Pain Recovery Coaches I Can Recommend
The following coaches are all people I have gotten to know personally and I can vouch for their knowledge, expertise, and compassion for people suffering with chronic pain. Like me they have all suffered with chronic pain themselves and recovered. Each person resonates differently with different coaches, so you might find that some of these coaches are better fit for you.
Michelle Wiegers
“Michelle Wiegers is a Certified Professional Life and Mind-Body Coach, writer and poet who discovered her creative voice and mind-body coaching work after recovering from over twenty-five years of chronic pain, fibromyalgia, sciatica, ME/CFS, POTS, IBS and symptoms associated with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. She creates restorative healing experiences with individual clients and through her online course, How We Heal Chronic Pain & Fatigue.”
Great podcast interview with Michelle where she tells her personal story:
Rebecca Tolin
interview with her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=as7I55hY29k
Her website: https://www.rebeccatolin.com/
“Rebecca has developed a system of healing from her 13-year journey with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS/ME). She emphasizes the role of emotions, stress and the brain in persistent fatigue and pain. Rebecca teaches people how to safely process emotions, regulate their nervous system, retrain their brain and find self-compassion.
For twelve years, Rebecca worked as a television news reporter for NBC, ABC and PBS affiliates. She now writes articles and produces videos in the mind-body space, including through her YouTube channel. Her work has regularly appeared in Yoga Journal, Mother Nature Network, San Diego Magazine and other publications.”
Lilia Graue, MD, LMFT
From Dr. Graue’s website:
”I am a physician (MD) and licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT). I have postgraduate studies in medical family therapy, body psychotherapy, mind-body medicine, complexity sciences, diagnosis and treatment of neuroplastic pain and other psychophysiologic symptoms, and feminist approaches to health. I have over 20 years of teaching experience in the health professions, and 18 years of clinical experience helping people cultivate health and wellbeing. I’ve completed specialization and continuing education activities in different Universities in Mexico and abroad, including UNAM, UCSD, Harvard, University of Rochester, University of New Mexico, and Oxford University.”
Dr. Graue offers coaching services to people who live outside of Mexico, and is a rare example of someone trained as a medical doctor, therapist, and coach who does mind-body healing work.
Lara Birk
Lara Birk is a coach who has a PhD in medical sociology and she uses this work to treat her own structural pain, that is, a rare leg condition that has required over a dozen surgeries (this is unusual expertise—most coaches use this mind-body healing work for so-called "neuroplastic" conditions only).
From her bio: “Lara has a PhD in the sociology of health & illness, an MA in education, and multiple publications on the social aspects of chronic pain & illness. With over 20 years of experience as a professor, academic coach, and mentor at Boston College, Wesleyan, Brandeis, and other universities, she brings together her award-winning teaching skills, scholarly expertise, and personal experience of living with pain & illness for nearly 30 years to her work as founder at The Sage Practice.”
https://www.thesagepractice.com/about
The Pain PT
https://www.thepainpt.com
Jim Prussack, Licensed Physical Therapist and Mind-Body Specialist