Pain Psychology Consulting
Your patients are more than
their pain scores.
I help medical practices rethink how they understand and work with patients living with chronic pain. You don't need to become pain psychologists — but a shift in perspective can change everything about how your patients experience your care.
What I've Seen
Chronic pain is a biopsychosocial experience.
Most practices only treat one part of it.
Chronic pain isn't just a physical problem. It's biological, psychological, and social — all at once. The pain itself is real. But so is the anxiety about whether it will get worse, the grief over what's been lost, the strain on relationships, and the slow erosion of identity when your body stops cooperating with the life you built.
Most practices know this on some level. But the systems, workflows, and training aren't set up to address it. Patients get referred out for "behavioral health" — if they get referred at all. The referral often leads nowhere. And the providers doing the daily work of managing pain don't always have the framework to address what's happening beyond the physical.
That's where I come in. Not to replace what you're doing — but to help you see the full picture of what your patients are living with, and to give your team practical ways to respond to it.
"You don't need to become pain psychologists. But understanding how pain works — biologically, psychologically, socially — changes what you can offer."
What I Offer
Ways to help your team think about and work with chronic pain differently
Every practice is different. Some want a one-time training. Some want an ongoing resource they can call on. Here's what that can look like.
What I OfferFractional Pain Psychologist
I serve as your practice's embedded pain psychology resource — available on an ongoing basis for case consultation, team support, and patient-facing work, without the overhead of a full-time hire. Think of it as having a pain psychologist on your team, part-time.
Case Consultation
When a patient's pain picture is more complex than the medical alone, I help your team understand what's driving the full clinical picture — the psychological factors, the social context, the patterns that aren't showing up in imaging — and how to adjust the approach.
Speaking & Presentations
For your staff, your patients, or both. I speak on the biopsychosocial nature of chronic pain, what it means for treatment, and what your team (or your patients) can do differently. Grand rounds, lunch-and-learns, patient education sessions, conferences.
Staff Training
Practical training for providers who aren't psychologists but work with chronic pain every day. How to recognize the psychological dimensions, how to talk about them with patients, and how to respond in ways that improve outcomes and trust.
Practice Assessment
A clear-eyed look at how your practice currently addresses the psychological and social dimensions of chronic pain — what's working, what's missing, and where the biggest opportunities are to improve patient experience and outcomes.
Program Development
Designing integrated approaches tailored to your practice's size, patient population, and existing workflow. Not a template dropped into your org chart — something built to fit how you actually work.
Who This Is For
Practices that know something's missing
Pain Management Clinics
You treat pain every day. You know the biomedical approach has limits. You want your team to understand the full picture — not just the nerve block, but the person attached to it.
Rehabilitation Facilities
Inpatient and outpatient rehab programs where patients are adjusting to injuries, disabilities, and chronic conditions — and the psychological dimension of that adjustment is underserved.
Primary Care Practices
Chronic pain patients keep coming back, and the standard toolkit isn't enough. You want practical guidance on how to work with the whole person, not just the complaint.
Orthopedic & Surgical Groups
Psychological factors affect surgical outcomes, recovery timelines, and patient satisfaction. You want to understand and address them proactively rather than reactively.
Academic Medical Centers
Teaching hospitals that want to build a biopsychosocial perspective into training programs, grand rounds, and clinical rotations — so the next generation of providers understands pain as more than biology.
Health Systems
Larger systems looking to improve how chronic pain is understood and managed across departments and locations — starting with how your teams think about it.
How We Work Together
Flexible engagements, built around your practice
One-Time Engagement
A single training, a practice assessment, a speaking engagement. Clear scope, clear deliverable. For practices that want a specific insight or skill set without an ongoing commitment.
Project-Based
A defined engagement — a training series, a program design, a staff development initiative. Clear deliverables, clear timeline. For practices that know what they need and want to move on it.
Ongoing Partnership
I become your practice's fractional pain psychologist — available for case consultation, team support, and patient-facing work on an ongoing basis. For practices ready to make this a core part of how they operate.
Background
Not observing from the outside.
Doing the clinical work.
I've spent over fifteen years inside healthcare systems — not observing from the outside, but doing the clinical work. My doctoral training was in health psychology. My internship and postdoctoral fellowship were both in rehabilitation psychology, focused on chronic pain and spinal cord injury. I've directed an interdisciplinary chronic pain rehabilitation program and worked alongside physicians, physical therapists, nurses, and social workers who were all trying to figure out the same thing: how do you actually help someone whose pain isn't going away?
That's the experience I bring into consulting. I know what it looks like when a team is doing their best with limited tools. I know what changes when someone on that team understands the psychosocial side of pain — not as a theory, but as a practical lens for the work they're already doing.
"I know what changes when someone on that team understands the psychosocial side of pain — not as a theory, but as a practical lens."
For the full picture, visit the About page.
What to Expect
How an engagement unfolds
The first conversation is exploratory. You tell me about your practice — your patient population, the challenges you're seeing with chronic pain management, what you've already tried, and what's not working. I ask questions to understand your specific context. Not every practice is the same, and I'm listening for where the biggest opportunities are. By the end of the call, we both know whether this is a good fit.
If we move forward, the next phase depends on what you need. Some practices want a one-time training for staff — a few hours of intensive learning about the psychosocial dimensions of chronic pain and how to talk about it with people. Some want me to assess your current approach: looking at workflows, talking to your team, understanding where the gaps are between what you're doing and what your people actually need. Some want an ongoing partnership — me embedded as your fractional pain psychologist, available for case consultation, staff support, and patient-facing work.
What happens in each of these looks different, but the through-line is the same: I'm helping your team think about and work with chronic pain differently. Not by making you into pain psychologists, but by giving you a practical lens for understanding what your people are actually dealing with — the psychological weight, the social context, the identity shifts — and how that shapes outcomes.
You'll notice changes. Your team starts asking different questions in encounters. Referrals to behavioral health actually lead somewhere because you've built the framework to support them. People feel more understood because your providers are addressing the full picture, not just the medical side. Outcomes improve because you're treating the whole person, not just the pain score.
By the end of an engagement, your team has something they didn't have before: a shared language around chronic pain, practical tools for addressing it, and confidence that they can work with these people effectively. You're not dependent on me — you've built the capacity internally. That's the goal.
"You're not dependent on me — you've built the capacity internally. That's the goal."
Every engagement is custom-scoped. Tell me about your practice and what you're trying to improve — I'll tell you what it costs.
Start Here
Tell me about your practice.
I'll tell you how I can help.
A few sentences about your practice, your patient population, and what you're trying to improve is enough to start. If it's not a good match, I'll say so.