The Pain Alarm
Why can one patient experience severe pain when very little tissue damage can be found, while another has significant degeneration on imaging but no pain at all? Why does pain sometimes continue long after an injury has healed? And what does any of this mean for the way chiropractors assess, care for, and communicate with their patients?
These are the questions every chiropractor needs to be able to answer
$128
$192
All eight classes, one price — 33% less than enrolling individually at $24 each.
This collection of eight online classes gives chiropractors a practical understanding of how pain is produced, amplified, and sometimes maintained by the nervous system.
Pain is not a direct measure of tissue damage. It is a protective experience produced by the nervous system and shaped by far more than what is happening at the site of symptoms. Sensory input, inflammation, stress, sleep, previous experience, emotion, and context can all influence whether pain is produced and how intense it feels.
This collection of eight online classes gives chiropractors a practical understanding of how pain is produced, amplified, and sometimes maintained by the nervous system. It also examines the research evidence for chiropractic care in three of the most common conditions seen in practice: low back pain, neck pain, and headaches.
First, understand why pain happens. Then explore what the evidence says about the conditions you see every week.
Across 48 lessons, you will learn the neuroscience behind acute and chronic pain, how stress and sleep influence the pain experience, how neuroplastic changes can contribute to persistent pain, and what the clinical evidence actually shows. You will also gain clear, patient friendly ways to explain pain without dismissing it or reducing everything to tissue damage.
Part I – Why Pain Happens
Five classes on how the brain constructs, amplifies, and sometimes gets stuck on pain — and what that means for the adjustment.
01
NS1.16 – 61 Mins
Pain – The Danger Warning System
The Alarm, Not the Damage
Pain is not a readout of tissue damage — it’s an alarm the nervous system decides to sound. This opening class covers the core mechanics: nociceptors and the pathways that carry a danger signal to the brain, the real difference between acute and chronic pain, and why pain can show up somewhere the injury isn’t.
- What nociceptors are and the pathways they use to signal danger
- The real difference between acute and chronic pain
- Why pain can be felt away from the actual site of injury (referred pain)
- How stress, inflammation, and glial cells influence how loud the alarm rings
Nociceptors
Referred Pain
Glial Cells
02
BS2.07 – 50 Mins
Pain is Created in the Brain
The Model That Broke
For decades, pain was explained as a direct readout of tissue damage — more damage, more pain. The traditional structural pathology model cannot fully explain persistent pain.
- Why the old structural pathology model of pain no longer holds up
- Neuroplastic changes and sensitisation can help pain persist even after the original tissues have healed
- The true scope of the low back pain burden
- Why explaining the new understanding of pain to patients matters clinically
- The difference between basic science and clinical science in practice
Structural Pathology
Learned Pain
Low Back Pain
03
BS2.08 – 65 Mins
Understanding Chronic Pain
The Orchestra in Your Patient’s Head
Chronic pain isn’t produced by one overactive nerve — it’s assembled by an orchestra of brain regions, and this class names the players. You’ll cover the neurophysiology behind chronic pain, why incongruent sensory information alone can be enough to make the brain generate pain, and how recurring low-grade neck dysfunction produces negative neuroplastic change over time. A close look at the limbic system shows how emotion amplifies pain, and gives you a patient-ready analogy — the orchestra — for explaining that amplification without losing them in neuroscience.
- The neurophysiology behind chronic pain
- Why incongruent sensory information alone can be enough to trigger pain
- How recurring low-grade neck dysfunction creates negative neuroplastic change
- How the limbic system amplifies pain through emotion
- A patient-ready analogy for explaining chronic pain: the orchestra
Neuroplasticity
Limbic System
Chronic Pain
04
BS2.09 – 61 Mins
Connection between Stress, Pain, Sleep and Mental Health
The Weight of 1,000 Straws
This class traces how physiological and psychological stress feed the maladaptive neural processes behind chronic pain — and how adverse childhood experiences reshape a patient’s stress response decades later. It also covers how physical trauma changes the small deep paraspinal muscles that stabilize the spine, the mechanical link between trauma and subluxation, plus the “1,000 straws on the camel’s back” analogy for explaining accumulated stress.
- How pain-related changes in the amygdala drive the brain’s stress neuromatrix
- The three-way link between chronic pain, sleep problems, and mental health
- How adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) shape adult stress physiology
- Why physical trauma affects the small deep paraspinal muscles — and its link to subluxation
- A patient-ready way to explain cumulative stress load
Amygdala
Chronic Pain
ACEs
05
BS2.10 – 61 Mins
The Brain, Pain, and the Neuroplastic Effects of Chiropractic Care
Rewiring the Response
This class closes Part One by connecting the neuroscience back to the adjustment itself. You’ll cover the brain’s role in motor control, the increasingly well-documented links between the gut, the microbiome, stress, sleep, and limbic reactivity in chronic pain, and the research on the neuroplastic effects of chiropractic adjustments. It also gets practical — the real impact of neck pain and “tech neck,” how to talk to patients about chronic pain without minimizing it, and what realistic clinical goals look like with a chronic patient.
- What motor control is and how the brain governs it
- The documented links between gut health, the microbiome, stress, and pain
- The research on neuroplastic effects of chiropractic adjustments
- The real clinical impact of neck pain, including “tech neck”
- How to communicate about chronic pain and set goals with chronic patients
Motor Control
Gut-Brain Axis
Neuroplasticity
Part 2 – The Case Files
Three classes, one per condition, each built the same way: the burden, the research, the safety and cost data, and the take-home message for the patient in the chair.
BS2.07 Pain is created in the Brain
50 minutes – the latest science tells us that pain is created in the brain – to warn us about danger.
BS2.08 Understanding Chronic Pain
65 minutes – how to communicate the latest contemporary understanding of what chronic pain is.
BS2.09 Connection between Stress, Pain, Sleep and Mental Health
61 minutes – how stress plays a major role in the development of chronic pain.
BS2.10 The Brain, Pain and the Neuroplastic Effects of Chiropractic Care
61 Minutes – we examine the function of the spine and how the brain controls movement
CS2.01 Chiropractic Care and Lower Back Pain
67 minutes – the efficacy and safety of chiropractic care and other intervention for people who suffer from lower back pain.
CS2.02 Chiropractic Care and Neck Pain
70 minutes – the literature in relation to chiropractic care and neck pain. How pain comes about and what neck pain might mean for your patient.
CS2.03 Chiropractic Care for Headaches and Migraines
64 minutes – the mechanisms of various types of headaches, and why chiropractic care may be of such benefit to them.
NS1.16 Pain The Danger Warning System
78 minutes – the complex world of pain.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to take the classes in order?
No. Each class is self-contained and independently quizzed with a completion certificate upon successfully passing the final quiz.
What’s included besides the videos?
A quiz after every section, a final quiz for each class, a downloadable handout, and certificate on completion of each class.
$128
$192
All eight classes, one price — 33% less than enrolling individually at $24 each.
