Meet the Facilitator

Martina Egan-Moog

Martina is an APA-titled pain physiotherapist who works in an interdisciplinary pain management program in Melbourne and as a tutor for the Musculoskeletal/Sports Master’s at LaTrobe University. In 2020, she started a small private practice out of a yoga studio and a boxing gym where she primarily incorporates psychologically informed pain management strategies, embodied movement principles and trauma-informed approaches into her therapy.

She describes herself as a “Pott-Kind” (a native of the area around the river Ruhr in Germany), where she completed her physiotherapy diploma in 1990 at the University clinic in Essen. This was followed by several years working in private practices in the south of Germany, focusing on musculoskeletal and sports injuries. Her interest in neurodynamic principles grew, and she completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Manipulative Therapy in 1996 and a Master of Science in 1999, both at Curtin University, WA. Her thesis focussed on late whiplash patients for quantitative sensory and psychological profiling. She then worked within a cognitive-behavioural pain management program in Sydney until 2003. During this time, she was also introduced to yoga, which has accompanied her ever since, leading to her completing a Yoga Teacher certificate in 2019 and an Embodiment Coaching Certificate in 2023.

Martina has been teaching and publishing in the area of pain for over 20 years in Europe and Australia. In 2000, with the late Max Zusman, she developed an interdisciplinary course, “The Problem Pain Patient – understanding pain physiology and pain management” which was regularly running in Europe until 2015. She joined the Noigroup instructor faculty in 2003 after meeting David Butler during a self-guided cycling tour that aimed to raise funds for the Arthritis Foundation in Australia by offering communal pain education along the route between Perth and Sydney. In 2004, she translated the book “Explain Pain” into German and lectured the first Explain Pain course in Germany in 2006. Since then, she has remained responsible for any updates to the course and book, including the translation and integration of the Protectometer, as well as translating the Graded Motor Imagery course, always in conjunction with her German-speaking faculty members.

She is a member of the German Pain Society and has been jointly responsible for developing, teaching, and assessing the 80-hour curriculum for ‘specialised pain physiotherapy/occupational therapy’ since 2014.

She is a mother of three young adult children and two dachshunds, and regularly swims with the Port Melbourne Icebergs in the Bay. Martina’s main interest is to bridge research findings from pain sciences and behavioural medicine to clinical practice, and she continues to do this by teaching in German and English.

Neil Pearson

PT, MSc(RHBS), BA-BPHE, C-IAYT, ERYT500

Neil is a guest speaker for Noigroup, presenting a new course in 2024 – Embodiment in Pain Science Education – co-created with Noigroup instructor Martina Egan.

Neil’s clinical focus has been working with people with chronic pain for most of his forty years as a physiotherapist. Currently, he works clinically in an interdisciplinary team with veterans with complex chronic pain and mental health concerns. Neil is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia. He has worked as a pain care consultant for the British Columbia Medical Association, Canada’s largest network of 300+ rehabilitation clinics, Partners in Canadian Veterans Rehabilitation Services, and Pain BC, Canada’s premier non-profit working to transform how pain is understood and treated. Neil is the founding chair of the Canadian Physiotherapy Pain Science Division and recipient of the Canadian Pain Society’s Excellence in Interprofessional Pain Education award. Neil is also a yoga therapist, faculty in accredited yoga therapy training programs and subject matter expert in research into the effects of yoga-informed and pain-informed movement practices for people with knee osteoarthritis. Clearly Neil has a passion for pain science and for sharing ongoing evolutions of pain science education with others.

Neil has authored a patient eBook Understand Pain Live Well Again (2008), a book chapter ‘Yoga Therapy’ in Thompson and Brooks, Integrative Pain Management (2016), numerous articles on yoga and pain science including a recent white paper for the International Association of Yoga Therapists – How Yoga Therapy Serves in Comprehensive Integrative Pain Management, and How it Can Do More (2020), and co-authored/edited the textbook Yoga and Science in Pain Care: Treating the Person in Pain (2019).