BLOG 4: THE PIONEERS AND EXPERTS BEHIND CHRONIC PAIN SCIENCE

Blog
Written By Rachel Kirkbride

From Theory to Measurable Proof

In Blog 3, we explored a shift in how we understand pain.

We introduced what modern science has discovered about chronic pain, the idea that pain isn’t always a direct reflection of injury or damage -
but that, for many people, the traditional explanation doesn’t fully match their experience.

If that’s the case, the next question is:

where has this understanding come from
and how do we know it’s real?

Because often, these new ideas and approaches, can still feel uncertain.
Abstract.
Even difficult to believe.

I know this from my own experience and from talking to others about their pain.

The Early Pioneer: Dr John Sarno

For years, pain has been explained almost entirely through a physical lens. So the idea that the brain and nervous system could be driving ongoing symptoms - even in the absence of damage - can feel like a significant shift.

But this shift didn’t happen overnight.

It began with a small number of clinicians and researchers who started asking a different question:

What if pain isn’t always a sign of something broken;
but a response being generated and maintained by the nervous system itself?

One of the first specialists to bring this idea into mainstream conversation was Dr John Sarno.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, long before modern brain imaging could support his work, he introduced the concept of TMS - The Mind Body Syndrome, as I mentioned in Blog 3.

At the time, this was a radical idea.

It challenged the conventional western medical model - and was often dismissed.

But what made Sarno’s work so important, wasn’t just the theory itself. It was the way he distilled it into a simple powerful question:

What if the body isn’t broken - but responding?

And although his ideas weren’t widely accepted at the time, they laid the foundation for everything that followed.

 

The Neuroplasticity Era

As research and technology evolved, scientists began to test and expand on Sarno’s ideas.

As imaging advanced in the late 1990s and early 2000s, researchers at Stanford and the University of Michigan began mapping exactly what Sarno had described: that the nervous system can become hypersensitive and amplify pain signals - a process now known as central sensitisation, and recognised today as part of the broader field of neuroplastic pain.

Dr Howard Schubiner, who trained with Sarno, helped bring this work into mainstream medicine through more than two decades of clinical research and his programme Unlearn Your Pain.

Then, in 2013, neuroscientist Tor Wager and his team at the University of Colorado identified the Neurologic Pain Signature - the first measurable brain pattern associated with physical pain.

For the first time, science could see pain happening in the brain.

 

Treatment Breakthroughs

Around the same time, Alan Gordon and Dr Yoni Ashar developed Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) - an approach designed to retrain fear-based pain pathways, using techniques like somatic tracking and safety reappraisal.

Their 2021 clinical trial, published in JAMA Psychiatry, showed that nearly two-thirds of participants became pain-free or nearly pain-free after just four weeks.

At the same time, psychotherapist Nicole Sachs, who was herself a patient of Dr Sarno, has spent years translating these ideas into daily, practical tools.

Through her ‘JournalSpeak’ method (a form of expressive writing and emotional processing), her Podcast, The Cure For Chronic Pain, and her book, Mind Your Body (2025), she has helped thousands of people reduce or resolve chronic pain, other chronic conditions and persistent symptoms.

Her work, alongside her BreakAwake Platform - which she co-founded with Dr Sarno’s daughter - continues to make this information more accessible, carrying forward and evolving the ideas that started it.

And as Sach’s states, these experts are:
“tirelessly working to highlight these underappreciated causes of physical pain.”

 

Measurable Proof

Meanwhile, the scientific evidence continued to build.

Between 2019 and 2023, researchers at Harvard and Mass General published imaging studies showing clear changes in brain activity linked to chronic pain - providing visible validation for symptoms many people had previously been dismissed for.

As Schubiner explained:
“The pain is not imaginary, and it’s not psychological - but it is in the brain, because of neural circuits.”

This idea is explored in Dr Howard Schubiner’s independent documentary, This Might Hurt, which premiered at film festivals in 2022 and has since been used widely in chronic pain and mind-body education, helping bring this science to life in a more visible, human way.

And that’s the piece that changes everything.

Not because the pain suddenly disappears -
but because the way you understand it does.

And when that shifts,
what you do next can start to change too.

 

A Bigger Picture

Pain, Learning And The Whole Person

Alongside this work, the understanding of chronic pain expanded even further.

Frameworks such as:
• Pain Neuroscience Education (PNE): developed by Lorimer Moseley and David Butler
• Cognitive Functional Therapy (CFT): developed by Professor Peter O’Sullivan

began reframing pain as an overprotective alarm system, rather than a sign of ongoing damage.

At the same time, trauma and whole-body research added another layer.

Authors and physicians such as Dr Gabor Maté, Dr Bessel van der Kolk, and Dr Sara Szal Gottfried explored how stress, trauma, hormones, inflammation and the nervous system are deeply interconnected.

What emerges from all of this is a more complete picture: what Dr Szal Gottfried calls the PINE system (psych-immune-neuro-endocrine). Their bestselling books have helped bring this understanding to a global audience.

Their work also reflects what so many of us feel: that pain is rarely caused by one single factor.

It’s shaped by layers - physical, neurological, emotional and environmental.

And when that system becomes overwhelmed, it responds.

Sometimes as chronic pain. Sometimes as other persistent symptoms.

 

What Does This Mean?

Dr Schubiner’s forthcoming 2026 edition of Unlearn your Pain is expected to integrate all of the science and research: brain re-wiring, emotional processing, and compassion-led approaches for patients and practitioners.

Together, these pioneers have reshaped the narrative for chronic pain from:

“It’s all in your head”

to

“It’s all connected.”

And that brings something incredibly important with it:

Hope and possibility.

Because if the brain can learn pain,
it can also learn safety.

Chronic pain is not imagined - it is learned.
And what’s learned can be unlearned.

 

My Reflection

Alongside everything I’ve done, and continue to do, physically,
I really believe that a significant part of the chronic pain I’ve experienced has improved through addressing the mind.

I’ve come a long way with this work, and I know it’s helping.

But the final piece - fully embedding it - is still in progress. Because retraining the nervous system isn’t a quick fix.

These experts emphasise that you need to do the work. And then most probably return to it again and again, like maintenance. The time it takes will vary for everyone. Because nobody is wired the same and the time it took for pain to take hold, could be a few years, or a few decades. And it will not be linear. I know this because I’m doing the work right now.

For me though, even small reductions in pain are worth the effort, and they add up, to bigger change.

I also believe that recovery is possible because I’m seeing the progress in my own body, and because the science - and the people who have reduced or resolved their pain, through applying the work - show that it can happen.

If you’ve lived with pain for years, this isn’t just interesting.

It’s proof that we have far more agency over chronic pain than we realise.

And that we can begin applying what science and these experts have discovered…to start changing the narrative - of chronic pain and it’s impact on our story.

 

Next Time…

BLOG 5: CHRONIC PAIN AND WHY ME? FROM SCIENCE TO APPLICATION


In the next post, we move from understanding the science to application.

We begin exploring:
Why some people may be more vulnerable to chronic pain
and how stress, trauma and personality patterns can keep the body in a heightened state of alert.

And I’m going to use myself as an example!

Because once you understand why the alarm is ringing…
you can start applying the science and begin teach the system that it’s safe to switch it off.

 

Gentle Reminder: I am not a medical expert. Everything I share here and on Instagram is based on my lived experience and the practices that have helped me personally - drawing on research, literature and insights from those who are experts, who I am learning from and who I admire. The content is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always check with your doctor or a qualified specialist, if you’re struggling, unsure about symptoms or regarding any medical condition.

References and further reading

The references and further reading below, inform this ongoing series. This is not an exhaustive list, but a starting point for anyone wanting to understand chronic pain more deeply.

 

Join the wider conversation

This post is part of an ongoing series exploring Chronic Pain and the mind-body connection.
If you’d like to see the accompanying Instagram reels, or related content across Chronic Pain, Pilates and Movement, Mind-Body Wellbeing, or if you’d like to leave a comment

You can find it over on Instagram @rachel_kirkbride

 

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BLOG 3: UNDERSTANDING CHRONIC PAIN - What BRAIN SCIENCE HAS DISCOVERED