Speakers
We’re proud to bring together an exceptional line-up of speakers from across the NHS, national organisations and academia. With a wealth of experience and expertise, they are recognised leaders at the forefront of their fields. Their insights will provide invaluable perspectives, innovative ideas, and practical knowledge to inspire and inform all those attending.
Confirmed
Roger is a clinical academic pharmacist. His current position provides teaching and research opportunities whilst maintaining regular clinical practice. Roger’s main research interests focus on the appropriate use of analgesic medicines and associated clinical outcomes and healthcare utilization. He aims to promote the importance of pain within pharmacy and the role of pharmacy within pain management. Roger was the inaugural chair of the United Kingdom Clinical Pharmacy Association pain management group. He is the current President of the British Pain Society after having been Vice President, Honorary Secretary, a co-opted and elected Council member. In 2019 he was appointed a member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (a Scientific Advisory Committee to the UK Government) and is the Chair of their Technical Committee. In addition, he has associations with several other healthcare policy and government organisations in the UK, including the Faculty of Pain Medicine, Care Quality Commission and NICE. Roger has chaired the European Pain Federation (EFIC) COVID-19 taskforce since March 2020.
Benjamin is a Consultant Rheumatologist with a broad interest in public health. He has experience in global and UK policy development, project management, clinical research and programme evaluation. Currently based at Imperial Health Care Trust, Benjamin is pursuing a career combining clinical medicine and public health policy.
Born and bred in Yorkshire, Asim works as a GP Trainer, Pain specialist and Occupational Health Physician in Bradford and Leeds. A graduate of Liverpool University (2000) he explored different specialities before settling in primary care. His interest in pain started 15 years ago when taking over a MSK / Acupuncture clinic from a retiring colleague. A Masters in Pain Management and more than a decade of experience later, he is now exploring alternative holistic methods of helping people manage their pain symptoms. Asim is actively involved in pain research, education and local pathway and guideline development. He works with ARMA and is a MSK Champion for the charity Versus Arthritis. He worked as the Clinical Lead for Rethinking Pain and is now Pain Lead for Bradford S&W Musculoskeletal Team. He is a 2nd Dan in Taekwondo and enjoys running and travelling as time allows.
Laura is a HCPC Registered Practitioner Psychologist who specialises in Pain Management. Laura is the Clinical Implementation Lead at Footsteps to Change Conference 2026 Live Well with Pain Live Well with Pain, as well as the Pain Psychology Lead at University Hospital Birmingham NHS Trust. She has over 15 years’ experience of working in specialist multidisciplinary pain teams in both primary and secondary care NHS pain services. Having been the Lead Clinical Trainer on the Ten Footsteps Programme at LWwP for several years, she works with services to support projects and trials looking at how The Ten Footsteps can be applied clinically to improve the delivery of care for people with pain in the UK. Within her NHS role, Laura works as part of a large multidisciplinary team and provides highly specialist psychological assessment and interventions to support people to understand and self-manage a wide range of long-term pain conditions. Her research interests include understanding pain beliefs and adjustment to chronic pain; as well as understanding the role of psychosocial factors in pain; and promoting the long-term maintenance of behaviour change.
Dr Sebastián Senociaín is a medical doctor with over 15 years’ experience spanning primary care, mental health, lifestyle medicine and integrative wellbeing, with particular expertise in trauma-informed approaches to chronic pain management within the NHS. He graduated with Distinction (cum laude) from Universidad del Desarrollo, Chile, and has worked extensively across Chilean public healthcare and UK primary care settings. Dr Senociaín currently works as a Mental Health and Wellbeing Practitioner within St Austell Healthcare Primary Care Network, where he designed and delivers the county’s first primary-care-based Pain Self-Management Service. His lived experience of chronic pain has been central to the development of an 11-week Pain Management Programme grounded in the Live Well with Pain framework, integrating pain neuroscience education, CBT-informed strategies, polyvagal theory, lifestyle medicine and trauma-sensitive care. He also leads one of Cornwall’s only PCN-run Pain Cafés, promoting peer support, continuity of care and community connection, while nurturing a cohort of “patient experts” who actively contribute to service delivery. His clinical work includes coaching individuals with complex mental health presentations, conducting Severe Mental Illness annual health checks, and facilitating group clinics and community-based interventions. Sebastián brings a strong foundation in Functional Medicine, nutrition, health coaching, breathwork, yoga, meditation and Ayurvedic therapies, alongside advanced training in traumatic stress studies, compassionate inquiry and suicide awareness. Alongside his NHS role, he continues to work as an integrative wellness practitioner and educator, delivering evidence-based wellbeing programmes for communities, NHS staff and third-sector organisations. His work is underpinned by a compassionate, collaborative and empowering ethos, supporting people living with persistent pain to reconnect with meaning, agency and quality of life. Outside of work, he enjoys time with his family, watching his son play rugby, woodland and coastal walks, “walk and talks” with friends, running, yoga, cooking, lifelong learning, and rock climbing/bouldering. He is also a keen supporter of Ireland’s rugby team.
Cormac is Professor of Clinical Rehabilitation at Teesside University and a Community Pain Champion for the Flippin Pain Campaign. He also co-leads The PETAL (Pain Education Team to Advance Learning) Team, a virtual, multinational, and multidisciplinary organisation, which seeks to improve the delivery of modern pain science education. He has published over 100 peer reviewed articles and delivers public engagement events focussed on helping people better understand pain. He also likes to fish.
Tamar is a chartered psychologist and Professor in Health Psychology. Her research into psychological aspects of chronic pain spans over 30 years, has been cited by guidelines, and has changed practice on the ground. She was the Director of the research centre for the study of pain and well-being at Royal Holloway, and she is a core member of the Consortium to Research Individual, Interpersonal and Social Influences in Pain (CRIISP), which focuses on how people perceive pain and how others affect their pain, as well as considering wider social and environmental influences on pain. Her research includes experiment approaches to explore psychological mechanisms in pain, observation studies to measure risk over time, trials to test effectiveness, and qualitative work, to examine the thoughts and beliefs of people living with pain and those who are part of their life. Examples include investigations of cognitive biases in people living with pain; the psychological predictors for poor outcome in low back pain, and the study of clinicians’ beliefs and behaviours and their effect on patients with pain, especially in reference to effective reassurance and return to work. She has been a core team member of many randomized controlled trials, and regularly provides advice on behavior change. Her practical work has focused on training practitioners in effective communication skills and fostering awareness of patients’ psychological needs and concerns, and her on-line videos have been viewed widely across the world.
Nicole Tang is Professor of Psychology at the University of Warwick, UK, where she directs the Warwick Sleep and Pain Laboratory and serves as Head of the Lifespan Health and Wellbeing Group and Academic Lead of the Health Spotlight on Mental Health and Wellbeing Research. Prior to joining Warwick, she has worked in international research centres at the University of Oxford; Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London; Versus Arthritis Primary Care Research Centre at Keele University. Professor Tang is a registered clinical/health psychologist with extensive research experience in sleep, insomnia, chronic pain and mental health. Her research applies a range of qualitative and quantitative methodologies to build an all-round evidence-base for treatment innovations.
Professor Tony Avery, OBE, is National Clinical Director for Prescribing for NHS England. He is also a GP in Nottingham and Professor of Primary Health Care at the University of Nottingham. He is passionate about ensuring the safe, effective and appropriate use of medicines and has worked in partnership with healthcare professionals and patients over 30 years to drive forward research and policy development in prescribing and patient safety. He has led a number of major studies investigating the frequency, nature and causes of prescribing safety problems in the NHS. Tony’s work recognises the vital role that medicines have in treating illness and helping people live with long-term conditions, while acknowledging that prescribing of a medicine is not always the best solution. He is committed to ensuring health care professionals and patients have the information and support they need for shared decision making about whether a prescription is needed and, if so, how to balance the effectiveness and safety of medicines alongside the costs to the patient, the NHS and the environment.
Dr Tim Williams graduated from Sheffield Medical School in 1996. He developed an interest in pain management early on in his 20-year GP career, working in both secondary care and community-based pain services. It was there that he developed a coaching approach which he found useful in his support of patients living with pain and other long-term conditions. Tim formed ‘Peak Health Coaching’ with a fellow GP, Dr Ollie Hart in 2017, to share these approaches more widely. Together with now 16 Associate Trainers and a dynamic back-office team, they have now trained thousands of health and social care professionals in health coaching skills, including 1/3 of the health coaches currently working in the NHS. Tim believes that empowering people to think really well for themselves about their own health and wellbeing is at the heart of health coaching and the bedrock of supported self-management. Tim left GP in 2022, to focus fully on embedding health coaching in health and social care and workplaces. Peak Health Coaching include modules in pain management to support health coaches and other HCPs. Tim's will make the case for a different approach in pain management and how health coaching approaches can play a significant part, whatever your main role.
Dr. Mohamed Dorgham is a consultant in Anaesthesia with a specialist focus in Pain Medicine, currently practicing University Hospitals Birmingham NHSFT and The Harborne Hospital, HCA. He completed his medical degree (MB BCh) at Ain Shams University in 2004, followed by a MSc and MD in Anaesthetics from 2008 and 2012 respectively. He later pursued advanced training fellowship and professional certifications in Pain Medicine, gaining expertise in the most up-to-date interventional and minimally invasive techniques for chronic pain management. Dr. Dorgham’s subspecialty training allows him to provide comprehensive care for patients experiencing complex pain conditions, including musculoskeletal and neuropathic pain, cancer-related pain, and long-standing chronic pain syndromes. He adopts a multidisciplinary, evidence-based approach, offering tailored treatment plans that may include pharmacotherapy, spinal injections, nerve blocks, radiofrequency ablation, and neuromodulation techniques such as peripheral nerve stimulation for treatment-resistant pain. In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Dorgham is actively involved in national research in interventional chronic pain management, contributing to clinical guidelines and helping to shape the future of patient care. He has also co-authored a recently published book in the field of Pain Medicine, reflecting his commitment to advancing education and improving outcomes for individuals living with chronic pain.
Nicola is an experienced operational leader with over 15 years of management expertise across the West Midlands health system. Her career spans a wide range of secondary care specialities and community-based services, where she has consistently driven service improvement, operational resilience, and high-quality patient care. Nicola currently serves as the General Manager for Anaesthetics and Pain Management at University Hospitals Birmingham, one of the largest and most complex NHS Trusts in the UK. In this role, she provides strategic and operational leadership across a diverse clinical portfolio, supporting consultant teams, specialist nurses, and multidisciplinary professionals to deliver safe, effective, and innovative patient services. Her work includes workforce planning, performance management, service redesign, and leading large-scale operational programmes that enhance both patient outcomes and staff experience. Throughout her career, Nicola has built strong collaborative relationships across the health and care landscape. She has worked closely with professionals in primary care, community services, secondary care, and industry, enabling integrated pathways and system-wide improvements. Known for her pragmatic problem‑solving approach, Nicola has led teams through organisational change, operational pressures, and evolving clinical demands while maintaining a compassionate and people‑focused leadership style. Driven by a commitment to improvement and partnership working, Nicola continues to champion excellence across services, ensuring that patients across the West Midlands receive high-quality, coordinated, and responsive care.
