About Neil

Neil Pearson in a blue jacket and shirt, with an orange yoga mat under his arm

Neil Pearson

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

2021 recipient – Medal of Distinction – Canadian Physiotherapy Ass’n

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.

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

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Our views of pain, of people in pain, and of the role and effectiveness of non-pharmacological pain care, are mostly outdated.”

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

Peer-reviewed articles, and other publications: Click this link

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

Medal of Distinction
Canadian Physiotherapy Association, 2021

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