What Is a Pain Coach? Why Chronic Pain Doesn’t Improve with More Treatments Alone

If you’ve tried everything for chronic pain and still feel stuck, this conversation may change how you think about healing. In this episode, I sit down with Alex Crowther to answer a question many people are quietly asking: what is a pain coach, and how is this different from traditional pain management? Alex explains how pain coaching helps people move beyond symptom-chasing and into true nervous system regulation, emotional resilience, and long-term relief. We explore why pain often persists even after surgeries, medications, or physical therapy—and what’s actually missing from the conversation. You’ll learn: What a pain coach does (and doesn’t do) Why chronic pain is not “just physical” How mindset, safety, and the nervous system influence pain Who pain coaching is for—and who benefits most Why more treatments don’t always equal more healing If you live with chronic pain, autoimmune symptoms, or unexplained discomfort and feel dismissed or exhausted by the medical system, this episode offers clarity, validation, and hope. 🎧 Listen in to discover what a pain coach really is—and why this approach is helping people reclaim their lives when nothing else has worked.

For more than three decades, Alex Crowther built a global career as an advertising executive, leading billion-dollar accounts, managing international teams, and operating at the highest levels of corporate life. His world revolved around performance, pressure, and achievement. Success was measured in results, and for years he lived entirely in that rhythm of constant motion.

Everything changed when chronic pain entered his life. What began as a physical injury spiraled into years of relentless pain that no doctor, medication, or procedure could resolve. Eventually diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, often called “the suicide disease,” Alex was forced to confront the limits of his own endurance. The experience dismantled the identity he had built and brought him face-to-face with the question of what truly matters.

Rather than succumb, Alex made a decision: if pain was going to stay, it had to have a purpose. That moment marked the beginning of his transformation. He began studying the neuroscience of pain, the psychology of healing, and the power of human connection. He became a Reiki Master and an initiated Shaman, blending science and spirituality to understand how the mind, body, and spirit interact in healing.

Today, Alex serves as the CEO of Pain Coach Academy, the world’s premier training organization for board-certified pain coaches. He leads a movement to redefine how society understands and treats chronic pain, empowering both individuals and professionals to help others calm the nervous system, retrain the brain, and rebuild lives of meaning.

His upcoming book, Reframing Pain: Understanding Pain in Everyday Terms, captures this work. It explains how pain is created and sustained by the brain, and how awareness, education, and compassion can quiet it. 

Through his leadership, writing, and speaking, Alex’s mission is simple yet profound: to reduce needless suffering and show that purpose is more powerful than pain. In doing so, his goal is to train 10,000 coaches and help in excess of a million people living with complicated pain.

https://www.paincoachacademy.com

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