Making the Invisible Seen

Pain is often private, difficult to name, and even harder to share. But for students working with the Chronic Pain Project (CPP), a Portland nonprofit, it becomes something else entirely: visible, vivid, and impossible to ignore.

The CPP provides a platform for artists living with chronic pain to tell their own stories in creative works, such as paintings, sculptures, collages, installations, and poems. The organization’s exhibitions and programming create spaces for connection, allowing artists to share their work with the public while normalizing conversations about pain and discomfort.

During the 2025–26 academic year, L&C’s Center for Community and Global Health organized and funded two student internships with the CPP. The student interns edit artist interviews—each about an hour—into two- to four-minute YouTube videos intended to capture the essence of their work. In the process, students learn valuable career skills, such as story organization and video editing.

“We have so much to learn about how to care for pain,” says Alexis Rehrmann, program manager of narrative medicine and community partnerships at the Center for Community and Global Health. “By offering their focused attention and time to these stories, I hope that our students will take these lessons into their future work in health care and healing.”