Cynthia Austin, NBC-HWC
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a Former Professional Pain Patient
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a Former “Tried Everything” Case
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a Former Smiler-Through-the-Pain
Currently, she is
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a Nervous System Whisperer
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a Resilience Builder
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a Lived-Experience Expert Pain Coach
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I lived in chronic pain for nearly five decades. Over time, pain spread throughout my body and became my normal.
By 2016, I was 100 pounds overweight, using a cane, and overwhelmed by hopelessness. Medications piled up, doctors offered no answers, and the message was always the same: “Just learn to live with it.”
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Everything changed when I began researching pain science as part of chronic pain advocacy work with Senators and legislators.
That’s when I discovered a different approach. It was a method that focuses on changing the pain experience itself, not just managing symptoms.
I began learning how to support my brain and body differently. Not by pushing harder, but by understanding what was keeping me in a pain/fear loop.
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That was the turning point. I rebuilt my life from the ground up, and today I help others do the same. I guide clients back to their own clarity, capacity, and self-trust.
Cynthia Austin, NBC-HWC
Program Outcomes: Findings from the My Pain Coach Pain Coaching Program (2022–2025)
The Full Story
​My life with pain began in childhood.
I was just seven years old when I was diagnosed with debilitating migraines that would continue for decades.
As the years went on, the pain expanded — knees, legs, hips, back, stomach, neck, fibromyalgia — and so did the frustration.
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No matter how many specialists I saw or medications I tried, nothing brought lasting relief. I was often dismissed or misunderstood, and I internalized the belief that I was completely broken.
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By 2015, the pain had taken over my life completely.
I was over 100 pounds overweight and nearly bed-ridden. I used a cane to get around, relied on my 80-year-old mother to drive me to appointments, and felt like my mind and body were failing me.
On top of the physical pain, I was navigating emotional trauma, a failing second marriage, and the crushing weight of being told, “You just have to live with it.”
I didn’t realize then that what I was experiencing wasn’t just physical damage. It was nervous system overload.
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The turning point came when I met a trauma-informed, whole-person therapist that helped me recognize the patterns beneath my pain: emotional suppression, chronic urgency, people-pleasing, and survival-mode habits that kept my body stuck in high alert.
For the first time, I stopped fighting my body and began listening to it.
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That shift changed everything.
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Today, I live my life without fear of pain. I’ve traveled cross-country in a little sports car, driven 7 hours solo without hesitation, and stopped all pain medications without withdrawal.
My blood pressure and cholesterol have normalized. I no longer wake up every day fearing what pain will steal from me.
I’ve reclaimed my freedom, joy, and sense of self.
The most validating part?
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Knowing that healing came not from something external, but from changing the way I related to my own body, mind, and nervous system.
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I became a pain coach to guide others through the process I wish I had access to years ago — a process grounded in science, validation, and collaboration.
If you’ve been told there’s nothing left to try but pills, injections, or surgeries… I want you to know there may be another way.
You don’t have to figure it out alone.
Schedule a free consultation or subscribe to The Pain Experience Newsletter to learn how this applies to your unique story.
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