Integrative, Mindful Medical Massage, Myo-Structural Bodywork, & Myo-Structural Yoga Therapy with a Whole Health Approach to Mindful Neuro-Musculo-Fascial Medicine …
Developed & Presented by …
David Scott Lynn
Aging & Injury —
Just Don’t Do It!
Is C.E.M.&.N.T. the NEW “Missing Diagnosis” for Musculo-Skeletal Problems of the Human BodyMInd?
Could C.E.M.&.N.T. be the Primary Focus for RESOLVING Soft Tissue Issuesof the Neuro-Musculo-Fascial & Joint System?
AND, What IS C.E.M.&.N.T., anyway? …
That’s short for Chronic, Excess MusculoFascial & Nerve Tension & Stress and Negative Habit Patterns
WE call C.E.M.&.N.T. THE Primary yet Little Recognized Cause of MANY of the Soft Tissue Issues Your Clients are Experiencing & Suffering from, and that YOU Can Become an EXPERT in Evaluating & Resolving. …
More on THAT On This Page.
Most IMPORTANT Features of DLS Edgework …
On The Word MEDICINE …
The Root Word of Medicine is the Latin word Mederi …
Mederi translates as to measure, to mediate, to moderate, to meditate, and to cure. … This is thought to mean that cures or health emerge from an Inner Measure, where a human being meditatively observes their internal processes. They would then moderate or mediate their health by responding to what they learned from their observations.
This is compared to so-called “Modern Medicine” which uses external measuring devices to observe what is happening in one’s health. This is an Outer Measure rather than Inner Measure.
Learn HOW To Release & Resolve the MANY Problems of the Neuro-Musculo-Fascial System Caused by C.E.M.&.N.T. …
We Do NOT “Chase the Pain” or “Make Limbs Move or Feel Better.” Relief of Pain or Dysfunction, Restoration of Range-of-Motion & Strength, are BY-PRODUCTS of What We REALLY Do …
Rather than “Treating The Muscles & Fascia,” what we are doing is using manual pressure on, or stretching, the skin & musculo-fascia to Stimulate & Send “Neuro-Messages” from the Skin & Musculo-Fascia to the CNS (Central Nervous System) & Brain. Done properly, because of the structure of the sensory-motor nerve system, this triggers a Internal Neuro-RESET of the CNS & Brain, spontaneously reducing stress & excess tension in the muscles. This is our primary process for reducing or eliminating C.E.M.&.N.T. and the process is well-established in modern medical research.
“Structural Homeopathy”: This Neuro-RESET Facilitates & Enhances Internal Self-Healing & Immune Function controlled by the Parasympathetic Nerve System …
The Parasympathetic System responds BEST to Lower-Intensity, Lower-Doses of Stimulus. Higher doses of sensation move us into SYMPATHETIC (emergency) neuro-activity, which INHIBITS or shuts down internal self healing & immune function. Keeping the Client from experiencing too much Intensity of Sensation or Pain turns the Sympathetic nerve system DOWN, and the Parasympathetic system UP. … Our Objective is to help the Client return a more Fluid & Healthful Balance between sympathetic (emergency) & parasympathetic (healing) function.
Sensory-Motor INTEGRATION
rather than
Sensory-Motor Amnesia …
Many Clients’ Problems are from “gaps,” or “confusions,” or “DIS-harmonies” in their sensory-motor nervous system. They “lose touch” or “lose memory” of how their muscles should feel & function. One of our Objectives is to RESET those gaps, confusions, or DIS-harmonies. That RESET is produced by the Very ACT of of the Client Feeling — WITHOUT negative sensations at same time — “What IS” happening in their BodyMind.
Mindfulness combined with the Principle of NO Pain, MORE Gain keeps the Client in more Optimum Levels of Sensation for Greater Self-Healing …
The Client is encouraged to Communicate to keep their Therapist at Optimum Levels of Sensation, from applying too much, or not enough, pressure. This Communication moves the Client into more active Participatory Medicine, rather than the more typically passive spectator medicine. To do so, the Client must become more Mindful of what’s happening In-The-Moment while In-Their-Body, and learning to Verbalize what they are Experiencing. This internal, psychologically driven participation — an intentionally verbalized experience without negative sensations such as pain or fear— produces a deeper, higher-level INTEGRATION of whatever changes occur in their BodyMInd.
Hands-On Bodywork based on Principles of Physical, Mental & Relational Yoga — Yoga for the WEST of US …
Our “Yoga” system is a NON-Hindu, NON-Mystical, NON-Religious, NON-Guru, approach to BodyMind Health & Integration. Yet it is NO LESS Conscious than anything from India.
The Definition WE use for Yoga is: The Bringing together or INTEGRATION of two or more things; and the Enhanced Quality of Attention we pay to whatever we are doing. Our Focused Attention — a form of Mindfulness or Meditation — on the various Aspects of Being Human spontaneously changes those aspects, dissolving tension, stresses, & conflicts between them, enhancing & optimizing their integration & function. We are integrating mind with body, or mind with muscle, or mind with nerves, muscles, & fascia, or muscle with joints, or structure with metabolism, and so on.
Ultimately, we are all about MInd-Body Integration & Optimization Leading to Maximization of Function & Performance. And once achieved, Maintained through Preventive Medicine.
We Feel That TRUE, Optimal Health & Healing is Primarily about Getting In Touch with Internal, Natural Processes. For Example, Yoga — or Conscious Stretching — is among THE most Natural Healing Processes one can engage in. That’s because the most effecticient* mechanism for Tension Reduction Strategies of the Neuro-Muscular & Myo-Fascial system is properly done Yoga.
* Effecticient = Effective + Efficient
Yet far too many people teach or practice “yoga” in a FAR too intense fashion, too aggressively, with too little patience, with mis-directed focus & intention, with too little internal self-awareness. Yet our approach to physical yoga is validated by the medically established operations of the neuro-musculo-fascial system. But when people try to do yoga as it is typically taught, there is a strong possibility of NO results or counter-productive results.
We feel that the many Myth-Conceptions about “yoga” or “stretching” deprive far too many people of an otherwise safe, effective, & efficient method of self healing.
Are YOU Ready? …
… to START on Your Path to BECOME the
Leading Edge Expert & Trusted Authority
on Neuro-Musculo-Fascial & Joint Therapy
in Your Community?
Is Resolving long-term, chronic, complex Problems*
of the Myo-Fascia of Your Clients & Prospects on
YOUR Professional Mastery Path?
Especially if You were Helping with
Soft Tissue Issues*
other Therapists & Physicians have
NOT succeeded in resolving?
** Problems / Soft Tissue Issues:
- Aches & Pains
- Headaches
- Neck & Shoulder Pain
- Upper & Lower Back Pain
- Hip & Thigh Pain
- Leg & Foot Pain
- Pulled Muscles
- Seemingly Random “Mystery” Pains
- Lost Range Of Motion
- Poor Posture & Movement
- Lost Strength & Endurance
- General & Specific “Weakness”
- Diminished Flexibility & Resilience
- Digestive / Metabolic Disorders
- Various Structural Disorders:
- Scoliosis
- Kyphosis / Forward Neck / Head Posture
- Slouched Posture
- High Hip Syndrome
- Anterior / Posterior Tilted Pelvis
- Excess / Loss of Lordosis
- Rotated Pelvis
- … and a wide range of other problems & dysfunction many therapists do NOT realize they can help with muscle therapy.
Do YOU Want to Prevent the Burn Out so many Muscle Therapists Experience? Or Prevent the Pain & Dysfunction causing so many therapists to End their Careers? While At The Same Time be MAXIMIZING the Energy, Power & Performance of Your Own BodyMINd?
You Can Use the Very Same Principles & Techniques for Your OWN Self-Care & PREVENTION that You TEACH to Your Clients for THEIR Own Self-Care & Maintenance. … And Doing so will Help Maximize Their Results from Your Hands-on Therapy.
AND You Can Teach MANY of The Self-Care & Prevention Principles & Techniques ONLINE to Expand Your Client Offerings, Your Market Reach, and to Be Prepared … JUST IN CASE we have another widespread Civil Lockdown!
Are You Looking for
BETTER ANSWERS
to the Puzzles of
Poor Posture, Pain & Impairment
… with a Focus On Prevention?
Are YOU Ready to Go “Next Level,”
Starting On Your Path of Widening & Deepening Your Knowledge, Skills & INSIGHTS into Medically Proven as well as Effective & Efficient Principles & Techniques of Muscle Therapy?
Are You Willing, and Skilled Enough, to Take On the NeuroMuscular & MyoFascial Challenges many others
— Clients, Therapists, & Physicians alike — think are HOPELESS? Challenges many other
Therapists & Physicians have given up on?
And … are You Interested in “upgrading” Your STATUS with your Clients & Patients by embracing the
REAL Definition of a “Client”?
CLIENT:
One who is under the PROTECTION of another.
[~ from Merriam Websters Dictionary ~]
This definition imparts a Much Higher Level of Commitment & Responsibility toward the Human Beings you’re helping with your Professional Services. Yet to deliver such service, your Knowledge, Skills & Insights need to be superior to other providers of similar offerings.
And FINALLY, Maybe YOU Could be a Major Player in the Transforming of Health Care in Your Community and the Country with a Unique & Effective Method of Muscle Therapy?
For Example …
Having had experience with many different bodyworkers, David’s technique is certainly unique. There are levels of healing he achieves I’ve never seen before. This is clearly a result of a vast knowledge of anatomy and physiology combined with decades of hands-on experience.
Dr. John Bordiuk
Nutritionally Oriented M.D. & Yoga Teacher
Inner Balance Med • Wellesley, MA (Near Boston Area)
You did for me in 4 hours what physiotherapy couldn’t do in 4 years. And, you gave me the tools to continue working on my own.
Michelle Sands • Yoga Teacher
Montreal, Quebec
I found that combining David’s bodywork with chiropractic adjustments gave me deep releases that I never experienced before. David’s teaching and understanding of the body in a practical yet yogic way, totally fills in the gaps I’ve always found between yoga, anatomy, common sense & practical living.
William Don Johnson • Yoga Teacher
Sedona, Arizona
David Scott Lynn’s gift is extraordinary. Not only did his personal brand of bodywork restore me to physical balance and freed me of life-long chronic pain, he went on to instruct me in the art of yoga. Sensitively — and amazingly knowledgeably — David taught me how to help myself maintain and build upon all his solid achievements. David is a natural, and I’ll be forever grateful that our paths crossed.
Marc J. Lane
Internationally Known
Finance & Tax Attorney
Multi-Time Lawyer of the Year
Chicago, Illinois
I have worked with many soft tissue therapists over the years. David Scott Lynn is the only one educated and skilled enough to do what I want with full confidence that the job will be done. My patients definitely feel the difference.
Gary Fujinami
Doctor of Chiropractic
East-West Chiropractic & Acupuncture Center
Prescott, Arizona
Well, I’ve got quite a few more of those Testimonials,
SO, if You ARE looking for an Upgrade in your
Bodywork and/or Yoga Therapy Education …
YOU Just Might BE in the Right Place …
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A NOTE ON FASCIA:
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BTW, traditionally, the word “muscle” always included the fascial sheaths surrounding the muscle cells and muscle bellies (which are groups of muscle cells). You can see how tightly & deeply entwined the fascial sheaths — labled to the right as the epimysium, perimysium, endomysium — are with the muscle cells. The only way to effectively and truly “separate” the fascia & muscle cells is with a scalpel. Which of course renders them both useless.
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And the very thin outer fascial sheath, like the other three layers of fascia, have, in a normal state, very few to NO “contractile cells.” Therefore they can provide little to no actual contraction or “shortening” to have — BY THEMSELVES — any significant effects on posture, structure, or movement.
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The Muscle Cells & Fascial Sheaths operate cooperatively together as a Synergist System. They have VERY different structures & functions.
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But a lot of people in the last couple of decades have gotten really into “Fascia As A Thing” in and of itself, often to the result of leaving the muscle cells out of the equation. Or they attribute certain functions of the muscle cells to the fascia, which I consider to be a BIG Error.
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So for more precision & inclusion, I’ve often been calling it a Musculo-Fascial Unit. But when I say “muscle,” I am including the fascia. If I’m JUST talking about muscle tissue independent of the fascial sheaths, I will call them muscle cells or muscle fibers.
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I’ve a LOT to say about this muscle / fascia dichotomy, but I have that on several other pages on this website.
But Precision of Language & Concept is important if you want to get REALLY CLEAR on and about how things work, ESPECIALLY when evaluating & treating a Client’s structure & posture.
March, 2023 — Sedona, Arid-Zona
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HELLO! … This is David Scott Lynn (DSL), a Bodywork, Yoga & Whole Health Practitioner, Instructor & Author for over FORTY YEARS.
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My Vision For YOU is to help You & other Therapists develop the skills necessary to produce results with Clients beyond what most Therapists are able to achieve. …
AND, be able to sit down with a Neurologist, Orthopedist, Chiropractic, or Naturopathic Doctor and within MINUTES they will know that YOU know as much about neuro-musculo-fascial therapy — the RELEVANT physiology & neurology — as anyone they’ve ever met … if not MORE so.
THAT is a Big Mission to Take On. But if YOU are up for it, I’m here to help you get started and move along the way. That’s MY Mission in life!
BTW, I actually got started with all this “Wholistic” or “Alternative” Stuff way back when I was only 13 years old with Martial Arts & Zen Meditation. That was 55 years ago. So I think it’s pretty clear most of my LIFE is devoted to, and is an expression of, this Mission.
Now, Please Allow Me to Ask You a Question …
Are you a Massage, Bodywork or Yoga Therapist* wanting to advance your skills to take on the greater, more complex challenges of your most In-Need Clients & Prospects? The Clients or Patients who don’t seem to respond to the usual techniques, or maybe DO but the problems keep coming back? … Or maybe they think they can NEVER get better?
* Or other form of Health Care Practitioner wanting to incorporate musculo-fascial knowledge into your practice?
Or maybe you were in the Poke & Hope Club, where you just poke around in the Client’s soft (or sometimes NOT so soft) tissues hoping they would feel better? And your instructors just told you to “do the routines” with no real method of figuring out WHERE to work and WHEN?
Or maybe YOU are one of those Therapists who have developed such “muscle troubles” yourself, and are looking for ways to resolve issues with pain, weakness & dysfunction in your own body?
HERE’S A QUICK STORY …
Back around 2013 or ’14, I was in New Hampshire and considering moving up there. (Long Story there given I do NOT like cold & snow!)
While visiting, I had met a woman who had been a massage therapist for a few years. But she was getting ready to quit because she had developed too much pain in her forearms from doing massage.
I knew the massage school she attended was nearby, so I asked her if she had talked to her instructors about resolving her pain. She said she had, but they had no idea how to help her. ( !!! )
This confounded me! And it was a bit distressing! …
While I had taught workshops in various massage schools around the country, I had not been around any of them long enough to run into the problem with instructors not knowing how to release such conditions as forearm muscles being too tight. … Problems I thought were rather obvious and simple to resolve. (More on that in a minute.)
Yet I later learned this was FAR more common than I would have thought. Especially since I could help her figure out what was wrong and how to self-treat the problem in an hour or so. AND that are, wrist and hand pain for a Massage Therapist was a potentially career-ending problem.
How could such an important issue for Massage Therapist not be a top priority for a Massage School of all places? … That is one of the times I realized how fully necessary the things I was teaching are necessary for more therapists to know & understand.
The Quick Answer to the Problem is the muscles in her forearm, which are the main muscles controlling the wrist & finger bones (and more powerful than muscles within the hand), were WAY too tight and needed a significant reduction in tension. …
So I showed her how to do that.
Given that musicians develop similar issues that massage therapists do in their upper limbs, You might find this Testimonial interesting …
I met David Scott Lynn [DSL] right at the moment when I was considering ending my career as a classical cellist. I had incessant shooting pains in my forearm, and was not able to play for more than 5 minutes. After seeing many of Boston’s top [health care] professionals, with no success, I had pretty much given up hope.
At the recommendation of my cello instructor at the time, Paul Katz, I went to see DSL for help. Even within the first few sessions, I began to feel more improvement with him than with all the others I had worked with combined. After a few months of working with DSL, the tension melted away and the pain stopped.
It has been over two years since I’ve had a session with DSL, and I am still pain free. In addition, his knowledge in yoga and stretching has helped me keep my whole body loose and flexible. With DSL’s help, I am now well on my way to realizing my dreams as a cellist. I am forever indebted to David, and would HIGHLY recommend him to anyone who is seeking a better, easier, more pain free lifestyle.
David Huckaby Concert Cellist
[ FYI, the above Testimonial was written around 2006, more than 15 years ago. We talk every few years, and last time we talked (a few years ago) David has NOT had a recurrence of the pain! ]
Graduate of Juliard School of Music &
New England Conservatory of Music
New York, New York
Now to be candid, it took quite a few hours of therapy to get David back in fully functional order. — While some people heal VERY fast, other people take a LOT longer than others. And everything in between. — Yet part of that is he got a LOT Of “extra” therapy because he wanted to make sure it NEVER came back. But I had accompanied David on one of his treatment trips to the Physical Therapists (PTs) who specialized in musicians in Boston.
They were very nice people and doing more-or-less classical NMT & MFR, (neuromuscular therapy & myofascial release), as well as heat, paraffin baths, and the other stuff PTs generally do. They actually appeared to do very good work … up to a point. They had helped a LOT of musicians, but David was not responding to treatment.
Yet as I observed the therapy session, I could immediately see why their treatments had NOT been effective for David. Simply put, they were not spending enough focused time on each individual muscle fiber group to give the neuro-musculo-fascial units enough time to relax, lengthen, DE-compress & balance the nerves, vessels & joints.
They were not getting deep enough into the tissues.
HOWEVER, if they had been doing “traditional” DeepTissue Therapy (the way it is very often done, meaning a LOT of pressure), there was a very good likelihood they would have been working far TOO deep, way TOO fast, TOO soon, and the tissues would not have responded well in THAT case, either.
Many (NOT ALL) Clients actually get WORSE in such situations. To be clear, the USUAL NMT, MFR, Deep Tissue, and so on DO help a LOT of people. Yet there are more complex cases that do NOT respond well to those therapies.
THAT is the Niche my work is primarily designed for. But even if that is only 5% of the Total Patient Population, THAT is a LOT of people.
In my view, David’s Therapist’s needed to learn The “Goldilocks” and “Onion Door” Principles of Therapy! (More on that later.)
Sorry to be Repetitive, but to be sure, while NMT & MFR, and even moderate or even aggressive Deep Tissue, can be VERY Effective for MANY people and MANY different conditions, there are SOME people who need a very different approach to therapy. … David was one of them. … (So was I when I got MY pain events. But that is another story!)
The Muscles That Would Be Bones
One more (out of many) things that trouble me is Clients who’ve told me a muscle I was working on was really a BONE! … Some of them said their DOCTOR told them that it WAS a bone! … Or their Therapist had a comment about how hard the muscles were and almost “impossible” to work on.
YES! For SOME people, it WAS a SUPER-tight muscle. SO tight, that it DID “feel like a bone” to the touch.
OR, the Doctor would say “it’s just a tight muscle” and not to worry about it! Yet in several cases, the “bone” turned out to be THE Center of their problems!
Yet it was VERY clear to me they were not bones, even though they felt that way. (I went WAY beyond the usual to learn anatomy extremely well, so that I would not make such errors in judgement.)
So I went ahead and used my muscle release technique, and sure enough, that “bone” started to soften & relax. … So, NO, it was NOT a bone!
Now, it is true, there are sometimes extremely tight muscles in a Client’s body. I’ve had Clients where some of their muscles even felt like steel cable. And I am not exaggerating. I was an ironworker in my teens and early twenties. I worked with REAL steel cable almost everyday. I KNOW what they feel like.
And yes, some muscles really DO feel like bones or cable, or rope, or wood. But while most Therapists seem to think they need to push harder to overcome the excess musculo-fascial tension, I will, in many cases, actually work lighter.
Some therapists just give up after a few sessions of the muscle not responding.
Too Often, however, a therapist will go in like a bulldozer and try to “break up the tension.” Some Clients will report the therapy itself hurt way too much to tolerate.
The “Onion Door” Method of Bodywork
It is easier to Open the Door before you Walk through it,
And You can’t Peel an Onion from the Inside Out! ~ DSL
MOST Of The Time, I use VERY slow, steady pressure on skin & muscles with almost NO lateral movement across the tissues. NO rubbing or gliding. NO “cross-fiber.” NO “stripping” of the muscles.
Just steady pressure on ONE spot for often LONG periods of time with only slight movement as my touch responds to the changes of tension in the Clients tissues. …
One of my observations of Massage Therapy Schools is what they do is teach therapists how to “deliver a technique” to the Client’s body. My approach is to teach Therapists to take their focus OFF of delivering the technique … and put their Attention on what they are Feeling in the Client’s tissues.
AND, if the Therapist is simultaneously focused ALSO in their own body, they will discover a kind of “Dance” happening between the changing tissues of the Client & Therapist. …
This is where Mindfulness, or a Meditative Mind, comes into play.
The linear, rational mind can fully focus on one body part or the other. Or it can focus on itself or the other person at one time. Yet the meditative, sensitive, non-linear mind, the more wholistic mind, can experience different body parts, or BOTH human bodies, as One, Synergistic Process.
This is, by the way, a neurologically based phenomena. It is not some “Mystical” or “Woo Woo” process. It could be thought of as Relational Yoga.* … Yet, this is NOT a complex thing.
* Yoga: means the Bringing together of two or more things with a High Degree & Quality of Attention.
And Soon, the Client’s musculo-fascial tensions start responding to my pressure, without “digging in” beyond a Client’s comfort levels. And because of our NO Pain, MORE Gain approach, the Client is less on guard, and can more fully, deeply, & widely RELAX!
So, I let the tissue (one Layer of the Onion) “take me” to the next deeper or adjacent “spot,” location or layer. Or, depending on what the Myo-Structural Evaluation told me, I might move to the next “spot” which is sometimes quite a distance away. But it is totally dependent on what’s happening in the Clients’ musculo-facial tissues in each moment.
And I work on that location LONG Enough for the Tissues to DEEPLY & Sufficiently RELAX. Which sometimes takes a LONG time. … Sometimes NOT.
DEEP, Radical Relaxation
is a Primary Objective of
DSL Edgework & Let-Go Yoga
So How Deep DO I Work? …
Well, it’s not classical deep tissue, and rather than “deep tissue,” I think of “which tissue.” I’m looking for WHICH LAYER & Location of the muscle the most tension exists. Sometimes it is deep, sometimes on the surface, and everything in between. Sometimes it is ALL layers. And treatment strategy can change at any time, sometimes many times during a session.
Although I AM told by Clients I get a lot deeper into the tissues than most “deep tissue” therapists. And I can stay in longer and find more hard “knots” of or tender “spots” in the muscles.
That’s because I wait for the Client’s tissues to “invite” me to go deeper, which reduces or eliminates most or any resistance in their body or mind. Then, the DOOR of the “Onion” OPENS to the next layer. So they are never fighting back or holding their muscles tight to “protect” themselves from what they fear might become too much pressure.
It Bears Repeating, One DSL Muscle Motto Is:
It is easier to Open the Door before you Walk through it,
And You can’t Peel an Onion from the Inside Out!
Again, think of a muscle as an onion, with many hundreds (if not thousands) of layers. And each layer is like a doorway to the next layer of onion. You want to make sure each door is opening (RE-Lax-ing* & DE-Contract-ing) before you try to “push through” it.
Lax = to loosen or to be loose, the opposite of tense.
DE-Contraction is about the stopping of contracting the muscle.
Most of the time, when a very tight muscle is NOT relaxing or releasing, I LIGHTEN UP my pressure, rather than pressing harder. The trick is to let the nervous system do the work. … What does that mean?
Tension is NOT a “THING”
The DSL Method of Muscle Therapy, now known as DSL Edgework, does not “chase the pain.” A Client’s tension, stress, & “tight muscles” are not THINGS stuck in their body. And it is NOT the therapist’s job to “get those ‘things’ out.”
SO … if that tension & pain is not a “thing,” WHAT IS IT? What ARE those “Hard Knots” in the musculo-fascial units?
The Hard Knots are something the Client is DOING! They are “DOING muscle tension.”
So what “relaxation” really is is the Stopping of DOING Tension!
It is the Stopping of Doing The Action of muscle contraction.
Further, we do not “push around” in the tissues thinking we are “breaking up” things, or adhesions, or scarring, or crystallizations. We are NOT trying to “treat” or manipulate the muscles in a way to make or force the musculo-fascia to relax.
There might be some of those “things” like adhesions in the tissues, yet in most cases that is a minor factor. Scarring can be more an issue, but can usually be worked around, rather than attempting to “break it up.” My experience is the main “component” of the Client’s tension & stress, and “tight muscles,” — even surrounding a scar — is the hyper-excited nerves keeping the muscles too activated, too contracted & too tense.
WE focus on what can RELAX, not on what we need to “break up.”
What we ARE doing to help the Client is using our hands, fingers, or an occasional elbow, to have a sensory or tactile “conversation” with the Client’s Central Nervous System (CNS) & Brain. And we let the Client’s CNS & Brain “Do the Work.”
When your Client fully relaxes, when their mind drops OUT of “defense mode,” a more deeply Integrative sensory/motor & body/mind integration occurs. Also, the parasympathetic nervous system is more fully activated, increasing internal self-healing & immune functions including metabolic functions.
This includes, but is certainly not limited to, normalizing the activity of the Vagus Nerve, which is part of the Polyvagal System. That system provides the deeper & wider emotional content human beings often experience compared to most (if not all) animals.
So, if the Client works with the Mindfulness Component of how we work, any emotional content has a better chance of releasing along with the physical tensions, sometimes without doing “psychotherapy.”
We are not forcing the tension out of the muscles. We are stimulating certain sensory nerve endings & synapses (on / off switches) that have an INHIBITING (quieting or calming) effect on the motor nerves, which turn the motor nerves down or off.
When motor nerves calm down, the muscles & organs tend to RELAX.
In the illustration to the right, you can see the Golgi Tendon Organs, the sensory nerves embedded in the musculotendonous junction directly responsible for communicating with the CNS (in the spinal cord) & Brain, and affecting the amount of nerve tonus controlling the tension in the muscle cells.
Nerve Tonus: increased electrical charge traveling down a nerve to the muscle or organ, causing them to activate. Reduced nerve tonus reduces activation of the respective muscle or organ.
When nerve tonus in the motor nerve turns down, the muscle or organ starts to relax. (And many organs are made of smooth muscle fibers that relax & contract to provide their function. If those muscles get Too Tight, the organ function declines.) Greater Relaxation facilitates Greater Healing & Regeneration processes.
And to have the proper “sensory conversations” with the nervous system (which, technically, includes the brain) we must make sure we do not trigger any resistances, fears or negative sensations or reactions that might activate the reactive reflexive nerves that could cause muscles or organs to tighten right back up, or not let go at all.
Which VERY OFTEN happens at very subtle levels and is unconscious to the Client. And sometimes a Client’s body “outsmarts” the Therapist and relaxes for a short time. But when the Client walks out the door of the treatment room, the muscles tighten right back up again!
When there is little or no pain or negative sensation, any changes happening in the nervous system & muscles can integrate higher & deeper into the CNS & Brain, making the changes more systemic & “permanent.” (I hesitate to refer to ANYTHING in the body as “permanent,” but I am speaking in relative terms here.)
If there IS too much negative sensation, it is more likely the nervous system will block the desired changes from fully integrating, if they happen at all. …
That is in part an aspect of Neurological Sensory Psychology.
The body has a “sense” of itself, a Sensory Self-Identity it attempts to preserve, sometimes at ALL costs, because the body tends to NON-consciously maintain its historical “learning” as a hyper-vigilant survival mechanism. This learning includes ALL the body has done to protect or stabilize itself over the years.
There is a tension between the Alpha (conscious / spontaneous) and the Gamma (unconscious / automatic) portions of the nervous system. Most of the time, the Gamma system is running your body based on what it has “learned” and accumulated throughout its history.
Yet you can consciously intervene in your body with the Alpha system (which originates in the cerebral cortex, where consciousness lives). But as soon as you take your conscious attention off what’s happening, the Gamma system takes back over again, and all the old historical tension, stress, & habit patterns reassert themselves.
THAT is what the Therapist is really up against when attempting to help a Client let-go of their tension & stress. Especially if you want it to last more than a few hours or days. And THAT is what DSL Edgework focuses on in a therapy session.
All that is what you’ll learn about in my various web pages and publications. And a WHOLE LOT OF OTHER STUFF, TOO!
( Including the School of Hard Knots! )
Anyway, one way to insure there are no negative reactions is to work with the concept of …
NO Pain, MORE Gain
Playing The EDGE of
Pain, Fear & Resistance
While it is usually okay to go UP TO the “edge” of pain, it is NOT okay to go INTO pain when applying pressure to a Client’s skin & muscles. And the more stressed, injured or traumatized a Client is, the further away from pain, or even intense sensation, you want to be.
Obviously, if they come in with pain, you have to start at that level of pain. But you do not want to aggravate or re-trigger the pain any more than necessary. … And it is usually NOT necessary.
Another DSL Muscle Motto …
The Client should be INVITING the sensations, NOT FIGHTING the sensations.
They should NOT be TOLERATING the sensations, either. They need to LIKE or be NEUTRAL about what they’re feeling. … THAT is the ideal state.
Intensity of Sensation is Okay; PAIN is NOT!
One benefit of working this way is it stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which activates the internal self-healing, regeneration, and immune functions of the body. Going into too much intensity of sensation, in some cases ANY intensity, stimulates the sympathetic nerve system and you get the OPPOSITE effect of what you are aiming for.
That is the Sabre-tooth / Cyber-tooth Tiger Reactivity of the 4-F System. That’s the Fright, Freeze, Fight or Flight side of the autonomic nerve system. And we want to NOT get you into that state!
The NO Pain, MORE Gain approach is where the Client gets more involved with their therapy, by COMMUNICATING with You, the Therapist, about what they are FEELING. This is where the Client moves from being in spectator medicine, to Participatory Medicine. Here, you are helping move them into a more Mindful or Meditative Process.
And the more engaged their conscious mind is in the process, the more deeply and thoroughly they can RELAX their muscles. And that it what it is all about …
DEEP, Radical Relaxation
— DE-Contraction of Muscles —
YET … BELIEVE IT OR NOT, with SOME Clients, this is the most difficult part of the Therapist’s work. Because a lot of Clients are in too much resistance about their resistance! So they just do not — or CAN not — communicate what they’re feeling, and will often be in pain without you knowing it. …
This is HIGHLY counterproductive. But I have entire pages on this website about the NO Pain, MORE Gain concept and process.
So why did I start working this way?
Starting way back in 1977, I was talking to a lot of people and heard many of the same things from a lot of them. The most common complaint was their muscle therapist did not work deep enough. The OTHER thing I heard often was that the Therapists worked TOO deep and it hurt too much.
Not yet having much done hands-on therapy (I was still a yoga teacher at the time) I started wondering what was going on? … Or not going on?
As I started getting into doing hands-on muscle therapy, from the very beginning, I began intentionally designing my style of therapy to do what NMT & MFR, and Deep Tissue & Rolfing® (Structural Integration) and other therapies do NOT do. … Or at least none of the therapies I was going to did it.
The Edge Concept, which I learned from my Primary Yoga Teacher, Joel Kramer, was part of Joel’s Ground Breaking Innovations in how Physical / Mental Yoga work. His was a VERY non-traditional approach to yoga, but it was no less, maybe more so, conscious than anything coming out of India.
After I took Joel’s 1-month Intensive on Yoga at Cold Mountain Institute in British Columbia, I was doing physical / mental yoga 3 and four hours per day for many months at a time.
THAT is where I learned what makes a “tight muscle” REALLY let go. It is a mostly internal, introspective process of looking down inside one’s body to find & feel the tensions, then learn how to Let Them GO.
Letting Go — Relaxing & DE-Contracting — is literally a SKILL you learn to Develop & Do.
The Goldilocks Factor!
SOME’S TOO HOT — SOME’S JUST RIGHT — SOME’S TOO COLD
So I decided to have my Clients keep me informed of whether the pressure was Too Deep, Too Light, or Just Right! …
Ideally, they learn to observe their body, translate what they are feeling into words, and communicate with me. For some people, that is A Most Important & Valuable Learning Process!
The more you get into my work, you’ll see how much of it is actually rooted in Physical / Mental & Relational Yoga as taught by Joel and his Life Partner, Diana Alstad. And Relational Yoga is in great part, all about communication and dissolving barriers to interacting. In fact, it could be said that …
The Hands-on Component of DSL Edgework is an Externally Applied Form of Physical / Mental & Relational Yoga
It was these and other principles of yoga (as developed and taught by Joel) forming the foundation of how I work with releasing tension in muscles & decompressing the body. I was getting pretty good at that by 1982.
HOWEVER …
Getting Into Structural Bodywork
I remember one day in Spring of 1982, walking out the front door and down the steps of my brownstone apartment in Near North Chicago. (West Erie Street if you know the neighborhood.)
I had been VERY frustrated with the several therapy trainings I had attended, attempting to learn how to properly evaluate human structure & posture. I had already shown a “natural knack” for releasing tension in muscles with my hands and with yoga therapy. Yet I did NOT have really good strategies on figuring out WHICH muscles to work on nor WHEN or WHAT sequence.
Yet I believed there HAD to be a way to more effectively figure out what a Client needed, meaning WHICH muscles were most responsible for their various musculoskeletal issues.
I believed this because I had several years earlier read a book titled The Protean Body by Don Hanlon Johnson. Don had been a Rolfer and Somatics practitioner. … Protean means able to change frequently or easily.
Rolfing® was the trade name for Ida P. Rolf’s original system of Structural Integration. … This was a more manual, hands-on form of therapy with a primary focus on the fascia of the muscles. Ida’s focus was on getting the fascia to “loosen up,” getting it “back into proper place,” and allowing freer movement.
Somatics® was the name of Thomas Hanna’s system of Functional Mind/Body Integration. … This was a more movement-based form of therapy rather than hands-on. Hanna was focused in great part on what he called Sensory-Motor Amnesia, and reconnecting the conscious mind with the body so as to relieve faulty movement patterns of muscles that had become unconscious.
Essentially, these were “Dead Spots” in muscle fibers in need of being reawakened or reconnected.
If you want to know more about Sensory Motor Amnesia, his book, Somatics, goes well into it. You can also read the chapter in Job’s Body, by Deane Juhan, on the Descending Sensory Pathways. (I highly recommend Deane’s book, by the way. It is EXTREMELY data-intense and insightful.)
Finding The Missing Formula
I’ll tell you the whole story in an upcoming Video, or you can read about it on my In-Depth About DSL web page. But in 1982, I finally found a missing link to understanding how to evaluate posture & structure in such a way it allowed me to more precisely select & prioritize which muscles to work on and in what sequence.
I had the good fortune to work with Daniel Blake. He had been a Rolfer who was trained by Ida Rolf, certified by Ida Rolf, and kicked out of the Rolf Institute by Ida Rolf. ( !!! ) That’s because he started disagreeing with Ida on things like how muscles & fascia worked, or not.
He started to realize the things Ida was attributing to fascia was not working very well according to her theories. So he left Rolfing and went on a long trip studying with a number of other body therapists to see what he could learn. He even went to Europe and India in the process.
As a Result, he developed his own system of therapy called Structural Bodywork, of which I became a student when he taught a program in Chicago in Spring of 1982.
Daniel taught us a “formula” for analyzing posture & structure. I realized it made total sense, and it was the Missing Element of my own therapy system.
My system was coming together between 1982 to 1985, and I was getting a reputation for resolving musculoskeletal, and other, issues other therapists and physicians had not been successful with.
The Only Problem There is the therapy I was getting in the program inadvertently triggered old injuries sustained in my teenage years and early 20s. As a result, I had THREE and a HALF YEARS of SEVERE, often debilitating back & hip pain & deep exhaustion.
I’ll be telling you THAT story soon (or you can find it in the In-Depth About DSL web page), but suffice it to say, working my way out of that problem solidified my understandings, skills & strategies of effective bodywork & yoga therapy.
Teaching My Work
I began teaching my work in 1989 at Heartwood Institute in Northern California. It was the only residential massage therapy program in the country, along with a number of other Whole Health Programs. It was the first time I actually taught my system of therapy. Here’s how it happened …
In the fall of 1989, Bob & Roy, then the new owners of Heartwood Institute near Garberville, California, were in need of a new Deep Tissue Instructor for their intensive, 10-week, residential Deep Tissue Therapy Training Program.
They called the late Robert K. King — then President of the American Massage Therapy Association (AMTA) and a co-founder / owner of the well known Chicago School of Massage Therapy. Bob & Roy asked his suggestions to fill that teaching position.
I had performed many therapy sessions with Bob King in Chicago, so he was very familiar with my “DSL” approach to therapy. Mr. King’s FIRST recommendation to Bob & Roy was David Scott Lynn. (DSL — That’s Me!)
Over the years, I’ve had THREE Presidents and a few Executive Board members of the AMTA as Clients and/or Students, as well as several owners or staff members of several massage schools across America.
So I went to Heartwood, near Garberville, CA, for 6 weeks and taught the Program.
Here is a Report from Heartwood’s Program Administrator:
The students in Heartwood’s approved Massage program felt that The DSL Method was the most valuable work in Heartwood’s massage curriculum. Many students felt that David’s work instilled a sense of competence in their ability to do massage & bodywork. It is an open ended system allowing and encouraging students to continually improve their work through active practitioner / client exchange.
I have personally found that, based on feedback from clients, The DSL Method is on par with, if not superior to, the other major bodywork systems available today.
~ Rex Dippre
Massage Therapist
Arcata, California
(Former Director of Admissions @
Heartwood Institute, 1989-1992)
And that was 1989-90, when, except for some yoga classes and workshops, I taught my therapy system for the very first time. And I was no where near as knowledgeable as I am now, as I had just started delving deep into physiology and neurology.
One of the students was a recent graduate of medical school …
I learned more anatomy in five weeks with David than in four years of medical school.
~ Dr. Todd Mangum
I went on to teach groups of therapists across the country in the 1990s. They were mostly Neuromuscular Therapy practitioners, and a few MyoFascial Release Practitioners.
Fast Forward a number of years and one of the most asked questions I hear from my Clients is, Have I trained other people in this method of therapy?
I often worked with people from out of town, and they either wanted to continue the therapy, or recommend it to other people they knew in their hometown.
Well, I provided education for a number of groups around the country in the 1990s, but I was (unfortunately) too shy about marketing at the time. So I never did any really big numbers. And I prefer to keep groups small anyway.
And while many of the therapy training groups had dozens, sometimes even a hundred students in their programs, I preferred to work with twelve students or less. That way, they were more assured of getting direct personal experience of how I work.
Fast Forward Again … Today, I’m NOW working on my Legacy Years, and I need to know there are enough people trained to continue such work when I’m no longer able or around to do it. And of course, as a Private Practice Therapist I can only work on one person at a time anyway. So I’ve not in recent years been solving the Therapy Supply Issues for my approach to therapy.
I often wonder how many more people would have been helped had I been better at marketing so I could work with more students?
I was doing a lot of training in the 1990s. Then in the 2000s, I spent a few years working with musicians in Boston area. Then, I was writing a lot of books & learning to build web pages and such. Then from 2013 on it was mostly about taking care of an old friend of mine for a year, then from 2014 on it was my Elderly & Sick Parents, which turned into a full time job and I faded into the background of National Bodywork & Yoga Scene for several years. …
Then came COVID-19, and I spent a few thousand hours on researching & writing on things that would keep the massage, bodywork, & yoga professions from being put on the NON-Essential list again.
BUT I’M BACK NOW! …
So I’m getting ready to make a BET on YOU.
I think I can help set YOU on The Path to becoming a Leading Edge Expert in Muscle Therapy. * I’ve worked with people a lot in the past. But it was mostly live, in-person. Now, I’m going to do it mostly Online. (I’ll add an In-Person component when enough people know the fundamentals & sciences and want to get some personal interaction. That will make things a lot more efficient & less expensive. It will either be one-on-one or in Residential Intensive groups.)
Anyway, besides group & individual training sessions, I have done Skype Consultations, helping therapists evaluate their Clients & figure out treatment strategies over the internet. They actually set up a Postural Evaluation Platform and we did the evaluation right there with me on the other end of Skype. … It worked out pretty well! The Client pad for the time, and the Therapist got more education out of it.
I’ve also delivered a lot of other aspects of my work online. But now will be the first time I’m conducting an entire training online.
Which is why I’m giving YOU and Eleven Other People the opportunity to participate in a PILOT PROGRAM at a VERY low price, with FULL INTERACTION with me, at least an hour a week on Skype or Zoom plus eMail Questions & Answers. YOU can participate with ME in developing & perfecting the online version of this training.
All I need from You is, as the program progresses, to give me the FEEDBACK I need to make sure the program is as well-developed as possible, and suits your needs as best as possible, by the time we are done.
NOW, what am I betting on? That I can deliver to YOU, in FORTY HOURS, the Essential Elements of my more than 40 years of experience, and how I got to be an Expert on this stuff. And do it in such a way that YOU are on YOUR way to becoming a Leading Edge Expert & Trusted Authority in Your Community on Neuro-Muscular, Myo-Fascial, & BIO-Structural Balancing.
My Vision For YOU is to help You & other Therapists develop the skills necessary to produce the needed results with Clients in the treatment room …
AND, be able to sit down with a Neurologist, Orthopedic, Chiropractic, or Naturopathic Doctor and within MINUTES they will know that YOU know as much about neuro-musculo-fascial therapy as anyone they’ve ever met … if not MORE so.
So my intention is to give you FORTY YEARS of my Experience & Knowledge in FORTY HOURS. …
No, you are unlikely to achieve the end goal in forty hours. Yet I believe you can, in 40-hours, know all the “original data” and “basic concepts” that *I* had, and *You* need, and have Great Perspectives & Insights … to set YOU on the Path or Track to Expert Status.
Now, I cannot guarantee that, of course. I don’t know how well you will apply yourself. I don’t know how motivated you are. I don’t know how much time you’ll have to do the studies I recommend. I don’t know how committed you are.
So while I can give You a lot of Ingredients & Recipes — MORE than I had when I developed this work — You will have to do the Prep & Cooking.
But I DO Promise I will do everything I can to help you get started down your Path To Professional Mastery at a Higher Level than where you are now.
That’s one reason We Need to have a phone call (or preferably Skype) BEFORE You sign up, so we can decide whether what I am offering You is right for You … or NOT.
AND, I want ALL my Students to BE a Success.
Because if YOU are a Success, then *I* will be a success!
While I’ve been calling this an Online Training & Coaching Program, it is actually more of an Education & Mentoring Program.
Although the actual definitions of “coach” and “mentor” are very similar, with lots of overlap, there ARE differences.
Coaches are more goal & motivation oriented … getting it done! They are more about you getting from “Here to There” — “where ever” that is — as efficiently & effectively as possible. Coaches are more about how to be a “higher performer” regardless of what the occupation or profession is. The tendency is to be more specific in what is being achieved, and possibly shorter-term in nature.
A Mentor is, generally speaking, a more personal, in-depth, process-oriented interaction. The mentor tends to be more of a subject matter expert in the field YOU are in. He or She is focused more on Your Going Deeper & Wider into the Profession; and on overall, Lifelong Professional Development rather than achieving specific goals. And while Your Mentor WILL support you in achieving Goals, the mentor is more likely to work more closely with You for far longer periods of time and to a greater depth.
Now, I’ll admit, some of my deciding what are the best words to use — i.e., mentor versus coach — is subject to popularity of keyword and keyphrase research for Search Engine Optimization on the internet.
Which, if you get deeper into my programs, we will be delving into if You decide to “get the word out” about your work via the internet. Once a person has improved their therapy skills & insights, we will want you to be able to COMMUNICATE that to your local community in ways that will draw new Clients to you. (And of course, things like keywords for internet searches are a Big Help.)
And Of Course, if You like MY approach to all that, I will support You in getting all THAT started as well. (I won’t have time to DO it, but I can set You on some good paths to get it going.)
On other web pages here you will find more information — a LOT more information! — on my Education & Mentoring Programs. ⬅︎Click the Link to go to the Pro-Training Overview
I will be starting that program soon, at a MUCH reduced price for the first group of twelve people. While it costs about $26,000 just to take ONE of the courses they offer, I think I can do it for half or less than that.
HOWEVER, my “BET” on the 40 Years of My Experience in 40 Hours of Your Time, being a First Time Pilot Program, will most likely start at $1,500 for the 1st month, then $500 per month thereafter to a Maximum of 6 months.
Remember, this is a Pilot Program, meaning it is the Prototype for launching it on a bigger scale. So I will need to have a target for completing the project.
The program will include one hour per week with me on Skype, and an approximately one hour Video on one topic per week. That is 2 hours per week Xs 20 weeks = 40 hours. You will, of course, need to be practicing the ideas & techniques with your Clients, or some of them, and THAT will be beyond the 40 hours.
You’ll have Special Access to my Private eCoaching Software where You can ask Questions during the week. … (THAT will be interesting. If people ask me things requiring a whole book to answer, I’ll have to put some restrictions on the eMail Coaching process.)
If I get a few people together who want it, I’ll do a Weekly Group Q&A Call on Skype or Zoom so we can all get together & ask questions & discuss how your work is going with the new ideas, knowledge, & techniques, and so on.
My plan is to be available to the Group from Noon to Midnight Tuesday thru Thursday, MY Timezone. And I tend to be in Mountain or Pacific Tim most of the time.
And I’m thinking this “40-years in 40-hours” can be done in 5 or 6 months, maybe less. It all depends on Your Motivation Levels, and how much You PARTICIPATE with me.
So tentatively speaking, your total cost for the program will probably be $3,500 to $4,000 over 6 months. Plus several books and such, which might reach a few hundred dollars. Although that will only be if you want to do the extra reading beyond what I personally deliver to you.
Compare that to moving to Boulder and paying $26,000 for just ONE of their Courses! Even Regular Massage School costs $8,000 or more in many places.
Please Be Advised, though, that after that first Pilot Program, either the price will go UP until it is at least double the above price. OR, I will be removing the Personal Phone Calls with me. OR BOTH. All that depends on a number of factors. … I am a firm believer in the Human Laws of Supply & Demand.
So that will be a Prime Driver of my pricing.
So please let me know if you want to be on the list for the first program.
But Here Is A Lower Cost Option
( For Now )
To get you started in a High Value but Low Price Program that should help you a LOT in your practice, I have a few shorter programs you can get involved in if you want to start with a smaller commitment. This way, you can experience how I work, what I teach, and how I teach, so you can make better decisions about working with me.
And of course, I need to feel like we are a good fit as well.
The first course I’m offering is The School Of Hard Knots: A Masterclass On Muscles.
That is about how normal, healthy muscles function, how they break down, and what to do help them most effecticiently* heal. It goes VERY deep into the anatomy, physiology, & neurology of muscles & fascia, and the nerves controlling them.
Effecticient = effective + efficient.
Because they should both come together, at the same time!
What that consists of is One INTRO Video Program the first week, then a 5-Week Video Program, one video per week. Each of those 6 installments will have a Group Video Conference Q&A Session. Each of those will go till the last question is answered.
This will be a Pilot Program as well, at a VERY reduced Price.
For the first 20 people who sign up —
is (approximately) an HOUR each week of Main Content via video and PDF (text) documents. Also an HOUR the first week of You and I on a Skype or Zoom call, BEFORE the program starts. That’s so I can find out WHO is in the program, WHAT their background is, WHAT their needs & interests are, and HOW I can best help them.
Then we’ll have two more one hour calls during the program. You will also have access to my eMail eCoaching software, so you can send me more questions if need be during the rest of the week.
ALSO, if we get the Group Of Twelve People together soon enough, we can do an evening of Group Coaching and Q&A on Skype or Zoom every week. In addition, we’ll have a Bonus Call at the end during the 6th week.
The idea is to have the program as customized as possible for the participants. Frankly, I’ve been one-on-one with Clients for 40 years now, and I do not want to go cold turkey into too much of a depersonalized format. So I’m going to be experimenting to see how much I can build EACH program around the specific needs & interests of the participants.
You, then, will be helping develop the program for future students. Which is why I’m not charging a lot of money for these Pilot Programs.
Now, it is true. You might decide you want to actually and directly experience how I work in-person. EVERYONE says my actual, hands-on therapy was not really what they expected, even though they had heard a LOT about it. So we might want to get together for a few days where you can receive some bodywork from me and get a more “Personal Touch.”
For those who do during the Pilot Program Phase, I will make it VERY affordable.
Here are some of the Basic Elements of what you’ll be Learning in the Program:
Especially if you see how C.E.M.&.N.T. might be THE THING getting in your Client’s way. WHAT IS C.E.M.&.N.T.?
C.E.M.&.N.T.
Chronic, Excess Muscle &
Nerve Tension & Stress
AKA “Tight Muscles.”
The Central Focus of DSL Edgework on the
Physical Level is the Reduction of Tension &
Stress in the Neuro-Musculo-Fascial Units
This is a Precise Definition and Explanation of where SO MANY of you Client’s problems are coming from. And YOU can become an Expert at facilitating their ability to FEEL, RELAX, LENGTHEN, and BALANCE there musculo-facial units.
We Believe chronic muscle tension is a Primary Cause of a wide range of issues with
• Aches & Pains
• Lost Range of Motion, Strength & Endurance
• Poor Posture & Movement Patterns
• Digestion & Metabolic / Detoxification
• Various Other Dysfunctions
Simply put, Chronic, Excess Muscle & Nerve Tension & Stress is exactly how it sounds.
I had been thinking about such things for years. I heard about trigger points. I heard about myalgia or myofascial pain syndrome, tension myositis syndrome or tension myoneural syndrome. There was fasciitis, tendinitis and tendinopathy. There was neuropathy, fibromyalgia, and so on.
C.E.M.&.N.T. slowly came to me over a few years. It is simple on the surface, because some people say their muscles FEEL like cement. But the full term, as I us it is Chronic, Excess Musculofascial & Nerve Tension & Stress and Negative Habit Patterns. … It is also short for “tight muscles.”
I use that erm to more fully describe what is going on in the body. But I long ago realized most physicians and therapists did NOT realize just hoe profoundly “tight muscles” affected so many things in the human body.
I think that’s because “muscle tension,” by itself, and in ordinary “doses,” is NOT “pathological.” We NEED muscles to contract to perform the movements, actions and metabolic functions of daily life. There are even people who seem to think that “tight muscles” are “healthy muscles.”
Yt muscle that are too tight, too much of the time can cause a LOT of trouble. Understanding how that works helps you more effectively evaluate what’s going on structurally (and in some cases metabolically) with a Client, and how to develop a treatment strategy.
I of course go deep into this Question in my courses, but you can get a pretty good start at the following pages:
PLEASE READ One or More of the Following Pages on C.E.M.&.N.T.:
Comparison of C.E.M.&.N.T. with Other Diagnoses (MPS, TMS)
The Primary Tools to Achieve this Reduction of C.E.M.&.N.T. are:
• Mindful Medical Massage Therapy
• including Psycho-Muscular Release
• Edge-Touch Technique
• Myo-Structural Balancing
• Myo-Structural Analysis
• Postural Evaluation
• Myo-Structural Yoga Therapy
• Tai Chi-based Movement Therapy
• Internal / External Ergonomics
• Self-Care Techniques
For the Purposes of Evaluation of the Human Structure & Health Care Conditions & Development of Treatment Strategies, DSL Edgework utilizes:
• The Homeopathic Interview
• Comprehensive Client History
• BIO-Structural Analysis
• Postural Evaluation / Assessment
• YogasAnalysis (if Yoga Postures are Utilized)
If you’ve not already done so, for an In-Depth Description of the School of Hard Knots, Please Go Here:
• School of Hard Knots Introduction
• School Of Hard Knots Content & Structure
If you are looking for a massage school where you can get a license, and want a school that uses much of the same information that I teach, please check out the Schools of Advanced Bodywork (SABs), founded by Master Therapist Kyle C. Wright.
• North Carolina School of Advanced Bodywork
Charlotte, NC
• Florida School of Advanced Bodywork
in Jacksonville, FL
Thank You for Reading about the DSL Pro Trainings …
Take Care,
David Scott Lynn (DSL*)
* DSL: Your High Touch Uplink to the Inner-Net*
* Inner-Net: Your Psycho-Neuro-Musculo-Fascial Network
David Scott Lynn is a man of profound integrated understanding In the field of bodywork. You will be blessed if you choose to work with him.
I suffered for decades with chronic neck and shoulder issues. I was able to manage my “condition” through weekly acupuncture, regular chiropractic, daily exercise, and massage. … I had constant pain, but was able to function, most days. Periodically, I experienced acute pain which de-capacitated me for months. … My condition was always with me and something I had to ‘factor in’ when making most of my life decisions.
David has a lifetime of study which he has incorporated into a systematic approach to restructuring and realigning the body. … Since I am not a practitioner myself, I cannot address the pros of his approach, other than to say — David is a “God Send”.
On a personal level, he is patient and steady in his approach. … His prices are reasonable, which was also a “factor” for me.
When someone is in chronic pain and wondering if anything will ever get them out of pain, Davids’ “stick to it” nature — is reassuring and encouraging. … He is determined to do what he can to heal your body, and he is both knowledgeable and effective.
If you have a significant chronic condition, chances are you will need to be in treatment for a period of time. At least that was my story. However, getting to a place where you are no longer in chronic pain is almost assured with his approach.
David is understanding. David is kind. … He keeps his word, and is ethical. … Actually, he is kind of a “mad scientist” who has studied his whole life and integrated many healing modalities into a systemic approach to bodywork. He is a teacher in his field, and highly respected.
He is a gift to those who need a permanent solution to their bodily pain. ,,, You could search a lifetime without finding someone of his caliber. … He is a Gift. … I give him a Five Star Rating.
~ Ellie Saunders
Sedona, Arizona
September 10, 2018
I have known David Scott Lynn for 30 years when I was completing my medical school clerkships in Chicago, Illinois at the Michael Reese Hospital and the Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn in 1988. It seems like yesterday when we met as brothers in the fight to bring meaning to the term “health care.” We saw the road ahead with the same eyes and were of one mind with respect to the substance and altruistic goals ahead.
If I were to seek out one person with whom I would choose to work in pursuit of true health care, it would be David Scott Lynn. He is an extremely focused and talented individual who has dedicated himself to helping others, sometimes sacrificing his own welfare to achieve the goal in the care plan no matter the person or circumstances. He would always be there to contribute and create the plan to facilitate the desired outcome. He would work tirelessly and carry on in the most difficult of times.
David works well as a team member or individual, whatever the environment requires. He is not resistant to hard work and cares deeply about others especially fellow therapists with whom he has a special insight and understanding. David has good business sense.
I know David to have lectured and instructed all over the country from the east to the west coasts in order to bring his unique brand of massage therapy, the DSL Method, to practitioners, therapists, schools, clinics and private clients with amazing effects and life-changing results.
I, therefore, take pleasure and consider it a great honor and privilege to recommend David Scott Lynn at the highest level without reservation.
Should you require any further insight, do not hesitate to contact me.
~ Sincerely
Dr. David J. Ogle
Metabolic / Nutritional MD, CTTH
Gresham, ORDr. Ogle can be contacted at:
Gresham, OR 97080
503-663-3075
drogle@frontier.com