Pain Neuroscience Education in London
What is PNE?
Pain Neuroscience Education (PNE) is an educational approach that helps you understand how pain works and the many factors that can influence the experience of persistent pain.
By developing a clearer understanding of pain, we can explore factors such as threat, fear, expectations, stress, movement and attention that may be contributing to your pain experience.
PNE does not aim to convince you that your pain is imaginary or simply psychological. Pain is real, even when there is no ongoing tissue damage or a clear structural explanation.
The aim is to give you a more useful framework for understanding your pain and to help you feel more confident in responding to it.
PNE can be particularly useful alongside approaches such as Cognitive Hypnotherapy and somatic work.
Pain Neuroscience Education aims to help you connect your mind more effectively to your body, decrease catastrophisation, boost your confidence, increase your ability to find safety in your body, and help you to pinpoint areas of your life that may be contributing to your pain perception- with the intention of creating change in these areas.
It can help improve your quality of life, whatever your current situation.
PNE helps to reduce brain activity in brain regions associated with pain, decrease fear of movement, and improve pain thresholds during exercise and daily life.
I use the Explain Pain approach and Pain Reprocessing Therapy to offer online Pain Neuroscience Education in London via Zoom.
Watch leading Pain Scientist Lorimer Mosely talk about the Explain Pain approach.
What can PNE help with?
Pain Neuroscience Education can be helpful for reducing/eliminating persistent pain perception from chronic musculoskeletal conditions such as
Low back pain
Spinal pain
Fibromyalgia
Pelvic Pain
Osteoarthritis
Sciatica
Neck pain
Migraine
Whiplash
Vulvodynia
Somatoform Disorders
Idiopathic Pain (pain with no known origin)
It can also help to prepare you for surgery.
PNE is not a treatment for the underlying medical cause of every pain condition, and it does not guarantee that pain will disappear. The aim is to improve understanding, boost confidence and bring the ability to respond to pain in a way that supports a better quality of life.
Some more information about PNE can be found here.
-
Yes. Stress, overwhelm, poor sleep and emotional tension can increase nervous system sensitivity, often intensifying chronic pain symptoms and flare cycles.
-
Yes. Chronic pain is always real. Pain is influenced by many factors including the nervous system, stress physiology, emotions, immune activity and past experiences, not only structural damage visible on scans- in fact, pain can exist entirely in the absence of tissue damage.
-
Central sensitisation describes a state where the nervous system becomes increasingly sensitive over time, amplifying responses to sensory signals and sometimes contributing to persistent pain and other physical symptoms.
Its a bit like having the volume stuck on ‘up’.
-
Yes- chronic pain is influenced by a combination of the nervous system, the brain, the immune system, stress physiology and past experiences, as well as the body itself.
In some cases, the nervous system can become increasingly sensitive and protective over time, amplifying pain signals and symptoms.
-
Pain flare cycles can be influenced by many factors including stress, poor sleep, overactivity, fear, emotional overwhelm and nervous system sensitisation.
Understanding these patterns can help reduce fear, and support more effective pacing and recovery strategies.
-
Sometimes pain can continue after tissues have healed because the nervous system has become increasingly sensitive.
The brain and nervous system can change how signals from the body are processed, contributing to ongoing pain.
Stress, fear, emotions, past experiences, poor sleep and persisting nervous system activation can all influence how pain is produced and experienced. Understanding these processes can help reduce fear and support recovery.
““I have really loved working with Ella.
Her calm kind and friendly demeanour is in and of itself most encouraging.
Her knowledge of neuroplastic pain and symptoms is amazing.
She has a very intelligent approach to her work and real empathy for her clients. I had been having some very troublesome neck and shoulder pain which kept me awake at night. These days it is a lot better and I am back sleeping again.”