From Pain to Possibility: A Nervous System Approach to Chronic Pain and Healing

Chronic pain can feel confusing, isolating, and relentless - for people in it or for people supporting those who are. You may begin to question the validity of your diagnosis or even your own sanity especially if you’ve been told there is no clear structural cause. For many, the pain is real, persistent, and deeply life-altering, yet traditional approaches often fall short.

Over time, the impact ripples outward. Relationships can become strained. Work can feel impossible to sustain. The life you once moved through with ease can start to feel out of reach. Many people spend years and significant financial resources searching for answers, trying treatment after treatment, hoping for relief, and wondering why nothing seems to truly resolve the pain.

And beneath it all, there is often a quiet fear: What if this never gets better?

Our panel of pain experts, including Les Aria, Mel Pohl, and Ragna Reiske, have dedicated their work to helping people understand that pain is not always simply a symptom to eliminate, but a signal to understand. One that, with the right support and a growing sense of felt safety, can begin to shift.

In this special 90-minute live panel, these experts join Jan Winhall to explore a powerful and emerging perspective: that chronic and nociplastic pain is deeply connected to the nervous system and its protective responses.

When the nervous system perceives threat, whether physical, emotional, or relational, it shifts into protective states. Over time, this can contribute to persistent pain patterns, keeping people caught in cycles that are difficult to interrupt and often misunderstood.

For those also working through trauma and addiction, this creates an added layer of complexity. Pain can limit access to the safety and regulation needed for healing, while also reinforcing coping patterns that may bring short-term relief but lead to longer-term challenges.

This conversation brings together the fields of pain science, trauma healing, and nervous system regulation to offer a more integrated and compassionate understanding of what is really happening and, importantly, what can begin to help.

What You’ll Learn

• The types of pain

• Why pain can persist even when there is no clear structural cause

• The role of the nervous system in chronic and nociplastic pain

• How protective survival responses can create and maintain pain cycles

• The connection between chronic pain, trauma, and addiction patterns

• Why some treatments provide temporary relief but fail to create lasting change

• How a lack of felt safety in the body can limit healing and regulation

• What it means to begin relating to pain as a signal rather than just a symptom

• Practical, compassionate approaches that support nervous system regulation and open pathways toward relief

Who This Is For

• Individuals living with chronic or unexplained pain who feel stuck, dismissed, or discouraged

• People who have tried multiple treatments without lasting relief and are searching for a new understanding

• Those navigating the overlapping challenges of pain, trauma, and/or addiction

• Therapists, coaches, and practitioners who want to better understand nociplastic pain and support their clients more effectively

• Professionals seeking a nervous system-informed framework that bridges pain science and trauma healing

If you are living with pain that does not fully make sense, or supporting someone who is, you are not alone and you are not without options.

This panel offers more than information. It offers a new lens. One that honors the intelligence of the nervous system, validates the reality of your experience, and opens the door to meaningful change.

Join us for this important conversation and begin to understand pain in a way that can support real shifts toward relief, regulation, and healing.

About Our Panelists:

Les Aria

Les Aria, PhD, is a pain psychologist who has been practicing for the past 16 years and treats complex medically unexplained symptoms and chronic pain with Kaiser Permanente Medical Group in Northern California, Sacramento, CA. He served as the Lead Pain Psychologist for Kaiser Northern California to help redesign the chronic pain workshop curriculum to incorporate modern pain science, mindfulness and Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT). 

Mel Pohl

Mel Pohl, MD, DFASAM is a Family Practitioner and the Chief Medical Officer of The Pointe Malibu Recovery Center. He is certified by the American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABAM), and a Distinguished Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM). Dr. Pohl is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the U of Nevada School of Medicine. He is author of several books including A Day Without Pain and The Pain Antidote -Stop Suffering from Chronic Pain, Avoid Addiction to Painkillers, and Reclaim Your Life with Kathy Ketcham from DaCapo Press. Dr. Pohl filmed a special for PBS called “The Pain Antidote” which aired around the country in 2016, and he is a nationally known public speaker.

Ragna Reiske

Ragna Reiske is Germany-based Certified FSPM Facilitator, nervous system coach, and Naturopathic Doctor working with trauma-related mind-body challenges and highly receptive nervous systems. As well as being a Focusing Trainer, Ragna has additional training in Liebscher & Bracht Pain and Movement Therapy, Neural Somatic Integration and Pain Reprocessing Therapy.