Background Information on The DSL Method and
The School of Hard Knots: A Masterclass on Muscles
On YOU Becoming An Acknowledged,
Leading Edge Expert & Trusted Authority
on Neuro-Musculo-Fascial & Joint
Therapy in YOUR Community
On YOU Taking Your Knowledge, Skills & Insights to the Next Level in Your Professional Practice, Helping Your Clients HEAL from Long-term (Chronic), Complex (sometimes “Mysterious”) & High Irritation to Debilitating Soft Tissue Issues Given Up On by Other Therapists & Physicians
• The School of Hard Knots:
A Masterclass on Muscles …
• Knowing How They Work,
Tells You How To Work Them!
• BETTER ANSWERS to the Puzzles
of Poor Posture, Pain & Impairment …
with a Focus on Prevention
• LEARNING HOW to GET CONTROL
by LETTING GO of Tension, Stress
& Negative Habit Patterns
A MESSAGE PRIMARILY TO
WHOLE HEALTH PRACTITIONERS
Specializing in Neuro-Muscular, Myo-Fascial
& BIO-Structural Therapies
And if You are a Member of the General Public [GP],
You might find this Very Interesting too. Because Educated
Clients are the most Successful Clients!
But Here’s the Deal …
My MISSION — and YES, I’ve decided to Accept It, because it is NOT Impossible! — is to Help YOU become a Leading Edge Expert in the field of Neuro-Musculo-Fascial & Structural Therapy. I want YOU to be considered the Go To, Trusted Authority in your Community on such therapies.
And I want You to be able to sit down with a neurologist or an orthopedist or a chiropractor and within MINUTES have them KNOW that YOU KNOW what you are talking about.
It is amazing how many times I’ve sat down with a doctor, explained something about how I work and the physiology or neurology behind it, and they say something like “I remember something about that from medical school.” (!?!?!?) Yet they have seldom, or never, USED that particular knowledge in their practices treating people. …
AND, when I used to teach muscle therapists around the country, most of whom were trained in NMT ( Neuro-Muscular Therapy ) or MFR ( Myofascial Release ), I used to start my classes asking the students to raise their hand if they were taught the neuromuscular physiological laws? Most people raised their hands. THEN, I asked, “how many of you actually USE that information to inform your evaluations and treatment?” Almost ALL hands went down. Meaning, they did not know how to USE the medically-based* information they had been taught.
THEN, a few years later, I discovered, through a significant amount of personal contact with the Leading Instructor, the “Guru,” of NMT at the time, HE didn’t know either!
* Full Disclosure is when I say medically-based, I refer IN PART to “laws” that USED to be in the medical dictionaries up until the 1950s. But they were removed. Why? Us “conspiracy theorists” say those laws gave credence to the theories of the old time doctors who treated most of their patients with natural and hands-on therapies, rather than drugs, surgery, or radiation. So we have to speculate a bit, but those “laws” were mostly utilized by the Manual (Hands-On) and Nature-based Medicine Physicians & Therapists. The Osteopaths, Massage Therapists, Chiropractors, Naturopaths & Naprapaths.
ALL of whom the orthodox — “allopathic” — medical profession attempted to eliminate from any competition, or even existence. (You’ve probably never even heard of “Naprapathy,” right? Only TWO of their schools survived, and one is in Sweden!)
There are MANY court cases (including a major, 11-YEAR federal court case the Chiropractors won) and “events” showing that us “Conspiracy Theorists” are completely justified in our “suspicions” of what the orthodox medical profession attempted to do to all forms of medicine not in line with their agendas of patentable medical processes.
SO … You can make your own conclusions for now. Yet many of the “modern” medically researched laws they DO use give much credence to those laws that were removed. I am one of the people today working to revive those “lost” laws or principles of Manual Medicine. Hopefully if you are a forward-thinking therapist, you will join me in that effort.
I believe if you have a superior working knowledge of how nerves, muscles, fascia & joints work, YOU will have a better Understanding & INSIGHT into how to figure out more complex conditions of your Clients or Patients.
And knowing the science & principles behind your therapy gives you more confidence to keep going when it looks like your Client is not responding, or is taking “too long” to heal. MY experience is that “managing the mind” of the Client can be an important issue. And if YOU are not confident of your therapy, it is unlikely your Client will be confident. And if they are not confident, they will probably give up too soon.
My Job is to teach you stuff You can USE in evaluating, treating & educating Clients, NOT stuff to just stick in a mental filing cabinet somewhere, never to be seen or thought of again. My job is to condense the medically researched kinesiology, physiology, neurology, and such that you can USE the knowledge and have deeper insights.
One More Quick Story … In 2015, I was attending the graduation of one of the top-rated, therapeutically oriented massage schools in the country. The person delivering the Graduation Address, the Keynote speech, was a Doctor of Naturopathy. They started by saying something like “… and you’ll probably never think about actin and myosin cells again …” … I was horrified! I had JUST finished writing an article on — actin / myosin cells (!!!). I called them the NEXUS between the Inner & Outer World of a human being. I had emphasized how important they were to understanding what was going on in the muscles and how they worked.
So I was getting concerned about the level of education they were actually delivering to New Students of Massage Therapy. Turns out my concerns were VERY well-founded. And I’ve got several MORE stories like that.
Now, all that education is NOT going to happen over-night, obviously. How long it will take YOU to learn is totally dependent on how MOTIVATED you are. Yet I believe I can help you get set on such a path and well prepared to become The Expert in your community (or if you are a member of the public, or Your Family), if not beyond.
And if YOU are GP, a member of the General Public, there is NO REASON you should not know this stuff. Especially if you cannot find a practitioner who can, or is willing, to work the way we do. With the correct information and INSIGHTS, you can self-treat. Or if you have a partner, I can coach you on treating each other, even if you’ve never been inside a massage school.
When I first started going online and building webpages back in 2007, My MANTRA was “HOW do I deliver a massage over the internet?”
Obviously, I can’t do it directly. But if you have a partner, I can coach you on how to work with each other. … And I’ve done it before.
And the more YOU, a member of the public, know about how your therapy works, the better you can work with a therapist, and the better your results will be.
In fact, part of My Mission is to move the therapy world from where the Client or Patient is just a “spectator” in their health care, to being a Full, Equal Participant, as in, Participatory Medicine rather than spectator medicine. …
And I always try to explain everything in RPL (Regular Person Language.) And when I DO use medical jargon, I explain it in simple terms WITHOUT “dumbing it down.” … So You are Welcome to Participate. EVERY Person should be able to heal & maintain their own neuro-musculo-fascial & joint system.
I’m hoping that in some of my programs, I can get Therapists and GPs listening and talking to each other. THAT was fundamental to developing my work. Talking to Clients who trusted that I was really interested in what they had to say, gave me more insight into what was missing or not working in most therapy. So I focused on trying to “fix” that. Anyway …
My Objective is that after working with me both in online seminars and in private Skype or Zoom calls, you will KNOW MORE of the Core Physiological & Neurological Knowledge I knew when I originally created my system of therapy way back in the early to mid 1980s.
Please Bear in Mind that is an Objective, NOT a hard Guarantee or Deadline! … That is in part because I do not, and cannot (at this point), know your motivation levels nor how much time you’ll have to study & apply the ideas & techniques. I can provide the raw material, the ingredients.
But YOU are the Kitchen & Chef in which it all happens.
And Please Bear In Mind … My teaching is known for being open-ended. Meaning I’m NOT trying to make a bunch of DSL ( that’s me ) Clones. I teach Fundamental Principles that are foundational to how the human bodymind works, NO MATTER what therapies or modalities you are using.
If you WANT to do stuff the way I do, that’s fine with me. But it’s not required. You can apply it to other methods or modalities if you wish. And who knows, if you become an EXPERT, YOU might end up developing your OWN system of Therapy!
(That Is Really The Objective!)
WHY I’m Doing What I’m Doing Here
Ever since I was about 5 years old, I have been a Seeker of Freedom and Understanding of Human Nature.
At age 13 (1967) when I got started in Martial Arts & ZEN-style Meditation, I began seeing that much of FREEDOM had to do with how well my BodyMind performed. (The Zen studies already had me thinking about the Mind/Body Connection at an early age.)
I was already getting clear on the vast difference between Thinking About something versus Experiencing & FEELING something. And the more flexible, the more relaxed, the more resilient I was, the more freedom of movement & action I had with my physical body.
The meditation, in combination with the physical practices of Martial Arts, seemed to open my mind, as well. …
Motocross — No, those guys are NOT Me!
And in my early teens I was racing motocross, which was considered by medical research to be one of THE most physically taxing of all sports.
Apparently having to wrestle the relatively heavy machine around, as well as control your own body, takes up a LOT of energy and oxygen.
And it was a VERY dangerous sport. And I had MORE than my share of crashes. And my pit crew said I had the most spectacular crashes on the circuit!
I’m sure those crashes set my muscles & fascia up for the years of pain I had much later on!
SPACE
NO, not me either.
But you get the idea.
I also spent a number of years in my mid-teens to early 20s as a Structural Steel Ironworker Foreman (heavy construction). Ironworking was considered one of the heaviest of the construction jobs, and dangerous too.
But as my job as foreman was to make sure the steel buildings stand up straight and not fall over, and not have any strange twists or bends in them, my Dad taught me how to “have an eye” for “seeing structure” and how to work with physical reality.
My ZEN Meditation studies, at age 13, actually got started with reading the Buddhist Dhammapada (the Buddhist Bible) while I was ALSO attending a Christian Church. Between the two, I learned a few things about the Nature Of Reality & Life. And I started to realize that the more freedom everyone ELSE had, the more freedom *I* would have too!
I believe that was one of the factors that led me to start teaching yoga when I was 22 years old (1976), and become a bodyworker at 27 years old (1981).
And being a Perfectionist, I have strived to learn everything I can about the human body & mind, AND to make sure everything I THOUGHT I knew REALLY WAS true! … (THAT is not always easy, but I do the best I can on that account.)
And of course, having been a motocross rider and structural steel ironworker (heavy construction) during my teen years, I had more than my share of pain in several parts of my body.
In Summer of 1982, years after I had quit racing (and crashing) motorcycles and doing heavy construction work, I was now a bodyworker. Ironically, I had a HUGE resurgence of “Old Pains” that were debilitating almost non-stop for three & half years. No one was able to help me get out of pain. So I had to figure it out myself.
Luckily, I had already become a bodyworker when those old injuries raised their ugly heads with severe back and hip pain. I’ll tell you THAT story at another time. But figuring out how to fix THAT major problem was basically the birth of my neuro-musculo-fascial therapy system.
So I’ve been working with Muscle Therapy Clients in Private Practice for FORTY+ YEARS now. In the late 1980s, early ’90s, my Clients & Students were Presidents & Executive Board Members of the AMTA (American Massage Therapy Association) and owners of some of the Big Massage Schools in the country. I spent most of the 1990s training muscle therapists across the country. I would visit their clinics and treat their toughest Clients. I was considered by quite a few to be an Innovator in the field.
Beginning in 2007, although I had already done extensive time in places like Harvard Medical Library doing self-directed medical research, I started doing a lot more Research & Writing. It was in order to get even more clear on the REAL reasons bodywork & yoga work the way I think they do.
I’ve also been learning to build webpages and such to spread what I found to FAR more people. Maybe even YOU! (I’ve helped a few people produce successful websites, as well!) …
Then, in late 2011, when my Dad had a heart attack, and my Mom was not doing so well either, I started switching my focus to taking care of them. It eventually became full time. …
So I slowly faded away, then disappeared from the national bodywork scene.
NOW, I’m Working on Making a “Come Back.” …
I’m NOT going to focus a lot on Private Clients at this time, but on Educating Therapists. To reach more people, I’ll be doing it mostly online. For the stuff that needs in-person, direct contact, I will periodically schedule either One-on-One, Private Tutorial Weekends with Individual Students, or possibly 4- or 5-day Intensives whenever enough people want them.
But Here’s The THING … A LOT of what I’ll be teaching is Data Intensive. I’ll be teaching higher level of anatomy, kinesiology, physiology, neurology, and such. And of course, I’ll be teaching my Unique Approach to & Principles of Mindful Medical Massage / Myo-Structural Bodywork & Myo-Structural Yoga Therapy. And MUCH of that can be taught online.
That way, we can make the most of the In-Person time, doing actual hands-on work. Although you might discover the DSL Release Technique is “simple” enough you can figure out how to apply it to what ever muscle you are working on your own.
When I say “simple,” I mean that what your actually DO with your hands is NOT that complicated. It is the thinking, feeling, perspectives, and objectives behind your manual movements that is where things can appear to be “complex” until you have the INNER-standing of what is going on.
SO … The below page is meant to give you a REALLY GOOD IDEA of how I work and what I am offering.
But if the following material is too much to read, you probably will NOT want to be in my Courses. You might not even want to read many of my publications. Because they are designed for those people who want to BE an EXPERT in their Field. And that requires getting a lot of knowledge.
There are a handful of “intuitive practitioners” out there who are apparently able to “pick up on” what’s going on with a Client without getting too analytical. Some of them seem to be what I call “mysti-physical.” I’m NOT one of those people. However, after 40+ years of experience, you get pretty good at figuring out what’s going on with a Client a lot quicker than in the beginning.
My version of “intuition” is combining my years of Knowledge Accumulation with years of Direct, Internalized Experience further combined with a LOT of training in how to Pay Attention to what is really going on in front of you in that particular moment.
If you are a candidate for working at the level we are talking about here, I’m hoping to funnel YOU the most important & essential information, the info that directly contributes to your ability to practice at a Higher Level. And eliminate all the other stuff that might be interesting, but does not necessarily give you what you need to know to do the job at hand. (So to speak!)
My Philosophy is, If You KNOW How the Neuro-Musculo-Fascial
system Really Works, then You will KNOW How to Work with It.
Joel Kramer, my primary yoga teacher, used to say “The answer to a problem is contained within the problem.” IF you know how to look at the problem! And his definition of Yoga is The Quality of Attention One Pays to whatever they are doing in that moment.
The Big Challenge is, to work the way I do, a person needs to be, or willing to become, significantly into mindful, meditative, relational experience & interaction with Your Clients. (That is for being able to “Be With” a Client and their muscles such that you can pick up on the often subtle nuances that in many cases, not even the Client knows are going on.)
This is to a great degree “Relational Yoga,” which translates into “Paying close attention to what’s going on in and around someone I’m relating to, and being highly interactive with them, without being too intrusive.”
You ALSO need to be reasonably comfortable with linear, data intense, intellectual experience. (That is for getting a LOT of information from your Client’s Health History [which often includes a lot of elements], and the structural evaluation process, and putting it all together in a rational framework. Sometimes, it is a lot to process.)
You’ll find yourself going back and forth between those two modes quite a lot.
Someone once came up to me at a Massage Therapy Conference with my booklet about my work in her hand. She said what I was doing seemed very interesting & effective. BUT, she also said she did not want to think that hard! So she never became a student.
That’s fine with me. We each have our own unique characteristics & style. It usually works better if we respect that and do the things in life that we are more inclined toward and interested in. As long as we at least take an open-minded look at what else is available.
The following material is meant to Open Doors for You. It is meant to Educate You in things you might not have considered before, and will help you be better therapists. If you find it interesting, and reading it is not a “chore” but an engaging process, we might well be a Good Fit.
THEN, maybe YOUR Mission will be to become a Trusted Authority, an Acknowledged Expert in the field of Psycho*-Neuro-Musculo-Fascial Therapy in your community.
Hopefully I can be of some Assistance to You on that Path.
* And “Psycho” only means there is a mind & emotions behind the operations of the Human nervous system and brain.
I do hope You find the following Information Interesting & Useful.
Here is another Testimonial:
PART TWO of this Document — linked to a few paragraphs down from here — will talk to you about the Nuts & Bolts of how I work, my process of developing the work, and what is unique about it.
For Example … What Is C.E.M.&.N.T.?
That’s Chronic, Excess Muscle & Nerve Tension & Stress.
I consider C.E.M.&.N.T. to be one of THE most critical and wide-ranging factors in how a Client’s body starts to break down. How it develops pain, dysfunction, weakness, premature aging, and so on. A Primary Focus of DSL Edgework is working with and reducing, releasing, or eliminating C.E.M.&.N.T.
You might have heard of Doctor John Sarno’s diagnosis of TMS or Tension Myoneural Syndrome. Or other such terms are things like MFTP: Myo Fascial Trigger Points. Or MPS: Myofascial Pain Syndrome, popularized by Dr. Ida Rolf and John Barnes, PT, and also Dr.’s Janet Travell and David Simons.
C.E.M.&.N.T. is really just a more precise expansion on such terms.
It really should be “C.E.M.F.&.N.T.S.” as in Chronic, Excess Musculo Fascial & Nerve Tension & Stress. But that is a little too hard to pronounce! And I thought some people could relate to C.E.M.&.N.T. better as that is what some people feel like is “stuck” in their muscles.
But if you already know enough about me, and want to jump straight to a Concise Description of my Upcoming Program, Here is My New Masterclass:
The School Of Hard Knots:
A Masterclass on Muscles
Please Click on the Following Link:
In the near future, I will also Produce Masterclasses on Structural Analysis & Postural Evaluation, on Yoga Practice & Therapy, and other related programs.
I am also offering a 12-week Educational & Mentoring Program that covers the Full Spectrum of the DSL Edgework. It is more widely comprehensive as it addresses all aspects of the work. However it does not go as deep into the various Elements as the Masterclasses do. But it WILL be deep enough to effectively practice the therapy.
The 12-week Course is Described HERE
Thank You For Reading This Far,
David Scott Lynn