Advancing Chronic Pain Care: Emotion Regulation and Whole Health Approaches
Includes a Live Web Event on 06/09/2026 at 8:00 PM (EDT)
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This webinar will take place on 9 June 2026 at 08:00 pm.
Free to IASP Members; $25.00 for non-members
Chronic pain is increasingly understood as a multidimensional experience shaped by sensory, emotional, cognitive, and social processes. This webinar will explore emerging approaches that move beyond pain intensity alone to address broader targets in chronic pain care.
The first presentation, “It’s just crucial to deal with the emotions as well as the pain”, will discuss recent research on emotion regulation as a treatment target in chronic pain. Drawing on findings from an online dialectical behaviour therapy-based intervention, the session will explore how targeting emotion regulation may improve emotional wellbeing while also influencing pain intensity, sleep, anxiety, depression, and quality of life.
The second presentation, “The wHOPE Trial: Advancing the Evidence Base for Whole Health in Chronic Pain Management”, will present findings from a large pragmatic clinical trial evaluating a whole health model of care for people living with chronic pain. This session will discuss how integrative, person-centred care, including coaching, non-pharmacological approaches, and interdisciplinary support, can be implemented to improve health and wellbeing in chronic pain management.
Together, these presentations will provide attendees with an opportunity to reflect on how emotional processes and whole health frameworks can inform contemporary chronic pain treatment, rehabilitation, and research.
Overall Learning Objective
How is this topic valuable to pain professionals and what can they expect to take away from the session?
This webinar will help pain professionals better understand how emotional processes and interdisciplinary health approaches can be integrated into contemporary chronic pain care. Attendees will gain insight into the role of emotion regulation as a modifiable treatment target in chronic pain, including its potential influence on pain intensity, emotional wellbeing, sleep, and functioning. They will also learn how whole health models of care can be implemented to support person-centred, interdisciplinary chronic pain management in real-world clinical settings. Participants can expect to leave with a broader understanding of emerging evidence in integrative pain care and practical ideas for applying these concepts in clinical practice, rehabilitation, and research.
Presenters
Dr Nell Norman-Nott, PhD
Dr Karen H. Seal, MD
Moderator
Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD
Dr Nell Norman-Nott, PhD
Research Fellow and Associate Lecturer
UNSW and Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA)
Nell holds joint roles as a Research Fellow and Associate Lecturer at UNSW and Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA). She is also a provisionally registered psychologist specialising in the psychological aspects of chronic pain. As a member of NeuRA’s Centre for Pain IMPACT, she collaborates with researchers and neuroscientists to explore the central and psychological mechanisms underlying chronic pain. Her research integrates the latest insights into the brain’s pathophysiological changes associated with chronic pain to develop innovative eHealth solutions. Recently, she has focused on creating Pain and Emotion Therapy, an internet-delivered psychological treatment based on dialectical behaviour therapy. After testing this intervention in a randomised controlled trial, Nell is now leading a national trial to further develop and implement Pain and Emotion Therapy, in clinical practice. Before transitioning to research and psychology, Nell spent 15 years in the corporate sector, working in program development and implementation for global tech companies including LinkedIn, Microsoft, and Yahoo. She now combines her technology expertise with her passion for psychology and research to develop evidence-based interventions that enhance chronic pain treatment and improve patient outcomes.
Bio link: https://www.unsw.edu.au/staff/nell-norman-nott
Presentation title: “It’s just crucial to deal with the emotions as well as the pain” - Emotion Regulation as a Target in Chronic Pain Treatment
Dr Karen H. Seal, MD
Dr Karen H. Seal is Chief of Integrative Health at the San Francisco Veterans Health Care System and Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. She is a general internal medicine and integrative medicine physician who has pioneered behavioral, complementary, and integrative health interventions to support military veterans living with chronic pain, opioid dependence, and post-traumatic stress disorder. She has founded multiple interdisciplinary clinical programs, led numerous studies funded by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Institutes of Health, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and the United States Department of Defense, and has published nearly 170 scientific papers. She also mentors junior investigators through the Veterans Health Research Innovation Program and the Osher Center for Integrative Health at the University of California, San Francisco.
Bio link: https://medicine.ucsf.edu/people/karen-seal
Presentation title: “The wHOPE Trial: Advancing the Evidence Base for Whole Health in Chronic Pain Management”
Dr Rod Rizzo, PhD (Moderator)
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
University of New South Wales (UNSW)
Dr Rodrigo Rizzo is a Medical Research Future Funding (MRFF) Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) and the School of Health Sciences, University of New South Wales (UNSW). Dr Rizzo is a physiotherapist with extensive clinical experience managing people with chronic pain.
In his PhD, he summarised the effects of interventions for low back pain and explored new treatment targets to improve the management of low back pain. Dr Rizzo's research has substantially impacted the management of low back pain. His systematic review of medicines targeting neurotrophic factors supported pharmaceutical regulatory agencies (FDA, European Medicines Agency) to reject commercialising these medicines for people with chronic pain due to limited efficacy and potentially severe adverse effects. He conducted Cochrane overviews providing accessible and high-quality summaries of treatments for low back pain to facilitate treatment decision-making.
Dr Rizzo has conducted randomised controlled trials and undertaken process evaluations (e.g., mediation analysis and qualitative analysis) of brain-targeted interventions for chronic low back pain. He pioneered combining hypnotic suggestions with pain education for back pain management. Dr Rizzo's innovative approach has been applied in several allied health teams to manage chronic pain, including Brazil's unified health system, Prince of Wales Hospital, St. George's Hospital, and St. Vincent's Hospital in Australia. Dr Rizzo's work has informed the development and implementation of a prescribable digital health intervention in primary care funded by the MRFF 2021 Primary Health Care Digital Innovations.
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