When You’ve Tried Everything and You’re Still in Pain
Written by Jamie Lloyd, Chronic Pain & TMJ Specialist
Jamie Lloyd is a multi-award-winning Chronic Pain & TMJ Specialist known for treating complex pain cases when other treatments fail. Based in Surrey, he delivers a results-driven, fascia-focused approach, attracting clients from across the UK and internationally.
You have been to the appointments. You have done the exercises. You have spent money, made time, and followed advice. Perhaps treatment helped for a while, but the pain returned. Perhaps you received different explanations and were left unsure which one to believe. Eventually, you start wondering, “Is this just how my life is going to be?”
I regularly meet people at that point in my clinic. They arrive with chronic back pain, neck and shoulder problems, headaches, or complex jaw pain. Some have been searching for help for years.
Alongside the pain, there is often frustration, exhaustion, and a growing fear of being disappointed again. I understand that feeling because I have lived with chronic pain myself.
I know what it means to keep going while you hurt
I lived with jaw pain for 18 years. My jaw ached, popped, and clicked, and it affected my confidence. I wore braces for two and a half years before undergoing major surgery to have my jaw realigned. I still have metal in my jaw.
I also experienced 12 years of back pain and sciatica, underwent back surgery, and had two shoulder operations following six dislocations. For around 30 years, I lived with Achilles tendinosis and spent far too much time limping around.
For long periods, I just lived with the pain. I carried on because I had responsibilities, work to do, and people depending on me. Those experiences shape how I listen today.
When someone tells me they are exhausted by pain, I take that seriously. When they say they are frightened to move, frustrated by another setback, or tired of explaining themselves, I want to understand what has brought them to that point. My experience does not mean I know exactly how another person feels. It reminds me to ask rather than assume.
Why some clients call me “The last man standing”
Many people who come to see me have already spent thousands of pounds trying to find relief from chronic pain. They have seen physiotherapists, chiropractors and osteopaths, tried acupuncture, been “massaged to death”, as some describe it, and even seen top consultants. Yet they are still struggling.
Some clients call me “the last man standing” because they come to me after a long journey of searching for help. I take that trust seriously. By that point, they may be exhausted by the cost, the time and the disappointment of hoping each new approach will finally help.
Their previous practitioners may have provided appropriate, thoughtful care. Chronic pain can be difficult to manage, and no practitioner has every answer.
My responsibility is to understand what has already been tried, listen carefully, and carry out a thorough assessment before agreeing on a personalised plan.
"I’ve tried everything" deserves a proper conversation
When someone says they have tried everything, I want to understand what that means for them. What treatment have they received? What helped, even briefly? What made things worse? Were they able to follow the rehabilitation plan? Did it fit around their work, family life, and other health needs?
Reviewing that history helps us make a more informed decision about what to do next. It can also reveal something valuable: the person may already have useful knowledge about their symptoms that has never been brought together into a clear plan.
Their experience deserves to be part of the assessment. I also want to understand what pain has taken away from them. Are they missing their favourite sport? Struggling to concentrate at work? Avoiding meals because their jaw hurts? Finding it difficult to play with their children? Those answers help us identify goals that matter to them.
Pain needs a wider view
My approach considers the biological, psychological and social aspects of pain. That means paying attention to physical symptoms and function while also asking about sleep, stress, worries, work and the demands of everyday life. Pain is a personal experience, and these factors can influence how someone experiences it.
Exploring that wider picture should never leave someone feeling that their pain is imaginary or their fault. Their pain is real, and their concerns deserve to be taken seriously.
Someone may be trying to recover while working long hours, caring for a child, and sleeping badly. Another person may have stopped exercising because every flare-up makes them worry they are causing harm.
Those circumstances matter when agreeing on a realistic plan. A treatment programme needs to account for the life someone is living.
Assessment comes before treatment
In my clinic, I use an approach I call Clinical Reset™, which follows five steps: Assess, Measure, Treat, Retest and Adapt. It gives structure to how I work and keeps the focus on the individual.
We begin by discussing the history of the problem, previous investigations and treatment, and what the person wants help with. I also carry out orthopaedic and range of movement testing using the Jing Method, within my scope of practice. This helps guide treatment and establish clear starting points against which we can measure progress.
For someone with jaw pain, that might include how comfortably they can open their mouth or eat. For someone with shoulder pain, it might be reaching a shelf, getting dressed, or returning to training.
Treatment and rehabilitation are then tailored to the assessment findings, the person’s preferences, and what is appropriate for them.
Retesting matters because I want to understand how someone responds. Follow up matters because an immediate change does not tell us everything about what happens later that day or during the following week.
If progress is limited, we review the approach. Where symptoms need medical investigation or another professional’s expertise, referral is part of responsible care.
Every treatment needs a purpose
Depending on the client’s needs, my work may include advanced clinical massage, myofascial release, intraoral and buccal temporomandibular joint (TMJ) work, advanced dry needling, joint mobilisation and rehabilitation exercises, alongside other appropriate modalities.
Each choice needs a reason. Having several techniques available does not mean every client needs all of them. I explain what I am proposing, listen to feedback and agree on manageable next steps. I also want clients to develop confidence in what they can do between appointments.
A plan has to work in someone’s actual life. If it is too complicated, too demanding, or poorly understood, we need to address that together. The person should understand what we are working towards and how we will review whether it is helping.
Progress should mean something to you
A pain score can be useful, but it cannot capture everything that matters. For one person, progress means eating a meal more comfortably. For another, it means getting through a working day, returning to the gym or enjoying time with their family. These goals make care personal. They give us something meaningful to work towards and review.
I also believe in being honest about uncertainty. I cannot promise that every person will become pain-free or tell everyone exactly how many appointments they will need before assessing them.
What I can do is listen carefully, explain my reasoning, monitor their response and discuss the next steps openly. Hope is stronger when it comes with honesty.
Resilience includes asking for help
I have pushed myself physically throughout my life. After back surgery, I went on to win the British Kettlebell Championships in Clean and Jerk, completing ten minutes of continuous clean and jerks with two 20 kg kettlebells.
More recently, I completed Haute Route Alps, around 800 kilometres of cycling and 20,000 metres of climbing from Nice to Thonon-les-Bains.
Those experiences helped me build resilience, inner strength and confidence in my ability to face difficult challenges. But I would never use my achievements to suggest that someone else should simply push through pain. Each person has their own health, circumstances and starting point.
Resilience can mean attempting something difficult. It can also mean asking for support, adapting an activity, taking time to recover or acknowledging that the current approach needs to change. No one should have to prove how much pain they can tolerate to deserve help.
The person behind the pain matters
Today, I run Jamie Lloyd Pain Relief Clinic Surrey, welcoming clients from across the UK and overseas. The clinic has received more than 20 awards in two years.
I am proud of what I have built. But every appointment brings me back to the same responsibility: someone has trusted me with a problem that may be affecting a large part of their life.
They may have lost confidence after years of symptoms and setbacks. They may be hesitant to hope that another appointment could help.
That is why the way we communicate matters. People need space to explain, ask questions and discuss their concerns. They also deserve clear explanations about what we can offer and when another professional may be better placed to help. My own experiences remind me how much that matters.
You deserve to be heard
If you have tried many approaches and are still living with chronic pain, your frustration is understandable. It is reasonable to want a careful review and an honest conversation about the options available.
Previous disappointment does not make your experience any less deserving of attention. You deserve to be listened to, involved in decisions, and supported towards goals that matter to you. That is where I believe good care begins.
Read more from Jamie Lloyd
Jamie Lloyd, Chronic Pain & TMJ Specialist
Jamie Lloyd is a multi-award-winning Chronic Pain & TMJ Specialist based in Surrey, known for treating complex pain conditions when other approaches have failed. He is the founder of a leading pain relief clinic, delivering a results-driven, fascia-focused approach that targets the root cause of pain, not just symptoms. With over 300 five-star reviews and clients travelling from across the UK and internationally, Jamie has built a reputation for resolving chronic pain, TMJ dysfunction, headaches, and musculoskeletal conditions. His work has earned multiple national and international awards, including Practitioner of the Year and back-to-back Sports Therapist of the Year.
