
This is the moment this meditation is designed for.
“Before” is a gentle meditation and visualisation to help you pause at that junction — before the familiar story takes over and your brain begins preparing for what it expects to happen next.
Together, we use three simple tools that can support the brain as it learns something new:
Noticing belief
Noticing breath
Noticing gratitude
There is nothing to force and nothing to fix. It’s simply an opportunity to pause, notice what is happening, and gently create a different experience in the present moment.
Find yourself somewhere comfortable where you can relax, and join me when it feels right for you.
This is your “before” moment.
DURING
Sometimes the pain is already here.
It might be distracting, frightening or difficult to understand. You may find yourself worrying about what it means, wondering how long it will last, or becoming increasingly focused on every sensation.
This is where “During” can help.
This is my favourite of the meditations in this collection, and one I use myself. Clients have also found it particularly helpful when they are in the middle of a difficult bout of pain.
Rather than trying to push the pain away, we gently turn towards what is happening and use three simple tools:
Letting yourself feel
Acceptance
Reducing fear
We begin with a gentle body scan, giving yourself permission to notice what you are actually feeling, without needing to change or judge it.
From there, we explore acceptance — not as giving up or saying that you want the pain to stay, but as softening the struggle with what is already happening in this moment.
And finally, we work with fear. Pain can be scary, and fear can add another layer to an already difficult experience. This meditation offers a gentle way to begin reducing that fear and reminding your brain that, even while you are hurting, you are here, in this moment, and can meet what is happening with a little more safety and compassion.
Find yourself somewhere comfortable where you can relax, and join me when it feels right for you.
You don't have to make the pain disappear.
For now, you can simply be with yourself while it is here.
Understanding Pain, Fear and Catastrophising
If you live with persistent or recurring pain, these two short questionnaires can be useful tools for exploring what might be happening around your pain — not to question whether your pain is real, but to help you understand it differently.
The pain you feel is real. Pain is produced and regulated by the nervous system, and when the brain has become sensitised, it can amplify pain signals or continue producing pain even after an injury has healed. This is one of the important principles behind modern pain neuroscience and the work of Dr Howard Schubiner and Freedom From Chronic Pain.
The first questionnaire takes a broader look at your experience. It invites you to consider your pain and other symptoms, your beliefs about pain, patterns such as worrying or perfectionism, stressful experiences around the time your pain began or became worse, and difficult experiences earlier in life.
The second is a shorter Fear and Catastrophising Scale. It explores some of the thoughts that can arise when we are in pain — for example, fearing that pain means we have caused damage, worrying that it will never end, or becoming afraid to move.
These aren't questions you need to get “right”, and they aren't a diagnosis. They are simply an opportunity to become curious about your own nervous system and your relationship with pain.
One of the most helpful things we can begin to notice is the difference between:
“I have pain.”
and
“I have pain, therefore something is seriously wrong.”
The second interpretation can create more fear and vigilance, which can in turn keep the nervous system in a heightened state of protection. Research has found that pain catastrophising — particularly thoughts involving threat, helplessness and fear about the future — is associated with greater pain and with slower or poorer recovery in a range of pain and surgical conditions.
This doesn't mean that your thoughts are causing your pain, or that you are somehow thinking yourself into being ill. It means that the brain, body and nervous system are continually communicating, and the meaning we give to a sensation can influence how strongly the protective system responds.
Used gently, these questionnaires can therefore be a starting point for some very useful questions:
What does pain mean to me?
What do I fear will happen when my pain increases?
Do I automatically interpret pain as damage?
How much attention and worry does my pain receive?
Can I experience a painful sensation without immediately deciding that I am in danger?
And perhaps most importantly:
Can I begin to learn that pain can be real without always meaning that I am being harmed?
This is not about ignoring symptoms or dismissing physical illness. It is about developing a fuller understanding of persistent pain and discovering that our relationship with pain is something we can work with.
You may find some of the questions challenging. You don't have to analyse every answer or attach a label to yourself. Simply noticing your responses can be valuable.
These questionnaires are intended as a tool for reflection and education alongside appropriate medical care, rather than as a diagnostic assessment.