Christopher EllisCEO Dynamic Physio Therapy

Pain Science: The Tale of 2 Nails Explained #shorts

4 Sept 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:42

In this YouTube Shorts video, Christopher Ellis shares an anecdote he heard on the Hidden Brain podcast about the biopsychosocial model of pain, called the "tale of two nails." He describes a true story of a construction worker who jumps off a beam and lands on a long, upright nail, illustrating how the context and meaning we assign to an injury shape the pain experience. The brief clip sets up the premise that pain is not solely a direct read‑out of tissue damage but is heavily influenced by psychological and social factors, a core tenet of modern pain science. Ellis uses a conversational, enthusiastic tone to connect the story to his own practice and to encourage viewers to consider the broader model when assessing pain.

Chapters

I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts the other day, Hidden Brain. I love that podcast. He gets great guests. He's a great interviewer. And just, it's a lot of the same things I talk about. He helps me connect dots in my practice. And he brought on this person talking about pain science and talking about the biopsychosocial model of pain. And she told this story, which is perfect illustration of what I'm talking about. I'm just going to kind of reiterate what she said. She called it the, the tale of 2 nails. So It's both involved. Both stories involve construction workers. The first construction worker— and this is true stories, by the way— he jumped off a beam and landed on a long nail, like a 6 or 7-inch nail sticking upright.