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A New Way Through Pain

Dr Rangan Chatterjee interviews Dr Howard Schubiner about his ground breaking science around chronic pain, fatigue, anxiety and depression. His new book will completely change everything you thought about your pain and may just give you your life back. This is my book and podcast review.

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Book and Podcast Review

As a therapist with a background in Sports Science and Physiology, I need to understand the science before I try something for myself and before I share it with others.  My BEAT pain approach is based on science.  I’m always looking for evidence based approaches that help people overcome persistent pain.

Dr Howard Schubiner is one of the scientists that has helped shape my BEAT pain approach – particularly the B-Brain element of it.  He is a doctor who has dedicated the last 20 years to understanding  the science behind persistent pain and building evidence to support the mind-body approach or what is sometimes referred to as neuroplastic pain.  Howard has recently put all this science and stories of patients who have benefited from his science, into his new book called “Unlearn Your Pain”.  This was released end of May 2026 and soon after a podcast with Dr Rangan Chatterjee was released, where he interviews Howard about his new book.  This is a must listen to episode if you or anyone you know suffers from persistent pain, fatigue, anxiety or depression.  I will link the episode at the bottom.

Understanding Neuroplastic Pain

I was once told that my Back Pain was in my head!  This really upset me and angered me.  Why would anyone tell me, especially the physiotherapist that was meant to be helping me, that my pain was in my head.  Now I understand that actually all pain is processed in the brain – both acute pain and chronic pain (lasting longer than 3 months).  All pain is real (and miserable) but it isn’t always a sign that there is tissue damage.  Lorimer Moseley’s work taught me this.  Modern neuroscience suggests that the brain learns patterns and can continue to produce pain long after tissues have healed.  This is known as neuroplastic pain.  The idea that nerves that fire together wire together.  The good news is that this pattern can be unlearned by building new nerve pathways. This is just like learning a new musical instrument, which by the way I am rubbish at, but I did manage to unlearn my pain.

If you’ve had scans, treatments, injections, medications and still find yourself stuck in pain, and maybe you’ve been told you may just have to live with this now.  Or maybe the doctors simply don’t know what is wrong – there is hope.  Howard offers another lens through which to understand what’s happening in the body.  His science has helped people recover from an array of illnesses that medicine couldn’t.  Conditions such as Back Pain, Migraines, IBS, POTS, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue, ME, Long Covid, Trigeminal Neuralgia, Pelvic Pain, Interstitial Cystitis and more.

The Podcast conversation

I was so excited about the release of this podcast episode for two reasons.  One is that Dr Rangan Chatterjee has a very large audience so that means that a lot of people are getting this message which saves me having to explain neuroplastic pain over and over again.  The second is, that it is quite hard to explain this science, so who better than Howard himself to explain it, using his recovery stories to add context.  Howard has a very easy to understand and compassionate way of explaining things too.  I’m so passionate that this message gets out there to the public, as I know it will help many people suffer less.

My thoughts on the Book – Unlearn Your Pain

Howard’s book goes beyond just the science and theory as it provides real stories for context, to help understanding, but also to give hope which is the first thing needed for recovery.  The second thing it gives is belief which is also needed for recovery.  Belief through explaining the science.  The first part of the book is about education and understanding the brain and nervous system’s role in pain.  Throughout, I love reading the stories that back up the science as this makes it very readable and relatable.

Then he takes the reader through a process for recovery, starting with assessment.  This starts with ruling out a physical issue and then ruling in a neruoplastic one (he’s explained neuroplastic pain by this point).  One of the things he uses, to rule in Neuroplastic Pain is his FIT criteria.  I wrote a blog on this a while ago – you can read it here.

He explains how past experiences, and certain personality traits are linked with mind-body symptoms (neuroplastic).  He also lists many symptoms/diseases that are actually very commonly neuroplastic but sometimes diagnosed as being structural such as:

• Back and neck pain, sciatic pain
• Migraines
• IBS, SIBO (gut issues)
• Fibromyalgia / Chronic Fatigue / ME / Long Covid
• Pelvic pain
• Facial pain
• Raynaud’s phenomenon
• Tinnitus
• TMJ – Temporal Mandibular Joint pain
• Burning Mouth Syndrome
• RSI – Repetitive Strain Injury
• CRPS – Chronic Regional Pain Syndrome
• Thoracic Outlet Syndrome
• Plantar Fasciitis
• Mortons Neuroma
• Anxiety
• Depression

The list in the book is longer and he devotes whole chapters to some of these issues.

In the latter part of the book he explains the recovery process – the pain reprocessing, the emotional awareness and expression and how to make easy non time consuming changes to your lifestyle to really start living again without the burden of pain.  With my SIRPA (SIRPA.org) training I effectively use all these tools in the B – Brain part of the BEAT pain approach.

Who is this for?

Howard’s book is a must read (or listen on audio narrated by Howard) for anyone who:

• has had pain for months or years and feels stuck. (Anything beyond 3 months is considered chronic and beyond normal tissue healing period)
• have had scans and test that don’t fully explain your symptoms. MRI findings such as disc issues, stenosis, degeneration do not necessarily explain your pain as many people without pain have these findings on a MRI.
• whose pain/symptoms are not consistent in intensity and may move around
• can link the onset of their pain to a period of stress, worry or difficult life events. Or that these affects the symptoms.
• have been told “there is nothing more we can do” or “you may just have to learn to live with this”.
• want to understand their pain rather than just accept it.
• have personality traits such as excessive worry, guilt / self-blame, taking on too much responsibility, always caring about others, not standing up for yourself, people pleasing, perfectionist, high self critic, never getting angry, getting overly angry, comparing to others

My recommendation

If you are curious between the connection between symptoms and the nervous system, I would highly recommend you listen to Howard’s interview with Rangan Chaterjee on his podcast.  If this resonates with you then read (or listen) to Howard’s book – Unlearn Your Pain.

If you want further help more personalised to you, then please seek help from a trained coach / therapist in this field.  That is either from me or any other SIRPA practitioners.  It is important you find someone who you connect with as this relationship is a key component to your recovery – it’s called the Therapeutic Alliance.

I wish you all the best with your recovery journey.

Dr Rangan Chaterjee Podcast Interview

Purchase Unlearn Your Pain Here