Arnold Askew, LMT, GCFP - Somatic Solutions

😫 Consider a desk worker who receives massage for recurring neck and shoulder tension.

The treatment helps. Their neck turns more easily, the shoulders feel lighter, and the familiar ache decreases.

Within a few days, however, the tension returns.

This does not mean the massage failed.

The hands-on work may have reduced pain, changed sensory input, and lowered muscular tone. The missing piece may be what happens when the client returns to the activities that occupy most of the day.

In this educational case, the client spent hours reaching toward a mouse with the forearm unsupported. Each time the arm moved forward:
🚨 the shoulder blade remained relatively fixed
🚨 the neck tightened
🚨 the breath paused
🚨 the jaw clenched slightly
🚨 the upper trapezius helped stabilize the arm

Instead of abandoning massage, the practitioner added a brief learning component.
After the hands-on work, the client practiced small shoulder-blade slides with the forearm supported. The movement remained easy enough that the jaw and breathing could stay quiet.

The home practice lasted less than one minute and was connected to an existing habit: three gentle slides after opening the computer and again after lunch.

The goal was not perfect posture.

✅ The goal was to help the client carry the benefits of the session into the movement pattern that repeatedly brought the tension back.

Manual therapy can create a valuable window of change. Somatic education can help the client recognize and use that window.

👉 If you’d like to learn more, check out upcoming NCBTMB Approved Continuing Education Courses here: https://www.somaticsolution.com/cecourse

Clients with persistent neck and shoulder pain are often told to pull their shoulders down and back.

That cue may be useful in a specific exercise, but it can become another form of holding when applied all day.

The shoulder blade is designed to move across the rib cage. It needs to adjust during reaching, turning, breathing, walking, and using the arms. The goal is not to hold it in one correct position. The goal is to restore comfortable movement options.

Here is a simple clinical exploration:
✅ Have the client sit with one forearm supported on a table or pillow
✅ Ask them to let the teeth separate slightly and keep the jaw easy
✅ Invite the shoulder blade to slide a very small distance forward around the ribs
✅ Slowly return toward the starting position
✅ Repeat two or three times, then rest

The movement should remain small enough that the client can notice:
🚨 Does the neck tighten?
🚨 Does the shoulder shrug?
🚨 Does the breath pause?
🚨 Does the jaw join the movement?
🚨 Can the shoulder blade glide without the whole trunk becoming rigid?

This is not primarily a strengthening exercise. It is a sensory and motor-control exploration.

The client is learning to distinguish shoulder-blade movement from neck effort. Once that distinction becomes clearer, strengthening and functional training may become more efficient.

Small movement can provide information that a larger, more forceful movement hides.

If you’d like to learn more, check out upcoming NCBTMB Approved Continuing Education Courses here: https://www.somaticsolution.com/cecourse

When working with persistent neck and shoulder pain, one of the most useful observations is also one of the simplest:

What happens to the client’s breath when they move?

Ask them to turn their head, reach forward, raise an arm, or shift position on the table. Then watch for the small details.

⚠️ Does the breath stop before movement begins?
⚠️ Does the upper chest lift and remain fixed?
⚠️ Does the jaw tighten?
⚠️ Do the shoulders rise?
⚠️ Does the client rush through the movement?

These responses do not automatically identify the cause of pain. They do, however, tell us something about how the client is organizing the task.

Breath holding and muscular guarding can be appropriate when a task is heavy, difficult, or uncertain. But when the same strategy appears during a small, low-load movement, the nervous system may be using more protection than the task requires.

Rather than telling the client to relax, try changing the conditions:
✅ Support the weight of the arm
✅ Make the movement smaller
✅ Slow the pace
✅ Allow a comfortable breath between repetitions
✅ Ask whether the jaw can remain easy

The clinical question becomes:
❓Can the shoulder blade and arm move without the neck preparing for danger?

This does not replace strengthening, manual therapy, or rehabilitation. It helps the practitioner identify whether excessive effort is interfering with those approaches.

If you’d like to learn more, check out upcoming NCBTMB Approved Continuing Education Courses here: https://www.somaticsolution.com/cecourse

🔥 Many clients with persistent pain are not just dealing with pain. They are also dealing with protective effort that shows up before the movement even begins.

🚨 They hold their breath.
🚨 They grip through the abdomen.
🚨 They tighten the jaw.
🚨 They brace the shoulders.
➡️ And over time, that protective strategy can make simple movement feel harder, less efficient, and more threatening.

This article explores how bodyworkers and movement professionals can use a somatic lens to notice breath, bracing, and unnecessary effort as meaningful clinical clues, not minor details.

It also looks at how small movement, better pacing, and clearer cueing can help clients move with more comfort, confidence, and choice.

👉 Read here: https://www.somaticsolution.com/breath-bracing-and-persistent-pain
👉 Learn more during one of my upcoming NCBTMB Approved CE Courses: https://www.somaticsolution.com/cecourse

Breath Bracing and Persistent Pain Learn how breath, bracing, and protective effort shape movement in persistent pain from a somatic perspective for bodyworkers.

🔥 In persistent pain work, more effort is not always the answer.

Many clients already use too much effort for simple tasks. They brace, grip, hold their breath, and recruit muscles that do not need to be working so hard.

This can make movement feel heavy, unsafe, or exhausting.

❓Somatic education offers a different clinical question: “What is the least effort needed to perform this movement clearly?”

That question can be powerful.

When clients learn to reduce unnecessary effort:
✅ Movement often becomes smoother
✅ Breathing becomes easier
✅ Protective muscle tone may decrease
✅ Confidence can improve
✅ The client gains more options

This does not replace strengthening, rehabilitation, or hands-on work.
It gives those approaches a better foundation.

When the nervous system learns that movement can be safe, clear, and efficient, other interventions often become easier to integrate.

If you’d like to learn more, check out upcoming NCBTMB Approved Continuing Education Courses here: https://www.somaticsolution.com/cecourse

💨 What happens to the breath?

One of the simplest clinical observations in persistent pain work is also one of the most useful: what happens to the breath?

Ask a client to roll, reach, bend, or gently tilt the pelvis.

Then watch.
⚠️ Does the breath pause?
⚠️ Does the abdomen grip?
⚠️ Does the chest lift?
⚠️ Does the jaw tighten?
⚠️ Does the client rush through the movement?

These are not random details. They often show how the nervous system is organizing the task.

Breath-holding can be a sign that a movement feels less safe or more demanding than it actually is.

In somatic education, we can use this observation gently. Rather than saying, “Stop holding your breath,” try asking: “Can the movement be small enough that breathing stays easy?”

✅ That question changes the task. Now the client is not forcing range. They are learning how to move with less threat, less urgency, and more choice. For many clients, that is where useful change begins.

If you’d like to learn more, check out upcoming NCBTMB Approved Continuing Education Courses here: https://www.somaticsolution.com/cecourse

🚨 EARLY BIRD RATE EXTENDED!! Alabama LMTs, this one is for you.

If you need 14 CE hours and want a live, hands-on course that can directly help you with chronic pain clients, we have an upcoming live training in Athens, Alabama:

Understanding and Transforming Chronic Pain
June 6 to 7, 2026
Athens, AL

You’ll learn practical concepts and hands-on approaches you can bring back into your sessions right away.
⏰ Early Bird pricing is ending soon
✅ Save $50
🚨 Limited seating

If you’ve been thinking about registering, now is the time.

👉 LEARN MORE: https://www.somaticsolution.com/course-0626-al

😫 Many clients with persistent pain are not “doing movement wrong.”

They are often doing movement with more protection than the task requires.
In bodywork and movement sessions, this may show up as:

➡️ Jaw tension during simple movement
➡️ breath holding during transitions
➡️ abdominal gripping during low effort tasks
➡️ shoulders working when the movement is in the pelvis or hips
➡️ a sense that the whole body has to help with a small action

From a somatic perspective, bracing is not something to criticize. It is information.

The nervous system may be organizing movement around safety, not efficiency.
When we slow the task down, reduce the size of the movement, and help the client notice unnecessary effort, the system often has a chance to reorganize.

❌ The goal is not to tell the client to “relax.”
✅ The goal is to help them experience the difference between protection and support.
🔄 That distinction can change how they move.

If you’d like to learn more, check out upcoming NCBTMB Approved Continuing Education Courses here: https://www.somaticsolution.com/cecourse

⚠️ Alabama LMTs, this one is for you.

If you need 14 CE hours and want a live, hands-on course that can directly help you with chronic pain clients, we have an upcoming live training in Athens, Alabama:

Understanding and Transforming Chronic Pain
June 6 to 7, 2026
Athens, AL

You’ll learn practical concepts and hands-on approaches you can bring back into your sessions right away.

⏰ Early Bird pricing is ending soon
✅ Save $50
🚨 Limited seating

If you’ve been thinking about registering, now is the time.

👉 LEARN MORE: https://www.somaticsolution.com/course-0626-al

🔥 Many low back pain clients move carefully and still keep flaring up.

🚨 They brace.
🚨 They restrict.
🚨 They try to protect the area.
➡️ And over time, that same strategy can reduce efficiency and increase cumulative strain.

This article explores how bodyworkers can use a somatic lens to look beyond isolated tissues and help clients improve coordination between the pelvis and spine through awareness, reduced effort, and better load sharing.

👉 Read here: https://www.somaticsolution.com/pelvis-spine-coordination

👉 Learn more during one of my upcoming NCBTMB Approved CE Courses: https://www.somaticsolution.com/cecourse

Pelvis and Spine Coordination in Low Back Pain How pelvis and spine coordination affects persistent low back pain, guarding, movement variability, and functional bodywork outcomes.