My Pain Coach, LLC

09/15/2026

Living with pain takes things from you.

For about 1 in 3 people with chronic pain, it regularly limits daily life:

❌ Sleep, when pain makes it hard to fall asleep, stay asleep, or wake up rested

❌ Work and income, when hours shrink, tasks get harder, or a job has to change

❌ Relationships and social life, when plans get canceled and connection fades

❌ Mood and mental health, with higher rates of anxiety, depression, and stress

❌ Movement and everyday activities, when basic tasks and getting around take more effort

❌ The energy spent looking “fine” so no one asks.

That is 8.5% of all U.S. adults, on most days or every day.

This is the invisible part other people rarely see.

The hardest part is not only living with the pain, it is that the cost of it stays invisible.

You deserve at least one place where you can stop pretending and still be taken seriously. Many of my clients have felt dismissed by the very medical system that is supposed to help them, and the cost of that stigma is high.

Being dismissed is not the end of the story. When you are met with belief instead of doubt and dismissal, the pain experience can begin to change, and that is the work I do with clients.

September is Pain Awareness Month. Connect to learn more.

🤍Cynthia Austin, NBC-HWC
My Pain Coach
www.MyPainCoachllc.com







Image Source: AI

09/10/2026

September is Pain Awareness Month.

A common assumption about chronic pain: medicine has it handled and the numbers are going down.

They are actually going up.

In 2019, 20.4% of U.S. adults had chronic pain.

By 2023, it was 24.3%.

More importantly, pain that regularly limits daily life rose too, from 7.4% to 8.5%.

More people are living with pain, not fewer.

If it feels like your medical team keeps treating your pain as a solved problem, the data does not agree with them.

This is not a shrinking problem. It deserves more attention, not less.

Cynthia Austin, NBC-HWC
My Pain Coach
www.MyPainCoachllc.com







Image Source: AI

09/08/2026

September is Pain Awareness Month.

🛑 In 2023, 24.3% of U.S. adults were living with chronic pain. Nearly 1 in 4.

That number is not from a small study or a single clinic. It is from the CDC's National Health Interview Survey, one of the largest ongoing health surveys in the country.

If you are one of them, you have probably been treated as the exception from your medical team.

→ The person who catastrophes too much about the pain.
→ The person whose scans come back clean but still wants answers.
→ The person who should move on or has been told to learn to live with their pain.

I have heard versions of all of it over the twenty years I have been working within the chronic pain community.

You are not the exception. Read that number again. Nearly 1 in 4 adults in this country live with pain most days or every day.

❗️You are not imagining it.
❗️You are not exaggerating it.
❗️You are not alone in it.

This month I am sharing what the national data actually says about pain, alongside what my clients have told me they wish the people around them understood.
Some of it will surprise you.
Some of it will finally put words to something you have carried on your own.

Follow along, and send this to someone who needs to feel less alone in it.

🤍 Cynthia Austin, NBC-HWC
My Pain Coach
www.MyPainCoachllc.com







Image Source: AI

07/29/2026

and just included Dr. Howard Schubiner's new book, Unlearn Your Pain, in their list of books recommended by experts for chronic pain relief.

My story of changing debilitating chronic pain is part of the book.

There was a time I needed a cane to walk and spent most of my days in a bed or recliner. Today I do the things I thought I had lost for good.

What turned things around was understanding how the brain and nervous system shape the pain experience, and learning that those patterns can change. It is also the foundation of the work I do today as a pain coach with My Pain Coach.

For anyone living with chronic pain, fatigue, anxiety, or depression, or anyone who loves someone who is, this book is a clear place to start. The approach is grounded in science.

Tag someone who needs to read it.

Available now in hardcover and audiobook: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0593994361




https://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/books/a73230332/best-chronic-pain-books/

07/20/2026

I was a guest on the podcast, Mind Body Medicine For Chronic Pain by Sean Hershey, LCSW

The episode is out today.

We talked about changing my own pain experience with the same approaches I use in my pain coaching now. We also got into why standard pain management often fails people with neuroplastic conditions, the link between emotional history, mental stress, and physical symptoms, and the role of agency and authenticity in changing the pain experience.

Listen:
YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eUXT3Cgk
Spotify: https://lnkd.in/ezHB7RGn

06/30/2026

Your doctor is working within a model that was not built for chronic pain.

Here is what a chronic pain health coach does that fills that gap.

https://www.mypaincoachllc.com/post/what-is-a-chronic-pain-health-coach

If you have been living with chronic pain, you have likely seen a long list of providers. Primary care physicians. Specialists. Pain management clinics. Physical therapists. And yet, the pain continues. You may have been told your imaging looks normal, that you need to learn to manage it, or that th...

06/23/2026

PRT changed what changing the pain experience looks like in research. But not all providers use it the same way. Here is what to look for before you book a PRT session.

Pain reprocessing therapy is one of the most evidence supported approaches available for chronic pain driven by nervous system processes. Here is what it is, who delivers it, and how to find a certified provider who integrates it into real, structured support.

06/16/2026

You have seen every specialist. Your imaging looks normal. You have been told to manage it.

Pain coaching is not therapy and it is not medical care. It is the part of changing the pain experience that nobody has offered you yet.

Here is exactly what it is and whether it is the right fit for where you are right now:

https://www.mypaincoachllc.com/post/what-is-pain-coaching

If you have been living with chronic pain and feel like you have exhausted your medical options, you may have started looking beyond traditional treatment. Pain coaching is one of the approaches people are increasingly finding their way to, often after years of seeing specialists, trying medications...

05/29/2026

55% pain free at five years.

That is what the long term data on pain reprocessing therapy shows, published in JAMA Psychiatry in 2025.

I wrote a full breakdown of what PRT is, who should consider it, and how My Pain Coach uses it inside a structured pain coaching program.

If you are still searching for something that actually works, start here.

Pain reprocessing therapy is one of the most evidence supported approaches available for chronic pain driven by nervous system processes. Here is what it is, who delivers it, and how to find a certified provider who integrates it into real, structured support.

05/27/2026

Why Your Pain Feels Real Even When Tests Come Back "Normal"

You've had the MRIs.
The bloodwork.
The specialist appointments.

And every time, some version of the same answer: "We don't see anything that explains your pain."

So what do you do with that?

Most people are left with two options that both feel terrible — either accept that something is being missed, or start to wonder if they're somehow making it up.

Here's what neither conversation usually includes:

Your nervous system can generate very real, very intense pain without ongoing tissue damage.

This isn't a theory.

It's one of the most significant shifts in pain science over the last two decades.

There are two things worth understanding here.

The first is neuropathic pain — pain that originates from damage or dysfunction in the nervous system itself. Not a muscle. Not a joint. The wiring. When nerves are injured or misfiring, they send pain signals that have nothing to do with what's happening in your tissues in that moment.

The second — and this one surprises most people — is central sensitization.

Central sensitization isn't a diagnosis. It's a mechanism. It means your central nervous system — your spinal cord and brain — has essentially gotten stuck in a high-alert state. Pain-processing neurons become hyperexcitable. The volume gets turned all the way up.

And here's the part that matters most:

Central sensitization doesn't require nerve damage to occur.
It shows up in fibromyalgia. In chronic low back pain. In conditions where every scan looks unremarkable and every provider seems puzzled.

The nervous system has learned to amplify. And what is learned — through neuroplasticity — can be unlearned.

That last sentence is not a platitude. It's the entire basis of what I do.

I spent nearly five decades living inside a pain experience that medicine kept trying to locate in my tissues. Understanding what was actually happening in my nervous system didn't just change how I managed pain — it changed everything.

That understanding is now the foundation of my coaching work at My Pain Coach LLC.

If you've been told your pain doesn't make sense, I'd like to talk with you.

Not to explain your pain away. But to help you understand what your nervous system is doing — and what's actually possible from here.

📩 Reach out directly or book a consultation: https://p.bttr.to/41JOih8

The pain is real. And so is the path forward.