Dr. Pamela Payne

The clinician who is also the patient.

Dr. Pamela Payne, PsyD is a licensed Clinical Rehabilitation Neuropsychologist specializing in traumatic brain injury, stroke, and catastrophic chronic illness. She earned her doctorate in Clinical Neuropsychology from Kansas City University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in rehabilitation neuropsychology, where she also conducted research on cognitive-communication outcomes.

She is also a patient. Dr. Payne lives with a complex medical history — autoimmune and genetic conditions, chronic spine issues, and two spinal surgeries — including a diagnosis that took years to get right. That gives her a view of the patient-provider encounter that training alone can't provide. After a period of medical leave, she returned to complete her doctoral degree, earning an international award for academic presentation along the way.

Her forthcoming book, Chronically Unfiltered, is a memoir-based exploration of what medicine gets wrong — and what becomes possible when both sides of the encounter finally show up fully. She speaks to healthcare organizations, medical schools, and patient advocacy groups on that same question.

Signature Topics

01 — Trust and Empathy: Bridging the Clinical Relationship Gap

What trust actually requires in the exam room — and why empathy, done right, is a teachable clinical skill rather than a personality trait.

02 — Bridging the Patient-Provider Gap

The neuroscience and psychology of what goes wrong in clinical encounters — and the specific, teachable skills that close the distance.

03 — ACEs, Chronic Illness & the Body That Shows Up

What childhood adversity and environmental exposure actually do to the body long-term — and why the patient in your clinic is not a mystery.

04 — Trauma-Informed Care in Practice

Beyond the framework — practical implementation of TIC at the individual, environmental, and organizational level.

05 — Clinician Burnout & Sustainable Empathy

The neuropsychological difference between empathy that erodes and empathy that endures — evidence-based skills for the long career.

Past Engagements

• 2026 — In Pursuit of Person-Centered Care: Adapting Everyday Technology for Accessibility, On With Life Conference, IA. Also: NICPP Consortium, Omaha, NE — March 20, 2026
• 2025 — Adapting Everyday Technology for Accessibility, multidisciplinary presentation with O. Ollis, Z. Bertsch & C. Davis, APA Div. 22 Mid-Year, Louisville, KY
• 2022 — A Case Study Demonstrating the Use of Trails-X, poster with M. Kolessar & T. Price, INS Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA
• 2018 — Empathy, Stress, and Language Perception in the Medical Student, KCU Research Symposium
• 2017 — Access to Healthcare in China — International Presentation Award, International Scholar Laureate Program

"I didn't want anyone to know any of this. I thought I'd lose opportunities. I thought people would stop seeing me as competent. So I hunkered down. But it keeps coming up, and I am not a hypocrite."
— Chronically Unfiltered (forthcoming)