Foundations Course
Gain confidence and knowledge in effective pain care! Learn to guide students/clients with proven, science informed pain care skills, rooted in traditional yoga teachings.
In this 30-hour online professional development program, you will dive deep into yoga teachings and pain science, explore pain as a human condition and learn how to foster fearlessness, hope and resilience in yourself and your students when there is pain.
“This is a first of its kind offering that combines pain science with yogic principles and compassionate practices to give yoga teachers the confidence to help their students with pain move from fear and fragility to fearlessness!”
–Kristina
Personal Note From Neil & Lisa
Dear Friend,
We rarely think about what we think about pain. Yet when we do, we realize that many beliefs do not match with our life experiences. On the other hand, contemplating pain science and yoga teachings exposes kindred views. With these views guiding our language and approach to yoga and pain care we remove barriers that have held our students/clients back from finding more ease and less pain during yoga practice and life.
Neil: When I started as a physiotherapist in the mid-80s, I quickly realized that what my patients were telling me about pain didn’t match with what I learned in school. There were no courses on pain during school or after, but the implicit message was loud and clear – the solution was finding ‘the tissue’ causing the pain. Such linear, mechanistic ideas rarely help when pain persists – pain is always multifaceted. So, for a long time, I relied more on the experiences of my patients to help me understand pain and pain care.
Now we know that yoga teachings about pain align very well with pain science. Just like patients and yogis taught us, the solutions come when we can unveil misconceptions. Or to state this in the language of pain science, solutions come when we reconceptualize pain.
Lisa: As I explored more deeply into yoga for therapy, it became obvious to me that pain is a whole human experience. It is affected by absolutely everything within us and around us. “As above, so below, as within, so without…”, This mystical axiom put the path of pain care into a perspective where my mystical nature was drawn to curiosity and wonder. How can we use self realization to manage and change pain?
Pain is a whole human experience. Everything affects pain. What we think, what we believe, what we see, hear, remember, wish for… Everything has an effect on our pain experience.
The teachings of yoga align with this; that we are multifaceted beings that are greatly impacted by everything around us and that we, with mindful action and awareness can become more perceiving, more peaceful and less sensitive to the influences surrounding us and within us. We have forgotten our true nature. Yoga teaches us that when we remember and wholly acknowledge our embodied experiences we can view them from an expanded, fuller, more complete perspective. Yoga and Pain Science go hand and hand they do not disagree nor compete with helpful service to knowing our true nature and overcoming fear, despair, pain and suffering.
There is no quick path to becoming pain care aware, and to changing your approach and language related to pain and pain care. This Foundations course is the place to start – to gain more knowledge, to experience change for yourself, and to prepare you for making your teaching, clinical or therapeutic work Pain Care Aware.
Join our community of like-minded care providers.
Be Curious about pain. Change is possible.
Neil & Lisa
“
Testimonials
Ready to Become Pain Care Aware?
Take the first step to integrate yoga and pain science into your yoga teaching, yoga therapy or health professional clinical practice.
Why This Course is For You
If you’ve ever experienced…
- fear of injuring a student
- self-doubt when guiding asana if someone says they have pain
- not knowing how to increase evidence of safety in your student/client
- being unsure of what to do after providing pain education
- the cognitive and heart felt mismatch between yoga teachings and common western views of pain
- not knowing how to provide bio-psycho-social-spiritual care to a client or patient
- a feeling like you’ve been asked to turn yoga into physical therapy
- a feeling that you’ve been asked to turn yoga into psychotherapy or Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
Then you’re ready to learn more about pain and pain care. The goods news is that Pain Care Aware Foundations will provide you with knowledge and skills to overcome these barriers and to effectively integrate yoga and pain science into your language and approach to helping people experiencing pain – whether the pain is acute or persistent.
What You'll Gain
Over the next weeks, this course will provide the tools you need to:
- Have more options when a student reports pain during asana practice.
- Explore your own pain, practice new approaches and challenge your own limitations.
- Embed pain science into embodied pain care experiences.
- Discover deeply embedded misconceptions behind yoga cueing language that promote fear and fragility rather than compassion and resilience.
- Begin integrating yoga into effective pain care plans.
After you gain foundational knowledge about pain, people in pain and pain care, you will complete and contemplate the effects of pain care practices. This prepares you to change your language and approach to pain care, while offering you techniques to guide others when there is pain, and at the same time providing you with the conviction that pain is real, pain is changeable and we all have the ability to learn how to gain more influence over it.
How it Works
The Pain Care Aware Foundations Course is a self-paced program with over 30 hours of continuing education offering a pain-informed approach to teaching yoga.
Step 1
Register for the Course
Step 2
Certificate of Completion
Step 3
30 Hours of Yoga Alliance CE Credits
What to Expect
Within each module, choose options to learn with written, audio and video formats, listen to ‘the Swami and the Professor’ discuss key topics, then take the quiz to help consolidate key information.
What's Included
- Over Thirty (30) Hours of Online Continuing Education
- Six Modules with Audio, Video and Written Instructions
- Self-Reflection Assignments and Assessments within Each Module
- Downloadable Manual with Key Points, Worksheets, and Articles
- Self-Paced Study (recommended duration is four weeks of dedicated study and practice time)
- Lifetime Access to Course Content
Upon completion of the PCA Foundations Course, students receive a Certificate of Completion and are eligible to enroll in a Pain Care Aware™ YTT Certification Practicum in Teaching Groups or Teaching Individuals, or both!
What Our Students Are Saying...
Frequently Asked Questions
For additional questions about this course, please reach out to us anytime at info@paincareaware.com
The Pain Care Aware Foundations Course is designed for Yoga Teachers, Yoga Therapists, Health Care Professionals, Movement Teachers and Movement Therapists.
Anyone who is working with people in movement groups of any size or 1:1, who would like to combine yoga and pain science education into a platform for changing the impact of pain on society.
Yes, this is important information. It is true that you will review what you have learned with Neil or Lisa at one point, but we strongly believe that multiple reviews are necessary and required when it comes to understanding pain. AND, the Pain Care Aware Online Foundations Course also adds an all new level of curriculum in changing our language in yoga cueing.
This is very difficult, especially if you have been cueing your classes a specific way for a long time.
New approaches in language and its application take time to digest, process, make your own and develop into action.
This course will give you a solid foundation to change how you cue yoga to include people who are in or experience pain in asana.
For this reason in order to develop new patterns in language which are rooted in yoga and in understanding pain science, the “why” becomes the important piece in changing pain in society through yoga.
Our mission cannot be met if this skill is not passed on, therefore, The Pain Care Aware Foundations Course is required of anyone seeking certification from Pain Care U., regardless of past student history. If you currently have a Certificate from Pain Care U it is completely valid and we are happy to have you on our team. We invite you to integrate this new information as you are able and hope that you join our Memberships to stay involved in your call to serve those with pain.
YES! This is why we created this program, so that we can be with all of you at once and on demand. Everyone can do the course at their own pace, so its’ easy to start anytime or join with a group and be guided through. However you chose to complete it, EVERYONE begins with the Pain Care Aware Foundations Course for ALL Pain Care U certification offerings.
You have as long as you wish, however we suggest that you finish it within 4 to 6 weeks to keep things fresh and to be able to help others by applying the knowledge into action more quickly. Often PCA Trainers, Lisa, or Neil will offer guided Full Certification Courses (Level 1 Foundations with a Level 2 certificate process), so you may chose to enrol in one of these to ensure you complete the work on a specified timeline if that is something that would serve your personality and learning style best.
Yes, once enrolled you will continue to have unlimited access.
We encourage graduates to return for any updates or to refresh their understanding, keeping knowledgable and relevant is important in our collaborative mission.