Arnold Askew, LMT, GCFP - Somatic Solutions

🚨 Try this simple exploration with a client who feels unsteady, stiff through the ankle, or unsure when transferring weight.

Have them stand comfortably near a table or wall so support is available.

Before asking them to balance, ask them simply to notice their feet.

Can they sense three general areas of contact?
➡️ Heel
➡️ Inside of the forefoot
➡️ Outside of the forefoot

Now ask them to shift their weight a very small amount forward and then back.

The important part is not how far they move.

Watch what happens as they move.
⚠️ Do the toes immediately grip the floor?
⚠️ Does the ankle remain rigid?
⚠️ Does the client hold their breath?
⚠️ Does the whole body move as one stiff unit?

Now make the shift smaller.

Ask whether the toes can remain relatively quiet while the pressure under the foot changes.

Then explore a small shift toward the inside and outside of the foot without forcing the arch into any particular position.

This becomes a sensory-motor exploration rather than a balance test.

The client is learning:
“I can feel where my weight is going, and I have options for responding to it.”

✅ That awareness can provide a useful foundation for later balance training, strengthening, gait work, and functional movement.

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

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🚨 When working with balance, gait, or persistent lower-extremity problems, it is easy to think about the foot 🦶 primarily as a structure.

We assess arches, mobility, strength, footwear, and alignment.

All of those can matter.

But the foot also provides the nervous system with a large amount of sensory information about our relationship with the ground.

When we stand and walk, information from the skin, joints, and muscles of the foot and ankle helps us detect pressure, movement, load, and changes in the surface beneath us.

That gives bodyworkers another useful area to observe.

Ask a standing client:
➡️ Can they clearly feel the heel?
➡️ Can they sense contact under the inside and outside of the forefoot?
➡️ Are the toes resting, or gripping for stability?
➡️ Does one foot feel clearer than the other?
➡️ What happens to the ankle as weight moves forward, backward, or sideways?

The goal is not to create one “correct” foot position.

✅ From a somatic perspective, we are helping the client become more aware of the information already available and how they organize themselves in response to it.

This can complement strengthening, balance work, gait training, massage therapy, and rehabilitation.

Before asking the body to control movement differently, it can be useful to ask: What information is the person actually noticing?

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

😫 Consider a client who injured or irritated one knee months ago.

➔ The acute flare has settled.
➔ They can walk.
➔ They have reasonable strength.
➔ They may even report that the knee feels much better.

But watch what happens when they stand up, climb a step, or walk across the room.
⚠️ They still move away from that leg.

During an educational movement assessment, you might see:
🚨 a quick transfer toward the opposite side
🚨 less time spent on the previously painful leg
🚨 a stiff knee during weight acceptance
🚨 extra trunk movement
🚨 breath holding before loading the leg
🚨 the client watching the knee carefully during movement

This does not mean the client is consciously afraid.

Movement protection can become habitual.

The nervous system has learned a strategy that once made sense: “Don't put too much weight there.”

A somatic approach gives the client a chance to update that experience.
Instead of forcing more weight onto the leg, begin with a small supported shift.

Let the client determine how far they can move while breathing easily and remaining comfortable.
✅ Pause.
✅ Return.
✅ Compare sides.

Then gradually connect the experience to a real task such as standing from a chair or taking one slow step.

This can work alongside strengthening rather than instead of it.

Strength gives the system capacity.

Movement learning helps the client discover how that capacity can be used with greater confidence and adaptability.

👉 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 hip or knee pain are not just dealing with the painful joint. They may also be using protective movement strategies that change how they stand, transfer weight, and walk.

🚨 They spend less time on one leg.
🚨 They shorten a step or move quickly away from the painful side.
🚨 The knee stays stiff during weight acceptance.
🚨 The pelvis contributes less movement.
🚨 The trunk works harder to move around the sensitive hip or knee.

➡️ These patterns are not necessarily mistakes. They may be strategies the nervous system learned when movement was painful or uncertain. The more useful question is whether the client still needs that level of protection, or whether they now have other movement options available.

This article explores how bodyworkers and movement professionals can use a somatic lens to look at gait, weight transfer, hip coordination, and protective movement patterns in clients with persistent hip and knee pain.

It also looks at how small, supported weight shifts can help clients explore loading a leg with less guarding, how strength and coordination can work together, and why meaningful progress may be less about perfect symmetry and more about confidence, adaptability, and choice.

👉 Read here: https://www.somaticsolution.com/persistent-hip-and-knee-pain

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

Persistent Hip and Knee Pain nsfer, and movement confidence, and how somatic education can help restore movement

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🚨 Walking requires us to repeatedly do something many persistent-pain clients have learned to avoid:
➡️ Move our weight onto one leg.
➡️ When the hip, knee, ankle, or foot has been painful, clients may shorten this part of the walking cycle.
➡️ They get onto the leg and immediately get off it.
➡️ Or they move the trunk quickly over the foot because lingering there feels uncertain.

This is where a small somatic exploration can be useful.

Try this with a client who can safely stand and bear weight:
✅ Have them stand with their hands lightly supported on a table or counter
✅ Keep both feet comfortably on the floor
✅ Slowly shift a very small amount of weight toward one foot
✅ Stop well before the other foot needs to lift
✅ Return to center and rest
✅ Explore the other side

Now change the focus from how far they move to how they organize the movement. Ask:
“Where do you first feel the weight change?”
“Can the knee stay easy rather than locking?”
“Can the pelvis move over the foot?”
“Does your breath continue?”
“Can you use less effort?”

The goal is not to force equal loading. The goal is sensory discrimination.

The client begins to notice what happens between standing evenly and fully stepping onto one leg.

That middle ground is important because walking is a continuous transfer of weight, not a sequence of fixed positions.

💡 Once a client can explore weight transfer with more clarity and less protection, that experience can be connected back to walking, stairs, getting out of a chair, and other meaningful activities.

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

⚠️ When a client has persistent hip or knee pain, one of the most useful things you can observe may happen before they ever get on the table.

Watch them walk.

Not because there is one perfect gait pattern, but because walking can reveal how the client has learned to protect themselves.

You may notice:

🚨 shorter steps on one side
🚨 less time spent over the painful leg
🚨 a quick shift away from one hip or knee
🚨 reduced pelvic movement
🚨 extra trunk movement to move around the sensitive area
🚨 a generally cautious or rigid walking pattern

These adaptations can be completely understandable.

If loading one leg has hurt repeatedly, the nervous system may learn to move away from it before pain even occurs.

The clinical question is not: “How do I make this person walk normally?”

A more useful question may be: “How is this person organizing weight transfer, and how many options do they have?”

In somatic education, we can slow that process down.

Instead of immediately correcting the walking pattern, we might explore a small weight shift while the client is standing with support.

✅ Can they gradually move toward one foot?
✅ Can they sense when the hip, knee, and foot begin to accept weight?
✅ Does the breath change?
✅ Does the whole body brace?
✅ Can the movement become smaller and easier?

These observations can complement massage, strengthening, rehabilitation, and other approaches by helping us understand the movement strategy surrounding the painful area.

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 neck and shoulder pain are not just dealing with tight muscles. They may also be using movement patterns that keep the neck working harder than necessary.

🚨 The shoulder blade stays relatively fixed.
🚨 The neck tightens during simple reaching.
🚨 The breath pauses.
🚨 The jaw grips.
🚨 Relief from hands-on work fades once daily activity resumes.

➡️ That does not mean the treatment failed. It may mean the client needs help carrying that relief into the way they move, breathe, reach, and work throughout the day.

This article explores how bodyworkers and movement professionals can use a somatic lens to look at shoulder blade movement, breathing, guarding, and home practice as part of a broader strategy for persistent neck and shoulder pain.

It also looks at why small, supported movement can help clients discover more efficient coordination, and how simple home practice can make treatment gains more useful in everyday life.

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

Shoulder Blade and Breath for Neck Pain Explore how shoulder blade movement, breathing, guarding, and simple somatic strategies can support clients with persistent neck and shoulder pain.

😫 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