If you’ve tried everything for chronic pain and still feel stuck, this conversation may change how you think about healing. In this episode, I sit down with Alex Crowther to answer a question many people are quietly asking: what is a pain coach, and how is this different from traditional pain management? Alex explains how pain coaching helps people move beyond symptom-chasing and into true nervous system regulation, emotional resilience, and long-term relief. We explore why pain often persists even after surgeries, medications, or physical therapy—and what’s actually missing from the conversation. You’ll learn: What a pain coach does (and doesn’t do) Why chronic pain is not “just physical” How mindset, safety, and the nervous system influence pain Who pain coaching is for—and who benefits most Why more treatments don’t always equal more healing If you live with chronic pain, autoimmune symptoms, or unexplained discomfort and feel dismissed or exhausted by the medical system, this episode offers clarity, validation, and hope. ? Listen in to discover what a pain coach really is—and why this approach is helping people reclaim their lives when nothing else has worked.
For more than three decades, Alex Crowther built a global career as an advertising executive, leading billion-dollar accounts, managing international teams, and operating at the highest levels of corporate life. His world revolved around performance, pressure, and achievement. Success was measured in results, and for years he lived entirely in that rhythm of constant motion.
Everything changed when chronic pain entered his life. What began as a physical injury spiraled into years of relentless pain that no doctor, medication, or procedure could resolve. Eventually diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, often called “the suicide disease,” Alex was forced to confront the limits of his own endurance. The experience dismantled the identity he had built and brought him face-to-face with the question of what truly matters.
Rather than succumb, Alex made a decision: if pain was going to stay, it had to have a purpose. That moment marked the beginning of his transformation. He began studying the neuroscience of pain, the psychology of healing, and the power of human connection. He became a Reiki Master and an initiated Shaman, blending science and spirituality to understand how the mind, body, and spirit interact in healing.
Today, Alex serves as the CEO of Pain Coach Academy, the world’s premier training organization for board-certified pain coaches. He leads a movement to redefine how society understands and treats chronic pain, empowering both individuals and professionals to help others calm the nervous system, retrain the brain, and rebuild lives of meaning.
His upcoming book, Reframing Pain: Understanding Pain in Everyday Terms, captures this work. It explains how pain is created and sustained by the brain, and how awareness, education, and compassion can quiet it.
Through his leadership, writing, and speaking, Alex’s mission is simple yet profound: to reduce needless suffering and show that purpose is more powerful than pain. In doing so, his goal is to train 10,000 coaches and help in excess of a million people living with complicated pain.
https://www.paincoachacademy.com
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AnnaLaura Brown: Okay, everybody. Today I am happy to welcome Alex Crowther to Autoimmune Rehab and we are going to be talking about a topic that we’ve talked about it before but you probably can’t talk about it enough and that’s the topic of chronic pain and how that relates to autoimmune. So, Alex, welcome to Autoimmune Rehab and start off by telling us in a short, you know, 30 to 60 seconds who are you and what brings you on to autoimmune rehab today??Alex Crowther: right. Well, good morning and um so what who am I? Who am I? What brings me here? So, uh I’m Alex Crowder. I’m I’m here in Michigan. I got a funny accent. I’m originally from the UK and uh I found myself in Michigan actually working for um uh the auto manufacturers in advertising and uh you know but I I got diagnosed with a chronic pain condition um actually quite recently within the last couple of years but I’ve been sick for about 10 12 years. That’s me.? ?
00:01:00
?AnnaLaura Brown: Well, yeah, that’s uh, you know, and unfortunately that’s the story of a lot of people have with their autoimmune. They’re sick forever before they finally get a diagnosis. And you know, I think there’s a lot of technology and things that are coming out that are going to help us get those diagnoses quicker, but the reality is a lot of us sit around, bounce around from doctor?Alex Crowther: Okay.?AnnaLaura Brown: to doctor to doctor. So tell us a little bit about what that was like because I’m assuming that you went and saw other doctors and things like that. It took you a while to finally figure out what was going on.?Alex Crowther: Oh yeah. Um, you know, this is a trigger warning cuz cuz uh this is going to resonate with a lot of people. Uh, so so I had uh I was involved in a car accident uh which I believe was the starting point of my illness. Um, so that was back in uh 20 2012. Um, it was on my birthday actually. Uh, someone came off the highway onto this sort of road that I was on directly off the highway onto this road and side hit me at about 50 miles an hour.? ?
00:02:02
?Alex Crowther: I was going through a green traffic light and I got I got walloped um pretty hard um and I was in a big old jeep fortunately. Thank god it saved my life. And uh because the car was a little bit lifted up, uh the hood of the other car went under the side of my car, flipped me in the air, rolled a few times, da da da da. I ended up hitting a uh utility pole. Um and I was upside down. The EMS were called to what was believed to be a fatality because I was laying upside down in my car, basically unconscious, not moving. And so the onlookers didn’t want to touch me. Um and they they literally they thought I was dead. So anyway, EMS get there. I’m not dead. Um and uh uh they they they manage to I wake up actually as they’re as they’re uh getting into the car to me. Um I come out, I’m sitting on the grass eventually sort of like stunned, dazed, and confused and trying to figure out what’s going on.? ?
00:03:03
?Alex Crowther: And really the first sign of any injury was my both of my thumbs were dislocated and out of their sort of sockets looking a bit a little bit odd. My hands looked pretty strange. Um uh but apart from that I mean I was sort of like um I don’t know very dazed and confused but but otherwise in sort of like one piece. Um end up at the hospital. Obviously there’s something wrong with my hands. Um they they give me some knockout drug drops, put my put my thumbs back in their sockets. Um and uh later that night I’m actually home and um you know it turns out that we we do some imaging. I’m going to need surgery on my hands. So that’s that was sort of like the very beginning beginning. Um, you know, then what happens is, um, I end up having to have the thumb joints rebuilt on both of my hands. But given that it was both my hands, I’m right-handed, we’re like, let’s do my left first. We’ll see how that goes.? ?
00:04:13
?Alex Crowther: We do surgery on my left hand, which which really should have been very routine. All that happened was my thumb joint had collapsed. So there’s a very standard arroplasty um uh where they where they basically remake the joint and uh you know that happens. It’s not a big deal. My hand get w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w wrapped up in a cast and it just doesn’t really heal. It just takes forever and I keep going back to the doctor. The cast is too tight. They redo that. I end up with an infection. Doesn’t really get better. yada yada yada. I’m just I I feel like I’m back at the doctor sort of every every week or two. Um you know about four or five months into that process that that the hand surgeon’s like I don’t know what’s going on. When I do the imaging everything is as it should be. I don’t know why you’ve got this pain.? ?
00:05:06
?Alex Crowther: It doesn’t make sense. And uh he eventually um uh refers me to another hand surgeon for a second opinion. And I go and see this other hand surgeon and uh same story. We don’t know what’s wrong. You shouldn’t have this pain. It makes no sense. Um and that sort of story continues for a while. um you know I I sort of like keep trying things and I don’t know like nothing sort of improves to the point then where I remember waking up one morning um and my left hand my sorry my my left hand was was the one that was hurting at the time and my right hand is now sore and I’m like well this is not good like you know I’ve now got this terrible pain from one hand that that’s now sort of bilateral it’s now both sides of my uh go back, repeat the process. We don’t know. We don’t know. Another two years rolls on or 18 months or thereabouts and then it’s my left shoulder.? ?
00:06:10
?Alex Crowther: I wake up, my left shoulder is really, really painful. Um and not only is it painful, it’s like a progressive pain that gets worse. And I’m not talking about pain that’s like, you know, a dull sort of like ache. I’m talking about like real tissue damage, injury pain, which is now from my left hand to both my right hand to now my left shoulder. Um, and again, another 18 months rolls on where I’m struggling, seeing doctors, asking questions, doing, you know, blood tests, maybe it’s arthritis, maybe it’s some other disorder. Um, and sure enough, then it’s my right shoulder. Everything seems to start on one side. mirrors to the opposite part of my body and then it moves. Um, and without me going into the great big long story because I’m already dragging on a bit, you know, from one part to the next part to the next part, but that that is basically the story. And I’m I’m I’m bouncing from one one sort of modality to the next, chasing, you know, I’m I’m sort of like chasing solutions, you know, like like I’m I’m sure many many people here do, right?? ?
00:07:24
?Alex Crowther: I’m just chasing solutions and it’s miserable because every, you know, one, my pain is real. This thing hurts and I’m constantly being told there’s nothing wrong with you. There’s nothing wrong.?AnnaLaura Brown: Yeah.?Alex Crowther: There’s nothing wrong with you. You know, and that hurts in a way that only someone that has experienced it knows. It hurts on a on such a profound level because you know you’re not crazy but eventually but eventually you start questioning yourself don’t you??AnnaLaura Brown: Yeah, absolutely.?Alex Crowther: We all start questioning ourselves.?AnnaLaura Brown: Yeah. Yeah, for sure.?Alex Crowther: So yeah, that’s?AnnaLaura Brown: And at this point in time, you probably weren’t didn’t really know that much about autoimmune conditions. So, it didn’t even occur to you to think, oh, well, maybe I need to go see somebody that knows something about autoimmune conditions because I know a lot of us don’t think about it till we’re in the middle?Alex Crowther: No. Yeah.?AnnaLaura Brown: of it. But now, it’s like whether it’s myself or anybody else that I know, as soon as I hear about somebody talking about mystery pain or mystery symptoms that they can’t figure out what they are, I’m immediately like autoimmune, autoimmune, you know, but that isn’t what we’re thinking of it.? ?
00:08:33
?Alex Crowther: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly that. So look, I mean the the the thing that’s really was kind of interesting to me now now that you know um now that my story has progressed quite a long way and obviously we’ll get into where I am and what I’m doing a little bit later but what what what was interesting is I was brought up as we all are in the in the in the the system of life that when we when we’re unwell we go to our primary care doctor and we listen to the doctor and the direct the doctor directs you and you do what you’re told. And I was doing what I was told. Um, you know, and I was doing a little bit of my own research, but I was sort of following following all the direction I was being given. And uh, you know, I was getting pretty depressed at the time. You know, the the other thing is I I had I mean I I I had a a a an executive job. Um you know during this period I was I was running um I was working in advertising running a very very big bit of business.? ?
00:09:34
?Alex Crowther: I had almost a thousand people working in my business um and reporting up to me. I mean it was not like a little thing. Now I can’t turn up to work like a miserable so I have to be on my game. Um, I’m dealing with, you know, again, executive clients and employees and peers and this, that, and the other. And I’m traveling all over the world. And, you know, I’ve now got this debilitating pain condition. And what I’m having to do is grin and bear it. I’m grinning and bearing it and pretending I’m faking it all day long. And I’m probably doing a pretty crappy job of it, to be honest. Uh, and so I’m doing that. And what was happening is I’d then come home um at the end of the day and uh you know my routine was I’d you know put my car in the garage, go into the bathroom, change my clothes, maybe take a shower, go and sit down before having something to eat and I would fall asleep like within moments.? ?
00:10:37
?Alex Crowther: I would just sort of like not not fall asleep um you know gently. I would effectively pass out through exhaustion. Um, and it was it was not like a relaxing falling asleep. It was it was like very uncomfortable sort of jolting falling asleep and then waking up. Um, and it started to occur to me like this this is this this ain’t right. Like um you know that that wasn’t good. And then the weekends would roll around and all I wanted to do was hide and stay in my room and go to sleep and, you know, just feel warm and comfortable. And that rolls on for a while and I’m I’m just not living I’m not living a life. Um I’m I’m just having a really miserable time of life. And uh yeah, I mean it was just it was a really miserable time for me. Laura.?AnnaLaura Brown: Oh, yeah. I absolutely believe it. So, what happened next then? How did you finally figure out or get that light bulb to go, “Okay, I something’s really going on here and I got to figure out what’s going on.? ?
00:11:46
?Alex Crowther: Okay. Well, this is where the story sort of takes a turn. So, um I’m in a room and there’s a chair there’s a chair behind me. I know that folks that are just listening won’t be able to see, but there’s a little there’s an armchair behind me and I have my camera set up like this because, you know, when I’m on camera and I’m talking to people in meetings and whatever, I can always see the background. And that was the chair that I sat in unwell um a lot. I spent a lot of hours um falling asleep and trying to stay warm and sleeping at night in that chair because laying down was very uncomfortable and I I still don’t sleep very well if I’m really honest. Um, so I do spend a lot of time in that chair. Um, but I was in that chair and I’m like, I’m not living. Um, and uh, you know, I’m miserable. I’m desperately unhappy. And I was ready to call it good. That is the point.? ?
00:12:39
?Alex Crowther: I was ready to be done. Analora. Um, you know, I I’m sure that maybe maybe is surprising to some degree. You look at me now and I’m like I’m I’m I’m thriving. I’m having a good life and life is good but I I was at a very very low place and I just wanted to be done. Uh because I was working too hard and everything that I had worked for and everything I was doing was for nothing. I I had no life at this point. I wasn’t ever going and doing anything. Um any hobby that I ever had, anything that I enjoyed was no longer a thing. I was living for nothing. I was just taking up space so far as my I was concerned. Um but I didn’t want to leave my partner uh my my wife in this distressing place. Um I wanted to leave this earthly plane in the most gentle way that I could. And so I decided that I would look for um you know, it was overnight, the middle of the night, I was thinking these things through.? ?
00:13:50
?Alex Crowther: And I’m like, I’m going to look for someone that understands pain, a counselor of some sort that I can talk to about pain who can help me figure some of this out because I wasn’t in a I wasn’t in a fit state to like figure some of this stuff out on my own. And so I thought like if I can find someone that understands pain enough, they’ll understand the situation I’m in and maybe they’ll help me like get my things in order and help me figure out where I can go and whatever. And look, there’s a lot of thinking in that that maybe wasn’t very rational, but I was not in a rational place. Um and uh you know I had I had opportunity for all sorts of medications by me that I you know I I I could have I could have done things that you know and it wasn’t just like suicidal ideiation. This was like I just want to be done like like this just makes no sense for me anymore. I’m I’m miserable.? ?
00:14:43
?Alex Crowther: I’m in pain 24 hours a day. Um, and I’m being told by my my uh my my care team that this will only get worse. This will you will not get better. Um, my my diagnosis was complex regional pain syndrome. Um, and uh and and also um hyper mobile ELO Danlos syndrome um you know neither of which there’s you know any real thing that I’m being told that I could do about it.?AnnaLaura Brown: Thank you. No.?Alex Crowther: and what have you. So anyway, I get up in the morning, I sit at my computer and I type in I’m pretty sure the words were um pain, you know, pain counselor or something like that. I’m doing a quick Google search, pain counselor and uh sure enough, I don’t know where it was like halfway down my screen, I I I saw this word pain coach. It’s sort of like, you know, on this big screen, it just like the these these two words sort of jumped out. They leapt out on the page at me and I’d never heard.? ?
00:15:48
?Alex Crowther: So, I’m reading this word pain coach and I’m like, pain coach? What’s what’s that? I’ve been sick for 12 years. I’ve never heard of a pain coach or 10 years at that time, I guess. I’ve never heard of this thing, Pain Coach. And I’ve been to all these doctors and no one’s ever mentioned this thing, Pain Coach. What’s this? click on it. I read and uh I’m like, “Oh, okay. Well, that’s interesting. Uh pain coach, someone that can someone that can just guide me through I’m like that that’s what I need. I need someone to guide me through my my pain process.” Um I click on it. Um and I I I’m going to leave a telephone message. This is like 6:45 in the morning and I’m I’m I’m like ready to just leave a message. Hey, give me a call back. And it just so happens that the woman that uh owned the business click picked up the phone on the second ring.? ?
00:16:43
?Alex Crowther: Well, I wasn’t expecting that at all at 6:45 in the morning. Uh she just happened to be working and that was the time of day that she cleared the decks before she got into her job. And I’m like explain my little backstory. And so very quickly she explained to me, you know, what pain coaching is and what it was and how it can help me and all that kind of stuff. And she basically explained that pain coaching is a non-judgmental partnership that focuses on strengths and solutions, not on my pain and not on my weakness, but really is this sort of supporting modality for people with chronic pain. um where they work through skills and pain neuroscience and there’s a lot of trust and a lot of rapport and confidentiality and they just sort of like walk through, you know, what’s like they’re your guide through pain and they help you explain what’s going on with pain. And it was anyway like she makes an appointment for my coach um and I speak to my coach uh later that same day.? ?
00:17:56
?Alex Crowther: this lady Jarim um who’s a superstar rock star and probably saved my life. Um, I’m talking to Jiren and on my very first appointment which lasted about an hour. Um, she asked me a question which was, “Can you tell me what’s can you just tell me the story of what’s happened?” And so I did. And that took about 59 minutes of the 1 hour. And it occurred to me when I put that phone down that it was that I see you nodding because you get what’s going on. It was the very first time that someone had listened to me. No one. I get goosebumps every time I say that because it was the first damn time that anyone had taken the time to listen to my story about what the f was going on.?AnnaLaura Brown: Mhm.?Alex Crowther: No one had taken the time to listen to me and hear what had happened and where I was on my journey, what all my symptoms were, how it made me feel as a whole human being. And so I was able to explain to her.? ?
00:19:04
?Alex Crowther: She was literally at that point the only person other than my partner who doesn’t have any medical background of course who who knew what was going on. So that was appointment one. appointment two, which was I think literally the very next day, we agreed that we would do a a very condensed series of appointments because like I said, I was ready to be done with this life. Um, and we needed to get out of that place quickly. The second appointment was um, very quickly she said to me, “Do you understand pain?” And I’m like, “Yeah, of course I understand pain.” Well, everybody, we all think we understand pain, but she’s like, “No, no, no. Do you really know what pain is? do you understand what’s going on with pain? And I’m like, I think so. Like, do you understand the mechanics of what’s going on with pain in the brain? And so, she explains what’s going on. She explains how, you know, pain is ultimately um a learned experience and that things like memory and trauma and all sorts of other things come into the pain experience.? ?
00:20:12
?Alex Crowther: and she explained how, you know, when you put your hand on a hot stove, um, you know, it’s really just a signal, uh, it’s a little signal from your finger to your brain initially, and it’s your brain that says, should I send a pain signal now or am I going to send a tickle? And so she starts to break things down and and explain how the brain does this determination of whether or not it should send send a little wave of pain or if it should send a tickle or if it send a whatever. Um and so she started to break it down and then she started to explain things like uh you know the more the more the pain the more the brain um uh experiences pain those you know the the the those um um those connections get stronger and you know the more you do it the the the easier it becomes for your brain to produce those signals. It becomes hardwired if you like. Those connections become stronger. Just like if you become a a you know a ballet dancer or a pianist or a mathematician or a bicycle rider or no matter what you do, you become a professional at something because th those u neuropathic, you know, the paths in your brain become u become stronger and stronger and stronger.? ?
00:21:40
?Alex Crowther: And so I start to understand for the first time what’s going on. and uh you know just like it it was just the basic you know the L and Laura just the basics of understanding what was going on and I started to recognize that you know one I wasn’t crazy one I wasn’t imagining things uh that that I wasn’t going to die from this that this wasn’t going to kill me because you know I didn’t I didn’t know all I knew is this was getting that the more I was experiencing this the worse it was getting. And anyway, over time, we do more and more things. And you know probably over the course of 6 months that I’m working with uh with Jiren I start to recognize that incrementally and slowly through one just learning stuff but two by practicing certain things that I’m being taught um I’m able to bring my pain sensation down. So over this period of time I learned to meditate and it took me a long time and it’s hard. Yeah, meditation takes a minute.? ?
00:22:54
?Alex Crowther: Um but I after about 40 days of trying I I figured it out. Um and uh you know I learned to talk kindly to myself. Um I learned that uh you know things like um you know I I tell myself I tell my brain that we’re safe as an example. Um, you know, it it I I I learned just a plethora, you know, I have a big toolbox of things now that I know that I can do to soften the pain experience. And what’s weird is none of them on their own are rocket science. Nothing is that like zip bang wow kind of like revolutionary. But when you start putting these these different things together, when I ground myself, I mean, there’s all sorts of things that I can do uh that that help me basically calm my nervous system down. And the difference between me having a completely activated central nervous system and a slightly calmer one is the difference between me being stuck in a chair, wanting to kill myself, and being able to be out in the world.? ?
00:24:05
?Alex Crowther: The reality is I still live with chronic pain. I still have pain. But through a lot of things that I can do just by sitting down and writing about chronic pain, I I wrote I wrote an op-ed yesterday and you just by writing about complicated pain, I was able to bring my my my sensation of pain down a few points. um by understanding that uh by understanding complicated pain, my my brain signals seem to settle down. And so that’s where I am. I I’ve just learned a lot about pain. And it’s it’s I don’t know. It’s not rocket science. It’s about telling myself I need to calm down.?AnnaLaura Brown: That’s good. That’s important. Yeah, because I’ve you’re not definitely not the first person I’ve talked to about this. And I think a lot of people don’t realize that the role that the nervous system and you know getting somewhat out of that fight orflight mode if you will you know that a lot of us get into with the nervous system is nervous system is connected to everything pain autoimmune conditions all kinds of things and it’s not something that a lot of us realize and it’s not something that I think even a lot of doctors focus on either you know they just a lot of times don’t know what they don’t know and you know it’s how it is.? ?
00:25:27
?AnnaLaura Brown: So tell us a little bit about the book that you’ve written. So I know he’s written a book that has come out pretty recently and we will make sure that we include the link to his website so that people can go find information about the book.?Alex Crowther: Yeah.?AnnaLaura Brown: Tell us a little bit about that.?Alex Crowther: Yeah. So, so look, I mean again I I it may seem like super trivial like pain coaching is such a remarkable modality because I and look everything that we can do from a medical point of view is great and fantastic and what have you but once we can calm the nervous system down everything else becomes a little bit easier. doctors are able to see once the nervous system is calm, doctors are able to see kind of like closer to the root cause of what’s going on. So, so what I decided I would do is write the book that I couldn’t find when I was sort of really first experiencing pain. And I remember looking trying to understand what pain was and to figure out like what I could do.? ?
00:26:25
?Alex Crowther: So the book is called it’s called reframing pain understanding pain in everyday terms because what I had found is I I was finding one of two things. I was either finding books that were so basic that they were written like a 5-year-old could read them and they really weren’t explaining anything or they were written in a language that was so deeply complicated that that m may maybe maybe somebody with a medical background would would deeply understand but you know so I wrote this book that that really a 13year-old or or somebody who is in a chronic pain flare would be able to read. So I I it’s very explicitly and deliberately written so that it’s accessible. Um so I don’t use any any crazy difficult language and if I’m using you know big scientific words there’s a glossery at the back that that explains you know uh what is neuroplasticity and words like that but but so that it’s broken into about three pieces. The first part of the book explains what’s going on in the brain. So how is how is pain like what is pain?? ?
00:27:38
?Alex Crowther: So we we explain at the at the first third what pain is. Um and there are many studies that demonstrate that when somebody that’s living with chronic pain understands what is going on the bra in the brain uh P& neuroscience education when somebody understands that at a basic level pain can reduce one to two points and so something just as simple as that can make a very very big difference. Um, and then you’re able as a as as as a as a person, as a whole person, you’re able to remind yourself that that, you know, I know what’s going on and it’s okay and we’re safe. The second uh the second third of the book are sort of tools and strategies if you like um things that you can do to calm your nervous system. And I include things like a trigger response plan. So, I had a flare actually uh that started on Sunday. And the thing about being in a flare is all you can like it is so allconsuming and again anybody that that gets big old pain flares will know this that they can become so consuming that you can’t think straight.? ?
00:28:54
?Alex Crowther: And so I I have uh I have it written uh in a way that we can design a a little trigger a you know a trigger response plan that you can stick inside your kitchen cabinet or you can have a copy on your phone that says all you need to remember at that point is to go and find this plan. Um the the the two or three things that can calm that that work for you that calm the system. You know, for me it’s um it’s something like uh uh 426 breathing um when I close my eyes in a chair and I will think of I’ve got one place that I always try and take myself to while I’m doing this breathing and I’m looking at this place in my mind’s eye. Um I am also practicing. I think one of the things I I try and teach is I try and teach that if we can think of our pain brain as a separate entity as a separate person almost that that doesn’t have you know that isn’t logical you know cuz I instinctively I know that I’m in a nice warm room I know that I’m safe I know that I’m not about to be attacked by a saber-tooth tiger I know that you know I’m I’m fed and nourished I know that I’m But my pain brain does not know that I’m safe.? ?
00:30:16
?Alex Crowther: It just doesn’t know. So what I do is I I I think of it like it’s not in my head anymore that it’s a person standing next to me and I will say I will say things um and Laura like uh and I’ll touch my hand maybe and I’ll say you know we’re safe and we’re warm and we know what’s going on and we know that uh we know that you know you you you’re trying to protect me but you don’t need to anymore. And this sounds crazy. This does sound silly, but it works. And so I give it to anybody that will you find you’ll find the words that work for yourself, but but if you can imagine that that that pain brain that exists is a separate a separate thing and you can talk to it talk to it like you’re trying to uh you’re trying to you’re trying to calm your child down. If you talk to your pain brain with the love and the care and the tenderness and the reassurance that it’s okay, it will do incredible things.? ?
00:31:19
?Alex Crowther: So, so when I’m when I’m, you know, when I’m in a flare, I know that warmth helps me. I know that imagining this one place that I can take myself to in my brain. I know that a little bit of uh a little bit of breathing, you know, I I have my things. I have my four or five things that I know that I can do that will help me. So that’s that, you know, that that part of the book has, you know, a a good load of of of of strategies and tools. And then the last third of the book uh talks about the modality of pain coaching. So you know, what is it, how does it work, what does a session look like, um etc etc and where where you can find a coach. And then the very last part of that is we talk about the career of becoming a coach because what’s really interesting what I found on my journey was so many of us that live with complicated pain we lose a lot.? ?
00:32:18
?Alex Crowther: Um you know I my career I was not really I was not one I wasn’t in the position really to to do it. Um um but I didn’t actually want to anymore. But a lot of folks who who live with complicated pain um that’s not going to necessarily go away but but that we can manage need to be able to do things during the course of their day. And so being able to work from home like I do now and like you do um allows me to do things um that that help me calm my nervous system and help me to feel a little bit better. And so pain coaching is a very accessible career to those that live with complicated pain. And I’ll tell you why. One, we don’t have to hide it. We can own our pain and we can talk about it. The other thing is when I’m sitting and I’m talking to someone about complicated pain and strategies and we’re doing breathing exercises or any number of other strategies, not only is it helping the person on the other end of that the video, it’s helping myself.? ?
00:33:26
?Alex Crowther: I’m calming my own central nervous system. um when I’m talking about uh pain in the brain and and how it works, I’m reminding myself and so this becomes a cor like I and and and you know pain changes you. We know that pain fundamentally changes you. I am a infinitely more um kind person than I ever was. I have empathy that I didn’t have. And so when you’ve had and lived with complicated pain, it changes you. And the best coaches that that you’ll find are people that have lived with complicated pain. And therefore, you know, what we what we’ve done is we’ve designed this program where we train uh we like so pain coach academy that I’m running today uh trains people to become pain coaches and to work with. So yeah, so the the book we we go from what is it to how can you how can you manage it to here is a modality that is worth trying. Um, and and I think what’s really cool about it is it it is enough to take you from a state of being in a very difficult place to a state where you’re able to get up and be in the world.? ?
00:34:46
?Alex Crowther: And then whatever else you can do with your pain through through uh, you know, other modalities, that’s all a bonus. And so, you know, that’s that’s what the book’s all about. It’s, you know, it it’s it’s just it’s a lot of teaching and uh a lot of strategy and I’ve got little workbooks in there and uh it’s just it’s just a little helpful helpful book and I give it away. Um you know, it’s it’s free. I I’m you know, I’m not trying to make a bean on it. I I really just want people to have good things that help them. That’s that’s my my my mission in life is helping people. I just don’t want anybody else suffering.?AnnaLaura Brown: Awesome. Cool. That’s great. That’s amazing. That’s an amazing resource. So, tell us what your website is where we’ll be able to find it and we’ll make sure we link it below as well so people can go check it out.?Alex Crowther: Yes. So it’s it’s very simple paincoachacademy.com.? ?
00:35:38
?AnnaLaura Brown: Cool.?Alex Crowther: So paincoachacademy.com and you can find me at alexpaincoachacademy and the book is called reframing pain and uh yeah it’s like I say if you haven’t tried it give it a try we have on the website we’ve got the resources to find a coach you got the book and you can also learn about the uh the you know the path to becoming a pain coach as well. So, uh, it’s very rewarding. You know, it’s like, you know, what what what’s what what what gets me analora is, uh, to be able to work with someone who, you know, really is is deeply struggling. And we all know, we all know, whether it’s ourselves or someone else that’s really having a struggle, uh, to be able to take that person and to walk alongside them and to fundamentally change their life for the better. I mean, it’s it’s an incredible honor and a privilege to be able to do that. And, you know, I’m not saying that that that pain coaching is the it’s not a cure. It’s not a cure, but it is enough.? ?
00:36:45
?Alex Crowther: It was enough for me to change my life enough to be able to get up and to get out into the world. I was given the tools and the strategies that made the difference to be able to be out in the world. And there’s huge hope in that.?AnnaLaura Brown: Oh, absolutely. There’s absolutely hope in it. That’s amazing. Okay, so I think we’ve been talking probably almost long enough now. So, let’s have you answer the last question that I always like to ask people. And that is if you could go back in time, uh, let’s say to the day of your accident and tell yourself something that you know now that you wish you’d known then, what would you say to yourself??Alex Crowther: I was in I was in massive fear. I was very very afraid and all um I was I was terrified of what was what was ahead for me and uh you know I yeah I was scared um and uh you know I was scared of not having a diagnosis.? ?
00:37:38
?Alex Crowther: I was terrified when I had my diagnosis. Um you know a life of a life of sort of incurable pain. I mean what are you going to do with that? However, it was the greatest gift I ever received, honestly because uh it has changed me for the I’m a better person than I was. I have tools to manage my pain. I get to meet people like every single day I meet amazing people that weren’t in my sphere. Um I, you know, I I’ve become a Raiki master. Um I became an initiated shaman. I mean, I have done things. I’ve done some crazy things that I never would have expected to do. I meditate for 90 to 120 minutes a day that I never would have done. I am I I I’m just a different person and I love who I am and I love what I get to do every day and I love helping people. I love the work that I my work does not feel like work. It was a gift. That’s what I wish I knew.?AnnaLaura Brown: That’s awesome. That’s great. I love that. And I think that’s a great way to end. So yeah, like again, we’ll say it’s paincoachacademy.com. We will link that below. Everybody go grab the book, especially since it’s free. You know, go through it, read it, reach out to Alex if you want to chat with him even more. And thanks so much for coming on.?Alex Crowther: Thank you very much,?
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