Name: Session #2: Safety is a Privilege: What Neuroplastic Pain Care Must Understand About Race, Trust, and Threat
Start: 2026-10-15T14:15:00-0500
End: 2026-10-15T15:15:00-0500

Session #2: Safety is a Privilege: What Neuroplastic Pain Care Must Understand About Race, Trust, and Threat

Thursday October 15, 2026 2:15pm - 3:15pm CDT

King of Glory Lutheran Church

Workshop Summary:

This session explores how race-related stress, medical invalidation, and microaggressions shape the brain’s threat response and influence neuroplastic symptom recovery. Attendees will learn clinician skills that increase psychological safety, credibility, and trust for clients of color without minimizing lived context. We’ll cover common rupture moments, repair, and culturally responsive ways to deliver pain neuroscience education, somatic tracking, and treatment planning so clients of color feel seen, believed, and supported in neuroplastic recovery spaces, while encouraging continued learning and accountability in a field where people of color remain underrepresented.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this session, attendees will be able to describe how race-related stress, medical invalidation, and microaggressions can amplify threat responses in neuroplastic symptoms.
At the conclusion of this session, attendees will be able to identify common rupture moments that reduce psychological safety and trust for clients of color in neuroplastic pain treatment and respond in ways that support repair.
At the conclusion of this session, attendees will be able to adapt pain neuroscience education, somatic tracking, and treatment planning in culturally responsive ways that strengthen credibility, agency, and engagement.

Speakers

Vanessa Blackstone

MSW, Therapist, Pain Psychology Centre UK

Vanessa Blackstone, MSW is a therapist, speaker, author, and educator specializing in Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), chronic pain, neuroplastic symptoms, and mind-body recovery. After years of leadership at the Pain Psychology Center, she is now the Founder and Executive Director of Pain Psychology Centre... Read More →

Thursday October 15, 2026 2:15pm - 3:15pm CDT
King of Glory Lutheran Church

Keynote

Area Main Hall

2026 ATNS Conference

Vanessa Blackstone

Get help with the event

2026 ATNS Conference

Vanessa Blackstone

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