Flipping the Pain Script: Rethink, Relearn, Relieve, Recover

Understanding pain is the first step to changing it. With fresh, evidence-based education for both patients and professionals, we can rewrite the story of pain - and empower people to take control.

Flipping the Pain Script: Rethink, Relearn, Relieve, Recover

Understanding pain is the first step to changing it. That's why our team at Leeds Beckett is passionate about pain education - not just for students and clinicians, but for the public too. We believe that when people truly understand what pain is and how it works, they're better equipped to manage it, challenge it, and recover from it.

We've been researching pain education for decades. Back in the early 1990s, I was part of a Leeds Beckett team that developed one of the first computer-based learning tools on pain science. More recently, we developed an online CPD course on neuromodulation funded by NSUKI to support practitioners implanting spinal cord and brain stimulators.

Dr Kate Thompson from our team has long led the way in pain education within physiotherapy. As Chair of the Pain Education Community of the British Pain Society - the world's oldest learned pain society - Kate has championed innovative approaches to teaching and learning about pain. Most recently, she led the development and evaluation of a Virtual Patient with chronic low back pain, designed to help physiotherapy students learn through real-world scenarios and lived experience. Co-created with patients and our digital learning team, this resource was published in the journal Healthcare and represents a significant step forward in experiential pain education.

Our Virtual Patient is one way we're flipping the pain script - ensuring we remain at the forefront of contemporary pain science by integrating academic research, clinical practice, and the voices of those living with pain. Initiatives like Rethinking Pain remind us that education is not just about facts - it's about empathy, empowerment, and transformation.

Our outreach work reinforces this commitment. Dr Ghazala Tabsam's leadership of the Chai Ladies project in Oldham and my own participation in the Flippin' Pain cycle tours help embed contemporary pain knowledge into the social consciousness - where it can truly make a difference.