Understanding Pain

A two-day online event exploring contemporary perspectives on pain through the lenses of fascia, neuroplasticity, hypermobility, emotion, imagery, movement and clinical application. Designed for therapists, movement professionals and all practitioners who want a broader, more integrated understanding of pain.

8 expert speakers - 2 live online days - replay included until 20 September 2026 - For therapists, movement professionals, manual practitioners, bodyworkers, rehab professionals and fascia-focused educators

Online with Marc Ellis, Karen Kirkness, Jeannie di Bon, Tina Wang, Carol Davis, Eric Franklin, Elizabeth Larkam, Joanne Avison

PRACTICAL DETAILS

Date: Saturday 27^th and Sunday 28^th June

Venue: Online via Zoom 15:00-21:00 each day (you can Check your timezone here)

Title: Understanding Pain

With: Marc Ellis, Karen Kirkness, Jeannie di Bon, Tina Wang, Carol Davis, Eric Franklin, Elizabeth Larkam, Joanne Avison

Replay access: Included until Sunday 20 September 2026 After this date, the recording will be added to the Members’ Area.

For: Therapists, movement professionals, manual practitioners, bodyworkers, rehab professionals and fascia-focused educators

WHAT YOU WILL GAIN

For therapists, movement professionals, manual practitioners, bodyworkers, rehab professionals and fascia-focused educators

There is more to pain than meets the eye - this event helps you see the full picture
A shift beyond the traditional medical model towards a more integrated, holistic understanding of pain
Insights into thinking about pain as a dynamic interaction between body, brain, emotion, language and environment
Insight into the complexities of the many aspects of pain.
Practical tools and frameworks you can apply immediately in your clinical or movement-based work

Book at Early Bird Rate - £63 until 10 May 2026

Member Booking - £48

AGENDA

Day 1: Saturday 27th June

15.00 Welcome

15.05 Marc Ellis and Q & A

16.05 10 mins break

16.15 Karen Kirkness and Q & A

17.15 15 mins break

17.30 Jeannie di Bon and Tina Wang joint presentation 90 mins plus 30 minutes’ Q&A

19.30 15 mins break

19.45 Discussion Panel

20.45 - 21.00 End

Day 2: Sunday 28th June

15.00 Welcome

15.05 Carol Davis and Q & A

16.05 10 mins break

16.15 Eric Franklin (no Q&A: questions for Eric may be submitted by email; address supplied on the day)

17.10 10 mins break

17.20 Elizabeth Larkam plus Q & A

18.20 15 mins break

18.35 Joanne Avison plus Q & A

19.35 10 mins break

19.45 Discussion Panel

20.45 - 21.00 End

SESSION OVERVIEWS:

Day 1: Saturday 27^th June:

Session 1: Marc Ellis: The Dynamic Self Model and Pain: From Nociception to Perception—Rewiring Brain Maps through Neuroplasticity.

Discussion on definition of pain according to the International Association for the Study of Pain

Introduction to the dynamic self model and its significance to perception.

Brain maps and neuroplasticity.

Nociception, fascia and brain maps. What is nociception. What is peripheral sensitization

Explanation of cortical columns in reference to the dynamic self model

What is central sensitization. Descending pain inhibition and autonomic function.

Importance of feedback and using laser guidance technology to drive plasticity and change brain maps and in turn self perception.

Session 2: Karen Kirkness: Pandora’s Box: The Molecular Memory of Pain

Once opened, pain rewrites the system that feels it.

Pain does not begin in the brain. It begins in chemistry: in tissue strain, inflammatory signaling, ion shifts, and calcium entry into cells. Long before a signal reaches consciousness, the body is already reorganizing around load.

In this talk, Karen Kirkness explores the pre-neural pathways of pain, from fascial mechanotransduction and immune activation to calcium-driven synaptic potentiation. We’ll examine how molecules such as CaMKII can remain active after initial injury, reinforcing neural sensitivity and lowering pain thresholds. Like Pandora’s mythic box, once pain is opened it is difficult to close; not because pain is psychological (although it is on many levels), but because plasticity is biological. This session reframes chronic pain as learned efficiency at the molecular and fascial level...and explores how movement variability, safety, and graded load can reshape the very pathways that sustain it.

Session 3: Jeannie di Bon and Tina Wang on hypermobility: A Functional Approach to Pain in Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome

This 90-minute session presents a systems-based, clinically integrated framework for understanding and treating pain in Ehlers–Danlos Syndrome (EDS). Pain in EDS is rarely singular in origin; it emerges from layered interactions across central nervous system sensitization, peripheral joint instability, autonomic dysfunction, proprioceptive impairment, visceral involvement, and axial structural compromise.

Rather than isolating symptoms, this session organizes pain into interconnected domains:

Central sensitization and dysautonomia
Proprioceptive dysfunction
Peripheral joint instability
Visceral pain contributors
Axial instability (cervical, pelvic girdle, spine)

Each theoretical segment is immediately paired with practical clinical tools, creating a direct bridge between mechanism and intervention. Participants will engage in guided applications including breath regulation, autonomic down-training, proprioceptive retraining, graded stabilization strategies, and gentle movement interventions appropriate for hypermobile populations.

The session is structured to move from foundational concepts (What is EDS? Pathophysiology overview) into progressively layered functional domains, concluding with an integrated clinical reasoning model that clinicians can apply immediately in practice.

The emphasis is precision without overwhelm — understanding which layer is dominant in a given patient and selecting targeted, low-load, nervous-system-informed interventions accordingly.

Core Takeaways for Participants

EDS pain is layered, not linear.
Central sensitization often coexists with biomechanical instability.
Dysautonomia alters pain perception and recovery capacity.
Proprioceptive impairment is foundational to instability.
Stabilization must be load-appropriate and precision-based.
Breath regulation and safety signaling are not optional — they are mechanistic interventions.
Axial instability frequently underlies headache and gait dysfunction.

Advisory Panel – Discussion and questions with today’s speakers.

Day 2: Sunday 28^th June:

Session 1: Carol Davis: Fascia and the Effects of Emotion and Memory on Pain Perception

The relationship between fascia, emotion, memory, and pain perception sits at the intersection of several research domains: fascia biotensegrity, interoception, affective neuroscience, and predictive processing of pain.

Evidence increasingly suggests that pain is not simply a signal from injured tissue, but an emergent complex stochastic experience shaped by tissue state, autonomic activity, emotional context, and prior experience and learning.

In this sense, fascia functions as a dynamic sensory interface between the energy of structural forces and emotional physiology.

In sum, perceived pain in any one moment is best understood as an integrated biotensegral, biopsychosocial and neurophysiological process in which:

somatic biotensegral energy and flow are responding to inner and outer forces,

fascial nociceptors provide sensory input,

interoceptive pathways connect tissue state to emotional awareness,

autonomic and immune systems modulate tissue sensitivity and

memory and prediction shape how signals are interpreted as pain

Session 2 - Eric Franklin: Motor Imagery, Dynamic Neuro-Cognitive Imagery™, and Pain Modulation: An Embodied Neurocognitive Framework

This presentation will be pre-recorded, however questions may be submitted via email to Eric on the day - address will be supplied.

Motor imagery (MI) activates neural networks overlapping with those engaged during executed movement, including the primary motor cortex, premotor cortex, supplementary motor area, cerebellum, and basal ganglia (Lotze & Halsband, 2006). Experimental evidence demonstrates that mental practice alone can induce strength gains and motor learning adaptations (Yue & Cole, 1992; Ranganathan et al., 2004), suggesting that imagery-driven cortical activation produces measurable neuromuscular effects.

Beyond performance enhancement, contemporary pain science indicates that pain perception is strongly influenced by cortical representation, prediction, and threat evaluation (Moseley, 2004; Moseley & Flor, 2012). Altered body schema and disrupted somatosensory maps are associated with persistent musculoskeletal pain, while normalization of cortical representation has been linked to symptom reduction (Flor et al., 1995).

This presentation introduces an applied framework based on Dynamic Neuro-Cognitive Imagery™ (DNI™) as developed within the Franklin Method. DNI™ extends traditional motor imagery by integrating anatomically precise, multisensory, and movement-coupled imagery with tactile feedback, breath regulation, and fascia-informed biomechanics. Rather than static visualization, DNI™ emphasizes dynamic, embodied simulation that refines cortical motor planning and somatosensory integration.

From a neurophysiological perspective, DNI™-based motor imagery may modulate pain through multiple interacting mechanisms:

Cortical Representation Refinement: Enhanced body map clarity and improved sensorimotor congruence
Motor Efficiency Optimization: Reduction of maladaptive co-contraction and protective guarding
Descending Inhibitory Activation: Engagement of central pain modulation pathways
Threat Reduction: Improved movement predictability reducing pain-related fear (Moseley, 2004)
Autonomic Regulation: Breath-mediated vagal modulation influencing stress and pain perception (Thayer & Lane, 2000)

By integrating anatomical accuracy, kinesthetic embodiment, and interoceptive awareness, DNI™ may influence both top-down modulation and bottom-up sensory integration. Preliminary pedagogical and clinical observations suggest reductions in perceived effort, improved coordination, and decreased pain experience without mechanical intervention.

A three-domain model is proposed in which Dynamic Neuro-Cognitive Imagery™ influences pain via:

Cortical Body Map Optimization
Motor Output Reorganization
Autonomic and Affective Regulation

Session 3 - Elizabeth Larkam

Each individual in pain deserves a customized movement practice to help benefit breathing efficiency, circulation, confidence in mobility and curiosity regarding the discovery process of learning though movement.

The 45 minute movement experience will be organized as four ten-minute vignettes, each with a theme and focus on properties of the fascial system. We will cover:

Movements of the eyes, tongue, neck and head.
Movement of the thoracic volume.
Oscillation or rhythmic rocking.
Rhythmic gait patterns

Session 4: Joanne Avison – Are We Asking the Right Question? Pain, Sensation and the Listening Body

What if pain isn't the problem, but the message? What if we've been so focused on where it hurts that we've missed what it's saying?

This presentation asks about the value of a shift from pain as pathology to sensation as signal. It takes practitioners on a journey from the anatomical theatres of the Renaissance to the most current research in fascial intelligence, tracing a single thread: the body has always been a listening, sensing, self-communicating, resonant architecture, animated by a being. We just haven't always had the language to hear the messenger or the presence to pause for the message.

Fascia; the largest sensory organ of the body, is our living interface, from soma to soul. It speaks from the inside out, locally and globally, across a spectrum from speed to stillness, stiffness to softness, wailing to whispering. When we reduce that conversation to the site of pain and a diagnosis, are we answering a question the body may not be asking? Or even ignoring presence to confirm the postcode?

Advisory Panel – Discussion and questions with today’s speakers.

Choose your booking option below

Book at Early BIrd rate - £63 until 10 May 2026

Member Booking - £48

Full price tickets will be £78 from 11 May 2026

Note: The replay will be available to all attendees until Sunday, 20th September 2026. After this date, the recording will be added to the Members’ Area.

Considering membership as well?

SPECIAL MEMBERSHIP OFFER

Join The Fascia Hub and receive an extra initial month free when you sign up for the minimum three full paying months.

Join The Fascia Hub!

PRESENTERS

Dr. Marc Ellis is a renowned expert in Applied Clinical Neurology with a special focus on fascia. He is a board member of the American Chiropractic Neurology Board and a founding member of the Fascia Research Society. With over 25 years of experience in practice, Dr. Ellis holds certificates in Neuromuscular Therapy and Sports Massage, a Chiropractic Degree from Life University, and a master’s degree in clinical Neurology from Parker University. He also holds a Diplomate in Chiropractic Neurology, a Fellowship in Functional Neurology, and a Fellowship in Brain Injury and Rehabilitation.

Dr Karen Kirkness holds her doctorate in medical sciences with a focus on complexity and anatomy pedagogy. She has published numerous academic papers and book chapters and is the author of Spiral Bound: Integrated Anatomy for Yoga, a multidisciplinary approach to understanding how spirality is expressed in human movement. She codifies this spirality as the Five Filaments, a spiral motion rubric based on the multidimensional, chiral, filamentous morphologic constraints of fascia. As an experienced teacher of movement, she aims to hone the therapeutic experience of movement by emphasising the importance of "going with the spiral grain of nature". Karen lives with her husband and their two young kids in the Scottish Borders.

Jeannie Di Bon is a Movement Therapist based in London with over 15 years experience in specializing in working with people with hypermobility, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and chronic pain. Originally trained in Pilates, over the past decade her research and study have gone on to encompass biomechanics, anatomy, neuroscience and pain management. She is now undertaking an MSc in Pain Management.

Jeannie has hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and rehabbed her body and mind from chronic pain.

She presents for The EDS Society and other charities. Jeannie is also an educator of teachers and therapists in the field of movement therapy with the EDS Echo program. In July 2019, Jeannie launched The Zebra Club – a comprehensive collection of movement classes for people with hypermobility, EDS and chronic pain. In November 2021, The Zebra Club was transformed into an easily accessible app for home use.

Jeannie’s first book – Pilates Without Tears, published in 2016 – continues to be sold internationally, receiving outstanding feedback. Her second book, Hypermobility Without Tears, was released in May 2019 and has been endorsed by patients and medical professionals. She is currently working on a third book due out in 2024 on the Integral Movement Method. Two research papers into the IMM should be published this year.

Dr. Tina J Wang is a medical doctor board certified in the specialty of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. She is a fascia researcher and has a special focus on Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders including Hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. Her published research focuses on ultrasound characteristics of fascial dysfunction to improve clinical understanding, diagnostics, and treatments of myofascial pain syndromes, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders.

Dr. Wang is an Assistant Professor at medical schools in the Southern California area and is core faculty for the musculoskeletal curriculum including the use of ultrasound based diagnosis and interventions.

Dr. Wang is also a yoga practitioner and studies under the the lineage of T Krishnamacharya and TKV Desikachar and studies Ayurveda with Dr. Anupama Kizhakkeveett at the Southern California University of Health Sciences.

Carol M. Davis, DPT, EdD, MS, FAPTA is Professor Emerita and immediate past Vice Chair of the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Miami. She is also a clinician in active clinical practice, primarily treating patients with cervical and lumbar spine pain utilizing energy-based manual therapy, myofascial release, along with exercise.

Dr. Davis is an international lecturer and consultant and a respected author in rehabilitation literature. She is the author of Integrative Therapies in Rehabilitation, and Patient-Practitioner Interaction, both published by Slack Books, Inc., and several text book chapters, many focusing on the science of energy medicine and integrative therapies. She has published over 30 articles in peer reviewed journals. Her areas of scholarly interest include the histology and function of fascia and educating students in recognized manual therapy approaches that release fascial restrictions for improved function and quality of physical and emotional life.

Eric Franklin is the Founder and Director of the Franklin Method®. Eric created the Method over 25 years ago, initially teaching it in Switzerland, Germany and Austria before spreading his message to the USA, China, Japan and beyond.

A wealth of experience in education

After earning his Bachelor of Science at the University of Zurich and his Bachelor of Fine Arts at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Eric worked for many years as a dancer and choreographer. After developing his groundbreaking Franklin Method®, Eric then went on to teach at numerous universities and schools around the world, including the Juilliard School in New York, Rutgers University, the University of Vienna, the Royal Ballet School and the Laban Center in London.

Over the years, he also taught Beyonce’s & Celine Dion’s world tour dance companies, and in 1998 he was credited with introducing dance conditioning methodology to mainland China.

Renowned speaker and author

Eric is a regular speaker at international conferences, such as the World Congress for Lower Back and Pelvic Pain, the Pilates Method Alliance and the International Association for Dance Medicine and Science.

Eric Franklin has also authored 21 books, including Dynamic Alignment through Imagery (2012), Dance Imagery for Technique and Performance (2013), Relax your Neck – Liberate your Shoulders (2002), Pelvic Power (2003), Inner Focus, Outer Strength (2006) and Beautiful Body, Beautiful Mind (2009). Eric Franklin’s books have been translated into German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, French, Czech, Chinese and Korean.

Elizabeth Larkam, Handspring author on fascia and movement (National Certified Pilates Teacher, Balanced Body Master Instructor/Mentor, Feldenkrais® practitioner, Gyrotonic® and Gyrokinesis ® teacher) wrote Fascia in Motion: Fascia-focused movement for Pilates (2017), co-edited Pilates Applications for Health Conditions (2025) and authored the Pilates chapter for Fascia in Sport and Movement (2015, 2e 2020). Her private practice and ELARKAM Movement Systems are in a historic home built in 1898 in Georgetown, Texas.

Elizabeth was awarded the Medal of the Danish Society of Military Medicine in recognition of her efforts to improve the rehabilitation of wounded soldiers. She co-founded Heroes in Motion, an initiative of the Pilates Method Alliance, to customize movement programs for individuals with prosthetic limbs. As a Dancemedicine Pilates Specialist at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco Elizabeth created Pilates programs for orthopedic, spine, chronic pain and neurological conditions. As Director of Pilates & Beyond for Western Athletic Clubs, she was a developer of the internationally acclaimed Mind & Body Center at The San Francisco Bay Club. Elizabeth served as a Pilates Specialist with the San Francisco Ballet and Cirque de Soleil, a lecturer at the University of San Francisco in Exercise and Sports Science, and a lecturer at San Francisco State University in Dance. As co-founder and former co-owner of Polestar Education Elizabeth developed the curriculum and instructional videos that launched the Balanced Body Allegro Reformer in 1999, establishing group Pilates Reformer classes as an effective, affordable practice and successful business model.

Elizabeth studied in dissection labs directed by Carla Stecco, Gil Hedley, Todd Garcia and Tom Myers. She participated in the Fascial Net Plastination Project sponsored by the Fascia Research Society at the Plastinarium in Guben, Germany. Now in her fourth decade as an international educator, Elizabeth presents for Fascia Research Congress, The Fascia Hub, Pilates on Tour, Body Concept Shanghai, Bonum Pilates, Seoul, and VOLL Pilates Brazil. Find Elizabeth's on-line classes on pilatesanytime.com, bewellstaywell.net, and pilatesfusion.edu.

Dr Joanne Avison is an author, advanced Yoga Teacher, Yoga Therapist and Structural Integration practitioner/teacher, with a doctorate degree in Spiritual Science. Joanne is passionate about the New Science of Body Architecture; the geometry of form and consciousness in animated beings. Her work includes writing “Yoga: Fascia, Anatomy and Movement” (2nd edition, Handspring, 2021). As a leading authority in fascia and tensegrity in 21st Century living anatomy, Joanne is currently writing the book of the course (with Paul Thornley) Myofascial Magic in Action. Co-author of Fasciategrity in Motion, with John Sharkey, these dynamic and practical programmes simplify how fascia and tensegrity integrate to make sense of natural movement patterns and practices for all movement professionals and manual practitioners of any discipline or style. Joanne’s presentations weave the missing practical links between fascial anatomy and human health and performance that can be integrated for all practitioners to make a bigger difference to themselves and their clients. www.joanneavison.com

Choose your booking option below

Book at Early Bird Rate - £63 until 10 May 2026

Member Booking - £48

Full price tickets will be £78 from 11 May 2026

Note: The replay will be available to all attendees until Sunday, 20th September 2026. After this date, the recording will be added to the Members’ Area.

Considering membership as well?

SPECIAL MEMBERSHIP OFFER

Join The Fascia Hub and receive an extra initial month free when you sign up for the minimum three full paying months.

Join The Fascia Hub!

Understanding Pain

PRACTICAL DETAILS

WHAT YOU WILL GAIN