MEET DR. TRUNG NGO
Resilience is something you can build.
“My personal experiences, my research and treating patients with chronic pain have taught me a great deal about resilience.”
Dr. Trung Ngo, DC – Chiropractor and Founder, Novah Healthcare
TEDx Speaker · Former Associate Clinical Director, Mount Sinai Hospital Function & Pain Program · Published Researcher · 20+ Years Experience
The TEDx Talk
In 2018, Dr. Ngo took the TEDx stage to share what years of treating complex, chronic pain had taught him about the human capacity to recover. It remains the clearest expression of how he practises: pain is never only physical — the body, the mind, and a person’s circumstances all feed into it, and all of them can be worked with.
THE STORY
Why resilience sits at the centre of everything here
Dr. Trung Ngo spent the early part of his career treating people with some of the most complex, persistent pain conditions, as Associate Clinical Director of the Function & Pain Program at Mount Sinai Hospital. The question that drove him then still drives the clinic today: when faced with adversity, why do some people grow stronger while others break down?
I came to Canada as one of the Vietnamese “boat people.” Over the years, I watched some from that very same boat thrive in their new environments, while others were overwhelmed by the changes in their lives. The question of why people struggle or adapt to life’s hardships has fueled my curiosity about resilience ever since.
In 2017 he founded Novah Healthcare to put that thinking into practice — a clinic where chiropractic, physiotherapy, massage, psychotherapy and other disciplines work as one team around the patient, rather than passing people from specialist to specialist. He has published in peer-reviewed journals, been featured in a documentary on post-traumatic growth, and speaks regularly to help people see that living with pain and living a full life are not opposites.
His team provides care in English, Tagalog, Hindi and Vietnamese — something he’s proud to offer different communities across the GTA, who too often have to choose between seeing someone they can speak to comfortably and seeing someone with the right expertise.
A TOOL HE CREATED
"The Weave"
What steadies a person through pain is rarely one big thing. It’s a collection of smaller ones — the people, places and activities already in their life — and how they fit together.
The Weave is a simple picture you draw of your own life: you in the centre, and everything that shapes your days around you. It helps you see where your strength is coming from, where something might quietly be draining you, and — the part most tools miss — where the two don’t line up: the habit that soothes you but keeps you stuck, or the effort that’s hard now but is slowly building you up. From there, small changes leave you steadier.
It grew from a simple observation: many people are willing to do the hard work of recovery but feel they don’t have the time, support, or bandwidth to begin. The Weave helps them find it — starting from what they already have.
The Weave adapts two well-established ideas — the ecomap long used in social work, and Michael Ungar’s research on the social ecology of resilience — for people living with chronic pain.
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BACKGROUND & RECOGNITION
Credentials
Doctor of Chiropractic (DC)
Licensed in Ontario · 20+ years of clinical experience
Mount Sinai Hospital (Toronto)
Former Associate Clinical Director, Function and Pain Program
Published Researcher
Peer-reviewed work in epidemiology
Founder, Novah Healthcare
Established 2017 · Multidisciplinary Pain & Wellness Clinic
FEATURED ON
START HERE
Pain is complex. Getting help shouldn't be.
Start with a free 15-minute consultation. We’ll talk through what you’re experiencing and how we’d approach it.
Or call 905-848-6682 · 170 Queensway West, Unit 104, Mississauga
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