About ATNS

The Association for the Treatment of Neuroplastic Symptoms is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Our mission is to educate the public, patients, and practitioners about diagnosis and treatment of neuroplasticity pain—also known as neuroplastic pain—and related illness and illness that affects over 50 million adult Americans. Founded and led by volunteer medical and mental health practitioners, researchers and patient advocates with decades of experience, ATNS provides the information and tools needed to recognize and treat neuroplastic conditions; explains and promotes the latest scientific research; advocates for healthcare policies that support access to quality treatment; and empowers people to advance their own healing.

Our Board of Neuroplastic Experts

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BOARD

  • A smiling man with dark hair, a beard, and blue eyes, wearing a blue shirt, outdoors with a blurred natural background.

    Dan Ratner, PsyD

    BOARD CHAIR

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  • A smiling David Clarke MD with gray hair, wearing glasses, a dark suit, white shirt, and a red patterned tie.

    David D. Clarke, MD

    PRESIDENT & CO-FOUNDER

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  • Headshot of a smiling man with dark hair, wearing a light blue button-up shirt, against a gray background.

    Rob Munger, MA, MS

    VICE PRESIDENT & CO-FOUNDER

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  • A middle-aged man with gray hair, wearing glasses and a light checkered button-up shirt, smiling against a plain background.

    Howard Schubiner, MD

    CO-FOUNDER

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  • A smiling man with glasses in a professional setting, wearing a dark suit and white shirt.

    David Schechter, MD

    TREASURER

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  • Close-up portrait of a middle-aged man with short gray hair, blue eyes, wearing a checked shirt, smiling softly against a gray background.

    Nathaniel Frank, Ph.D.

    BOARD MEMBER

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  • An elderly man with white hair, glasses, and a pink shirt, smiling and resting his chin on his hand outdoors.

    Lee Canter, MSW

    BOARD MEMBER

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  • A smiling woman with long, wavy blonde hair, wearing a black top and a colorful statement necklace, standing against a wooden background.

    Christina Bognet, BS

    BOARD MEMBER

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  • Close-up of a young woman with curly hair, smiling outdoors with trees and blue sky in the background.

    Vanessa Blackstone, MSW, ASW

    BOARD MEMBER

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  • A young woman with blonde wavy hair standing outdoors with her arms crossed, wearing a sleeveless white turtleneck top and blue jeans, smiling at the camera with trees and bushes in the background.

    Christie Uipi, LCSW

    BOARD MEMBER

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  • A professional man in a dark suit with a patterned tie, smiling with crossed arms in an office setting.

    Michael Bodack

    BOARD MEMBER

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TEAM

  • Rena Le, BS

    OPERATIONS MANAGER

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  • Monique Sondag, BS

    STRATEGY & DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR

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In the News

Allied Organizations

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Former Board Members

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ATNS BOARD MEMBER BIOS

DAVID CLARKE, MD

David D. Clarke, MD is President of the Association for Treatment of Neuroplastic Symptoms. He is also Clinical Assistant Professor of Gastroenterology Emeritus and former Assistant Director at the Center for Ethics (2012-2025) both at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon, USA. He is board-certified in Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine and practiced Gastroenterology in Portland from 1984 to 2009. During that time, he diagnosed and treated over 7000 patients whose symptoms were not explained by organ disease or injury.

Dr. Clarke has lectured extensively on neuroplastic symptoms to health care professionals, graduate students, and the public across North America and in Europe. His book for patients, They Can’t Find Anything Wrong!, was praised by a president of the American Psychosomatic Society as “truly remarkable” and named one of the five best mind-body books ever written by Brit & Co. He was the lead editor for the professional textbook Psychophysiologic Disorders and the companion textbook A Diagnostic Guide for Psychophysiologic Disorders.

He has done hundreds of interviews for TV, Radio, and podcasts and was an Executive Producer of three documentary films about Neuroplastic Symptoms.

ROB MUNGER, MA, MS

Rob is a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University Extension School & Summer School. He specializes in Health Economics and decision-making. He has created the largest source of information for the public about neuroplastic symptoms at TMSWiki.org. He also has an undergraduate concentration in computer science and experience as a trainer, consultant and integrator in the computer industry.

HOWARD SCHUBINER, MD

Dr. Howard Schubiner is an internist and a Clinical Professor at the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and has authored more than 100 publications in scientific journals and books. He lectures regionally, nationally, and internationally. Dr. Schubiner has consulted for the American Medical Association, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the National Institute on Mental Health. Dr. Schubiner is the author of three books: Unlearn Your Pain, Unlearn Your Anxiety and Depression, and Hidden From View, written with Dr. Allan Abbass.

Dr. Schubiner has collaborated extensively with colleagues such as Mark Lumley, Tor Wager, Yoni Ashar and Alan Gordon to develop two novel psychological treatments for chronic pain: Emotion Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET) and Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT), which have been shown to be highly effective in randomized, controlled trials. EAET is now listed as a treatment option in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Pain Management Best Practices Inter-agency Task Force Report.

Dr. Schubiner sees patients virtually from anywhere in the world at cormendihealth.com and lives in the Detroit area with his wife of forty years.

DAVID SCHECHTER, MD

Dr. Schechter graduated with a degree from Princeton University. While a medical student at NYU in the early 1980's, he was first exposed to a stress related disorder - his own! After successful treatment as a patient of Dr. John Sarno, he performed a telephone follow up study, in Dr. Sarno’s office. This study's results are cited in Dr. Sarno’s first two books.

After a residency in Family Medicine, he received a Certificate of Additional Qualifications in Sports Medicine. Dr. Schechter has been treating chronic pain and other functional disorders with a psycho-education approach for over 35 years in private practice. He has a credential in Integrative Pain Management.

In addition, Dr. Schechter is the author of Think Away Your Pain, The MindBody Workbook, the MindBody Workbook volume two, the MindBody Workbook for Teens and The Lessons Doctor Sarno Taught Me. The first three are home educational materials for stress-pain and functional disorders. The fourth is an educational tool for adolescents to help deal with and prevent these disorders. The final is a memoir style reflection on Dr. Sarno's influence in his career.

Dr. Schechter was the Principal Investigator of the Seligman Medical Institute between 2003-2007 and with that part-time grant, he published several papers, the final one an outcome study published in Alternative Therapies.

He is in private practice in Culver City, California and sees some telemedicine patients. MindBodyMedicine.com, SchechterMD.com.

Vanessa Blackstone, MSW, ACSW,

Vanessa Blackstone, MSW, ACSW, a citizen of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, is the Executive Director of the Pain Psychology Center—the original clinical home of Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) and a leading global practice for chronic pain recovery. She co-authored The Pain Reprocessing Therapy Workbook (New Harbinger, 2024) and has trained and consulted with hundreds of providers in the application of PRT. She is also a published author with Springer Nature, contributing the chapter “Pain Reprocessing Therapy for Migraine Headaches in Women: Achieving Symptom Eradication and Recovery” in Psychosocial Interventions for Chronic Pain in Women and Girls (2025). For decades, Vanessa navigated her own lived experience of migraine, IBS, pelvic floor pain, chronic hives, neck pain, and post-concussion symptoms—an arc that now informs her clinical work, teaching, and advocacy. In 2025, she was appointed faculty in UCLA’s School of Dentistry Orofacial Pain Department, where she teaches PRT and provides case consultation to dental residents. Her clinical work focuses on chronic pain recovery, sex therapy, substance use, and mindfulness-based relapse prevention. A former foster youth and chronic pain survivor, she is a speaker and advocate committed to expanding access to effective, evidence-based care. She lives in Los Angeles, CA, and shares educational content at @that.therapist.

Christie Uipi, LCSW

Christie Uipi, LCSW Christie (she/her) is a psychotherapist and the founder and Executive Director of The Better Mind Center, where she leads a team of clinicians specializing in the treatment of chronic symptoms, anxiety, and depression. Clinicians at the Center work from a mindbody lens informed by research-supported modalities including Pain Reprocessing Therapy (PRT) and Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET). The culture of the practice reflects her guiding ethos of mutual respect, intellectual openness, and collaborative care, grounded in a shared commitment to nuanced, individualized treatment.

Christie is also a recovered chronic pain patient herself. The healing process so profoundly transformed her quality of life that she dedicated her career to supporting others through their recoveries.

As a key contributor to the development of PRT, Christie was a treating psychotherapist in the landmark “Boulder Back Pain Study” and continues to shape its evolution through ongoing research projects. She lectures nationally on PRT and other psychotherapeutic interventions for chronic pain and is committed to cross-disciplinary collaboration between mental health and physical medicine. Christie also hosts the Like Mind, Like Body podcast on Cura

DAN RATNER, PSY.D.

Dr. Dan Ratner is a leading international expert in the mind-body field, host of the Crushing Doubt podcast on YouTube and Apple Podcasts, and author of Crushing Doubt: An Advanced System for Mind-Body Pain and Symptom Relief. After his life-changing experience resolving eight years of chronic back pain through mind-body understanding, he has helped hundreds of pain and symptom sufferers recover. His unique Three Columns System uses science and logic to organize mind-body understanding and alleviate both acute and chronic symptoms. His teaching seminars make comprehensive sense of mind-body processes, putting lingering and problematic questions and doubts to rest. His weekly membership groups allow ongoing, cost-effective access to him to facilitate Columns Work. His book, seminars, and membership groups are available at www.crushingdoubt.com.

Dan was raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio. He completed his B.A. at Brown University and received his Psy.D. from Widener University. He was an elementary school teacher with Teach For America in Compton, CA, and a staff member and training director of Fordham University’s Counseling Center in New York City. Now based in Cleveland, Dan’s private practice, dating back to 2007, focuses exclusively on his online groups and short-term consultations for pain and symptom relief.

NATHANIEL FRANK PH.D.

Dr. Nathaniel Frank is an internationally respected author, historian, and journalist completing a book on chronic pain and the mind-body connection for Mayo Clinic Press. He spent over two decades working in advocacy and communications on public health and LGBTQ rights, and is currently director of the “What We Know Project,” a research initiative at Cornell that aggregates scholarly research for the general public. Dr. Frank is the author of Unfriendly Fire(2009) and Awakening (2017), and has published widely in such venues as the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, New York Magazine, Slate, and elsewhere. He has appeared on “The Daily Show,” “The Rachel Maddow Show,” NPR’s “Fresh Air,” and numerous other media programs. Hailing from Philadelphia, Dr. Frank attended Northwestern University and earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in the History of Ideas at Brown University. He lives in Brooklyn. Visit his website at www.nathanielfrank.com.

LEE CANTER, MWS

Lee’s commitment to helping other sufferers of chronic pain disorders is a direct outgrowth of his experience with chronic migraine symptoms. After over seven years of being almost bedridden, seeing numerous medical professionals and getting no help from traditional biomedical treatments, he was finally cured of his symptoms using a psychophysiologic treatment approach. Critical to his recovery was the support he received from current board member Dr. David Schechter, and former board member Derek Sapico, LMFT.

Lee began his professional career as a clinical social worker. He then became a highly successful entrepreneur. His first company, Canter and Associates Inc. was a nationally recognized educational training company. Over the life of the company, over one million educators and parents purchased its books and videos or participated in its training programs. The company was sold to Sylvan/Laureate Inc. His second company, Center for Transformative Teacher Training, continued his efforts in developing ground breaking training materials for educators and was sold to his co-founder.

His passion is to use his professional expertise and his personal experience to help spread the word on the use of a psychophysiologic treatment approach to other chronic pain sufferers, especially those with migraine symptoms.

CHRISTINA BOGNET

Christina attended MIT where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Neuroscience. She began her career by starting a multi-million dollar healthcare company that taught patients how to optimize their nutrition, sleep, exercise, and mood to prevent metabolic disease, covered by health insurance. She served as CEO for nine years and was recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30 for her contributions to the consumer healthcare field. She successfully sold her company in 2021. She is passionate about helping people understand the relationship between emotion and pain.

MICHAEL BODACK

Michael Bodack is President of the Northeast Region for IMA Financial Group, where he leads strategy, growth, and operational alignment across the firm’s Northeast markets. Over a career spanning more than two decades in the insurance and risk advisory industry, he has built and led high-performing teams and helped scale multiple advisory organizations.

He previously served as President of IMA’s New York market following the firm’s partnership with York International Agency, where he served as President for more than a decade. Earlier in his career, he founded Sequoia Financial Partners in 2001 and grew the firm to $1.2 million in revenue before merging it with York International in 2009.

Bodack is active in nonprofit leadership and philanthropy. He serves as a board member of the Gates of Israel Foundation and on the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees of Paper Mill Playhouse. He has also held multiple leadership roles within the Young Presidents’ Organization.

Motivated by his own recovery from neuroplastic pain after many years of chronic back pain, Bodack has become a strong advocate for increasing awareness and treatment of neuroplastic symptoms. In 2025 he organized a fundraising campaign that raised more than $15,000 for the Association for the Treatment of Neuroplastic Symptoms (ATNS), one of the organization’s most successful peer-driven fundraising efforts.