From Overwhelm to Agency
Support for Pain That Persists.
If you find yourself thinking about your pain consistently, please reach out. I am here to help.
When pain takes over, the right approach can get you back in control of your life. Every approach works for some people; no approach works for everyone.
I am a medical sociologist. I have a PhD from UCSF, where I studied how medical knowledge about pain gets produced and taken up. I bring the work of my doctorate to provide insights that pain patients are rarely guided toward. I also spent over a decade as a clinical bodyworker, and found that the body contains immense wisdom that can help us get through moments of contraction.
With 20 years experience working in different fields related to persistent and chronic pain, I’ve seen it first hand, felt it firsthand, and identified evidence-based practices to shift your relationship with pain, giving you more ability to discern signal from noise. I offer individual sessions via Zoom or phone, providing personalized guidance, neuroscience-based education, and between-session support to help you navigate your pain care more effectively.
I don’t provide medical care or psychotherapy. I don’t offer treatment as that word is generally used—I offer clarity. My work sits above medicine and therapy, helping people navigate the contradictions, gaps, and blind spots that make seeking pain care so overwhelming. I help fill gaps and bridge treatment modalities.
“Sara has been an invaluable resource on my journey navigating the ups and downs of a prolonged injury and related pain. I have found my medical care to be very siloed, and often feel that the goal of each of my many doctors is to identify what is wrong and then fix it. Sara’s interdisciplinary approach is completely different: patient-centered, focused on wellness and holistic health, and always delivered with sensitivity and compassion. Thanks to her guidance and support, I have been able to not only digest a vast array of specialist opinions and recommendations, but make choices about my medical care that feel right for my personal goals and values.”
About me
The first question you may be asking yourself is—who are you and how is this approach different?
I draw on insights gleaned from my research into the study and treatment of chronic pain.
First, I’ve done the academic route
I have a PhD from University of California, San Francisco where I dedicated myself to uncovering how chronic pain was being mismanaged in the wake of the opioid crisis. My research took me into rooms where various brain-based pain interventions were being studied in neuroimaging labs and taken up in hospital settings. In addition to the knowledge I gained, I also gained a facility with research and the myriad of methods for treating chronic pain, as well as the physiological and psychological mechanisms underlying them.
Second, I’ve done the bodywork route
With a 12 year practice as a clinically-trained bodyworker, over thousands of sessions I treated hundreds of patients suffering from different stages of persistent and chronic pain and facilitated a way for my clients to effectively and fully re-inhabit the bodies that they were so desperately trying to re-engage with comfortably.
Third, I can relate
Like everyone, I’ve faced challenges with persistent discomfort and pain. I dealt with my own chronic condition and was forced to take a hard look at existing approaches and determine my own way of navigating the difficult and complex circumstances of persistent and chronic pain and the industry at large. I have found that with practice, the pain you are feeling now can become an opportunity—for new dialogues with parts of ourselves, for expanded awareness of our form and structure, and for deep insight into our own resilience.
What is Pain Fermata?
In music, a fermata signals a pause—an intentional moment of stillness held at the performer’s discretion.
Pain Fermata offers that same kind of pause for people living with persistent pain: a space where you choose to stop, reflect, and relate to pain on your own terms.
Schedule a Call
Book a complimentary 20 minute intake session so that I can learn more about you and get a sense for what’s been working as far as pain management—and what hasn’t. Together we can determine if this process is the right fit for you, or if there’s another path that makes more sense.
Approach
Regardless of how we work together, three key principles guide this approach:
Chronic pain involves the brain and the body, and sorting signal from noise gets increasingly difficult as pain persists;
Physical pain and emotional pain share overlapping pathways in the brain–what works for addressing one is frequently effective for addressing the other;
Fear is a big component of pain, and it’s difficult to experience fear alone. Reducing the isolation of chronic pain is an effective approach in and of itself.
Testimonials
“Before working with Sara, I had worked through a couple different chronic pain cycles over about 25 years and worked with the best physicians and physical therapists I could find. I had good insurance and good providers and I was able to get by. But despite years of effort I was only able to more or less fight my pain to a hostile ceasefire. Except for when I couldn’t. No one ever pointed me to the simple concepts and ways to think about my pain and how I was relating to it in a way that Sara did. Once I began to seriously engage with my pain in ways Sara suggested, the struggle my pain brought to my life went away and now when pain rears up it dissolves relatively quickly. I am so grateful for the tips, tricks and paths she showed me. She brings what no physician ever did for me. I no longer find myself lying on the floor, trying not to cry.”
“Sara has opened a door to pain management techniques I didn't know existed. She met me where I was at and helped me develop a practice to alleviate the pain and get back to normal life. She is incredibly intuitive and supportive and if you are experiencing chronic pain I would highly recommend talking to her.”
Contact
Interested in working together? Please provide me with your contact info and a brief description of what you’d like to address. I’ll be in touch shortly.