Neil Pearson is a physiotherapist and Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia. He is founding chair of the Canadian Physiotherapy Pain Science Division, the first PT to receive the Canadian Pain Society’s Excellence in Interprofessional Pain Education award, and a previous Director with Pain BC. Queen’s University honoured him with a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2016.
Neil has been explaining pain to people living in pain and to health professionals for over 20 years. Individualized education is vital to effective treatment, yet not affordable or accessible by all. He offers free group pain education sessions monthly in his community and has developed a free online process called First 5 Steps.
Health practitioners completing his online pain care mentorship program are trained and evaluated in providing these free community-based pain education sessions. Neil has also collaborated on numerous community-based movement-as-pain-care programs in an effort to reach individuals challenged by finances and remote locale.
In 2008, Neil wrote and self-published Understand Pain Live Well Again. Following the lead of David Butler and Lorimer Moseley’s Explain Pain, the conversational tone and simplified content aimed to bring pain education to more individuals. Neil offers this free e-book within Step 5 of his first 5 steps. The book has also been translated into French and Mandarin.
Neil develops and delivers continuing medical e
Neil is also a yoga therapist, certified with the International Association of Yoga Therapists. He integrates the evidence and practices of pain education, mindfulness, movement and yoga, bridging the gap to begin these within medical pain management and then continue in community-based programs. Through his Pain Care Yoga certificate training program, he has trained over 2000 health practitioners since 2008.
