a Faster Holistic Way
to End Chronic Pain
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...for Relief That Lasts™
LAWRENCE GOLD
SOMATICS
Relief You Can Count On™
GUARANTEE +1 (505) 819-0858
BY APPOINTMENT • SELF-RELIEF MOVEMENTS • CONSULTATIONS
SINCE
1990
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Hanna Somatic Education
®
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Pain Relief | Learn How Somatics Clears Up Your Kind of Injury / Condition
Page Authority: Lawrence Gold, Hanna somatic educator CERTIFIED 1992 | AUTHOR CREDENTIALS
A partial list of disorders for which Hanna Somatic Education is a good solution appears below. Click a title to see the approach used to address each. These disorders typically resolve completely or very substantially improve for the long term within a few sessions.
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The promise of satisfying results is backed by a money-back guarantee.
Select (click on) a View button (below) to learn how clinical somatic education addresses it -- and how muscles are involved.
Select (click on) a View button (below) to learn how clinical somatic education addresses it -- and how muscles are involved.
INJURY CONDITIONS within the SCOPE of PRACTICE
For guided self-relief programs, click here.
To locate a practitioner, click here.
Bursitis - See Pain
Dislocations, frequent see Hypermobility, below
The Main Technique Used in Clinical Somatic Education to Produce Outcomes Better Than Conventional Therapies
What to Expect
Here's what you should expect from clinical somatic education:
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to get you into the fast-lane to long-term relief from pain
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to resume progress healing injuries labelled, "chronic" or "permanent and stationary"
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eliminate trigger points and the need for pain meds, muscle relaxants, stretching, or massage therapy
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to improve balance, mobility and physical comfort even in the aged
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to restore energy taxed away by pain
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to enable you to come back to your life, again, whole
Adhesive Capsulitis
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Often associated with "frozen" joints. Common misdiagnosis: there may be no adhesions. Instead, muscles affecting bone movement may be contracted, restricting movement and creating pain. Such misdiagnosis is common for frozen shoulders, which are the loosest joints, with the greatest slack, in the body. (to article)
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Personal attention: click, I want help for adhesive capsulitis.
Back Pain (common -- Lower Back Pain, Lumbar Strain)
Back pain is common in industrialized societies because of nervous tension associated with the "clock and deadline" way of life.
The stresses of being "on the go," of producing results, meeting deadlines, multi-tasking and other demands of that way of life add to accumulated nervous tension, affect the muscles of the back of the body, and produce muscle fatigue and soreness.
Then, a minor additional demand on those muscles, such as those of leaning over, is sometimes sufficient to trigger a back spasm. Disk degeneration and sciatica sometimes follow, also the result of muscle tension and spine overcompression. Somatic education brings muscle function back into the normal range. (to article)
Personal attention: click, I want help for back pain.
Balance Problems
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Tight hamstrings interfere with foot position. By turning the lower legs at the knee, they cause the feet to roll in or out, causing poor contact of the feet with the ground: unstable foundation. Unevenly tight trunk muscles induce a postural side-tilt that displaces weight to one side, leading to a state of chronic imbalance.
Tight neck muscles interfere with proper head carriage and movement, distorting the sensations provided by the balance centers of the inner ear. One or more may "conspire" together to create balance problems (To article)
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See Dizziness
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Personal attention: click, How Can I Improve My Standing Balance?
Dislocations, frequent
Excessive tension among muscles and tendons on one side of a joint move the bone off-center in the joint, predisposing to injury or complete deslocation.
Personal attention, click, help for frequent dislocations
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Displaced Patella (Kneecap)
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Quadriceps (font thigh muscles) unequally tight (see Dislocations, frequent).
Dizziness / Vertigo
Caused by excessive neck tension and off-center, off-balance head position.
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The eyes, balance centers of the inner ears, and muscles of the neck are connected via brain-level reflexes controlled at the brain stem. The muscles of the neck move the head; the balance centers of the inner ear sense head movement. The eyes move with head movement to continue tracking whatever is being looked at. The brain coordinates these movements.
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When the head is off-center, the brain senses the situation and maintains head-balance by means of muscular actions (corrective movements). When neck tension is excessive, however, the brain's corrective response is also excessive, which causes above-normal movements of the eyes, which creates excessive feedback to the brain stem (the sensations of movement).
(Have you ever experienced the sensations of movement while watching a film?) The combination of incorrect sensory feedback, over-correction, excessive eye movement and feedback to the brain stem creates a spinning sensation.These sensations commonly abate immediately as neck tension comes under natural control and head movement and position normalizes.
Personal attention: click, I have vertigo (dizziness).
Foot Pain / Tired Feet
Often caused by swayback (tight back muscles).
A too-forward posture overburdens the front of the feet and calves. Tight foot muscles get tired and sore. The soft-tissue of the feet gets stretched and irritated. The key is to relax the muscles of the back (to end swayback).
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• article: "Lower Back Pain Relief Exercises for Relief That Lasts'
• quick, temporary fix: How Do I Get My Feet to Stop Aching?
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Personal attention: click, How Do You Relieve Tired Feet?
Frequent Urination
Sometimes called "weak kidneys" or "overactive bladder" (misnamed in both cases)
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Tight abdominal muscles and floor of the pelvis reduce room for the bladder to expand, causing pressure to build up before the bladder is full. Sensors in the urethra report the pressure as fullness.
Also, the sphincter muscles of the urethra become conditioned to a heightened state of tension by the frequent pressure, interfering with the ability to void the bladder. The involved muscular tensions must be normalized for normal filling and voiding to occur.
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Personal attention: click, I have frequent urination.
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Groin Pain
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Three main possible causes:
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tight thigh adductor muscles (inner thigh)
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tight psoas muscles (inner groin)
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twisted sacrum/sacroiliac muscle strain
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article on groin pain from tight muscles and what to do about it
article on groin pain from a turned sacrum and what to do
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Personal attention, click: I have groin pain.
Hamstrings, Tight or 'Pulled
Causes what is sometimes called, "a pulled hamstring" (actually, there are three hamstrings). Inability to relax hamstrings to extend to their full length: a conditioning problem signifying incomplete control (ability to relax and to freely use) that muscle group. The need to stretch hamstrings always in partial contraction. The pain of hamstring pulls and their tendency to occur can be ended or reduced by somatic education.​
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to article, Free Your Hamstrings and Protect Your Knees
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Personal attention: click, I want help for taut hamstrings.
Headaches
Tension: habituated tension of the suboccipital neck muscles, which pull upon the connective tissue that enwraps the skull.
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Migraine: vascular. Chronic contraction of the deep neck musculature along the sides and around the atlas (C1) may involve interference with the blood-pressure sensors in blood in the neck vessels. In any case, headaches end as the tension level of these muscles normalizes. The same deep neck musculature pulls the upper vertebrae against the base of the cranium causing additional mechanical pain.
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Sinus: sinuses drain through the lining of the throat. Then throat muscles are tight, draining is blocked by the tension of the lining. As those muscles relax, draining has been observed to start immediately.
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How do you get rid of headaches, naturally? See, Headache Relief by New Somatic Techniques
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Personal attention: click, I have headaches.
Hip / Hip Joint Pain
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Overcompression by tight muscles
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Cartilage loss
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Sacroiliac Joint Dysfunction
Often, pain is misdiagnosed as coming from the joint, when it comes from the muscles that surround the joint.
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However, long-term overcompression of the joint by tight muscles leads to cartilage breakdown (thinning and loss). Bone-on-bone contact in the joint results, leading to joint-replacement surgery and to possible subsequent leg length difference and sciatica (see sciatica)
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Sometimes, hip joint pain is a symptom of a displaced sacrum (sacroiliac joint dysfunction/sacroileitis).
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article that explains hip pain from tight muscles and what to do about it
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article on hip pain from a displaced sacrum
Personal attention: click, I have hip pain.
Hypermobility
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Hypermobility is commonly misunderstood. The term, itself, is misleading.
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Muscles work as opposing pairs, such as biceps:triceps or back muscles:abdominals.
When one of the pair is excessively tight, the other is excessively loose: hypermobility.
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The key to correcting hypermobility isn't strengthening, but releasing the overtight member of the pair and then developing balanced control over them.
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Personal attention: click, I have been diagnosed with hypermobility.
Insomnia
Overstimulated nervous system -- from chronic overwork, chronically excited disposition, anxiety, or other conditions -- prevent the natural drift into sleep. Somatic education can dispel or "down-regulate" that overstimulation.
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article on insomnia
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Self-relief program for insomnia: Get to Sleep
Personal attention, click: I have insomnia.
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Joint Pain (general | see entries for hip pain, shoulder pain, knee pain)
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Overcompression by tight muscles. One must develop natural control of the muscles that cross the troublesome joint. Look also for unbalanced weight-bearing due to postural distortions, which places excessive burden on the troublesome joint(s).
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article on joint pain
Personal attention: click, I have joint pain.
Knee Pain
Short or overcontracted hamstrings contribute to knee pain by preventing the knee from straightening under the load of walking. Such overcontraction also predisposes to knee injuries by pulling on the meniscus of the knee or by causing grinding of the patella (kneecap) against the joint.
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article on knee pain
Personal attention: click, I have knee pain.
Muscle Pain
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Chronic muscle pain nearly always comes from being too tight -- almost never from being too weak. If muscle pain persists past any reasonable healing period, it's not from an injury; it's almost always from muscle fatigue. You need to recondition your muscular control to able to relax, again, so sore muscles get refreshed and feel all right, again.
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article on muscle pain
Personal attention: click, I have muscle pain.
Neck Pain
Most neck pain comes from tight muscles triggered to get tight and stay tight by a sudden jolting the movement, such as a fall or whiplash. The pain is muscle fatigue.
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To clear up neck pain, retrain the muscles the move the neck and head.
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article on retraining tight muscles to end pain
Personal attention: click, I have neck pain.
Osteoarthritis
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Catch-all term for joint pain and inflammation; not the name of a "disease" (such as, rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease). Osteoarthritis comes from joint overcompression and disintegration of joint cartilage caused by constantly-tight muscles.
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If cartilage remains, osteo-arthritis can generally be stopped by clinical somatic education -- first, by removing the overcompression (rapid improvement), then by natural healing of cartilage (more gradual completion of healing).
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article explaining the association of osteo-arthritis and aging
Personal attention: click, I have pain from osteo-arthritis.
Pain, Chronic
A high percentage of chronic pain comes from muscular soreness due to over-fatigue. Chronically tight muscles develop a chronic "burn," experienced as body aches or mysterious pains. Muscles anywhere in the body may be involved. Tendons may also be overstretched (tendinitis) or bursae (fluid-filled sacs) entrapped under tight tendons (bursitis).
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article on chronic pain page non existant
Personal attention: click, I have chronic pain.
Pain, Migrating
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Sometimes experienced by people receiving massage therapy, stretching, or chiropractic adjustments. Muscular tensions in areas not addressed by the therapy may increase and become painful. Forced relaxation (stretching) or postural shifts without a corresponding gain of muscular control sometimes triggers pain.
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article on migrating pain
Personal attention: click, I have migrating pain.
Psoas Muscle Pain
Sometimes called "weak" psoas muscles (usually wrongly), this kind of pain originates from muscle fatigue of overly tight psoas muscles, which run from the inner groin to the lumbar spine. Usually causing a top-forward pelvic tilt (excessive lumbar lordosis or curve) and a deep fold at the groin, tight psoas muscles cause low back fatigue, chronic constipation (explained in the entry linked, below) pelvic and "stomach" pain. Somatic training is usually sufficient to free contracted psoas muscles and to restore healthy function.
POSSIBLE MISDIAGNOSIS
People sometimes misdiagnose S-I (sacroiliac) joint dysfunction (or sacroileitis) as psoas muscle pain because symptoms of both may appear at the groin -- but psoas muscle contraction is a secondary effect of S-I joint dysfunction, not the primary cause of the pain. Attempts to relieve tight psoas without correcting S-I joint dysfunction may lead to rebound intensification of pain in the pelvis.
Pain in the region of the S-I joints may also result from excessive tension of the muscles of the low back, which are connected to soft-tissue in the sacro-iliac area. Such tension, in combination with buttock tension, can cause pain that mimics sacro-iliac pain.
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article on psoas muscle pain
Personal attention: click, I have psoas muscle pain.
Sacro-iliac Pain
The result of displacement of the sacrum (central pelvic bone) from its well-seated position, typically by injury (a blow, hard fall, or repetitive twist-and-lift actions). Muscular contractions/excessive muscular tension of the muscles of the buttock responsible for leg rotation (toe-out or in) and uneven pulls by waist muscles, change the angle of the pelvis and forces going through the S-I joints, and so maintain the dysfunctional condition.
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Relieved by first relieving the sacrum of compression forces that keep one sacroiliac joint jammed, then by normalizing muscle/movement memory related to the pelvis and pelvic structure, changing weight-bearing and tension patterns, which causes the sacrum to migrate back to its well-seated position and healthy movement patterns.
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article on sacroiliac pain (sacroileitis)
Personal attention: click, I have sacroiliac joint pain.
Sciatica
Typically caused by a combination of side tilt and swayback, induced by states of tension in the musculature. The misalignment entraps the nerve at its points of exit from the spinal column.
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The sciatic nerve sometimes passes through the body of the piriformis (buttock) muscle may get entrapped there, if the muscle gets chronically contracted. (piriformis syndrome)
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article on sciatic pain (sciatica)
Personal attention: click, I have sciatic pain.
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Scoliosis
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Distortion of spinal curves and rotation of ribs by muscular tensions or bone deformity.
Most commonly caused by muscular tensions following injury to the side of the trunk or to leg or hip ("functional scoliosis"). If injured during growth period, may lead to uneven bone growth and create permanent distortions of posture and movement. Bone deformity may result from genetic cause ("idiopathic scoliosis").
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For scoliosis of muscular origin ("functional scoliosis") correction or complete improvement possible with somatic education. For scoliosis from bone deformity, improvements of movement and comfort are possible, but the scoliosis will remain.
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video showing correction of scoliosis
Personal attention: click, I have scoliosis.
Shoulder, tight / painful
A common accompaniment of back pain from stress and nervous tension, shoulder muscle pain may also result from the shock of an injury that prompts one to tighten up/reflexively guard the injury (e.g., a fall or broken bone). "Frozen Shoulder" is commonly misdiagnosed as resulting from adhesions, whereas it usually results from highly contracted muscles immobilizing arm movement at the joint. "Frozen Shoulder" commonly "unfreezes" as soon as muscular suppleness is restored (by means of somatic education), without need for addressing "adhesions".
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Shoulder joint pain occurs in three varieties:
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NERVE PAIN
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JOINT PAIN
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BURSITIS
NERVE PAIN
Compression of the nerve to the shoulder by muscles in the neck creates sensation as if the shoulder were injured. The solution is to free the neck muscles and so to discompress the nerve by that means, rather than surgically (which may involve removal of neck muscles).
JOINT PAIN
The shoulder joint is designed to permit arm side-lift to 90 degrees (parallel to the ground). Further lifting requires the scapula (shoulder blade) to lift along with the arm. If muscles underneath the shoulder are tight, they prevent scapular movement, causing the humerus (upper arm bone) to jam into the joint, causing pain and cartilage damage (over time). The solution is to free the movement of the involved muscles (latissimus dorsi, pectoralis, serratus anterior).
BURSITIS
A bursa is a fluid-filled sac that cushions a tendon. At the shoulder, if the muscles are tight, their tendons are taut and compress the bursa, causing bursitis. The solution is to free the movements of the related muscles. (to article)
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article on shoulder pain, frozen shoulder
Personal attention: click, I have shoulder pain.
Spinal Stenosis
Narrowing of the spinal canal, through which the spinal cord passes, commonly diagnosed as the cause of pain.
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Sometimes misdiagnosed, particularly when pain comes and goes. Pain that comes and goes does not come from a narrowing of the spinal canal, which remains constant in size even as the pain varies. It comes from changes of muscular tension along the spine, which may create temporary nerve entrapment or muscular pain.
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Such pain may also result from hip joint dysfunction or sacroiliac joint dysfunction (twisted sacrum), which can be corrected by means of somatic education.
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article on back muscle tension and pain
Personal attention: click, I have been diagnosed with spinal stenosis.
Tendinitis / Tendonitis / Tendinosis
Tendons are like straps or bands of tissue that extend from the ends of muscle and attach to bone. Tendons are passive and do not get tight by themselves; they get tight when their muscles tighten and shorten. Tendinitis (or tendinosis) occurs when a muscle stays tight for long periods, as when protective reflexes get activated by injury. Strain on the tendon and friction of the tendon with surrounding tissue irritate the tendon and lead to inflammation and pain: tendonitis.
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The necessary solution is to recapture control of the involved muscles from the involuntary reflexes (via somatic education). Without that step, anti-inflammatory drugs (such as cortizone) provide only temporary and symptomatic relief, while the injurious condition continues
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article on the cause of tendonitis
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Personal attention: click, I have tendinitis.
Thoracic Outlet Syndrome ("T.O.S.")
Impingement of the brachial (side of the neck) nerve plexus (cluster) resulting from spasticity of muscles of the neck (scalenes) may create the feeling of one or both arms being "on fire". Can often be corrected by freeing the neck musculature of excessive muscular tension.
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article on a main cause of thoracic outlet syndrome
Personal attention: click, I have symptoms of T.O.S.
TMD / TMJ Syndrome / TMJ Dysfunction
Related to tight jaw and neck muscles. The sub-occipital muscles may be involved, as they contract when the mouth is opened fully as one reaches forward in biting. Frequently accompanied by headaches.
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Can be relieved by releasing the movements of the cranium (skull) and neck from the jawbone in all directions of movement.
More severe cases may involve the deep muscles of the throat (longus colli and capitus) associated with the larynx, the musculature associated with the tongue, and the entire rib cage.
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article on TMJ Syndrome, which may accompany TOC
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self-relief program: Five Well-Designed Somatic Education Exercises That Can Make Your Jaws Feel Better and Make Your Bite Better -- in about Two Weeks
Personal attention: click, I have symptoms of TMJ.
Uneven Leg Length
Sometimes actual; often misdiagnosed (even when measured). Commonly results from leg retraction (pulling up and in), change of pelvic position (one hip hiked up), and/or compression of hip joint cartilage by tight muscles around the hip joint; sometimes indicates hip joint degeneration (loss of cartilage) over a long period of muscular hip joint compression.
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article on cause of uneven leg length
Personal attention: click, I have uneven leg length.
Whiplash-related Neck Pain
Persistent pain and dizziness result from involuntary muscular contraction of neck muscles and from interference with postural maintenance of upright head position. Acute (intense, short-term) symptoms may indicate soft-tissue damage (see dizziness).
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Personal attention: click, I have symptoms of a whiplash injury.
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Clinical somatic education is for people ready to participate actively in their own healing, ready to do something different -- who have lost faith in, or patience with, the medical system and are taking matters into their own hands -- and for health care practitioners looking for something more than the conventional modalities, to help their patients.
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There exists a well-defined process in which you, as a client, actively participate, with tangible, obvious (i.e., blatant), cumulative improvements accumulating at each step, until you're done.
This process involves (1) identifying patterns of ongoing muscular tension directly resulting from injury, (2) deliberately tightening those muscles in their injury pattern using a technique called, pandiculation, to recover muscular control, and (3) using patterned movement exercises to replace the painful tension patterns with pain-free, healthy movement patterns.
Typically, five-to-ten clinical sessions are needed, about once weekly. If you're working with a self-relief (somatic education exercise) program, results come more gradually, but distinctly.
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If you've been getting treatment for pain for a long time and aren't getting better, aren't getting better fast enough, or if different doctors have given different diagnoses and you've "tried everything" without satisfactory improvement; if you fear that you may have to live that way for the rest of your life, clinical somatic education may indeed be for you.