In the summer of 2005 a violent rollover car accident in the remote Big Hole Valley of Montana caused a C4 spinal cord injury that almost took my life--twice.

First, I faced a fight to stay alive. After recovering from my physical injuries, I faced a second battle: excruciating, unbearable burning, aching nerve pain. My quality of life threatened to disappear forever. My chronic central pain reached its peak two years later.

An MRI revealed I'd developed a syrinx in the center of my spinal cord. Inoperable. My only option to trial different kinds of pain medications. My doctors worked hard to help me find a solution. The usual nerve pain medications did little, if anything, to actually give relief. Narcotics didn’t even touch my pain; actually making it harder to cope. I felt trapped in my body and desperately wanted out.

Fortunately, my faith stayed with me and I took the courage to move forward with life and look for solutions. A referral to a pain clinic run by the doctor who founded the Pain Management Services at Stanford University Hospital.  Dr William Brose gave me tools and taught me effective strategies to help me successfully deal with my pain.

This interdisciplinary program consists of 6-8 weeks of intense, on-site training. Life Coaches help each patient to acquire new life skills and necessary knowledge to make the desired behavioral changes and achieve measurable goals. The graduates of the program return home and Coaches continue giving weekly remote support in the form of tele–care services. Tele-care is provided up to a year as they work on their goals. I am now a proud graduate of both the intense on-site program and the tele-care services.

At TCC, working collaboratively with existing pain clinics, we design a specialized life coaching program exclusively for individuals with chronic pain. This partnership facilitates medical treatment success, as together we teach and reinforce healthy pain management behaviors. Using a self-management approach, we offer education, support and motivation, in addition to your program, increasing your long-term success with each patient.

You can anticipate that your patients will be more satisfied with their lives, as they learn better ways to solve their problems and cope with stress. We emphasize the importance of functionality over elimination of pain. It is important to clarify that we do not offer medical or psychological advice or treatment. We recognize that each state requires a license of a medical or psychological/counseling nature in order to provide treatment.

Although some of our coaches are professionally licensed in one or more states, what TCC offers is by design limited exclusively to life coaching. Coaching supports and reinforces healthy pain management habits in patients, consistent with the current scientific body of research on pain management, behavioral change and life/health coaching practices.

I have experienced in my own life the suffering, frustration, fear and other difficulties associated with having chronic pain and with the limitations of modern medicine to treat it successfully. Now I can say, despite continuing to have chronic pain, I am successful in managing it. I lead a fulfilling and productive life again. Instead of focusing on me and my pain, I am focusing on helping others with similar or even worse experiences than mine.

Based on this transforming experience, I feel confident in the benefits of the treatment I've received and after having captured the vision of making these tele-care services available for thousands of patients with chronic pain around the nation, I decided to take the lead on founding TCC. Besides completing my ICF accredited training as a professional coach, I brought together a group of other licensed and unlicensed professionals passionate about helping people with chronic pain regain control of their lives. Together, we help people amaze themselves with the things they can do, despite continuing to have chronic pain.