Michael Irving, Ph.D.

Michael  C. Irving, Ph.D. trains clinicians from a wide variety of modalities to work with their Chronic Pain clients through the use of mind-body tools and resiliency skills. These are practical and easy to learn tools for managing and eradicating the suffering of Chronic Pain. He offers advanced and leading-edge information and guidance through coaching, trainings, seminars, publications, CDs and internet educational materials can help you in your work with your clients to address the diverse concerns of Chronic Pain. Irving teaches the skills that help direct the chronic pain sufferer to be in charge of their body’s wellbeing and mind-set.  As a clinician, you can learn core forces embedding and perpetuating Chronic Pain, so your client can live a life with freedom and vitality.

If your clients have lived with the suffering of long-term persistent Chronic Pain, there can be some core levels in which they are being held back by deep thoughts, beliefs, attitudes or feelings that do not serve them.  If these were easy to change, or if they could change these core problems on their own, as thoughtful, concerned and motivated people, they would have done so by now.

If you have found us and are attracted to our work, we start with a solid principle that your clients already have strengths. These serve them and can get them into trouble. Your mutual work with your clients is to discover the specific replayed messages attached to their Mind Based Chronic Pain, so new scripts can be re-written on deep core levels.

 From Chronic Pain Suffering to Victor

Michael Irving, Ph.D. knows what it is like to be in the shoes of a Chronic Pain sufferer. There was a time he suffered chronic pain and used a cane, crutches, an arm sling or neck or wrist braces. He struggled through decades of persistent pain and its limitations.  A personal history of PTSD added complications to chronic physical pain.

Like many Chronic Pain suffers, pain’s ugly face migrated about his body, at various times residing in one area, then showing up in another — low back, upper back, neck, shoulders, hips, knees, bursitis tendonitis, painfully sore feet, migraines. He had it all.

Over the years chiropractic, physiotherapy, medication, cortisone shots, acupuncture, heat and ice brought him some relief. Though he shares, “Suggestions of eventual disk surgery were met with great apprehension due to conflicting reports on their viability”.

Irving appreciates that drugs, surgery, physical interventions are valuable and have a place and time, particularly with injury related acute pain. BUT, they are poor authors of new stories that are needed to replace the core and negative thoughts beliefs and attitudes that create, embed and perpetuate long-term Chronic Pain.

In his own healing process and in helping others in the recovery journey Irving has arrived at the firm conviction ONLY YOUR CLIENT can identify their chronic pain related stories and rewrite them. Yet, if it were easy, they would have done so by now. Irving has found that scientifically informed Mind Based Pain Repatterning Protocols (MBPR) can provide the Chronic Pain Sufferer with the tools to rewrite the core stories that can reduce and eradicate chronic pain.

Michael Irving, Ph.D.: Marathon Runner

Freedom and Vitality: Goodbye Chronic Pain

To celebrate his turning 65 years young Michel Irving ran five 42.2 km marathon runs in 12 weeks. Irving states, “With absolute certainty my body was not always this fit, free or vibrant. I speak of my Marathon achievements not to impress you; but to impress upon you that freedom in a vibrant body is achievable for you”.

YOU CAN DO IT! To overcome Chronic Pain there are a number of deep and core areas where change needs to occur. The forces holding onto Chronic Pain are basic, yet most often overlooked. If your clients are successful in business and career; desire change and transformation and have been attracted to this kind of work, they are likely already somewhat there consciously or unconsciously in understanding the power of mindset.

Specific exercises and thought processes need to be modified to shift perspective and results. Often it is not stopping a behavior or skill, but changing its expression. Persistence is great in promoting achievement, but persisting with the wrong thought can embed and deepen chronic pain.

Michael Irving, Ph.D: Clinical and Community History

Michael Irving, Ph.D. has worked in business, in education, as a coach, psychotherapist and as a sculptor. He has won awards in business, art, community peace building and for his work with children. He is in private practice coaching and training with Chronic Pain

Irving has worked as a psychotherapist with individuals, couples and groups from youth to seniors for more than 32 years. He has experience with core beliefs and attitudes, Chronic Pain, head injury survivors, single incident and long-term trauma, PTSD, counseling on life skills, anger management, couples and relationships and career issues. He has coached and led workshops on marathon running, success in business, heart health, wellbeing and coping strategies, MBPR (Mind Based Pain Repatterning) mindfulness and meditation, visualization and relaxation, mind-body integration, self-hypnosis, EFT, EMDR and art in therapy. From 2010 to April 2017 Michael Irving, Ph.D. worked at Wings Neuro Rehab and Valentin and Blackstock Psychology, providing psychological assessments, supervision and treatment.