U.S. Pain Foundation is pleased with its continually expanding network of chronic pain support groups. There are actually over thirty groups, including five national groups, 16 state groups and 10 specialized groups. All support group leaders have undergone intensive training and attend regular follow-up meetings run by Gwenn Herman, Clinical Director Pain Connection programs. As well as, there’s a monthly video-conference series called Constructing Your Toolbox, during which a recent skill is taught – and a weekly Facebook Live broadcast, Mindful Mondays with Gwenn Herman
This month we’ve exceptional news: two support group leaders have recently published books, David Hall and Christie Cox.
David Hall, CHWC, is a Certified Health and Wellness Coach Specializing in chronic pain management. He can be a US Pain Foundation Certified Chronic Pain Support Group Leader, leading the North & South Carolina group. For 30 years David worked within the microelectronic and biomedical device industry manufacturing implantable electronic devices reminiscent of spinal cord stimulation (SCS), pacemakers, defibrillators, and deep brain stimulators. Not once did he ever imagine that sooner or later, he can be the recipient of two SCS devices to administer his chronic pain from complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS).
David’s book Striving to Thriving is designed to be a practical “toolbox” providing you with the resources needed to craft an individualized data-driven treatment plan together with your providers so you’ll be able to reclaim your life from chronic pain. David shares the story of his pain journey and the challenges he overcame. He describes how he reclaimed his life from the early days when he first woke up from an induced coma to leaving the engineering world to work within the chronic pain community. It’s about hope and doing what works for you. Equipped with information and options, you’ll learn how one can construct your individual multidisciplinary team of providers, manage all of the players and ultimately the choices affecting your quality of life. For more information, please visit David’s website.
Christie Cox is an individual living with chronic pain from hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS). She is certified in mindfulness, and in Tai Chi and Qi Gong mindful movement therapies. She lives outside Washington DC along with her husband and her dog. Her daughter attends Penn State University as a Mechanical Engineering major to graduate in 2023. Christie might be leading the Meditation Support Group commencing on November 2, 2022.
Christie’s book Holding It All Together When You’re Hypermobile explores not only the physical effects of hEDS but its emotional impact as well. As a fellow patient and medical rarity, known to doctors as zebras, Christie has experienced her body’s betrayal and suffered through the myriad complications stemming from this disease. But she has also found a way out from the depths of this life-altering disorder with wisdom you’ll be able to turn into hope. As a self-advocacy guide, she offers practical, no-nonsense advice about living with chronic illness and the concrete steps you’ll be able to take to realize a recent normal. For more information, please visit Christie’s website.
