
Pain Science Education
Pain Science Education discusses the treatment of persistent pain. Learn how to use the brain, body, mind, and behavior to reduce pain and improve physical and mental well-being. This podcast offers free training for physical therapists, healthcare professionals, and people with pain.
Dr. Joe Tatta is a physical therapist, educator, author, and pain researcher. He is known for his contribution to integrative pain care and for championing the safe and effective treatment of chronic pain. With over 20 years of clinical expertise, Dr. Joe is dedicated to converting cutting-edge pain science into actionable therapeutic practices. An advocate for a biopsychosocial approach, Dr. Joe developed PRISM: Pain Recovery and Integrative Systems Model, a cognitive-behavioral approach that promotes resilience, growth, and recovery.
Pain Science Education invites listeners to explore a wide array of subjects including pain education, pain neuroscience, physical therapy, physiotherapy, pain psychology, wellness, and continuing education. Episodes feature interviews with leading experts, offering a deep dive into the pivotal topics shaping the field of pain management.
The insights shared here aim to propel the practice of physical therapy to the forefront of primary pain management. Dr. Joe Tatta is committed to guiding therapists and healthcare providers through the complexities of pain, equipping them with the knowledge to deliver non-pharmacologic and non-invasive approaches to chronic pain.
With Dr. Joe's guidance, listeners will uncover the potential of physical therapists as pivotal figures in pain management, understand the importance of health behavior change, and learn how to use integrative and lifestyle medicine in practice.
Join the Pain Science Education podcast to transform your clinical approach, enrich your professional toolkit, and participate in the revolution of pain management. Each episode promises to take you one step closer to learning about pain, becoming a leader in delivering exceptional, innovative care to those suffering with pain, and ultimately improving lives across the globe.
Latest episodes

Jan 27, 2021 • 34min
Episode 213 | How To Nurture The Next Generation Of Mindfulness-Based Physical Therapists With Annette Willgens, PT, EdD
This marks about the halfway point in Our Radical Relief series. We are recovering three-time tested and science-backed approaches for the treatment of chronic pain, which include pain neuroscience education, mindfulness and acceptance and commitment therapy. This episode focuses on the evolution and the nurturing of mindfulness-based physical therapists. Starting to train and embed mindfulness, both as a process as well as a treatment approach for physical therapists. I'll be speaking with Dr. Annette Willgens about mindfulness. She is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences in the Program of Physical Therapy at Temple University. As Director of Admissions, her scholarly agenda includes physical therapy student success, resilience to stress and effective domain skills across the curriculum. That has published two papers on mindfulness for the student physical therapist and its impact on resiliency and usefulness in clinical practice. In this episode, you'll learn about the neuroscience supporting mindfulness, how mindfulness works and why training in mindfulness is important for both the student physical therapist, as well as a licensed physical therapist out in the field. This is a pivotal episode in Our Radical Relief series with regards to mindfulness, for physical therapists and other licensed health professionals. Let's begin and let's meet Dr. Annette Willgens. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram

Jan 20, 2021 • 39min
Episode 212 | Physical Therapy Informed By Acceptance And Commitment Therapy In A Correctional Facility With Mary Doyle, PT
You'll learn about a physical therapist who has evolved her work through Pain Neuroscience Education onto Cognitive Behavioral Therapy using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in the unique environment of a prison. My guest is Mary Doyle, who has been a practicing physical therapist since 1995. Her career started out in outpatient orthopedics. She eventually moved to home care where she treated both geriatric and pediatric patients in the home. Looking for a change from driving and the ever-increasing hurdles of insurance, she moved to correctional facility work in 2016. She functions in a primary care physical therapy practice within a prison environment. She combines physical therapy with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for the treatment of pain and other chronic lifestyle conditions. You'll learn how Mary uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to target the important psychosocial variables for prisoners in the prison environment. If you're interested in learning about combining Pain Neuroscience Education, mindfulness, and ACT like Mary does, make sure to check out my latest book, Radical Relief: A Guide to Overcome Chronic Pain. It is available on Amazon and in most countries. Without further ado, let's begin and let's meet Mary Doyle and learn about combining ACT with physical therapy. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram

Jan 13, 2021 • 52min
Episode 211 | How to Apply Cognitive Defusion Techniques To Target Pain Catastrophizing In Physiotherapy Practice With Davide Lanfranco, PT, MCSP
We're discussing how to target pain catastrophizing by using a core process of acceptance and commitment therapy called cognitive diffusion. My expert guest is physiotherapist Davide Lanfranco. Davide is an Italian physiotherapist who works in London. He is a member of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy and is one of the Founders of FisioScience International, an online platform which aims to spread evidence-based knowledge about pain. In this episode, you'll learn how pain catastrophizing impacts both physical and mental wellbeing, all about the cognitive change process of cognitive fusion, how it's different from other cognitive interventions and how we can teach patients unhook from unpleasant or unwanted thoughts about pain. Cognitive fusion is a time-tested, science-backed approach that has helped thousands of people experiencing chronic pain, as well as those suffering from stress, depression, anxiety, trauma, and addiction. Cognitive fusion is a key part of my latest book, Radical Relief, which is rooted in the principles of acceptance and commitment therapy. Radical Relief, which is written for both practitioners and for people living with pain uses metaphors, colorful imagery and includes more than 40 mindfulness activities to help you identify the blocks that may be keeping you stuck and offers tools for taking meaningful action toward a more fulfilling life. It's available on Amazon and in most countries. Let's begin and let's learn about cognitive fusion techniques and how it can help pain catastrophizing with physiotherapists Davide Lanfranco. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram

Jan 6, 2021 • 29min
Episode 210 | Pain Neuroscience Education Plus With Adriaan Louw, PT, PhD
Happy New Year and welcome to this first episode of the Healing Pain Podcast in the year 2021. We are starting the year off on a strong note with one of the world's experts with regard to pain neuroscience education. My guest is Professor Adriaan Louw. Adriaan is a physical therapist, pain scientist and author in the field of pain neuroscience, Director of the Therapeutic Neuroscience Research Group and Director of Pain Science for Evidence in Motion. His main area of research focuses on teaching patients and healthcare providers more about pain. He has years of experience teaching pain neuroscience education to health professionals. He's authored numerous books on the topic and published over 70 peer-reviewed papers related to pain science. In this episode, we discuss pain neuroscience education plus why it is important for both practitioners and people living with pain. What types of clinical outcomes can you expect when you deliver effective pain neuroscience education? Whether or not it should be delivered as a standalone intervention or part of a larger multimodal treatment approach coupled with other cognitive interventions such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or mindfulness. Throughout the interview, we discuss how you can effectively use pain neuroscience education and couple it with other cognitive interventions. If you're interested in combining pain neuroscience education with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, make sure to check out my latest book available on Amazon. It's called Radical Relief: A Guide To Overcome Chronic Pain. Inside, he goes deep into the principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and includes over 50 cognitive and mindful exercises you can use with your patients as well as a little bit of pain neuroscience education. Without further ado, let's begin with the great Adriaan Louw. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram

Dec 30, 2020 • 19min
Episode 209 | How To Use The Mind To Overcome Chronic Pain By Combining Pain Education, Mindfulness, And Acceptance And Commitment Therapy With Joe Tatta, PT, DPT
Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram

Dec 23, 2020 • 30min
Episode 208 | Heart Rate Variability For Mind-Body Health And Athletic Performance With Karen Mueller, PT, DPT, PhD
We're discussing heart rate variability for mind-body health, as well as athletic performance. Our expert guest is Professor Karen Mueller. Karen is a professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at Northern Arizona University and the author of the book, Communication from the Inside Out: Strategies for the Engaged Professional. With a career-long interest in the promotion of mind-body health throughout the lifespan, she has published and presented in the areas of mindfulness and brain-based communication strategies to support optimal living. Karen's current research involves the study of compassion among healthcare students and burnout among physical therapy students. You'll learn all about the importance of measuring heart rate variability, how training heart rate variability can help improve athletic performance, and the importance of heart rate variability for both physical and mental wellbeing. Before we begin, I wanted to let you know that my newest book called Radical Relief: A Guide to Overcome Chronic Pain, is available for pre-order on Amazon. Radical Relief is based on three science-backed methods, including pain, neuroscience education, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and mindfulness, a topic which we'll be discussing on this episode. Radical Relief is perfect for practitioners who treat chronic pain or for people living with pain, and it's filled with brief exercises that use the power of the mind as well as easy to read chapters with full color illustrations. Without further ado, let's meet Professor Karen Mueller and learn all about heart rate variability. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram

Dec 16, 2020 • 38min
Episode 207 | Cash Pay Pain Management And Improving Outcomes With Aaron LeBauer, PT, DPT
I want to let you know that my latest book, Radical Relief: A Guide to Overcome Chronic Pain, is available on Amazon for preorder. Radical Relief is based on three science-backed methods including pain neuroscience education, acceptance and commitment therapy and mindfulness. Radical Relief is perfect for practitioners or for people living with pain. It’s filled with brief exercises that use the power of the mind as well as easy to read chapters with full-color illustrations. You can preorder your copy on Amazon. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram

Dec 10, 2020 • 31min
Episode 206 | Moving Beyond The Biopsychosocial Model To An Enactive Approach To Pain With Peter Stilwell, PhD
We're talking about a paradigm shift from the biopsychosocial model to what's being termed an enactive approach for the treatment of pain. Joining us is Dr. Peter Stilwell. He is a Canadian researcher and is on faculty at the School of Physical Medicine and Occupational Therapy at McGill University. In addition to being the Ronald Melzack Fellow in Pain Research, his current research projects involve conceptual and qualitative work on persistent pain and related suffering. In this episode, you'll learn all about the biopsychosocial model for pain, why the time is ripe to switch to an enactive approach toward pain, and how this new emerging approach can help you reconceptualize pain and provide more effective pain education. Without further ado, let's begin and meet Peter Stilwell, and learn all about an enactive approach toward the treatment of pain. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram

Nov 26, 2020 • 30min
Episode 205 | Osteoarthritis Across The Spectrum From The Individual To Public Health With Kirsten Ambrose, MS, CCRC
In this episode, we're discussing how to treat individuals with osteoarthritis as well as how to promote public health campaigns for effective treatment. My expert guest is Kirsten Ambrose. Kirsten is the Associate Director for the Osteoarthritis Action Alliance at the University of North Carolina. She has a Master's of Science and more than twenty years of experience managing multidisciplinary teams towards successful research conduct in chronic pain related disorders and public health action for osteoarthritis awareness. Her experience includes delivery of physical activity education and programming to individuals with various chronic pain conditions and disabilities. In this episode, you'll learn all about osteoarthritis, what you can do to manage or prevent osteoarthritis, and how you can engage in effective public health campaigns for the treatment of osteoarthritis. Without further ado, let's begin and let's learn all about the care of osteoarthritis with Kirsten Ambrose. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram

Nov 19, 2020 • 47min
Episode 204 | 10 Do's And Don'ts To Manage Pain With Dr. Derek Griffin
We’ve got a great fun and informative episode. We’re talking about the ten dos and don’ts of persistent and chronic pain. My expert guest is Dr. Derek Griffin. Derek graduated from the University of Limerick with a Bachelor’s Degree in Physiotherapy and earned his PhD in the field of physiotherapy pain and physical activity in 2013. Since graduation, Derek has worked clinically in the private health sector in the areas of musculoskeletal pain, sports physiotherapy and care of the elderly. In 2017, he was appointed a clinical specialist physiotherapist. A role where he works together with his physical therapy colleagues and hospital medical teams to provide comprehensive services to patients with a range of musculoskeletal health problems. He has lectured on the undergraduate and postgraduate Physical Therapy Programs at the University of Limerick. He has been an invited speaker at a number of scientific conferences and regularly contributes to physiotherapy educational initiatives, both nationally as well as internationally. In our episode, Derek speaks about his work as a Pain Specialist Physiotherapist, as well as the five dos and five don’ts of persistent pain. This is a great episode to share with your friends, colleagues and anyone who is overcoming chronic pain. Without further ado, let’s begin and meet Dr. Derek Griffin. Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! Here’s How » Join the Healing Pain Podcast Community today: integrativepainscienceinstitute.com Healing Pain Podcast Facebook Healing Pain Podcast Twitter Healing Pain Podcast YouTube Healing Pain Podcast LinkedIn Healing Pain Podcast Instagram