Chronic Pain, Nervous System Healing, and Reclaiming Your Life with Dr. Michelle
Mon Feb 02 2026
In this special client-takeover episode of The Doctor Coach School™ Podcast, we hear from Dr. Michelle Welch, a physician by training and inner work coach by evolution, who supports women over 35 living with chronic, medically unexplained pain.
This conversation is for caregivers and high-functioning women who have done “all the right things,” undergone extensive testing, followed medical recommendations, and yet continue to live with daily pain that disrupts their identity, confidence, and ability to fully participate in life.
Dr. Michelle offers a deeply compassionate and nuanced perspective on chronic pain that goes beyond symptom management. Drawing from both her clinical background and her personal journey with unexplained pain, she explores how prolonged stress, caregiving, emotional load, and nervous system dysregulation can shape the body’s experience of pain, even when scans and tests come back “normal.”
Rather than framing pain as something to fight or eliminate, this episode invites a new question: What might the body be trying to protect you from?
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
Why chronic pain can persist even when medical tests show no clear causeHow prolonged stress and caregiving can keep the nervous system in survival modeThe difference between pain caused by injury and pain driven by nervous system threat perceptionWhy pain is real even when danger is notHow chronic pain can quietly erode identity, confidence, and self-trustThe role of fight-or-flight physiology in long-term pain patternsWhy symptom management alone often isn’t enoughHow restoring a felt sense of safety in the body supports true healingWhy capacity, not productivity, is the foundation for recoveryDr. Michelle introduces her Capacity Framework, a compassionate approach designed to support women over 35 who live with chronic, unexplained pain and long histories of caregiving and overperforming.
The framework focuses on:
Rebuilding internal safetyIncreasing nervous system toleranceProcessing long-held emotional and physiological loadRestoring agency, self-trust, and functionExpanding life gradually and sustainablyRather than replacing medical care, this work complements it, helping women move from constant high alert to a state where the body no longer needs to “shout” through pain to be heard.
If you are living with chronic pain that has no clear medical explanation, your pain is real.
Sometimes healing doesn’t begin with fixing the body, but with listening deeply enough that the body no longer needs to scream.
Connect With Dr. Michelle
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-welch-406a126a/TikTok: @DrMichelle.TheJoyfulRXPodcast: The JoyfulRx PodcastLet's Connect:
On Instagram On Facebook On LinkedIn On TikTok On my website
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In this special client-takeover episode of The Doctor Coach School™ Podcast, we hear from Dr. Michelle Welch, a physician by training and inner work coach by evolution, who supports women over 35 living with chronic, medically unexplained pain. This conversation is for caregivers and high-functioning women who have done “all the right things,” undergone extensive testing, followed medical recommendations, and yet continue to live with daily pain that disrupts their identity, confidence, and ability to fully participate in life. Dr. Michelle offers a deeply compassionate and nuanced perspective on chronic pain that goes beyond symptom management. Drawing from both her clinical background and her personal journey with unexplained pain, she explores how prolonged stress, caregiving, emotional load, and nervous system dysregulation can shape the body’s experience of pain, even when scans and tests come back “normal.” Rather than framing pain as something to fight or eliminate, this episode invites a new question: What might the body be trying to protect you from? What You’ll Learn in This Episode Why chronic pain can persist even when medical tests show no clear causeHow prolonged stress and caregiving can keep the nervous system in survival modeThe difference between pain caused by injury and pain driven by nervous system threat perceptionWhy pain is real even when danger is notHow chronic pain can quietly erode identity, confidence, and self-trustThe role of fight-or-flight physiology in long-term pain patternsWhy symptom management alone often isn’t enoughHow restoring a felt sense of safety in the body supports true healingWhy capacity, not productivity, is the foundation for recoveryDr. Michelle introduces her Capacity Framework, a compassionate approach designed to support women over 35 who live with chronic, unexplained pain and long histories of caregiving and overperforming. The framework focuses on: Rebuilding internal safetyIncreasing nervous system toleranceProcessing long-held emotional and physiological loadRestoring agency, self-trust, and functionExpanding life gradually and sustainablyRather than replacing medical care, this work complements it, helping women move from constant high alert to a state where the body no longer needs to “shout” through pain to be heard. If you are living with chronic pain that has no clear medical explanation, your pain is real. Sometimes healing doesn’t begin with fixing the body, but with listening deeply enough that the body no longer needs to scream. Connect With Dr. Michelle LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-welch-406a126a/TikTok: @DrMichelle.TheJoyfulRXPodcast: The JoyfulRx PodcastLet's Connect: On Instagram On Facebook On LinkedIn On TikTok On my website