Mindbody Coaching

Do you Dream of living your life without chronic pain?

But believe your distress and discomfort is just something you have to live with?

Susann Suprenant, Ph.D., GCFP

Hi! I'm Susann. I'm a mindbody coach and I want to help you recover from chronic pain. YOU can "unlearn your pain" using pain science education, somatic and mindfulness practices, emotional fluency and creative expression.

With mindbody coaching, you can move beyond persistent pain to increase your physical, mental, and emotional flexibility while enriching your quality of life and expanding your creative potential.

My coaching approach blends Pain Science Education (TMS/PPD), Presence-Based Coaching (PBC), Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Internal Family Systems (IFS), Expressive Arts and Embodiment approaches, and the Feldenkrais Method®.
I hold a Ph.D. in Theatre Arts, I am a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner, and a Mindbody Coach trained in the Unlearn Your Pain model. photo credit: Erica K. Hsu

YOU'VE TRIED EVERYTHING

and nothing seems to help ...

confusing Diagnoses

Medical imaging results are critical for treating acute injuries and conditions but fail to correlate to chronic pain.

discouraging treatments

Too many previously accepted treatments are now shown to have little to no benefit at great expense.

limiting your life

Pain (and fear of pain) can take away the things you enjoy most in life and replace with depression and anxiety.

chronic pain is often learned mindbody pain

Mindbody symptoms, felt as chronic pain or discomfort in the body, are caused by learned neural pathways in the brain. These neural pathways are associated with stress, trauma, and repressed emotions. The painful or distressing symptoms can be relieved when the neural pathways are “unlearned.”

“When diagnostic tests are normal, illnesses can be baffling until proper treatment is provided.

Headache, back pain, muscle or joint pain, and abdominal or pelvic pain
IBS, interstitial cystitis, and dermatological conditions, such as eczema or acne
Fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, tinnitus, and Hypersensitivity syndromes

Similar symptoms can also result from diseases that can be diagnosed through tests, so it is essential to have a medical evaluation to be sure none of these diseases is present.”
Psychophysiologic Disorders Association. (2019). Patient/General Public [online] Available at: www.ppdassociation.org/patient [Accessed 15 Feb. 2019].

mindbody coaching

Our neuroplastic brains can change! I will guide you to tap into your own ability to unlearn pain:

understand Pain

Chronic pain isn't reflective of damage Instead, it's our brain's sensitivity to interpreting possible danger.

Address stress

You can renew your brain's sense of safety, lost due to life events and challenging, hard-to-access emotions.

Move with confidence

Gentle, graded exposure to functional movement retrains our brains to expect comfort, ease, and resilience.

The Mindbody approach to chronic pain recovery is

BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL

The previous (and still prevalent) biomedical perspective on pain leads patients to search for the single cause of their pain, hoping to find the right health professional who will "fix" it. The "it" is assumed to be a structural or purely physical issue and "fixing" usually involves surgery, injection, manipulation or relying on medication for pain "management." Too often, these attempts do not work.

In contrast, the biopsychosocial model recognizes that multiple factors – biological, psychological, and social –work together to produce chronic pain. Our thoughts and emotions produce biological responses that can lead to a host of painful conditions as do the social and cultural interactions we experience. Challenging life events, past and present stress, personality traits, habitual patterns, and our beliefs and expectations about pain can all play a role in how pain is produced and experienced.

neural pathway pain can be unlearned using the biopsychosocial approach.

Mindbody Coaching will give you the tools, guidance and support you need to unlearn your neural pathway pain.

What clients are saying...

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I am so thankful to have gone through my first six weeks of mindbody coaching with Susann. Her approach feels nonjudgmental, encouraging, very well-educated and creative! At every turn she had some inspiring tale, fascinating research, or an article to encourage my reflections. I looked forward each week to our meetings, and felt motivated by her coaching to do the work specifically designed for me through the week. Susann is an excellent listener, and has great skill at reflecting back what I would share to deepen my understanding. She brings so much to the coaching experience from her many backgrounds and studies and is generous in her wealth of resources. I found this experience to be incredibly significant to my healing. I look forward to continuing this work with Susann.

Nadine

Dancer
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Yoga Instructor / Massage Therapist

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Susann is BRILLIANT. She has a talent at seeing reasons beyond the obvious for why I'm holding pain, etc; she is incredibly perceptive and able to notice underlying messages in what we say or how we move that inform why things may feel the way they do. I thought my time with her was illuminating. And it has helped me start ridding my body of some unusual arm/hand pain I've been having, that previously had no explanation. She's very smart, and also comfortable to be around.

Lucinda

Filmmaker
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Video Marketing

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Great teacher who has lived what she teaches. I learned more about me and the empowerment of living through my own beliefs through body/mind work. Her work continues your journey home to yourself...

Kathleen

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Working with Susann is an exhilarating experience. She has a talent for drawing out the creative potential within others and working with them to design practical, unintimidating strategies to implement positive change in their lives. She is always respectful of those she works with, and communicates her ideas without judgment. She is inspiring and very professional. I highly recommend working with Susann in whatever capacity you can.

Chelsea

Counselor
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PLMHP MA

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An incredible and knowledgeable teacher who can single handedly facilitate an environment of personal growth and change. Innovative and dynamic, her offerings are well worth the investment.

move beyond pain