PERSONAL BACKGROUND

After medical treatment with bracing and cortizone injections for tendonitis 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 made me wait, 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 clutch, accelerator and brake.

It was in that condition -- with neck injury pain and sciatica -- that I came into training under Emmet Hutchins, Ida Rolf's first appointed 'teacher in perpetuity' in the methods of The Rolf Method of Structural Integration; and then into training under Thomas Hanna in the methods of Hanna Somatic Education^®; and then into training under Stacey Mills, at the time the world's oldest living Rolfer.

The sciatica disappeared during my first week of training with Thomas Hanna, under the ministrations of my co-students, and it never returned. I was able to reduce the intensity of the neck injury pain by fifty percent the day I learned the prime method of Hanna Somatic Education, "assisted pandiculation", in one self-administered two-hour session in the bedroom I rented during training. 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 a right knee injury trying to "crack" it to get rid of an annoying sensation in the joint. Well, I cracked it, all right. The sudden new knee pain went down the core of my leg into my ankle. My knee felt broken, probably a knee meniscus injury. 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 knee stability without surgery. (One might wonder how we did that, given that the surgeon wanted to drill a hole in his tibia, cut the gracilis muscle and attach it through the hole. The answer: by organizing the soft tissue wrapping around the knee for balanced support in movement, we were able to stabilize the knee joint -- again, a combination of somatic education and structural integration.) My friend soon returned to playing frisbee football.

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, shielded by my car and the second-hand recipient of the impact, I later learned, underwent therapy for a whiplash injury. I had no residual effects from the collision (thanks, it would seem to somatics) and I ended up with a better car.

Qualifications and Background

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.

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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