Chronic pain affects one in five Canadians. This condition can have serious physical, emotional and social consequences. Many people consult a variety of health care professionals in search for relief, but chronic pain remains difficult to treat. Understanding how acute pain becomes chronic is essential to developing prevention and early intervention strategies to reduce the risk of pain becoming chronic. It is also important to note that chronic pain can take many forms. Therefore, understanding differences between individuals, and within individuals over time in pain experiences, identifying different subgroups of individuals with similar pain trajectories, and identifying risk factors for unresolved pain trajectories are important to prevent chronic pain and improve chronic pain management. Our research projects use a biopsychosocial perspective on pain with innovative methodological approaches to understand the dynamic nature of the pain experience.