A recent Newsweek feature echoes the urgent message of Pain, Misunderstood
In a recent Newsweek article titled “Chronic Pain Science Has Advanced. Why Are Treatments Still Stuck in the Past?”, journalist Alexis Kayser digs deep into a frustrating truth: despite decades of scientific advancement in how we understand pain, most people still receive care rooted in outdated, tissue-based models.
For those who have watched Pain, Misunderstood, this headline sounds familiar. And that’s no coincidence.
The article features three experts who also appear in our documentary, including Dr. Adriaan Louw, Dr. Colleen Louw, and Dr. Stephen Clark, all of whom have spent their careers not only treating patients with chronic pain but reshaping how clinicians are trained to approach it.
What the article reveals
“The healthcare system is transactional. But pain care has to be relational.”
— Dr. Stephen Clark
This single quote captures a core truth explored in Pain, Misunderstood. Pain isn’t just about what’s broken in the body, it’s about what’s happening in the nervous system, the brain, and the person’s environment. That’s why passive treatments, quick fixes, and symptom-chasing interventions so often fail.
Instead, healing often begins with trust, education, and movement, a message echoed repeatedly in both the article and our film.
“We were told a pain revolution was coming… but patients were still hurting.”
— Dr. Adriaan Louw
Dr. Louw’s decades of work in pain neuroscience education (PNE) has helped shift the paradigm toward understanding pain as a brain output, not just a bodily input. Yet, as he notes in the article, knowledge doesn’t always lead to action. Despite clear research supporting PNE, biopsychosocial care, and movement-based rehab, these approaches are still vastly underutilized.
From theory to practice
Pain, Misunderstood set out to tell the stories behind these scientific breakthroughs. Through real patient journey from a young woman with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, to a professional boxer and Army veteran, to a gunshot survivor, we show how understanding pain can change the trajectory of healing.
The Newsweek article and our film are two different formats, but the call to action is the same: we need to stop treating chronic pain like a purely physical problem. The evidence is clear. It’s time our care models caught up.
Want to go deeper?
If you read the Newsweek article and found yourself nodding along, we invite you to watch the full 25-minute film. Whether you’re a clinician, a patient, a policymaker, or someone supporting a loved one with chronic pain, Pain, Misunderstood will change how you think about hurting and healing.
Together, we can build a better way to treat pain, one grounded in science, empathy, and hope.