Pain Psychotherapy Canada Inc.

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Pain Psychotherapy Canada Inc.

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Pain Psychotherapy Canada’s mission is to support clients in greatly reducing their chronic pain.

Website and Social Media Disclaimer: https://www.painpsychotherapy.ca/disclaimer

Disclaimer: The information provided by Pain Psychotherapy Canada Inc., and its director Tanner Murtagh, on this page is for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice, psychotherapy, or counselling. Please Read
If you are in immediate danger, please call a local emergency telephone number or go immediately to the nearest emergency room.

10/16/2026

Anne and I are excited to be attending the Association for the Treatment of Neuroplastic Symptoms (ATNS) conference!

This year, Anne will be speaking alongside Dr. Marcia Dewey about how we can get ahead of chronic pain and symptoms developing in children by looking at the messages we give them through our parenting styles.

We’re incredibly grateful to be part of this community and to spend time learning, connecting, and sharing ideas with so many like-minded people who are passionate about helping others heal.

10/14/2026

When I was recovering from chronic pain about 10 years ago, I had information…but I didn’t really have a plan.

I was learning about neuroplastic pain and starting to understand that my brain and nervous system could be contributing to what I was experiencing. But knowing that and actually knowing what to do every day to heal were two very different things.
So I figured it out as I went.

I tried different brain retraining strategies. I learned how to work with my symptoms somatically. I gradually returned to movement and the parts of life I had been avoiding. I worked on emotions, stress, perfectionism, people pleasing, relationships, and eventually much deeper nervous system work.

Thankfully, over about 8–9 months, I recovered. But there was a LOT of trial and error along the way.

Years later, when my team and I started creating The Somatic Safety Method, I kept thinking about what I would have wanted back then.

I wouldn’t have wanted another collection of random nervous system practices.
I would have wanted someone to say:

Here’s how all of this fits together. Here’s where to start. Here’s what to work on next.

That became the goal of the Somatic Safety Method.

Today, the program has 10+ hours of education, 60+ brain retraining and somatic practices, 30+ interactive worksheets, monthly live Q&As, and most importantly, a step-by-step system for actually putting the work into practice.

More than 400 people have now joined us, which is pretty incredible to think about considering this started as the program I wished existed during my own recovery.
If you’re tired of trying to piece together your healing from books, podcasts, social media, and random practices, you can learn more about The Somatic Safety Method through the link in our bio.

10/13/2026

A flare can mess with your head REALLY quickly.

You can have weeks of progress, feel more confident in your body, start doing more…and then symptoms ramp up and suddenly you’re questioning everything.

“What did I do?”
“Did I push too hard?”
“Do I need to stop?”
“Why am I getting worse again?”

I remember how easy it was during my own recovery to interpret a bad symptom day as evidence that something had gone wrong.

But when symptoms are neuroplastic, a flare can also be an opportunity to practice responding differently.

Instead of immediately going into detective and FIX IT mode, you can pause. Create some safety. Work with the sensations or emotions that are present (when mild to moderate). Remind yourself that your body is healthy and your symptoms are neuroplastic.

And then, as you’re able, start returning to your life.

The goal isn’t to perfectly regulate your way out of every flare. It’s to gradually show your brain that symptoms don’t need to become an emergency.

Sometimes a healing win isn’t having fewer symptoms.

Sometimes it’s realizing: “Wow, I handled that flare completely differently than I would have six months ago.”

That matters too.

10/12/2026

If the brain can learn pain, how do we actually teach it something different?

This is where I think brain retraining can get oversimplified.

It’s easy to think, “Okay, I’ll do this practice twice a day and retrain my brain.” And practices can absolutely be helpful. But what is your brain learning during the rest of your day?

Are you still terrified when symptoms show up? Avoiding movement? Constantly checking your body? Pushing yourself through life with stress and pressure? Holding in emotions? People pleasing? Spending time in relationships that leave you feeling unsafe or drained?

After working with hundreds of people with chronic pain and symptoms, one thing has become very clear to us: everyone’s healing work looks a little different.
For one person, graded exposure might be a huge part of the puzzle. For someone else, it might be changing their beliefs about their body. Another person might need to spend more time working with emotions, trauma, nervous system dysregulation, or relationships.

And usually, it’s some combination of these things.

That’s why we created The Somatic Safety Method. We wanted one place where people could learn how all of these pieces fit together, instead of trying to build their recovery plan from random videos, podcasts, and nervous system practices.

If you want a more structured approach to your healing, you can learn more about the Somatic Safety Method through the link in our bio.

Reference: Dr. Schubiner.

10/11/2026

There was a point in my own healing where I was trying REALLY hard to regulate my nervous system.

If I felt anxious, activated, tense, or uncomfortable, I had a strategy for it. Breathwork. Somatic work. Slowing down. Grounding. And if one thing didn’t work, I could always find another practice to try.

The problem wasn’t the tools. I still use many of them every day.

The problem was the relationship I was starting to have with what I was feeling.
Every uncomfortable sensation became something I needed to change. If I still felt anxious after the practice, I wondered why it wasn’t working. If my body still felt activated, I tried something else.

Eventually, nervous system regulation can start looking a lot like nervous system control.

Sometimes the work is actually allowing yourself to feel activated without immediately jumping in to change it.

You can notice the racing heart. Feel the anxiety. Notice the tension or heaviness. Create some safety around the experience and then go make breakfast, answer your emails, walk the dog, meet your friend, or continue with whatever you were doing.
You don’t need to wait until your nervous system feels perfectly calm before you return to your life.

For me, this is a much more helpful way to think about regulation. Can I stay present with what I’m feeling, support myself through it, and allow my nervous system to naturally move through the experience?

Use the tools when they’re helpful. Just be careful they don’t become another way of constantly checking, controlling, and trying to fix yourself.
Sometimes you use a practice.

Sometimes you let yourself feel what you feel.

And sometimes you just get on with your day.

10/10/2026

If you’ve lived with chronic pain or symptoms for a long time, you’ve probably developed some pretty strong rules about what your body can and can’t handle.

And some of those rules may be completely reasonable and protective.

But when symptoms have a neuroplastic component, it’s worth getting curious about whether ALL of them are still true.

One of the most powerful parts of brain retraining is giving your brain new evidence. Not just telling yourself something is safe, but gradually experiencing it for yourself.
So what’s one rule in your symptom rulebook that you’re starting to question?

10/09/2026

I think some of us need to bring a little more SLOTH energy into brain retraining.

When I was recovering, I definitely had periods where healing became another thing I wanted to accomplish. I wanted to understand everything, do the right practices, make progress, and most importantly, GET BETTER.

But there’s a weird contradiction that can happen when you approach healing with a ton of urgency.

You’re doing a somatic practice telling your brain, “I’m safe.”

Then five minutes later you’re checking your symptoms, wondering if the practice worked, researching another strategy, thinking about how long recovery is taking, and trying to figure out what else you should be doing.

The underlying message can still be: “Something is wrong. We need to fix this ASAP.”

This doesn’t mean you should stop working on your recovery. Some of the most important parts of my own healing required me to do really hard things.
But I eventually had to learn that I could work hard at healing without making healing an emergency.

Do the practice. Approach the thing you’ve been avoiding. Work with the emotion. Challenge the belief. Set the boundary.

And then go live your life.

You don’t need to check every five minutes to see if your brain has changed yet.
Neuroplasticity takes repetition and time.

So if you’ve been putting a ton of pressure on yourself to heal, maybe today you need to channel your inner sloth.

Slow down a little. Do the work. Let your brain learn. And give yourself permission to live while the changes happen.

10/08/2026

We spend a lot of time talking about creating safety within ourselves. But sometimes, it’s worth looking at the people around us too.

There are relationships where you can feel your body soften. You don’t have to monitor what you say, prove yourself, take care of everyone, or worry about how you’re being perceived.

And then there are relationships where your body does the opposite. You tense up. You become quieter. You people please. You feel responsible for the other person. You leave interactions feeling drained, anxious, angry, or disconnected from yourself.
Your body can give you some pretty important information about your social world.
This doesn’t necessarily mean someone is “good” or “bad.” Sometimes it simply means there’s something in the relationship that needs your attention.

Maybe you need a boundary. Maybe you need to say what you actually think. Maybe you need more space. Maybe you need more support. Or maybe you need to spend more time with the people who allow you to relax, play, laugh, create, and simply be yourself.

Social safety isn’t about creating a life where every relationship feels perfect.
It’s about noticing how your relationships affect you, getting curious about what you need, and gradually making changes that help you feel safer and more connected.
Try the check-in in this post and see what comes up.

What is ONE small change you could make in your social world this week?

10/07/2026

Sometimes the healthier choice actually feels WORSE at first.

Rest can feel uncomfortable. Setting a boundary can bring up guilt. A healthy relationship can feel strangely unfamiliar. Having nothing to fix or worry about can even make you anxious.

That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing something wrong. Your nervous system has spent years learning certain ways to create safety, and learning something new can take time.

The more experiences you have with rest, boundaries, healthy relationships, play, and simply doing less, the more familiar these experiences can become.
Sometimes healing is teaching your nervous system that life doesn’t always have to feel chaotic to be safe.

10/06/2026

Since a child I have been prone to excessive worrying and obsessive thinking. While I had chronic pain and dysregulation this escalade to a level that was intolerable. But as I healed my nervous system these thoughts reduced greatly.

However, I know my brain can still fly into worrying or obsessing when life stressors occur. For example, last week I was dealing with a work crisis, and noticed my mind started to obsess about the issue and have catastrophic worse case scenario thoughts.

But one of the unexpected benefits I have gained with nervous system healing is I know longer buy into these thoughts. I can observe them occurring, see how they want to pull me in, and can quickly recognize they are not based on reality.

So nervous system healing hasn’t eliminated my worry or obsession thoughts, but it has given me the ability to pause and see they are not factual. This is an amazing super power that this work can provide. It allows me to no longer frantically take action based on false thoughts.

Address

PO Box 49003 RPO Ogden
Calgary, AB
T2C3W5

Telephone

+15874387082

Website

https://linktr.ee/painpsychotherapy

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