PERSONAL BACKGROUND
People often ask my how I got involved in the field of somatics. I usually given them the short version of the story; here is the longer version. You'll learn of my history of injuries and how what I practice enabled me to recover from them and to better serve others.
My History of Injuries
When I was ten years old, I was struck by a car while riding my bicycle. A low-speed collision, I took a fall but emerged without broken bones. Then, when I was fourteen, I fell off a second-story balcony and landed on my feet -- on concrete. My heels hurt so much that I walked on my toes for weeks. When I was nineteen, I developed a case of tendonitis in my right hand and wrist so painful that I couldn't use my right hand.
After medical treatment with bracing and cortizone injections failed to help my hand and wrist at all, Rolfing® took care of the problem and got me exposed to, and interested in, the field of somatics. I liked Rolfing so much that I asked my rolfer for more frequent sessions. He refused, saying that I needed more time to integrate the changes. I asked how I could speed that integration, and he told me about and taught me a set of somatic exercises developed by Judith Aston in collaboration with Ida Rolf -- then called, "structural patterning", later called Rolfing Movement-Integration, or just Rolfing Movement.
At twenty, my volkswagen was rear-ended by a Pontiac; when I was thirty-six, I sustained a soft-tissue injury to my neck that left me unable to bow my head forward or back, or turn more than thirty degrees left or right without searing, intolerable pain. At thirty-eight, I developed sciatica -- a feeling like a hot cable running down the back of my right leg. I drove my car by using my left foot for accelerator and brake.
It was in that condition -- with a neck injury and sciatica -- that I came to training under Emmet Hutchins, Ida Rolf's first appointed 'teacher in perpetuity' in the methods of The Rolf Method of Structural Integration; then to training under Thomas Hanna in the methods of Hanna Somatic Education®; and then to training under Stacey Mills, at the time the world's oldest living Rolfer.
The sciatica disappeared in my first week of training under Thomas Hanna, under the ministrations of other students in his methods, never to return. I was able to reduce the intensity of the neck injury by fifty percent the day I learned the prime method of Hanna Somatic Education, "assisted pandiculation", in one self-administered two-hour session. The rest of the problem took years to figure out and gave me the understanding and methods to help others with neck pain problems.
When I was 41, I sustained an injury to my right knee trying to pop it to get rid of annoying sensation. The knee pain went down the core of my leg into my ankle. My knee felt broken. The methods of Hanna somatic education were insufficient to clear up that problem, but combined with structural integration, resulted in a rapid restoration of comfort and knee function that I have to this day. That incident made that point to me how synergistic the two systems are, and I was later able to help a friend diagnosed with a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and referred for surgery, to recover function without surgery.
That same year, my compact car was totalled in a rear-end collision two blocks from my office. My eyeglasses ended up in the back seat and the contents under the driver's seat ended up around my feet. After my car was towed away, I walked back to my office and, using somatic techniques, did for myself something similar to what I now do with people who have had whiplash injuries. The fellow in the car ahead of mine, the second-hand recipient of the impact, I later learned, underwent therapy for whiplash. I had no residual effects from the collision and ended up with a better car.
Qualifications and Background
After two years' preparatory coursework for training as a Physical Therapist, I earned certification in Hanna Somatic Education and the Dr. Ida P. Rolf Method of Structural Integration. For two years, I served as an Associate Instructor with the Novato Institute for Somatic Research and Training. I have created an advanced handbook of practice for professional practitioners and self-help programs for back pain, sciatica, psoas muscle problems, breathing difficulty, and general movement health.
As part of the Novato Institute training team, I presented Hanna Somatic Education to workshop participants at Esalen Institute at Big Sur, California; as a guest lecturer, I presented Hanna Somatic Education to classes at Life Chiropractic College West, at the 1992 Natural Health Convention organized by the National Health Federation, at the 2003 New Mexico Conference on Aging ("Somatic Healing"), at the 2004 Head-to-Toe 9 Conference for Educators (playable link: "Using Your Brain to End Your Pain"), and a guest on numerous radio shows across the USA.
I practiced for two years (1997-1999) at the Wellness and Rehabilitation Center of Watsonville Community Hospital, in California, and for one month as a consultant at Farmington Valley Physical Therapy (FVPT.com) in Unionville, Connecticut.
PHYSICIANS' LETTERS OF REFERENCE
(click to) View actual letter.
This is a letter to recommend Mr. Lawrence Gold in the highest regard.
Lawrence is, by training a massage therapist and a certified Hanna Somatic
Educator. He has worked at the Wellness and Rehabilitation Center since my
coming there in August, 1996. He has assisted us in treating a very diverse
and multiple-injured patient population. The majority of the patients seen
at the Wellness Center are those who have usually defied a diagnostic agreement
amongst physicians.
His utilizing Hanna Somatic Re-education has allowed these patients to regain
what the chronicity of their injuries has taken from them. Lawrence’s treatment
techniques and keen eye in evaluation have been a key modality to restore
balance to these altered systems. Lawrence’s ability to diagnose, educate,
and restore a better understanding with patients is his best attribute. He is
well written, well-spoken, and is an asset to have as a key staff member in a
multi-disciplinary approach to musculoskeletal injury and chronic pain.
In closing, I recommend Mr. Lawrence Gold with the highest regard and would be
happy to speak to any of those reading this letter in person in more detail.
Sincerely yours,
Janine M. Talty, Doctor of Osteopathy, M.P.H., Biomechanics
Watsonville Community Hospital, California
telephone (831) 768-8095
To Whom it May Concern:
Lawrence Gold has demonstrated himself to be highly talented, capable of handling a wide range of complaints, and exceptionally thorough in his evaluation procedures, in his clinical methods, and in his documentation.
His methods have proven effective with muscular spasticity, pain, movement limitations, and paraesthesias that have not [been] resolved with standard physical therapy methods.
Based on my experience, I regard Hanna Somatic Education as an invaluable treatment option and believe that your patients would consider themselves fortunate to have his services available as a treatment option.
Sincerely,
Richard A. Bernstein, D.O., Physiatrist
Director
The Wellness and Rehabilitation Center of
Watsonville Community Hospital, California
- Townsend Letter for Doctors
-
A Functional Look at Back Pain and Treatment Methods
November, 1994, #136, pg. 1186
American Journal of Pain Management
- Pain Relief through Movement Education
January, 1996, Vol. 6, no. 1, pg. 30
Somatics, Magazine-Journal of the Bodily Arts & Sciences
- Gaining Grace -- A Somatic Perspective
autumn/winter 1992-93, Vol. IX, no. 1, pg. 34
An Expanded View of the Three Reflexes of Stress
summer/fall 2000, Vol. XII, no. 4, pg. 12
The Therapeutic Specialist's Quarterly Report
(publication of The International Association of Therapeutic Specialists)
- Pain Relief through Movement Education (sensory-motor integration): Introducing Hanna Somatic Education
summer, 1997, Vol. II, Issue VI, pg. 2
Massage & Bodywork Magazine
- Somatic Education, Therapy & Health Care
winter, 1996, Vol. XI, no. 1, pg. 30
Why Somatic Education is a Body-Mind Thing
summer/fall, 1997, Vol. XII, no. 3, pg. 116
Posture, Structure, Bodywork, and the Sense of Self
spring, 1998, Vol. XIII, no. 1, pg. 38
Good Medicine Magazine
- Hanna Somatic Education for Relief of Pain
The Health and Fitness Connection
- Gain Agility and Ending Pain with Somatic Education
- The Movement Movement
Body & Soul
- Free Your Hamstrings, Preserve Your Knees!
September, 1993, Vol. VIII, no. 15, pg. 15
Truth in Medicine
October, 1993, Vol. VIII, no. 16, pg. 11
Somatic Mastery
November, 1993, Vol. VIII, no. 17, pg. 15
Car Seats and Your Back
January, 1994, Vol. IX, no. 1 & 2, pg. 7
Vet Pulse
- Free Your Hamstrings -- Save Your Knees
March 11, 1994, pg. 6
The AHP Somatics and Wellness Community Newsletter
- Defining Somatic Education
December, 1994, pg. 5
