Social and Interpersonal Dynamics in Pain: We Don't Suffer Alone

Tine Vervoort, PhD, is a Research Professor at the Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Belgium. Dr. Vervoort came to her career as a research psychologist interested in pediatric psychology with a background in psychiatric (child/adolescent) nursing and clinical psychology. Having completed her PhD in clinical psychology on social determinants of child pain expression she has systematically conceptualized the dynamic interaction between children in pain and caregivers in terms that facilitate empirical study of family socialization and social context as determinants of child pain experience. Drawing upon an affective-motivational account of pain, she has developed a theoretically integrative and clinically informative program of research addressing (1) the nature and (social) determinants of child (facial) pain expression/ pain experience; (2) emotion regulatory function of child pain-related attention and behavioral impact; (3) the nature and role of observer emotion regulation in understanding observers' emotional and behavioral responses; and, most recently, (4) the nature and role of parental injustice appraisals in the context of  their child’s pain. Her work has been presented at numerous international congresses and published within internationally peer-reviewed papers. She is likewise the recipient of a number of prestigious national and international awards/grants. She is also the proud mother of 4 boys.

Kai Karos is a PhD student at the Research Group for Health Psychology at the KU Leuven, Belgium. He received his bachelor in psychology from Maastricht University in 2009 and finished the research master in psychopathology at Maastricht University in 2012. His research concerns the effects of threatening interpersonal environments on the experience and expression of pain. Drawing from social, evolutionary, learning and helath psychology, he is interested how interpersonal threat affects facial expression of pain, self-reported pain ratings, learning of pain-related fear, and interpersonal processes such as aggression and empathy. Moreover, he developed a theoretical, motivational framework which outlines how acute and chronic pain challenge several interpersonal human needs such as the need to belong, the need for autonomy, and the need for justice. His work has been presented at several international congresses and published within internationally peer-reviewed papers.

Zina Trost, PhD, received her Bachelor’s in Psychology in 2003 from Fordham University in New York City, where she grew up after her family immigrated from St. Petersburg, Russia in 1991. She received her doctorate in Clinical Health Psychology from Ohio University where she first began to explore her interests in chronic pain and illness, subsequently completing an internship at the University of Washington Medical Center, and postdoctoral fellowship at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Dr. Trost’s research addresses how individuals cope with pain and physical trauma – specifically cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses to pain that can contribute to disability or facilitate positive adjustment, as well as the potential modulating influence social, cultural, and contextual factors. Her work uses both clinical and laboratory paradigms to examine the mechanisms and impact of psychological constructs such as pain-related fear, catastrophizing, and perceptions of injustice among individuals with pain, injury, and illness. Dr. Trost’s recent work has adapted virtual reality and gaming technologies (including augmented reality and simulation) to aid in pain coping and rehabilitation among individuals with chronic pain and physical trauma, in particular spinal cord injury. She is working on harnessing these technologies to examine interpersonal processes in the context of pain and illness. Dr. Trost has received national and international recognition forher work and is grateful for wonderful colleagues worldwide. 

Kenneth M. Prkachin, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Northern British Columbia.  He trained in clinical psychology at the University of British Columbia where he developed an abiding interest in the communication of emotion and its role in interpersonal relationships and health.  This, combined with his early experience as a clinician working with patients suffering from pain, led him to embark on a clinician-scientist’s journey to understand the process of pain communication and the insights that this can provide toward understanding their lives.  His published work has examined various components of the pain process articulated in the earliest communication model of pain, including studies of the nature of pain expression, the ways in which others respond to people in pain, and the clinical implications of pain expression.  He was a central contributor to the first studies examining brain systems involved in interpreting pain in others and the development of automated systems for detecting pain.  Retired from teaching, he maintains a clinical practice and active involvement in programs of research on empathy and clinical applications of knowledge about pain expression when he is not watching the sailboats and cruise ships plying the waters of the Salish Sea from his deck.