A lot of people have been asking me recently why I love to coach people living with long term pain, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s for exactly the same reason as why I chose to specialise in pain medicine back in 2007. I feel passionately about helping people who live with a constant, often relentless, often invisible hurdle in their lives. I understand how hard it can be to feel heard, or listened to, and I know that just because you live with long term pain doesn’t mean you don’t have dreams and desires and ambitions like everyone else. But the reality is: when you live with pain, these dreams and ambitions can seem unachievable. 

Strangely enough, my passion for helping people with chronic pain is also one of the reasons why I stopped working as a consultant in pain management! I know I can’t take pain away and I don’t have a magic wand. I don’t feel any passion for prescribing medications that cause nasty side effects, or for doing injections that will only work transiently, if at all. My passion is for helping people see that there are choices in life, and that dreams, ambitions and goals can all be achieved. The route to get there may be different from what it would have been without the pain, but there is still a route.  

I know from working with people living with long term pain for many years now that my ability to listen, understand and empathise, combined with my knowledge of pain itself can help people to have the confidence to start dreaming again, and then set goals which turn those dreams first into plans, and then into reality.

And why leaders in particular? It’s true that the increased stress and anxiety that often go with leadership positions can in themselves exacerbate pain, but the real reason is that the leaders who I work with are very good at supporting the needs of those around them, but they don’t give themselves attention to address their own needs. And they often don’t want to talk about their needs, so nobody else gives them that attention either.

So I want to be there for you, by your side, bringing inspiration, energy and fun, compassion, trust and deep listening. I want to be your champion, and work with you to create that safe space, full of possibility, where you can define your goals, both professionally and personally, and then navigate your path to clarity, purpose and fulfilment.