The Mind-Body Couple

Try this Free 30-Day Program for Chronic Pain and Illness — See What Happens!

• Tanner Murtagh and Anne Hampson • Episode 130

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PLEASE READ THE DISCLAIMER BELOW BEFORE BEGINNING THIS PROGRAM.

If you live with chronic pain, fatigue, or illness, you’ve probably tried everything — medications, treatments, diets — and nothing seems to work long-term. That’s because for many people, the real root of chronic symptoms isn’t in the body… it’s in the brain and nervous system.

This video introduces a free 30-day program designed to help you retrain your brain, calm your nervous system, and begin healing from chronic pain and illness — naturally.

💡 What You’ll Learn

✅ What neuroplastic pain and illness is — and why it’s reversible.
✅ How to teach your brain safety signals every day.
✅ How to rewire your nervous system using brain retraining and embodiment practices.
✅ How to process emotions and reduce nervous system dysregulation that fuels pain.

🌿 Your Commitment

For the next 30 days, do three simple practices a day — one Safety Signal, one Brain Retraining, and one Emotion & Nervous System Practice.
Small steps, done consistently, can completely change how your brain and body respond to pain and stress.

✨ Start today, stay consistent, and see what happens when you give your brain 30 days of safety.
Your brain already knows how to heal — you just need to show it the way.

🧘‍♀️ The 30-Day Program Practices:

1️⃣ Safety Signal Practices:

10-Minute Safety Signal Practice: https://youtu.be/gCMCfPZ7Qr0
15-Minute Safety Signal Practice: https://youtu.be/6p47n1zvb9U
Safety Signal Practice: https://youtu.be/qMqOh_s7AqY
Somatic Movement Practice: https://youtu.be/_YFSDvY6ZoM

2️⃣ Brain Retraining Practices:

10-Minute Brain Retraining Practice: https://youtu.be/4G10P5m7FBI
15-Minute Brain Retraining Practice: https://youtu.be/4uTnyuqA0oY
20-Minute Brain Retraining Practice: https://youtu.be/HlcUQMa9A54
10-Minute Brain Retraining Practice: https://youtu.be/xx0UJFUO2SU

3️⃣ Emotion & Nervous System Practices:

15-Minute Emotion & Nervous System Practice: https://youtu.be/qJ-dZ1YRFYc
30-Minute Emotion & Nervous System Practice: https://youtu.be/erFtcNRlSHM
20-Minute Emotion & Nervous System Practice: https://youtu.be/CC6wTTaWJaY

⚠️ Disclaimer

This video and the free 30-day program are for educational and informational purposes only and are not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always

Tanner Murtagh and Anne Hampson are therapists who treat neuroplastic pain and mind-body symptoms. They are also married! In his 20s, Tanner overcame chronic pain and a fibromyalgia diagnosis by learning his symptoms were occurring due to learned brain pathways and nervous system dysregulation. Post-healing, Tanner and Anne have dedicated their lives to developing effective treatment and education for neuroplastic pain and symptoms. Listen and learn how to assess your own chronic pain and symptoms, gain tools to retrain the brain and nervous system, and make gradual changes in your life and health!


The Mind-Body Couple podcast is owned by Pain Psychotherapy Canada Inc. This podcast is produced by Alex Klassen, who is one of the wonderful therapists at our agency in Calgary, Alberta. https://www.painpsychotherapy.ca/


Tanner, Anne, and Alex also run the MBody Community, which is an in-depth online course that provides step-by-step guidance for assessing, treating, and resolving mind-body pain and symptoms. https://www.mbodycommunity.com


Also check out Tanner's YouTube channel for more free education and practices: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Fl6WaFHnh4ponuexaMbFQ


And follow us for daily education posts on Instagram: @painpsychotherapy


Discl...

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the Mind Body Couple podcast. I'm Tanner Murtaugh and I'm Ann Hampson.

SPEAKER_00:

This podcast is dedicated to helping you unlearn chronic pain and symptoms.

SPEAKER_01:

If you need support with your healing, you can book in for a consultation with one of our therapists at painpsychotherapy.ca.

SPEAKER_00:

Or purchase our online course at embodycommunity.com to access in-depth education, somatic practices, recovery tools, and an interactive community focused on healing. Links in the description of each episode. Hi everyone.

SPEAKER_01:

Hi everybody. Welcome back. We have a pretty cool podcast today.

SPEAKER_00:

We do.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and this is something that we've been pinning on social media and that we've been kind of displaying, but we thought we gotta talk about it on the podcast.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. So topic for today. Try this free 30-day program for chronic pain and illness and see what happens.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yep. I like this. I like we're gonna provide you guys a guide here.

SPEAKER_00:

We are for free.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

So as most of you know, me and Ann are both mental health therapists. So if you're new to our material, or maybe you need a quick review, we treat neuroplastic pain and symptoms, which really occur when your brain gets stuck in danger mode. And I want to be so clear with the listeners that neuroplastic pain and symptoms they are not imaginary and they're definitely not just in your head.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right. They're very much real pain and symptoms that can be very debilitating.

SPEAKER_00:

Very real. And personally, I recovered from them, so I know how real these intense pain sensations can be. Now, with neuroplastic symptoms, the body is actually healthy, but the brain has become sensitized, perceiving danger and generating its symptoms really in an effort to protect you.

SPEAKER_01:

It sounds quite beautiful when you say it like that. You know, trying to protect us, but the experience of pain and symptoms are very much not a beautiful, pleasant thing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and I've I've heard people, you know, commenting on things that I say around this because I get why it's confusing. It's like, how is my brain trying to protect me by producing pain and symptoms? But this is just one of these ways that our brain lets us know that essentially the danger level in your brain and nervous system has just gotten too high for too long. Now, at our clinic, Pain Psychotherapy Canada, along with our team of therapists, we provide one-on-one counseling across most provinces in Canada. We also have a self-directed course, the somatic safety method. And this is available worldwide. So perhaps you've already connected with us through our clinic or our course, but whether you've done that already or you're absolutely new to this, we want to provide this monthly program that you can start to utilize consistently. Consistency is Ann's number one word.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, and we'll talk more about that. We really want to kind of highlight here that safety is the cure.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yes. It's a good viral line. Safety is the cure. But it is. Because when we can consistently show our brain and body, hey, we're safe, symptoms actually start to reduce naturally, and your ability to live life more fully starts to increase.

SPEAKER_01:

And that's exactly what we want to do for you with this 30-day program.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we're going to help you retrain your brain. This is possible. We can retrain your brain out of chronic pain and illness. This program is also going to help you calm your nervous system. And, you know, it's it's a very simplistic program. So if you need the extra support as you're going along, you can always sign up for the somatic safety method course.

SPEAKER_01:

Mm-hmm. So something to think about this is that it's like a bite-sized piece, maybe of the somatic safety method or what we might do in therapy with clients, but a very valuable piece. So we hope it's helpful for you.

SPEAKER_00:

So now we're going to give you the instructions of your 30-day program. So for the next 30 days, you are going to do three simple practices each day.

SPEAKER_01:

Sounds easy enough. Is there a catch here, Tanner?

SPEAKER_00:

There's no catch outside of the fact that it's going to be, you know, time consuming to some degree. It is going to take you time. And some of the practices are dealing with unpleasant things inside. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

So you have to be ready for that.

SPEAKER_00:

And these are the same practices that I use to heal my chronic symptoms. And I like this program because these are small, really focused steps that when repeated consistently can actually add up to big changes in your sense of safety.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. And so it's a build over the 30 days. And as we explain what to practice, I want you to go in with this mindset of like, okay, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this every day. And then I'm going to reflect on the big picture at the end of the month.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. So three practices a day for 30 days. Now each of the three practices are going to be different types of practices. Okay. So now we're going to go through this. Number one, safety signal practices. Ah, okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Tell us about that, Tanner. How do you do that?

SPEAKER_00:

So, you know, I think it's really vital that you do one safety signal practice each day. Okay. And that's what you're going to do for 30 days. You know, a safety signal is a thought or action that regulates your nervous system and essentially reinforces this sense of safety in your brain.

SPEAKER_01:

Can you tell us some that you do, Tanner, just as an example?

SPEAKER_00:

So some of my favorite ones is each morning I'm doing some type of somatic movement, like qigong. Or I like to savor what feels nice inside. I might even listen to some music while meditating. So these are all just ways that I'm helping start my day off by cultivating safety.

SPEAKER_01:

How do you know that's creating safety in your nervous system when you're doing that?

SPEAKER_00:

Because as I do it, it feels really nice or pleasant. Or if I'm already feeling stressed, it starts to decrease my stress. And generally it helps create this calm energy as I go about the remainder of my day. But what are your safety signal practices? And I already kind of know a bit of them, but I want I want you to share this with the listeners.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, one for me, I think I've talked about it on other podcasts about my morning routine. So I wake up early before my kids wake up and I have my coffee. And already I'm creating a bit of safety for myself. I'm creating a bit of kind of a calm space. But I usually invite my cats into my space. It's not always pleasant, but a lot of the times it is where I spend time kind of mindful, like in a mindfulness place with my cat, just with kind of touch and tuning into kind of the sensation there and the emotion of just kind of being there, petting my cat, spending some time. And I find that very regulating for me. Yeah, it's the cat cuddle time. The cat cuddle time.

SPEAKER_00:

See, we have our we have two cats, Harry and Hermione. It's usually Harry. Well, you know, obviously we love Harry Potter. And really loves Harry Potter.

SPEAKER_01:

We are waiting for a Ron cat, but not quite ready.

SPEAKER_00:

We're not ready for a bird cat. But it's Harry. Harry, the cat, he can be a safety signal, or he can be a danger signal.

SPEAKER_01:

That is true. That's true.

SPEAKER_00:

Harry sometimes just is lounging, relaxing, or is attacking you with his pointy claws. That is a good point.

SPEAKER_01:

Usually for me, he's a safety signal. And intentionally, I know that. So I know I want to spend a few minutes with him, kind of regulating, spending time, slowing down. And I've kind of worked that into my day.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And so when we talk about safety signals with people, you want to find what works for you. There can be these external safety signals that you can lean into, like cat cuddling. Could be certain people, animals, places, activities. But a lot of the practices we're going to have you use during this program are internal safety signals. This can be things like present moment sensing, breath work, one of my favorites, tapping your massage, somatic movements, savoring pleasant sensations, or using safe self-talk about your body. And so I want to be clear about this. In the description of this podcast episode, you will find several free links to safety signal practices.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Okay. So this will help give people some kind of idea.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, a way to explore safety signal practices.

SPEAKER_00:

These are the practices you're going to use during this program.

SPEAKER_01:

And you can also pair internal with external. So, like I mentioned, kind of cat cuddling, but that can be paired with also engaging in breath work at the same time. Absolutely. Same with the movement that Tanner's talking about. So that's something to think about too.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And even though we're giving you these free links, after you get moving, you can start to get creative and do it on your own. Like I mix mine up every single morning. I never do the same thing day after day.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, so this is number one of the three practices.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Number two, brain retraining practices for pain and illness. Each day, you are going to do one brain retraining practice. You can almost think about these practices like hitting the gym for your brain and nervous system. It's formally guiding it towards safety.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that phrase, and I talk with clients about that a lot of like working out the muscle. That's what we're doing here.

SPEAKER_00:

So these practices, they are embodiment practices in which you are going to bring calm, curious, or even compassionate attention to your body and your pain and symptoms. And over time, I like to talk about it with people, Anne, that this creates healing wins. Your brain spends time feeling into your body and approaching your pain and symptoms. So you're no longer running away from them like we usually do. You're approaching the pain and symptoms. And as you do this, you're creating safety with them.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. And now one thing I want to say is this might not always feel easy. It might feel almost the opposite reaction that you're used to. But any try, any approach is a win, is a start. And so I want you to acknowledge that.

SPEAKER_00:

That's it. And I like to talk about it like, you know, when we say healing win, that doesn't mean a hundred percent zen epic calmness.

SPEAKER_01:

With your pain.

SPEAKER_00:

It could be like, oh, I felt 2% safer, or I felt I could approach my pain or symptom a little bit more, right? Like it's like these small shifts that are happening that will stack up over time.

SPEAKER_01:

I totally want to bring in a horse analogy here, Tanner.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, let's hear the horse.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, okay. When you're working with horses or you're training horses, there's this idea of you have to honor the try. So if you're asking them to do something, and even if they do it just a little bit, you really need to give like compassion and praise to even that little bit of try.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

That helps motivate them to keep kind of learning and working. It's the same with this in our brain. We need to honor kind of the try in terms of how we approach our sensations differently. Um, and that can kind of keep that bowl rolling of like learning and progressing.

SPEAKER_00:

I like that, right? It's like those little shifts. And sometimes maybe all you can congratulate yourself on is you did your brain retraining practice for the day. It didn't go well, but you did it.

SPEAKER_01:

But that's great because forming any new habit means actually putting in the action. Regardless of what happens, we want to notice oh, I did do it. There's a lot to keep working on, but I did do it. That's great.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Now these practices, like the brain retraining for pain and symptoms, they're gonna feel more difficult for most people compared to the safety signal practice. Because the safety signal practice, all you're doing is you're practicing helping your nervous system hang out in safety and calmness. But with the brain retraining, like embodiment practices for pain and symptoms, you're actually being with something that's unpleasant. So that's gonna feel a little bit harder for people.

SPEAKER_01:

Do people want to bring in safety signals close to their brain retraining?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So essentially, like you are getting exposure to the pain and symptoms while doing the embodiment practice, but you're bringing in safety signals. So I'm gonna guide you through this. You're gonna find several free brain retraining practices linked in the description of this podcast episode. So each one is a different version. So I wanted to give people some variety, but you are doing the two things you just mentioned, Anne, where you're getting exposure to pain and symptoms, and then you're using safety signals to create a sense of safety with the unpleasant sensations.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, so something to think about when you're pitting these two together, you can put them together around the same time or same space. Yeah. Or say you did the safety signal in the morning and then you practice brain retraining in the afternoon. If that safety signal is accessible, bring that in again.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you can bring it in again. Number three, emotion and nervous system practices.

SPEAKER_01:

Ah, so this can be really powerful, also a bit nerve-wracking sometimes.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. You'll do one emotion or nervous system practice each day. Chronic pain and illness, they often develop and persist when our nervous system is essentially very dysregulated. When we avoid or resist what we're feeling, that's gonna make you more dysregulated.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. So that's something to really think about then. Yes. Of like, have I been avoiding or resisting something? What's happening in my nervous system now?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Where I see people go wrong is they try to heal by just doing safety signal practices.

SPEAKER_01:

And that can be helpful.

SPEAKER_00:

It can be helpful, but it's not the whole picture.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

As we said in the second type of practice you're doing, you're getting exposure to pain and illness sensations. But in emotion nervous system practices, you are using the embodiment practice to get exposure to being with emotions or dysregulation.

SPEAKER_01:

So in some ways, we want to pair them together. We want to bring safety to our pain and symptoms, safety to our emotions, but we have to approach them.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. And that's it, is like you're not going to heal by just trying to create safety and calmness all the time. Right. What the research shows is that people that suppress emotions or dysregulation, their pain or symptom sensitivity actually increases.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Where if you can actually approach it, it will reduce. This is like the great work of Dr. Howard Schupiter, who's one of the leading mind-body doctors, researchers in this space. And his model, but which we use quite a bit of in our own approach, really is focused on approaching emotions. Because what they found is that as people consistently approach, experience, express emotions, then they're actually going to have reductions in their pain or symptoms.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

And that's why the third type of practice you're going to do each day is an emotion or nervous system practice. So using embodiment practices for emotions or your nervous system state is going to help you with reconnecting with those body sensations, the unpleasant ones we don't like so much. You're going to be dropping into them, describing the sensations, really deepening your connection with them. You're also going to start seeing sensations as safe, reducing your avoidance of unpleasant emotions.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, back to that kind of point you made. The more we go towards, the more we experience, the more familiar our brain gets with it. And we pair that with safety. We start kind of noticing as this is an okay sensation, okay emotion.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. And it's gonna help you over time regulate your nervous system by listening and tending to how you actually feel inside.

SPEAKER_01:

And this all relates to pain and symptoms.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. There's a major connection here. So you'll find several free emotion and nervous system practices linked in the description of this podcast episode. Now, I wanted to discuss one thing here. As we said, we're asking you to do three of these practices each day, one in each category. However, there is exceptions to this. We talk about the healing window, which is you're attending to sensations, unpleasant sensations inside. This could be pain, symptoms, emotions, nervous system state. So you're within the window, which means like it's unpleasant, but you can tolerate the unpleasantness and sitting with it. I mentioned the healing window here because let's say during this 30-day program, all of a sudden you have a pain flare for a couple days, or you're having incredibly high anxiety. On those days, you probably do not want to be doing the brain retraining for pain and symptoms. What you want to be doing instead is maybe you just do three safety signal practices that day.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, so it doesn't mean you stop at all if your pain is high.

SPEAKER_00:

No, you're not stopping. It's just like you might need to modify as you go.

SPEAKER_01:

So here is your commitment for the next 30 days. We want you to do three practices each day one safety signal, one brain retraining, and one emotion and nervous system practice.

SPEAKER_00:

Mm-hmm. These three tools we really believe can change your relationship between your brain and your body, and they are going to desensitize your system over time, helping you recover from pain and illness. And I would like to tell people that yes, this is possible. So again, you are gonna find all the free practice links in the description of this podcast episode, along with the disclaimer for this program. So if you're ready, get started today. Stay consistent and see what occurs when you give your brain 30 days of safety.

SPEAKER_01:

30 days in. Yeah, that's pretty amazing. And when we think about it, okay, this is doable. These these three practices are here. It's doable. Carve out the time. So something that can be a block sometimes is like, oh, I don't have time for this. We all have time. None of this has to take very long.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And if you need the extra support as you go along and you want the whole healing program mapped out meticulously by me and our producer Alex, the Somatic Safety Method course is available to you worldwide. So we'll put the link for that down below as well.

SPEAKER_01:

And one thing I love about the Somatic Safety Method course is it's at your own pace. So sometimes you can feel pressure of like, oh, I have to do this with intensity right away. And there's a lot there that's at your own pace. And so you can really explore it in a way that works for you.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. So thank you everyone for listening.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you for listening.

SPEAKER_00:

And we'll talk to you next week.

SPEAKER_01:

Talk to you next time. Thanks for listening. For more free content, check out the links for our YouTube channel, Instagram, and Facebook accounts in the episode description.

SPEAKER_00:

We wish you all healing.