Neil Pearson

Broken Squirrel Wellness

445 10th St, Courtenay, BC, V9N 1P7

Neil is a physical therapist, yoga therapist, author, researcher, Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia, faculty in three IAYT-accredited yoga therapy programs, board member for International Association of Yoga Therapists and pain care advocate. He is the founding chair of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association’s Pain Science Division, and the recipient of awards honouring his work in pain care, patient education and physiotherapy by Queen’s University, the Canadian Pain Society, and Physiotherapy Associations of BC and Canada, including the Canadian 2021 Medal of Distinction. Neil has focused his career on non-pharmacological care of people with persisting pain. His patients receive a whole-person approach including pain science education, guidance in appropriate therapeutic exercises, instruction in pain self-care techniques and developing prevention and flare-up plans for episodic pain conditions. Neil integrates hands-on treatments to support return to activity as well as techniques and practices of yoga to help recover ease of movement, to improve quality of life and to reconnect to body, self and the world. Neil is also a pain scientist. He is involved in research studying the effects of yoga and pain science-informed movement practices on people with knee osteoarthritis, and has written numerous peer-reviewed papers on yoga, yoga therapy and pain. He also wrote a review of research into the effects of yoga on veterans with chronic pain, and a paper describing the position of yoga therapy within comprehensive integrated pain management. He is a consultant to Partners in Canadian Veterans Rehabilitation Services, and to Lifemark’s 300+ clinics in Canada. Neil is a past board member for Pain BC, Canada’s premier non-profit transforming the way pain is understood and treated. He co-authored – Yoga and Science in Pain Care 2019, authored the patient education ebook, Understand Pain Live Well Again in 2008, and is lead contributor to many free patient resources offered by Pain BC.