Learning from the Pain: Canberra startup Brain Changer helps people live pain-free
Brainchanger Founder and CEO, Tina McIntosh
One in five people worldwide suffers from chronic pain – including children. And yet it’s often something the medical system doesn’t deal with well. Enter Tina McIntosh, founder and CEO of Brain Changer, whose experience with chronic long-term pain led her to devise a new treatment system.
A decade of chronic pain
Tina was a public servant working on an urgent ministerial briefing when the pain started. At first, it was a pain in just one hand. ‘It was red hot pain,’ she said. ‘As the deadline got closer, there were more and more changes to the document. None were substantial to the text; they were all formatting. As I worked on it, the pain shot up my arm, and a few days later, I experienced the same thing on the other side.’
Tina saw her GP, who prescribed anti-inflammatory drugs and a month off work.
‘At that time, everything I did with my arms and hands was red hot agony,’ she said. She was in pain doing everyday things like holding a teacup, cutting food, doing her hair, cooking, turning a doorknob – and even driving a car.
Back at work, Tina finished a discussion paper and then went on maternity leave, hoping time out of the office would give her body space to heal. But her pain made it difficult to be a mum to her kids; even holding her baby was difficult. She tried many treatments, including 18 rounds of steroid injections into her neck. After ten years of pain, her medical experts thought she would have pain for the rest of her life.
To cope, she was on a cocktail of anti-pain medication, often washed down red wine at the end of the day to manage the pain stress. Unfortunately, it created a cycle where the alcohol affected her sleep, the lack of sleep meant she hurt even more, so she drank more and took more anti-pain medication. Meanwhile, her nervous system was becoming wound up tighter and tighter.
Then she decided to heal herself.
How to fix pain?
Persistent pain is challenging to treat as it’s often not just one thing. ‘Our bones and tissues knit and heal within 12 weeks,’ said McIntosh. ‘When pain persists after that time, it’s because there have been changes to your body: your nervous, hormone and immune system. Humans are bioplastic. Our bodies change. But while bioplasticity is the road into chronic pain, it’s also the road out.’
McIntosh said most medical treatments don’t treat pain well, as the focus is on trying to identify a single cause. ‘We’re an ecosystem,’ said McIntosh. ‘Where’re minds in bodies, in environments – and they all change together.’
This science underpins Brain Changer’s national clinical model: the biopsychosocial model.
The Dark Side of Neuroplasticity
McIntosh’s ‘ah ha’ moment came when she read about the work of Australian pain researcher Professor Lorimer Moseley (who coincidentally grew up in Canberra and once worked at McDonald’s Dickson). ‘He’s a bit of an international rockstar in the pain space,’ McIntosh said.
McIntosh watched all of Professor Moseley’s YouTube interviews, read his books and published research. She located a case study of a woman who sounded just like her who could return to work full-time after seven months. McIntosh learnt about the principle of graded exposure: doing little bits a lot and stopping just before a flareup.
McIntosh understood the theory but wasn’t sure how to implement it. So, she developed a system.
Playing cards
“I was on such heavy doses of medication that it was tough to think. And I was so tired. ”
The first version of McIntosh’s system was a physical card deck. ‘I used one deck of cards to plan my activities for the day,’ she said. ‘I was on such heavy doses of medication that it was tough to think. And I was so tired.’
Soon she started getting positive feedback that her method was working. But long-term change didn’t happen overnight: all up it took two years to recover for her pain to subside to the point where she could work a full eight-hour day in front of a computer. Now she is pain-free.
Helping others
McIntosh took her card deck and showed her physio, GP and other experts.
‘They got excited for me,’ she said. They not only validated that she understood the science and that she was on the path to a pain-free life – but encouraged her to use this tool to help other people as well.
Brain Changer now has a team of trained coaches who work with clients experiencing pain. In addition to the 12-week program, participants receive support through a tailored app.
And McIntosh has big plans for future growth. ‘We’ve helped hundreds of people in our journey so far,’ she said. ‘In three years, the vision is for us to be helping millions.’
A Canberra region success story
Originally from Yass, McIntosh moved to Sydney for high school and university before returning to the region. ‘My heart is in Yass and Canberra. I love living in our global village that is Canberra,’ she said.
“I love living in our global village that is Canberra”
McIntosh was part of the Canberra Innovation Network’s Griffin Accelerator course in 2017 and then the KILN incubator. She now works from the network’s coworking space.
‘I love being connected into the innovation network and being around mentors and companies that are at a similar stage because there’s always someone that’s faced the same or very similar problems to you,’ said McIntosh. ‘And having access to affordable office space is important.’
Fundraising
After completing the 2017 Griffin Accelerator program, Brain Changer conducted a successful seed-raising round. McIntosh used the funds to build the first version of Brain Changer’s technology. She then did a second seed raising round, which enabled the company to grow. She now has a team of twenty based in Canberra, Australia, the US and Shanghai.
‘Having a great team around you is one of the best things you can do,’ she said.
“Having a great team around you is one of the best things you can do”
Whereas the first seed round was relatively easy, the second was more challenging. ‘The problem is that many investors are still looking for hockey stick growth when the reality is that most startups need to be camels,’ she said. ‘You need to be able to bootstrap and be a lean startup for the longest possible time. And then rather than trying to grow for the sake of growth, you need to learn from the market about what you need to have for product market fit,’ she said.
We wish Brain Changer all the best with its vision of helping millions of people in three years’ time.
