Frequently Asked Questions

A 42-session audio-led program for chronic pain. You open the app, press play, and follow along. Each session is 5 to 10 minutes. The program teaches your nervous system that the pain signal is a false alarm, not a sign of damage. When you finish, you're done. Relief is designed to be deleted.

You listen. The session guides you through a mix of pain education, sensation tracking, reframing exercises, graded exposure, and safe messaging. Some sessions pause for you to write. All of it is audio-led. You don't choose what to do. The program decides for you. One session per day.

Over the past two decades, researchers at institutions including the University of Colorado Boulder, Stanford, and the University of South Australia have shown that chronic pain often persists because the brain's threat-detection system has learned to generate pain as a protective response, even after the tissue has healed. Brain-based pain retraining teaches the nervous system that these signals are false alarms.

The program ends. There is no chapter 7, no maintenance mode, no premium tier. The Safety tool, evidence remain incase of flare-ups. If you want to run the program again, you can. But the intended outcome is that you finish, delete the app, and get on with your life.

Relief is designed for chronic pain where a doctor has cleared you structurally. Common signs it might be right for you: the scans don't explain the pain, it moves around, it comes and goes, it tracks your stress rather than your activity, or it vanishes when you're distracted.

It is not for undiagnosed pain, active injuries, inflammatory disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, or cancer-related pain. If you haven't been examined by a healthcare provider, do that first. Read the full disclaimer.

Most pain apps are designed to keep you engaged, not to get you better. They give you a content library to browse, a pain journal to fill, and a subscription to maintain. Relief does the opposite: one linear program, no pain ratings, no journaling, no subscription. It removes the decisions and the monitoring that keep the brain focused on threat. If what you tried before was built around tracking your pain, you haven't tried this approach yet.

Good. You don't need to believe in it. The program is built on peer-reviewed research, not positive thinking. Relief is free to start, so you lose nothing by trying. If it doesn't resonate after the first session, stop. No card required, no awkward cancellation.

It is simple. That's deliberate. Complexity is what keeps people stuck. The research shows that short, consistent daily practice outperforms long, complicated interventions. 5 to 10 minutes a day across 42 sessions is over 5 hours of structured retraining. The simplicity is the mechanism, not a limitation.

The brain doesn't update through marathon sessions. It updates through small, repeated signals of safety delivered consistently over time. 42 sessions at 5 to 10 minutes is the same approach used in the clinical trials. The dose is small because that's what works.

Everyone is different. Some people notice shifts within the first week. For others, it takes longer. The research shows meaningful results after four weeks of consistent practice. The key is consistency, not intensity. You don't need to marathon through it.

Nothing happens. There are no streaks, no penalties, no guilt. Pick up where you left off whenever you're ready. The program waits for you.

A temporary increase can happen, especially during the safety behaviour withdrawal phase. This is called an extinction burst, and it's actually a sign the pattern is starting to break. The program walks you through this and gives you tools to manage it: the Safety breathing tool, your safe messages, and your setback plan.

If your pain changes in character, location, or severity in a way that concerns you, see your doctor. Relief is not a replacement for medical care.

Yes. Relief works at the nervous system level, teaching your brain to downregulate the threat signal. This complements physical therapy, exercise, and most other modalities. If you're seeing a healthcare provider, let them know you're using it.

Monitoring pain keeps the brain focused on threat. Every time you rate, log, or journal about your pain, you train the nervous system to keep the alarm firing. Relief is built on outcome independence: you do the work without keeping score. Instead of tracking pain, you collect evidence that the pain isn't structural. The brain updates fastest when it isn't being watched.

Choice is the enemy of action when you're in pain. Browsing a catalogue of sessions is another decision to make when you're already depleted. Relief gives you one session per day. You open the app, press play, and the program tells you what to do. No decisions required. That's how people actually stick with it.

Streaks punish you for missing a day. Pain doesn't follow a calendar. Some days you can't do a session. That's fine. There is no streak to protect, no fire emoji to maintain, no guilt mechanism disguised as motivation. You skip a day, you come back, you pick up where you left off.

A subscription pain app makes more money when you stay in pain longer. Relief is a one-time purchase. We don't benefit from keeping you engaged. The program has 42 sessions, a beginning, a middle, and an end. When you finish, the app has done its job. The measure of success is that you don't need it any more.

Yes. The first session is free. No credit card, no account, no sign-up. Just download and start. If the approach makes sense for you, unlock the rest for $14.99. If it doesn't, delete the app. You've spent nothing.

Yes. You pay once and own the full program. No subscription, no auto-renewal, no hidden tiers, no coaching upsell. There is nothing else to buy. Run it as many times as you want.

Most pain programs charge $70 to $130 per year with auto-renewing subscriptions, or $1,200 and up for group coaching. We think that's predatory. You're in pain, you're desperate, and they know it. Relief costs $14.99 once because that's what a self-guided program should cost. There is no coaching tier, no premium unlock, no next thing to buy. The price is low because the margins don't need to fund a sales team or pay back investors.

Open the app, tap Settings, tap Refund. That's it. The request goes through Apple and is typically processed within 48 hours. No emails, no forms, no hoops.

That's why the first session is free. If you've already paid and it's not for you, request a refund through Apple. No friction, no hoops. We'd rather give you your money back than have you feel stuck with something that doesn't help.

Unlikely. We'd like it to go down eventually, not up. Either way, if you buy at $14.99, you own the full program at that price. Your purchase never expires and never needs renewing.

Any iPhone running iOS 26 or later. There is no Android version or iPad version at this time.

Yes. Everything runs on your device. No internet connection needed. Your data stays on your phone.

No. Download it, open it, begin. No email, no sign-up, no account. We don't want your data. We want you to finish the program.

Yes. Your session progress, evidence entries, and safe messages stay on your device. Relief does not use analytics, does not track usage, and does not sell data. We don't even know you exist unless you email us. Read the full privacy policy.

Open Relief on your new device and tap Restore Purchase in Settings. As long as you're signed in with the same Apple ID you used to buy Relief, your purchase will be restored at no extra charge.

If you have iCloud enabled, Relief backs up your progress automatically. Reinstall the app and your data should restore from your iCloud account. If you deleted the app without iCloud backup, your local data is gone, but your purchase can still be restored via your Apple ID.

Check that your iPhone isn't on silent mode (the switch on the side). Check your volume. If the issue persists, close and reopen the app, or restart your iPhone. Still stuck? Email [email protected].

Email [email protected]. One person reads every message. We aim to respond within 24 hours.

No. Relief is a general wellness app that delivers pain education and self-directed exercises based on published neuroscience research. It is not a medical device, not a diagnostic tool, and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Read the full disclaimer.

No. Relief is not a replacement for medical care. If you are currently working with a healthcare provider, continue to do so. If you haven't been examined by a doctor to rule out structural causes of your pain, do that before using Relief.