KEY NOTE SPEAKER

CHRISTOFFER ECCLESTON


TITLE AND AFFILIATION
PhD. Professor of Medical Psychology and Director of the Centre for Pain Research, The University of Bath, UK

TITLE OF TALK
Chronic pain as embodied defence: implications for current and future psychological treatments

BRIEF BIO
Chris is interested in how people make sense of physical experience, how action in pain and discomfort is shaped, and how rehabilitation in pain is informed by the social, cognitive, and emotional context. Behavioural science can provide the basis for action in the prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of chronic pain, if there is a clear path between basic and applied behavioural studies. Chris works in five main areas of translational study: (1) evidence based pain; (2) cognitive factors in pain and analgesia; (3) treatment innovation; (4) child and family context, and (5) DTx for Pain. Chris is particularly interested in two grand challenges: first, to forge an alliance between neurobiology and experimental psychology and thereby strengthen the contribution of both in the prediction, treatment and management of chronic, and second, to create new models of care across Europe that can substantially scale up access to treatment.

Chris is Professor of Medical Psychology at the University of Bath, UK, where he directs the Centre for Pain Research. He established the Bath Pain Management Unit in 1995 and directed it until 2011, developing intensive treatment programmes for both adolescents and adults with chronic pain. In 2018 he won the Ronald Melzack award for contribution to pain science. In 2016 he published: Embodied: the psychology of physical sensation with Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780198727903. e-ISBN: 9780191814099.

In 2018 published an edited volume (with Chris Wells and Bart Morlion): European Pain Management also with Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780198785750. In 2020 he published an edited volume (with Elaine Wainwright): Work and pain: a lifespan developmental approach. Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780198828273.

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