Reducing the burden of pain stigma.
Meet the Team
Erin Iwamoto, PsyD
ADULT PAIN PSYCHOLOGIST
As a person who has lived with various forms of persistent pain for nearly 2 decades, Dr. Erin Iwamoto is passionate about working with patients who experience pain to rebuild their identity and improve their quality of life. She grew up in Alaska, although she left the state for her education.
Dr. Iwamoto is a graduate of Pacific University’s School of Graduate Psychology, where she completed their Health Psychology emphasis. Her training was based in both primary care and pain medicine clinics. Dr. Iwamoto returned to Alaska to complete her doctoral internship and post-doctoral fellowship with the Alaska Family Medicine Residency/Providence Family Medicine Center. She was also behavioral health faculty at AKFMR/PFMC and helped to develop the Alaska Addiction Medicine Fellowship until resigning in 2021 to start Alpine Relief Therapy in order to resume seeing patients with persistent pain.
Dr. Iwamoto enjoys pursuing the latest research to ensure her patients are receiving the latest care and is a member of the International Association for the Study of Pain. Additionally, she is a certified instructor for Empowered Relief which is a single-session pain group that is evidence-based and was developed at Stanford University. She is also certified in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia and trained in Prolonged Exposure for PTSD.
In her free time, Erin enjoys baking, landscape photography, reading, and hiking with her husband and malamute.
Wendy Gaultney, PhD
PEDIATRIC PAIN PSYCHOLOGIST
Dr. Wendy Gaultney is a Pediatric Pain Psychologist. She completed her doctoral degree at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and slowly moved west for her post-graduate training via Ohio (MetroHealth Medical Center) and Oregon (Oregon Health & Science University). She moved to Alaska to expand access to high quality interdisciplinary pain care. After two years in Alaska, Dr. Gaultney moved back to the lower 48 where she is currently an Assistant Professor and Pain Psychologist at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus/Colorado Children's Hospital; however, she maintains her connection to Alaskan youth with pain through Alpine Relief Therapy.
Dr. Gaultney is passionate about collaborative clinical, research and community efforts to improve equitable pain care for all youth. Her ultimate goal is to improve models of care to prevent chronic pain in youth. For youth with current pain, her goal is to help youth get back into their lives which leads to pain relief. She is currently serving as Chair of the United States Association for the Study of Pain (USASP) Communication Committee and is a member of the Society of Pediatric Psychology (SPP, Div 54) and the Canadian Pain Society.
As a psychologist with Alpine Relief Therapy, Dr. Gaultney collaborates with youth, their families, and their healthcare teams to develop and implement comprehensive pain care for a large variety of pain concerns.
Outside of work, Dr. Gaultney enjoys riding bicycles, spending time outside with her husband and dog, tending to her house plants and traveling the world.
