Dr. Howard Schubiner on the Science of Unlearning Chronic Pain
After more than 20 years of research and clinical work, Dr. Howard Schubiner is changing how we understand chronic pain—and giving hope to the millions of people who've been told they just have to live with it.
In his new book, Unlearn Your Pain (an Open Field publication), Howard makes the case that as much as 90% of chronic pain isn't structural at all, but neuroplastic—generated by learned neural circuits in the brain that can be unlearned.
He sat down with Maria for a powerful new Life Above the Noise conversation, and we're so glad to share it with you. Tune in to hear them explore the science of neuroplastic pain, how women's pain has been dismissed for generations, the connection between our childhoods and our adult symptoms, and what it actually takes to begin unlearning what your body has spent years learning.
Chapters
00:00 – Why Maria published this book on chronic pain
04:55 – The link between trauma, stress, and chronic pain
08:09 – What to do when pain flares up: a three-step approach
10:46 – How to "flip the switch" on learned pain
16:32 – Why "it's in your head" is both wrong and misunderstood
25:48 – Why women experience pain differently
27:53 – Unlearning pain: how the brain rewires itself
33:19 – Reframing the narrative: you are the hero of your story
40:42 – What is neuroplasticity, simply explained
48:02 – Pain reprocessing therapy and how to find it
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