My Pain Coach, LLC

03/03/2026

Part 2 of my recent conversation on the Dr. David Hanscom's Back in Control podcast is now available.

Dr. David Hanscom is an orthopedic spine surgeon, author, and educator known for his work in applying neuroscience principles to persistent pain.

After decades in his spine surgical practice, he shifted his focus toward teaching patients how the brain and nervous system influence the pain experience.

We discuss:

• The role of emotions in changing the pain experience and why learning to "feel to heal" rather than suppress emotions is foundational
• How personal agency and lifestyle patterns influence nervous system regulation
• Why self-leadership is essential when shifting long-standing pain patterns
• My coaching approaches
• The structure of my hybrid pain coaching program, which teaches pain, brain, and neuroscience with personalized integration
• How clients learn to regulate thoughts, emotions, and behaviors in ways that support nervous system safety
• The role of coaching sessions in helping clients integrate education into daily activities

If you or someone you care about feels stuck in an ongoing pain pattern, this conversation will expand how you think about what’s possible.

Listen to Part 2 here:

SPOTIFY:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/32bqPvP9PkIjsgzNwVWY96?si=UIebBpnASTe9wlklJOc2pg

APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/back-in-control-with-david-hanscom-md/id1451626927?i=1000748415782

HOST WEBSITE: https://backincontrol.com/media2/podcast/?v=0b3b97fa6688

Discover how to conquer debilitating chronic pain by using a groundbreaking, self-directed approach pioneered by Dr. David Hanscom. His methods have been used by hundreds of patients to eliminate chronic pain and regain control of their lives.Listen to his weekly podcasts on the Back in Control podc...

03/03/2026

Part 1 of my recent conversation on the Dr. David Hanscom's Back in Control podcast is now available.

Dr. David Hanscom is an orthopedic spine surgeon, author, and educator known for his work in applying neuroscience principles to persistent pain.

After decades in his spine surgical practice, he shifted his focus toward teaching patients how the brain and nervous system influence the pain experience.

In Part 1, we discuss:

• Growing up with pain conditions and encountering the limitations of traditional medical systems
• How independent research led me to understand the brain and nervous system’s role in persistent pain patterns
• My involvement in legislative advocacy and how it shaped my perspective on patient agency and provider care
• Why behavior change and nervous system education are foundational in changing the pain experience
• The path that led me to become a board-certified health and wellness

SPOTIFY:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3tzRAHUjIE8VxPKhKpi4gT?si=VuGa9poOR5eIlulB7FXV8Q
�APPLE:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/back-in-control-with-david-hanscom-md/id1451626927?i=1000748415192

HOST WEBSITE: https://backincontrol.com/media2/podcast/?v=0b3b97fa6688

I would like to thank Dr. David Hanscom for a very engaging interview. I am honored to be a guest on his Back In Control podcast.

Discover how to conquer debilitating chronic pain by using a groundbreaking, self-directed approach pioneered by Dr. David Hanscom. His methods have been used by hundreds of patients to eliminate chronic pain and regain control of their lives.Listen to his weekly podcasts on the Back in Control podc...

01/09/2026

The Setup. The Buildup. The Payoff.

A really good movie gives you:
🎬 The setup
🎢 The buildup
🎯 The payoff

A good movement experience should, too.

But too often in pain care, it goes like this:
➡️ Setup - Provider: "Try this exercise."
➡️ Buildup - Self: You do it, maybe with fear, maybe with hope.
🚫 Payoff - No One: …There’s no space to process what happened with exercise.

Without integration, that “payoff” never arrives.
🔴 You’re left with incomplete loops.
🔴 Unspoken questions.
🔴 Unlabeled sensations.
🔴 And a nervous system that’s unsure whether to store this as safety or threat.

What if movement ended with reflection instead of redirection?

❌ We don’t need more drills.
✅ We need more digestion.

The nervous system is always learning.
Let’s help it learn something safe.

Learn more about Exercise that Helps, Not Hurts™ and take the anonymous exercise and pain survey:

https://forms.gle/JYBKKRiQuganSAfp6

01/08/2026

A word that came up from the anonymous exercise and pain survey is kinesiophobia.

I want to pause on that.

Not because fear of movement isn’t real, but because the label itself matters, especially within pain care.

In much of the medical literature, kinesiophobia is defined using words like “excessive” and “irrational.”

That framing is often accepted as fact.
And that’s where the problem begins.

For many people living with persistent pain, fear of movement is not "excessive" or "irrational" at all:
👉🏻 It’s learned.
👉🏻 It’s protective.
👉🏻 It’s based on the lived experience of flare-ups, injuries, dismissive provider encounters, and being told to push through when their body wasn’t safe to do so.

When a person’s fear is automatically labeled as "excessive" and "irrational," their experience is quietly invalidated.

🔴 They remain unheard.
🔴 And when someone feels unheard, they cannot build trust.
🔴 They cannot feel safe during provider encounters.
🔴 And meaningful lifestyle behavior change becomes much harder, if not impossible.

Language shapes the environment people are asked to change in.

If the environment implies “your fear is the problem,” rather than “your nervous system adapted for a reason,” we miss the opportunity to actually help.

This isn’t about rejecting science.
It is about updating it to include lived experience, context, and compassion.

💡 Because no one changes, physically or emotionally, inside a framework that assumes they’re "irrational" and "overreacting."

And that’s a conversation worth having.

Take the Anonymous Survey about Exercise and Living with Chronic Pain at
https://forms.gle/JYBKKRiQuganSAfp6

Cynthia Austin, NBC-HWC
Board Certified Health Coach
www.MyPainCoachLLC.com

Janet Huehls, MS, ACSM-CEP, NBC-HWC
Clinical Exercise Physiologist and Board Certified Health Coach
www.ExercisingWell.com

01/06/2026

Cynthia Austin, NBC-HWC and I are creating something that helps not hurts for people in pain wanting to exercise.

Every day I hear from people in pain misinformation about exercise - either that they have to push through or exercise is not safe for them and they need to avoid it.

There is another way and we have seen it work. First however, we want to hear from people experiencing pain about their exercise experiences.

Please complete this survey and share it with others and stay tuned for an evidence based, real world solution to the struggle with exercising for people in pain.

https://forms.gle/ASseaCoWjNehzfYi6



Cynthia Austin, NBC-HWC

Board Certified Health Coach specializing in Chronic Pain

www.MyPainCoachLLC.com

Janet Huehls, MS, ACSM-CEP, NBC-HWC

Clinical Exercise Physiologist and Board Certified Health Coach

www.ExercisingWell.com

01/05/2026

Why Most New Year Resolutions Fail?

Some research suggests that within 1–2 weeks, the vast majority of people abandon their New Year’s resolutions.

One study found the dropout rate to be as high as 90%.

Why?
Because most resolutions demand big change… and perfection.

That simply doesn't align with how human behavior and habit formation actually works.

Instead of feeling successful, many resolution-makers experience:
🛑 Early friction between intention and action
🛑 Self-doubt about whether their goal is realistic
🛑 Disappointment or discouragement after a slip

Only a small percentage will step back, adjust expectations, and rethink their approach, and those few are the ones most likely to succeed.

So what sets them apart?

The ones who stay with it tend to have:
✅ Supportive structures
✅ Flexible strategies
✅ Self-compassion, not self-criticism

This is exactly where the work of a National Board Certified Health & Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC) comes in.

We help people:
💡Clarify what really matters (not just what sounds impressive in January)
💡Set realistic micro-steps instead of extreme goals
💡Track progress without judgment
💡Build long-term behavior change through accountability, reflection, and mindset support

Because lasting change doesn’t come from pressure.
It comes from partnership and collaboration.

If you’re in that post-resolution dip right now, maybe you haven’t failed.
Maybe you just need a different kind of support.

👉 If you’re looking for a new way forward in 2026, one rooted in neuroscience, self-trust, and practical support, I’d love to connect.

Cynthia Austin, NBC-HWC
Board Certified Health Coach

www.MyPainCoachLLC.com

01/03/2026

What do you want to know about changing the pain experience?

I am a board-certified health coach who helps people change their pain experience.

My professional work blends professional education and pain neuroscience training with nearly five decades of lived experience with chronic pain and illness.

Having overcome conditions like migraine, fibromyalgia, vertigo, back pain, and other many other debilitating pain challenges, I now guide others through the complex, often confusing process of changing the pain experience.

If you have a question about pain, behavior change, or nervous system patterns, ask away.

Cynthia Austin, NBC-HWC
Board Certified Health Coach

01/02/2026

A word that came up in discussions from the Exercise & Pain Survey responses is kinesiophobia.

I want to pause on that.

Not because fear of movement isn’t real, but because the label itself matters, especially within the pain care.

In much of the medical literature, kinesiophobia is defined using words like “excessive” and “irrational.”

That framing is often accepted as fact.
And that’s where the problem begins.

For many people living with persistent pain, fear of movement is not "excessive" or "irrational" at all:

🎯 It’s learned.
🎯 It’s protective.
🎯 It’s based on the lived experience of flare-ups, injuries, dismissive provider encounters, and being told to push through when their body wasn’t safe to do so.

When a person’s fear is automatically labeled as "irrational," their experience is quietly invalidated. Their concerns remain unheard.

And when someone feels unheard, they cannot build trust.
They cannot feel safe.
And meaningful lifestyle behavior change becomes much harder, if not impossible.

Language shapes the environment people are asked to change in.

If the environment implies “your fear is the problem,” rather than “your nervous system adapted for a reason,” we miss the opportunity to actually help.

This isn’t about rejecting science. It’s about updating it to include lived experience, context, and compassion.

💡 Because no one changes, physically or emotionally, inside a framework that assumes they’re irrational and overreacting.

And that’s a conversation worth having.

Take the Anonymous Survey about Exercise and Living with Chronic Pain at
https://lnkd.in/eTh4bfSh

Cynthia Austin, NBC-HWC
Board Certified Health Coach
www.MyPainCoachLLC.com

Janet Huehls, MS, ACSM-CEP, NBC-HWC
Clinical Exercise Physiologist and Board Certified Health Coach
www.ExercisingWell.com

01/01/2026

I cannot tell you how many times a week I hear some version of this statement. Have you heard this? Do you believe it?

It is also being revealed in the insights from the pain and exercise survey Cynthia Austin, NBC-HWC, and I are using to collect information to guide our next steps.

We want to create something that heals, not hurts. We want people experiencing pain to know it's not a sign of progress when exercising, despite all the messages (verbal and subliminal) that say pain is needed for gain.

Join us on the first step toward something better by taking our anonymous survey and sharing it with others. Stay tuned for more about the solution to this unnecessary struggle with exercising.

Thank you!

https://forms.gle/ASseaCoWjNehzfYi6



Cynthia Austin, NBC-HWC

Board Certified Health Coach specializing in Chronic Pain

www.MyPainCoachLLC.com

Janet Huehls, MS, ACSM-CEP, NBC-HWC

Clinical Exercise Physiologist and Board Certified Health Coach

www.ExercisingWell.com

01/01/2026

If you’ve ever started the year thinking, “This time I’ll try to exercise again”… but ended up hurt, discouraged, or blaming yourself: this is for you.

❌You don’t need another resolution.
❌Because it’s not that you’re unmotivated.
❌t’s not that you’re making excuses.
It’s that no one ever built an exercise approach that started with your body’s wisdom, with your nervous system or with your lived experience.

That’s exactly what we’re doing.
We’re building an exercise program that helps, not hurts.™

✅ No pushing through flare-ups.
✅ No shame-based motivation.
✅ No ignoring the emotional layers of movement.

Instead:
🔹 Micro-steps that build self-trust
🔹 Education that explains what your brain and body are doing
🔹 Safety, first—because without it, progress isn’t possible

If you’ve ever been told to “just move more” while your body was screaming no, you’re not the problem. The system is.

And we’re rethinking it.
Carefully.
Intentionally.
With people living in pain at the center of the conversation.

🟢 Add your voice to the Anonymous Exercise + Pain Survey here.
It takes less than 2-3 minutes to complete.

https://lnkd.in/eRrTiyXh

Let’s build something better. Together.

12/29/2025

Have you heard the stories about other people experiencing pain or injury when exercising?

Have you lived those stories yourself?

There are two themes:

😔 exercise that hurts, physically and emotionally

🥳 exercise that heals, physically and emotionally

Cynthia Austin, NBC-HWC, and I have both heard and lived the stories, and we are creating something new for people living with pain: a way to exercise that heals the whole person, not hurts.

We want to hear your story of exercise and pain. Please complete this brief anonymous survey and stay tuned for more of what's next.

https://forms.gle/ASseaCoWjNehzfYi6

Thank you!



Cynthia Austin, NBC-HWC

Board Certified Health Coach specializing in Chronic Pain

www.MyPainCoachLLC.com

Janet Huehls, MS, ACSM-CEP, NBC-HWC

Clinical Exercise Physiologist and Board Certified Health Coach

www.ExercisingWell.com