Do you live with pain or other chronic symptoms? You can reclaim your life.
Lara Birk, PhD, is a certified pain reprocessing coach and teacher, as well as a content creator & facilitator for Curable.
After an undiagnosed condition became acute at age 16, resulting in disabling pain and a total of 17 surgeries. Learning the new neuroscience of chronic pain changed her life. A former sociology professor, Lara now helps people living with chronic symptoms to become empowered in their own healing.
The Sage Practice
Suffering from pain & other chronic symptoms can be scary, frustrating, and lonely.
Fortunately, the new neuroscience of chronic pain provides evidence-based strategies for calming such symptoms. The brain is incredibly powerful and also changeable. While its neuroplasticity is often what created or intensified these symptoms in the first place, it also offers the way out.
Lara often says, “if neuroplasticity got you into this mess, it can get you out.”
As a client of Lara’s put it, “After doing this work, I can finally get back to saying Yes to life.”
Lara teaches clients how to harness the power of neuroplasticity and develop agency, self-trust, & empowerment. Clients choose Lara because she “gets” it. She has lived it.
Please Note:
Lara is no longer accepting new 1:1 coaching clients seeking ongoing sessions. Her practice is shifting away from 1:1 coaching toward work that she hopes will reach (and help) many more people. Add your name to the interest list for her upcoming Sage Group (8 weeks beginning in late January). Or email Lara to book a 50 min. consultation, whether you are struggling with pain or illness yourself or are a practitioner in this field seeking guidance or support.
Lara’s Free & Low-Cost Offerings
Check out Lara’s Free Resources, including her Free Somatic Trackings
Add your name to the interest list for the upcoming 8 week Sage Group.
Purchase a personalized somatic tracking recording
Find more of Lara’s free offerings on Curable through a free 6 week trial
Watch her other various interviews & talks
Most Recent Client Reviews
“Dr. Birk’s Pain Reprocessing Therapy changed my life. Within two weeks, the daily headaches that had plagued me for years had dramatically decreased. Throughout the course of our weekly sessions, Dr. Birk gave me the tools I needed to heal from my chronic pain. Dr. Birk is kind and patient and adapts to your particular situation to provide a tailored plan that can work for you. She provided resources that were incredibly helpful for me to use outside of our sessions. I am very grateful for the care I received from Dr. Birk and would recommend her treatment to anyone suffering from chronic pain.” - Katie P.
”I recently had the pleasure of working with Lara over a five-week span and I can confidently say that our time together was truly transformative for me. Having dealt with chronic pelvis/hip pain for ten years now, Lara's sage guidance and support helped me reframe my perception of pain, shifting it from an overwhelming obstacle instead into a conquerable fear… Lara’s emphasis on self-trust and agency in managing chronic pain has been invaluable and is one of the primary pillars I now lean on weeks after our sessions have concluded. Her wisdom, rooted in her own experience with chronic pain, shines through in every session as she intelligently and empathetically navigates you towards a deeper understanding of your body and its needs… I am deeply grateful for Lara’s support and expertise, and I wholeheartedly recommend her to anyone seeking guidance on their own pain journey. Rest assured, what you’re going through now doesn’t need to remain permanent.” - Peter B.
“I just wanted to thank you so much for your incredible free resources. I listened to your Live Event on Curable which I found incredibly helpful and now I am making my way through all the free resources on your website. I am about two years into MindBody work and have had good success but a recent setback has made me dive back into all the resources I found helpful and much more including yours. I love your somatic tracking with the ‘toggling’ back and forwards from positive to more scary sensations. It feels incredibly safe, reassuring and self-compassionate. My new mantra is “I am not afraid of the storms….” So thank you - this is profound and transformational and makes me feel I can sail my ship with confidence and skill.” - J.M.
“Lara gave me hope that I could reduce the toll of chronic pain on my life, and then delivered above and beyond what I ever could have imagined. After a more than decade-long journey with chronic pain, including surgery, I had felt like I had exhausted every avenue possible to treat my chronic pain. Lara not only proved me wrong, but gave me profound insights into the causes of my pain and a new and effective approach to healing. Her understanding of chronic pain from both clinical and emotional perspectives is unmatched. She is also an excellent listener and educator. I can’t recommend her enough.” - Michelle T.
“Lara feels like a guardian angel, the dearest of friends, and a wise mentor as she helps me learn to live with the aftermath of a life-changing stroke... She is helping me gain confidence in my own inner strength, and knows me well enough by now to build on the history I’ve shared with her. It feels like she’s a mirror to my best and highest self that I haven’t seen. She is truly gifted." - Rebecca B.
Conditions & Diagnoses of Lara’s Clients
Fibromyalgia
Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) and other GI distress
Migraine or other recurrent or persistent headaches
Hashimoto’s
Pudendal neuralgia and pelvic pain
Back and neck pain
Leg and hip pain
Arm and shoulder pain
Amplified Musculoskeletal Pain Syndrome (AMPS)
Recurrent muscle spasms
Long Covid
Chronic Lyme
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and Chronic Epstein-Barr Virus
Temporo-Mandibular Joint pain (TMJ) and other persistent dental pain
Trigeminal Neuralgia and other facial pain
Arthritis
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) Types 1 and 2
Central Sensitization Syndrome (CSS)
Mast Cell Activation Disorder (MCAS)
Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS)
Tinnitus
Hyperhidrosis
Exercise-induced uticaria
Post-stroke pain and other neurological and autonomic symptoms
Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
Parkinson’s
Dysautonomia
Cancer
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or “Lou Gehrig’s Disease”
Please note: Clients with certain diagnoses on this list may find their symptoms are completely relieved through this work, while others come to Lara to help them manage ongoing symptoms from more permanent or ‘structural’ medical diagnoses, e.g., MS, ALS, Parkinson’s, cancer, etc.
