Are you a massage therapist looking for NCBTMB approved CE classes? Join Cynthia Ribiero ONLINE on Tuesday, June 9, 2026 from 3pm to 7pm Pacific Time for a webinar that discusses the social influences on our perception of pain.

CE Class Description

Pain is never just physical. While neuromuscular therapists are highly trained to assess and treat biomechanical dysfunction, many of the most powerful influences on pain exist outside the body; within a client’s environment, relationships, and lived experience.

The Social Side of Suffering is an engaging and clinically relevant workshop that explores the social dimension of the biopsychosocial (BPS) model and its direct impact on pain perception, recover, and long-term outcomes. This course challenges practitioners to look beyond tissue and technique, and instead consider how factors such as social support, employment, education, housing, discrimination, and access to care shape the client experience.

Through case-based discussion and practical application, participants will learn how to identify key social determinants of health during assessment, ask more effective and meaningful questions, and adapt treatment planning to better support each individual’s reality. This course emphasizes clinical reasoning, communication, and the role of the neuromuscular therapist within a broader healthare and socail context.

By the end of this workshop, therapists will walk away with a deeper understanding of why pain persists, enhanced confidence in navigating complex client presentations, and tools to provide more compassionate, informed, and effective care.

Students Will Learn

• To recognize how social determinants of health directly influence pain perception, recovery, and client outcomes.
• How to identify key social factors (support systems, employment, housing, discrimination, access to care) during a client assessment.
• How to ask more meaningfully, clinically relevant questions that uncover barriers to healing beyond the physical body.
• To integrate the social dimension into a HOPS assessment and treatment planning.
• How to differentiate between tissue-drive pain and socially influenced pain presentations.
• How to adapt session strategies based on a client’s real-life context, not just their symptoms.
• To improve client communication and trust by acknowledging lived experience and psychosocial stressors.
• How to apply the biopsychosocial model with greater confidence and clinical precision.
• How to recognize when referral or interdisciplinary collaboration is appropriate.
• To enhance long-term outcomes by addressing perpetuating factors that exist outside the treatment room.

Why It Matters

• Pain is not just physical – treating tissue alone often misses the true drivers of dysfunction
• Unaddressed social factors can perpetuate pain, even when your hands-on work is technically excellent
• Clients don’t fail treatment – treatment fails when context is ignored
• Understanding a client’s lived experience leads to more accurate assessment and better clinical decisions
• Social stressors (isolation, financial strain, discrimination) can amplify pain sensitivity and delay healing
• Without this lens, therapists risk over-treating, under-treating, or misdirecting care
• Addressing the “why” behind pain builds stronger client trust and therapeutic alliance
• Better questions lead to better outcomes – not just better techniques
• Recognizing barriers to care allows you to create realistic, sustainable treatment plans
• This approach elevates you from a technician to a clinical problem-solver within a broader healthcare model

Who Should Attend

• Certified Massage Therapists looking to deepen their clinical reasoning beyond tissue-based approaches
• Advanced Neuromuscular Massage Therapy students and graduates seeking to strengthen their assessment and treatment planning skills
• Manual therapists who want to better understand why some clients don’t respond to traditional techniques
• Healthcare professions (Physical Therapists, Athletic Trainers, Chiropractors) interested in integrating a biopsychosocial lens into care
• Bodyworkers working with chronic pain populations who want more effective, sustainable outcomes
• Therapists who feel “stuck” with complex or persistent cases and want new strategies to move forward
• Clinicians committed to patient-centered, compassionate care that consider the whole person, not just the symptoms
• Anyone looking to elevate from a technique-focused provider to a higher-level clinical thinker

This workshop is especially valuable for practitioners who want to move beyond a purely structural approach to pain and develop a more comprehensive, client-centered perspective on assessment and care.

WORKSHOP COST | $100

EARLY BIRD WORKSHOP COST | $60 if registered by June 2, 2026

CURRENT NHI STUDENTS & ALUMNI COST | Contact your local SLCC for an exclusive discount code!

This class is NCBTMB Approved for 4.0 hours of continuing education credit

Instructor Bio | Cynthia Ribeiro

Cynthia came to the United States from Brazil, where she had attained a degree in Physical Education and studied Surgical Nursing. In the U.S., she graduated from two massage schools, and now specializes in Neuromuscular Therapy and Orthopedic Massage.

A highly dynamic teacher, she has taught advanced anatomy and injury rehabilitation skills since 1988. Her in-person Advanced Neuromuscular Therapy workshops are in high demand throughout U.S. and Canada. Cynthia frequently presents at state and national massage therapy conventions and has had great success with both her in-person and online course offerings.

As founder and owner of Western Institute of Neuromuscular Massage Therapy (WIN) in Southern California, Cynthia developed highly effective therapeutic bodywork, and has brought that material to NHI for the 450 hour program in Advanced Neuromuscular Therapy.

In 2003, she was appointed Honorary Clinical Professor at the University California Irvine Medical School. In 2012 she became National President for the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA). In 2017 she received the Jerome Perlinski, Teacher of the Year Award.

Cynthia has also served as a Board of Directors member of the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork (NCBTMB).

A continual inspiration to her students, she nevertheless says, “I am always a student myself, and I strongly believe in lifelong learning.”

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