Q&A with Dr Laura Hissey

To begin, perhaps you’d like to say a little about yourself and how you came to be involved in the Live Well with Pain programme?

I’m Dr Laura Hissey, a Health Psychologist who specialises in Pain Management. Alongside my role at Live Well with Pain, I’m the Pain Psychology Lead at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust which is a secondary care pain service where I work as part of large multidisciplinary team of pain specialists who provide specialist assessment and intervention to people living persistent pain in Birmingham.

I’m also the Clinical Implementation Lead for Live Well with Pain, however most people will know me from delivering the Ten Footsteps training alongside the Live Well with Pain clinicians and Lived Experience Trainers. When I’m not delivering training, I spend my time at Live Well with Pain looking at how the Ten Footsteps can be applied clinically, and I link with services nationally to support projects and trials to improve the delivery of care for people with pain in the UK.

I got involved with Live Well with Pain back in 2021 through being introduced by a mutual colleague and I began supporting and developing the Ten Footsteps Training Programme. Things have evolved hugely since then and we now have a large, highly experienced multi-disciplinary training team who continue to deliver our accredited Ten Footsteps Training Programme to people working in Pain Management across the country.

What first interested you about Psychology and (if it’s not the same thing) what persuaded you to pursue a career in the subject?

At the time I was choosing my A-level subjects, Psychology was up and coming and very popular so it was more curiosity than anything else. I liked the idea that Psychology was about human behaviour and that it could essentially be applied to any person and any situation.

I could see the real-life value in understanding human behaviour on a deeper level and discovering why people think and act the way they do. I felt this was something that would be useful in any future career.

Being Psychology Lead for an NHS Pain Service in the West Midlands sounds like a very demanding role. What does a typical day at work look like? And how does having the Ten Footsteps resources help?

My NHS role can certainly be challenging but it is just as rewarding. I know that pain can have a profound impact on people living with it and those that support them. Every day, I see people of all ages from all backgrounds that are experiencing pain-related distress. It is a privilege for me to support them in their adjustment to living with pain and support them to improve their quality of life.

One of the most exciting aspects of my role is that no two days are the same. My days are incredibly varied and often require different types of work. This can involve clinical work, teaching and training, attending meetings, service development and leadership responsibilities such as providing clinical supervision and managing psychology service provision.

Clinically, I use the Ten Footsteps resources in my one-to-one clinics and also within the Pain Management Programmes I lead. The mixture of written handouts, videos and the new interactive Live Well with Pain Health and Wellbeing Check tool are fantastic to help reinforce key messages within self-management. As most clinicians will know, consultations are often time pressured and so having an information hub in the form of the Live Well with Pain website which provides easy access to evidence-based resources to which you can signpost people is extremely useful.

Despite being so busy, you organised (with Dr Emma Davies) the first-ever Live Well with Pain conference earlier this year. The event was a huge success and is all set to be repeated next year. What did you learn from this year, and what – if anything – will you do differently next year?

We did! Emma and I put a huge amount of time into organising the conference and we were delighted to see how successful it was. Seeing all those health care professionals and practitioners sat in the lecture theatre with one shared goal was incredible and made it all worthwhile.

My biggest learning on the day as a clinician was the importance of providing adapted pain management for specific populations of patients. There were some fantastic sessions on pain management for non-English speaking groups as well as creative pain management for those with more diverse learning needs. It gave me a lot to think about in terms of developing the Pain Psychology services that we offer in Birmingham to make them more inclusive and accessible to a wider and more diverse population.

As a conference organiser, without a doubt the key learning (and I am sure that Emma will agree) was to allow more time for unexpected events. There were a lot of late nights for us both in the weeks leading up to the conference! Hence the conference planning started a lot earlier this year and I am delighted to say that the conference booking is now open for Live Well with Pain’s second national conference which will be taking place on Friday 27th March 2026 at The Oculus Centre, Warwick University. You can find out more by visiting our conference website.

And now for the ‘fun’ questions! What was your burning ambition as a child?

As a child my burning ambition was to be an Olympic show jumper. From a very young age, my passion was horses which was ignited by going to feed the two horses in the field near to my parents’ house. From the age of five to 14, I rode horses. Whilst I did compete in local show jumping competitions, I never quite made it to Olympic level!

What is top of your to-be-read pile at the moment?

The top of my to read pile is actually your book Tim, Where Does It Hurt? A memoir of life with chronic pain.

I have learnt a great deal from working alongside yourself and our other Lived Experience Trainers at Live Well with Pain. I am always fascinated to hear your real-life accounts of navigating a life with pain as well as hearing what you need from HCPs to help you manage effectively.

One of the things that really sticks in my mind from hearing our LET stories is how what can sometimes feel like a potentially daunting conversation for a clinician such as talking about the limitations of medical cure for pain and the need for a self-management approach, can actually (and has been) a catalyst and life changing conversation for someone living with pain. That has without a doubt made me a better clinician.

What piece of music is currently your ear-worm?

It’s a song called ‘Golden’ off K Pop Demon Hunters which my daughters are obsessed with. We have it on repeat at home and I’ve heard it a million times now; I’m sure other parents can relate! It’s very catchy and I’ve been singing in my head for over two weeks now.

Guilty pleasure?

My guilty pleasure must be my taste in music. I absolutely love Bryan Adams. I went to see him recently at Warwick Castle and it was great. I have contacted him to ask if he can come and play at the conference dinner but, unsurprisingly, he hasn’t replied.

Thanks Laura, and best of luck to both you and Emma in planning next year’s Live Well with Pain conference.

“Every day, I see people of all ages from all backgrounds that are experiencing pain-related distress. It is a privilege for me to support them in their adjustment to living with pain and support them to improve their quality of life.”

Laura Hissey