My Story

The Pain That Changed Everything

In my twenties, I developed a chronic pain condition following an autoimmune reaction. What started as acute pain became something that reorganized my entire life. My sleep, my mood, my ability to concentrate, my willingness to make plans. Like many people living with persistent pain, I cycled through doctors, treatments, and diagnoses looking for the fix that would finally make it stop.

Nothing worked. Not in the way I needed it to.

A Different Understanding of Pain

Everything shifted when I encountered the neuroscience of chronic pain. The research showing that most persistent pain is generated by learned neural pathways in the brain, not by ongoing tissue damage. This wasn't about the pain being "in my head." It was about the brain having learned to produce pain signals even after the original injury had healed.

Understanding this changed my relationship with pain entirely. And when I began working with Pain Reprocessing Therapy, a structured approach to helping the brain unlearn these pain pathways, I experienced a dramatic reduction in my own symptoms.

Nearly 29 Years of Mind-Body Practice

Long before I trained as a psychologist, I had spent nearly 29 years developing a deep meditation and Tai Chi practice. I've been teaching this practice for over 10 years in Calgary. Those decades of somatic awareness gave me an intimate understanding of how the body holds stress, tension, and pain, and how mindful attention can begin to shift those patterns.

This foundation shapes everything I do in therapy. Three decades of sustained contemplative practice have trained my own capacity for nervous system regulation, allowing me to remain a calm and grounded presence during the demanding work of pain recovery. Whether I'm using Brainspotting to access deep brain processing, ACT to build psychological flexibility, or clinical hypnosis to calm the nervous system, I can be a trusted anchor during emotional and somatic processing.

How I Work

I integrate Brainspotting with Pain Reprocessing Therapy. My PRT certification, combined with current professional development through Howard Schubiner's Freedom from Chronic Pain group, keeps me closely connected to the leading edge of this work — learning from the researchers and clinicians advancing the field.

I am able to help clients see beyond fear and doubt, which are major obstacles in the chronic pain recovery journey. My own experience of chronic pain provides recognition and normalization of the obstacles clients face, along with genuine encouragement for overcoming them.

The Institute — Vision and Founding Phase

The Neuroplastic Pain Institute is being built as a specialty clinical home for chronic pain recovery — bringing together evidence-based clinical work, intellectual rigor, and interdisciplinary collaboration within the neuroplastic pain framework.

The Institute is currently in its founding phase, led by Aaron Jensen, Registered Psychologist, providing specialty psychological services for chronic pain. The vision extends toward an interdisciplinary center integrating psychology, physiotherapy, and other regulated health professions within a shared clinical framework, alongside scholarly engagement and eventual clinician training. Patients and referrers who engage with the Institute now are part of its founding chapter.

Why I am Building the Neuroplastic Pain Institute

I am building the Institute because I want a practice built entirely around the people I'm best equipped to help: those living with chronic pain who haven't found relief through conventional approaches, those carrying trauma that shows up in their bodies, and those caught in anxiety patterns that feel impossible to change.

I know what it's like to doubt whether recovery is possible. I know what it's like to wonder if you'll always be managing symptoms instead of actually getting better. And I know, from personal experience and clinical training, that the brain can change. Pain often resolves with the right approach. The Institute aims to make this approach more accessible and understandable to patients and allied health practitioners alike.

Credentials & Training

• M.A. in Counselling Psychology
• Registered Psychologist, College of Alberta Psychologists
• Certified Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) Practitioner
• Howard Schubiner's Freedom from Chronic Pain (current)
• Trained in Brainspotting (Phase 1 & 2)
• Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) / Relational Frame Theory
• Clinical Hypnosis
• Nearly 29 years meditation and Tai Chi practice, 10+ years teaching