Chronic pain and symptoms do not need to define your life.
Learn to trust your body again.
If you're living with chronic pain or persistent symptoms that won't go away — regardless of what you've been told, what you've tried, or what label you've been given — you are not imagining it, and you are not out of options.
Neuroplastic recovery coaching works with your nervous system to help you break the cycle of pain and reclaim your life.
Not by managing your symptoms. By recovering from them.
Does this sound familiar?
You've had scans, blood tests, and appointments - and been told everything looks 'normal.'
You've tried rest, exercise, medication, and physio. Some things help briefly, but nothing lasts.
You're exhausted - not just physically, but from the constant effort of managing your symptoms and still trying to live your life.
You're starting to wonder if this is just how things are now.
It doesn't have to be. And it's not your fault.
What if your nervous system is the missing piece?
When the body experiences pain, stress, or trauma over a long period, the nervous system can get stuck in a state of protection. It keeps sending danger signals.
Pain, fatigue, brain fog - even when there is no longer any physical threat causing them.
This is not weakness. It's not 'all in your head.' It's a learnt pattern in the brain and nervous system.
This is good news.
Pain and symptoms that can be learnt, can be un-learnt.
This is what neuroplastic recovery is: evidence-based approaches that help your nervous system feel safe again, so your symptoms can ease and your life can open back up.
How I work with you
Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT)
PRT is a structured, evidence-based approach that helps your brain learn that the pain signals it's sending are no longer necessary. Through guided sessions, we work together to gently shift your nervous system out of protection mode — reducing pain and persistent symptoms at the source.
Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET)
EAET recognises the powerful connection between unexpressed emotions and physical symptoms. Together, we explore how stress, grief, fear, and other emotions held in the body may be contributing to your experience — and learn how to process and release them safely.
Neuroplastic Recovery Coaching
Drawing on both PRT and EAET, our sessions are tailored to where you are right now. Whether you're dealing with chronic pain, fibromyalgia, Long Covid, burnout, or trauma-related symptoms, we work at your pace toward sustainable recovery.
Movement Education
Learning to move again is imperative to recovery. Using Clinical Pilates and evidence-based strength and conditioning, we will work towards making movement safe and enjoyable again.
I know what it’s like to be where you are.
I'm Sarah — a neuroplastic recovery coach based in Christchurch, New Zealand, and I came to this work not through a textbook, but through my own decade-long journey through chronic pain and persistent symptoms.
In 2014, after more than twelve years as a Clinical Pilates practitioner and movement educator, I developed chronic pelvic pain. I did what everyone does — I went to the doctors. Then more doctors. Physiotherapists, osteopaths, acupuncture, pain specialists. Ten years of hope and disappointment, hope and disappointment. I was eventually diagnosed with pudendal neuralgia, given heavy medication, nerve blocks, and surgery. When the pain shifted locations after surgery, the only remaining medical suggestion was to remove my tailbone.
I decided there had to be another way.
Drawing on my lifelong interest in the mind-body connection, I began researching the neuroscience of pain. I found the work of Dr John Sarno, Dr Howard Schubiner and others who had healed from chronic pain using neuroplastic approaches. The more I understood about how the brain produces and maintains pain, the more my own symptoms began to ease. Over three months of dedicated, self-directed work — podcasts, books, journal articles, and a lot of self-compassion, I found my way out.
I became thankful for my pain. I never thought I'd say that. But it brought me here — to work I believe in completely, helping people who are exactly where I was: exhausted, dismissed, and quietly wondering if they'll ever feel like themselves again.
After ten years of living with chronic pain and persistent symptoms, I knew exactly what was missing from the care available to me. I trained in these evidence-based approaches so I could be that person for others — the practitioner I so desperately needed but couldn't find.
You can get better. I know, because I did.
I work with clients in person in Christchurch and online — and I'd love to talk with you about whether this approach could help.
Conditions I work with:
This approach is particularly effective for people experiencing:
• Chronic pain (back, neck, pelvis, widespread pain)
• Fibromyalgia
• Long Covid
- Post-viral fatigue
• Chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS)
• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and other functional symptoms
• Burnout and stress-related illness
• Trauma and PTSD-related physical symptoms
• Persistent symptoms with no clear structural cause
If you're unsure whether this applies to your situation, the discovery call is the best place to start.
What patients say:
“After expereiencing over five years of chronic and exhausting pain in my neck, Sarah helped me un-learn my pain through a mind-body approach. As my brain learnt that my body was safe, movement became easier and fear lessened. This eventually transformed the once constant pain. This process not only eased my physical discomfort but restored my confidence and a sense of freedom. This showed me that healing can come from teaching the brain that it no longer needs to stay in protection mode. Thank you, Sarah.”
B.M - Patient
As a rhythmic gymnast for eleven years, training wasn't just something I did — it was my whole life.
I developed back pain, then reinjured it in an accident. Three GPs offered only painkillers and no explanation. When I finally saw a physiotherapist, I hoped for answers. Instead I was met with harsh warnings about surgery and long-term damage, and left every appointment in tears, terrified of losing the thing I loved.
Months passed. My legs began giving way beneath me. I couldn't sit for more than a few minutes without intense pain. I developed a skin condition. I began to believe my body was permanently damaged.
Everything changed when I was referred to Sarah for neuroplastic coaching. She looked at me differently — not as a broken body, but as someone stuck in a cycle of fear and pain. She explained that my body was strong, that injuries heal, and that I was safe to move. For the first time in months, I felt hope. Within weeks of believing I could recover, my pain significantly reduced.
Today I am back dancing and have never felt better. My skin has healed. I am now writing a speech about mind-body pain to share with others at my school. Sarah genuinely changed my life."
K .K- Patient