Behavioral Medicine of Pain Course Launches
AAPM Launches Behavioral Medicine of Pain
Pain medicine has never belonged to one discipline. It lives at the intersection of neurobiology, function, mood, sleep, social context, medication safety, family systems, and the realities of care delivery. For clinicians treating people with chronic pain, that intersection can be both clinically rich and difficult to navigate.
The American Academy of Pain Medicine is pleased to announce the launch of Behavioral Medicine of Pain, a new self-paced online course designed to help clinicians strengthen their understanding of pain-related behavioral health care and apply it in everyday practice.
UDPATED & EXTENDED: Register now through June 5, 2026, and take advantage of our limited Memorial Day launch sale to save 20% off the course. Members save even more. Use Promo Code: BehavioralMedFlash26
Why Behavioral Medicine Matters in Chronic Pain Management
Led by Course Directors Rena “Liz” Courtney, PhD, and Traci Speed, MD, PhD, the course was built around a practical premise: behavioral medicine is not an “add-on” to pain care. It is part of competent, evidence-informed pain care. Patients do not arrive with pain intensity scores alone. They arrive with disrupted sleep, fear of movement, medication concerns, trauma histories, mood and anxiety symptoms, family pressures, cultural expectations, work loss, and questions about whether anyone believes them. A pain practice that can assess and respond to those factors is better equipped to improve function, reduce distress, and support safer, more coordinated treatment.
That distinction matters. A referral to a pain psychologist, psychiatrist, social worker, or other behavioral pain specialist can be received as rejection if it is not explained well. This course helps clinicians use language that validates pain as real, accurately describes the brain-body relationship, and frames behavioral care around function, quality of life, and patient-defined goals.
What Clinicians Will Learn in Behavioral Medicine of Pain
Behavioral Medicine of Pain brings together brief, focused presentations from content experts across pain medicine, psychology, psychiatry, social work, nursing, rehabilitation, and related disciplines. The curriculum begins with foundations in pain behavioral health, including the history of behavioral medicine, the biopsychosocial model, gate control theory, and the roles of psychiatry, psychology, and social work.
Behavioral Pain Assessment and Risk Evaluation
The treatment section provides clinicians with a clinically usable overview of evidence-based behavioral approaches, including cognitive-behavioral therapy for chronic pain, acceptance and commitment therapy, mindfulness, emotional awareness and expression therapy, CBT-I, motivational interviewing, pain reprocessing therapy, hypnosis, biofeedback, and other integrative strategies. Later units address special populations and comorbidities—Veterans, older adults, pediatric patients, families and social support, disparities in pain care, mood and anxiety disorders, PTSD, insomnia, cancer pain, substance use disorders, complex medical conditions, and chronic opioid use/tapering.
How to Build and Sustain Behavioral Health Services Within Pain Care
Importantly, the course does not stop at treatment theory. It also addresses how to build and sustain behavioral health services within pain care: referral pathways, interdisciplinary teams, warm handoffs, practice settings, care models, difficult conversations, ethical and legal considerations, technology, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and clinician sustainability. The self-paced format includes brief presentations and dedicated ethics content, making it useful for busy clinicians who need education that respects clinical schedules.
Who Should Take This Chronic Pain Education Course?
The course is intended for providers from multidisciplinary backgrounds who want a stronger foundation in behavioral pain medicine, whether they are developing a service line, refining referral decisions, integrating behavioral health into an existing pain clinic, or simply trying to have better conversations with patients who have heard too often that their pain is “all in their head.”
Get the Intro Video Now
Complete the sign-up form above to watch the introduction, review the curriculum, and enroll. For more information and to review our distinguished faculty list, visit the Behavioral Medicine of Pain page on painmed.org. This is a certificate of completion course. We also offer CME, APA, and ACPE credits for the course. Be sure to visit the course page to see how many credits are awarded upon completing the course and your education survey.
Behavioral Medicine of Pain reflects a central shift in modern chronic pain management: away from fragmented, procedure-only thinking and toward whole-person, interdisciplinary, function-focused care. For patients, that shift can mean being seen more fully. For clinicians, it can mean having a clearer framework, a better set of tools, and a more sustainable way to practice pain.
Ready to register now? You can access the course in our on-demand learning center by clicking HERE. Register now through May 25, 2026, and take advantage of our limited Memorial Day launch sale to save 20% off the course. Members save even more. Use Promo Code: BehavioralMedFlash26