Neil Pearson, BA, MSc, PT, C-IAYT, ERYT500, YACEP
Director, Pain Care U

Neil is a physical therapist, a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University British Columbia, and a certified yoga therapist.

An engaging educator and compassionate clinician, Neil is able to make the complex understandable, willing to share his knowledge and expertise in pain care, and always ready to learn more. He is also an aspiring writer.

“My goal is to help people living in pain and to assist others with the same desire to serve.

“We must shift many paradigms. Our views of pain, of people in pain, and of the role and effectiveness of non-pharmacological pain care, are mostly outdated.”

Neil’s most influential mentors and teachers have been the people in pain he has served.

Education

Bachelor of Arts, Health and Physical Education, Queens University, 1985

Master of Science, Rehabilitation, Queens University, 1993

Highlights

Physical therapist since 1985

Clinical Assistant Professor, UBC, since 1997

Complex pain focus, since 2000

Consultant for Doctors of BC, since 2013

Past Director, Pain BC , 2003-2006

Founding Chair, Canadian Physiotherapy Pain Science Division, 2008-2011

Faculty positions in Accredited Yoga Therapy Programs:

• Inner Peace Yoga Therapy – Chicago, USA
• Yoga Therapy International – Vancouver, Canada; Anatomy and Physiology
• Embodied Yoga Therapy – Ottawa, Canada
• Yoga Studio College – Calgary, Canada

Author

Co-editor, author – Yoga and Science in Pain Care: Treating the Person in Pain; Singing Dragon Publishing, 2019

Author – Yoga Therapy chapter, Integrative Pain Management: Massage, Movement, and Mindfulness Based Approaches, Diana Thompson, Marissa Brooks, editors; Handspring Publishing, 2016

Author – Understand Pain Live Well Again; Life Is Now/Pain Care U, 2007; Kindle Edition, 2015

Developer of Pain Care for Life and First 5 Steps (now Lifemark), launched 2016

Awards

Distinguished Alumni Award – Queen’s University, 2015

Excellence in Interprofessional Pain Education – Canadian Pain Society, 2012

Award of Excellence, Clinical Contribution – Physiotherapy Association of BC, 2010

Peer-reviewed articles, and other publications:

Blinkenstaff, C./Pearson, N.
Reconciling Movement and Exercise with Pain Neuroscience Education: a Case for Consistent Education
Physiotherapy Practice Review 32(5):396 – 407, 2016

Pearson, N.
Know Pain
Yoga Therapy Today Summer, 2013. 14 – 16

Pearson N.
Yoga and Chronic Low Back Pain
IJYT 2010, 20: 53 – 54

Pearson, N.
Yoga For People in Pain
IJYT 2008, 18: 77 – 86

Pearson, N.D./Walmsley, R.P.
Trial Into the Effects of Repeated Neck Retractions in Normal Subjects
Spine 20: 1245, 1995