Speaking & Consulting
The gap is not insurmountable. Let's close it.
Dr. Payne speaks to healthcare organizations, patient advocacy groups, academic medical centers, and professional associations on what it takes to close the distance between patient and provider — and what becomes possible when both sides acknowledge their part.
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On the stage
Speaking topics
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.
Bridging the Patient-Provider Gap
The science of what goes wrong in clinical encounters — and the specific, teachable skills that close the distance.
ACEs, Chronic Illness & the Body That Shows Up
What childhood adversity and environmental exposure actually do to the body — and why the patient in your clinic is not a mystery.
Trauma-Informed Care in Practice
Beyond the framework — practical implementation at the individual, environmental, and organizational level.
Clinician Burnout & Sustainable Empathy
The difference between empathy that erodes and empathy that endures — and how to build the latter.
The Patient as Expert
What providers can learn from the patient who has become the world's leading expert on their own condition.
Designing Life with Chronic Illness
Autonomy, structure, and what it actually looks like to build a functional life around an unpredictable body.