I’m Pat Buchanan, PhD and I’m committed to helping transform the pain and increase the love in the world—one person at a time.

You’re probably reading about me because you want to hurt less. I bet you want to trade in that pain for more pleasure, more joy, more fulfillment, and more love in your life. Or maybe you want this for someone you care about.

I’m with you.

I’m a writer and guide for athletes and people of all ages and abilities who struggle with physical pain and limited performance. I support them to create healthy, active, and fulfilling lives they love.

I love guiding people to uncover their limiting habits, recover lost function, get rid of pain and discover new levels of performance. I’m grateful and excited to share my expertise with you.

Back in the day, we would have had to meet face-to-face in the clinic, classroom, research lab, or privately. Now, I’m excited to share my expertise and experience with many more people through my writing and coaching.

I kicked off 2024 by publishing my first book: Relieve Your Pain: Your Holistic Self-Care Guidebook to Hurt Less and Love More.

I highly recommend it. Well, I have a lot of reviewers who do, too!

Click on the cover to see the reviews and get your copy.

This is the first in the Relieve Your Pain series. The next books will focus on specific pain points like the back and knee. 

Early in 2024 I’ll be offering coaching programs to support groups and individuals to transform their pain and build the fulfilling lives they’ve been dreaming about.

If you take a few seconds to request the free gift I offer here or on the home page, I’ll keep in touch with updates on my books, coaching, and more.

Meanwhile, here’s some more about me and why I might be the one to support you.

Movement has always been a key part of my life, starting as a kid playing in the back yard, digging in the dirt, and riding bikes. I played a lot of softball and basketball, and first ran six miles courtesy of getting lost in a snowstorm. 

I learned to play ice hockey, albeit poorly, as a thirty-something. 

These days, I thoroughly enjoy walks, runs, or hikes outdoors. And I love to skip, especially when I need a little jolt of joy. I dare you to skip and not be happy in the moment!

I’ve had my share of pains and injuries. And I remember spraining my ankle for the first time while I was in college and a member of the basketball team. That’s when I first learned that I could blend my love of movement and sports with helping others recover from injuries, and when possible, avoid them.

My undergraduate degree is from the University of North Carolina. If you’re a basketball fan, I was there before #23. Both 23s, with national championships, game-winning shots, and retired jerseys: Michael Jordan and Charlotte Smith.

In a weird coincidence, all my graduate degrees are from schools in Indiana. I got my Master’s degree in athletic training at Indiana State University while Larry Bird was there, my Master’s in physical therapy at the University of Indianapolis, and I earned my human performance doctorate at Indiana University with cutting-edge researchers in motor development. Yes, I was there when Bobby Knight was fired.

My forty-some–year clinical and academic career as an athletic trainer, physical therapist, and movement scientist has taken me from Boone, North Carolina to Beijing, China. 

I was the first female athletic trainer hired at Appalachian State University. I worked primarily with the field hockey, gymnastics, and basketball teams. 

I joined other Western sports medicine professionals in Beijing for a year and worked with Chinese Olympic and developmental athletes, mainly in rowing sports, before the 2020 games. 

I taught athletic training students at Appalachian and Bowling Green State University and physical therapy students at Des Moines University.

I’ve worked with thousands of people—from high-level athletes and performing artists, to children and adults with neurological conditions—to improve their movement and their lives.

Along the way, I’ve learned about and experienced authentic healing and personal development methods some people view as outside mainstream, conventional Western health care. Others see them as alternative, complementary, holistic, integrative, and even woo-woo.

I realized that body, mind, and spirit are all connected. And I felt called to go deeper into my spiritual journey to better serve my patients, athletes, and clients. 

I’ve been initiated into four spiritual traditions that have guided and supported me along my professional and personal life path. I’ve witnessed unexpected, seemingly miraculous healings and events happen for known and unknown reasons. At times, surprising and presently unexplainable series of events revealed themselves to me as if they were miracle upon miracle.

The more I learn, the more I realize we understand only a tiny portion of the how and why of our existence. I endeavor to be open-minded, keep asking, “Am I sure,” and persist in evolving.

Through my extensive studies, research, and experience, I know that when people bring awareness and attention to what they’re sensing, feeling, thinking and doing, they create transformation that goes well beyond improving their movement and relieving their pain. These changes can impact all other areas of life.

I offer a holistic process that increases awareness of what is real, true, and possible for each individual. With refined awareness, people make better choices that lead away from pain and toward happiness.

Let’s do this!

With love and gratitude,