This episode is produced in partnership with the British Pain Society. The interview with Sam Hughes was recorded at their 2025 Annual Scientific Meeting.

Can nature and mindfulness help pain?

This episode of Airing Pain looks at the interplay between nature and mindfulness, and how they can become part of the pain management toolkit.

Nature and neuroscience. Understand the science with Dr Sam Hughes. Learn how nature interacts with pain, and how this interaction works in virtual reality.

Greater connections. We join the Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust on one of their group wellbeing walks. We look at the benefits of building connections with nature, each other and ourselves.

Focusing on the here and now. We hear from trained and accredited mindfulness teacher Cath Ashby. Cath explains how the practice of mindfulness can be applied to nature, and what this can do for pain.

Contributors:

• Dr Sam Hughes, a Senior Lecturer in Pain Neuroscience at the University of Exeter

• Elly Kinross, a Woodlands and Greenspace Officer with the Edinburgh and Lothians Greenspace Trust

• Cath Ashby, a trained and accredited mindfulness teacher

This episode is produced in partnership with the British Pain Society. These interviews were recorded at their 2025 Annual Scientific Meeting. The 2026 Annual Scientific Meeting is just weeks away – register here.


Amongst other things, here we tackle the taboo subject of acute period pain, highlight how changes in primary care are improving the pain management landscape, and discuss common misconceptions about opioid use.

• Does period pain need rethinking? Understand the research with Katy Vincent, Professor of Gynaecological Pain at the University of Oxford.

• Can a health and wellbeing coach change patient lives? One of the latest developments in pain management, as explained by NHS coach Phoebe Williams.

• Do opioids get a fair press? Great for pain from an accident, surgery or fall. But for chronic pain? Dr Jane Quinlan, consultant in pain management, gives an overview and some top tips.

Contributors:

Prof Katy Vincent, Professor of Gynaecological Pain at the University of Oxford

Phoebe Williams, Health and Wellbeing Coach at NHS Hammersmith & Fulham

Dr Emma Davies, National Clinical Lead for Persistent Pain at NHS Wales Performance and Improvement

Tim Atkinson, Vice Chair of the British Pain Society’s Expert Patient and Carer Committee

Dr Jane Quinlan, Consultant in Anaesthesia and Pain Management at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

‘if you’re treating people in pain, you’re treating autistic people in pain’

Do neurodivergent people experience pain differently?

The simple answer – and the slightly more complicated one

• Why you, or your patients, aren’t recovering
• Building relationships across neurotypes
• Pain thresholds, pain anxiety, pain communication…

With Dr David Moore, Reader in Pain Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University

Thanks go to the British Pain Society – this interview was recorded at their 2025 Annual Scientific Meeting.

Read Pain Matters 91 now.