Nevada-Utah Conference (Left) A depiction of a cyst in the middle of a spinal cord, illustrating the type that developed in Curtis's spine. (Below) Becky Curtis at the WorkcompCentral Conference in 2017. Curtis has received several awards from WorkcompCentral, including The People’s Choice award in 2017 for her speech about her recovery story and the Magna Comp Laude® award in 2015 for her accomplishments in working with people in pain.
the pain and maintain her quality of life. Curtis described begging and pleading with her doctor for solutions. “I expected it to get better or that our modern medical world would have a cure for the pain,” she said. Feeling unable to function, Curtis fell into depression. “I had a lifetime of faith reminding me God had a plan, but it was a dark time.” The pain was immense, and all solutions were out of sight. Her support system of family and friends encouraged her to keep moving forward, but her husband remembers asking, “How can God leave her with all this pain?” In 2007, Curtis finally found help at a pain clinic in California. “I discovered that the way to manage pain was no longer going to be on someone else. I did not find a passive cure for my pain. What I did find was active modalities for managing it,” she said. At the pain clinic, Curtis’s behavioral medicine specialist was Joel O’Beso, an Adventist doctor of psychology, who noted her success at adopting pain management techniques, as well as her strong commitment to helping others.
O’Beso encouraged her to consider becoming a pain coach someday. Curtis determined that if she could ever get her pain under control, she would help others through this process. Not long after implementing the techniques she’d learned, Curtis felt life turning around. Able to better cope with the pain, she started imagining more possibilities. In 2008, she founded Take Courage Coaching, a company now comprising 18 coaches trained to help others manage chronic pain. As part of her work, Curtis travels across the United States speaking at health conferences, including Mayo Clinicsponsored conferences. “My personal journey is no longer focused on my pain but focused on helping others,” she said. Curtis still experiences chronic nerve pain, but manages the pain through exercise, good nutrition, plenty of rest, and guarding herself against negative thinking and stress. Through adaptations in her kitchen, she is able to continue cooking, which
she loves. She also goes hiking with her husband and their miniature Australian shepherd, Quigley. “Life is much slower,” Curtis laughed goodnaturedly. Her husband, Barry, who now serves as the senior pastor of the Wasatch Hills church in Salt Lake City, Utah, remarked with gratitude how God has brought good out of the pain. “Sometimes God can use us best when we aren’t perfectly healed,” he said. “We understand the problem from the inside out and help others with that knowledge.” Becky Curtis has learned the meaning of Paul’s words, “My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9, KJV). In a journal entry right before the accident, Curtis wrote: “Okay God, I don’t know what You want me to do or be, but I’m willing to do whatever You want of me.” Her accident at first made her feel useless, but now she sees what it was all about. “In looking back, I can see His hand, that God had a purpose and a call for me.” To read more about Curtis’s experience managing her chronic pain, visit her blog on www. takecouragecoaching.com. At the WorkcompCentral Conference in 2017, Curtis spoke on a panel with several doctors about pain management.
“Sometimes God can use us best when we aren’t perfectly healed. We understand the problem from the inside out and help others with that knowledge.” J A N UA R Y 2019
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