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
What I've changed my mind about
In 2018 I gave a talk called What Chronic Pain Has Taught Me About Resilience. It has since been watched more than 127,000 times.
I still believe most of it. But there is a sentence in it I would not say today.
I said that suffering is a choice.
What I meant was narrower than how it sounds — not that anyone chooses pain, but that we have some say in what pain does to the rest of a life. Even so, I put the emphasis in the wrong place. I built the talk around what happens inside a person: their outlook, their boundaries, their willingness to let go of the life they had planned. All of that matters. But it is only half the picture.
I told four patients’ stories that day. My observations were accurate. My interpretation was incomplete.
One found a safe space and guidance. She was able to take control of her health and career. Her pain improved.
One learned to be assertive. His supervisor stopped piling on extra work. His pain improved.
One saw how her guilt had isolated her. She found people who understood her, and a meaningful routine for her week. Her pain improved.
One found something that gave her purpose. She was able to let go of the path she was trapped in. Her pain improved.
Each of those has three parts: something inside the person, something in their circumstances, and the pain improving. Take either of the first two away and the third does not happen.
In 2018 I told only the inner part of each story and called it the whole thing.
Later, reading Michael Ungar’s work on the social ecology of resilience, I found language for what I had been seeing. Historically, resilience research had looked for the answer inside the person — traits, temperament, grit. What Ungar found was that a person’s environment matters far more than the field had assumed. Resilience is not a quality some people have and others lack; it is what happens when a person’s internal capacities meet resources they can actually reach.
That changes what a practitioner is responsible for. If resilience were only a mindset, my job would be to help you change it. Because it takes both, my job is to work on both: helping build what is inside you — attitude, understanding, confidence — and helping change what is around you. Your circumstances are not the backdrop to your care. They are part of it.
That is the difference between the clinic I imagined in 2018 and the one Novah is now.
I have left the TEDx Talk up because I want you to see where the thinking started and how it got here.
This talk includes discussion of self-harm and suicide. If you are in crisis, please call 911, or call or text 9-8-8.
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 to see where your strength is coming from, where something might quietly be draining you, and where the two don’t line up.
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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