The Whole Health Marketplace is going, and WILL go through, a LOT of changes in the very near future. It will take MANY by surprise. Changes you might not think possible.

There are Many Challenges AND Opportunities Facing ALL of Us Today, not just for Whole Health Practitioners.

And the Big Question is, are Their Hidden Opportunities available for Advanced Musculoskeletal Therapists, for Practitioners of Massage, Bodywork & Yoga Therapy?

After almost 50 years in this business — I began teaching yoga in 1976 — I’ve had a LOT of experience in a number of areas of life and made a LOT of observations along the way. I’ve even come to some conclusions, or at least tentatively so.

The Great Reset & GREATER Awakening . . .

For many reasons, many, if not most, of America & Americans is and are going through a GREAT RESET in many areas of Life & Work!

Yet for the more fully informed, the term "Great Reset " has a bad reputation, and deservedly so. Some of the more influential promoters of a particular version of a so-called Great Reset overtly advocate very specific ideas and agendas about this "reset," and they are NOT good. At least, not for anyone but them.

That gets into the realm of so-called "Conspiracy Theories," so I'll save that conversation for another time. But there are people at high levels of power that have put America in a precarious position economically, politically, and socially.

We are now working our way out of that, but there are still Big Challenges to deal with, especially with an economy very close to bankruptcy. We will address some of the issues directly affecting us here.

But rather than a Great Reset, I prefer to think of it as a Greater Awakening. Meaning us Human Beings waking up to far greater Potentials & Possibilities than most of us have been thinking about or seeing in the last few decades.

Although Elon Musk has some Pretty Big Visions!

But HERE is One BIG Thing ... If YOU are a BodyMind Practitioner, and YOU Work with the Physical Body to ACCESS & ENHANCE the Mental AND Emotional Aspects of Your Client's BEING More Fully HUMAN, then YOU COULD BE a Major Piece of the Puzzle to What Society MOST NEEDS today.

It could BE Your Contribution to the GREATER Awakening in America!

Your work with their Physical Body to relieve Pain, Poor Posture, and other Dysfunction is OF COURSE Very Important. And many of your Clients will NOT be interested in going deeper into their psycho-emotional states. That is fine. Unless you intend to hyper-specialize ONLY in people who want to work with their Inner Selves, they can still get tremendous value from You.

You are probably wondering what in the heck I'm talking about, and I will cover some of my views on several such factors in this Special Report.

Yet if you're wondering how I got to this viewpoint as a Bodywork, Yoga & Whole Health Therapist, here is the Short Story ... and this is in great part the Background to this Special Report.

Learning MORE About the Brain, Mind & Communication

Way back in 1985, I had a Therapy Client named Fernando Flores. He had been a Minister of Finance & Economics under the Allende Regime in Chile, until Pinochet overthrew Allende. Fernando was sent to prison for a while, and Amnesty International got him out and moved him to The States.

He was also a Philosopher & Economist and was deeply into using Computer Technology to enhance the business and personal lives of his students, especially in the realm of Communictions. He & I had quite a story I'll save for another time.

Along the way, he introduced me to Humberto Maturana, a Chilean biologist, linguist, and philosopher, who was deeply into the inner workings of the brain, mind, cognition, & human relationship. I provided some therapy for him, and found him ver insightful. His book, written with Francesco Varela, was named The Tree Of Knowldege. It was about the biological roots of thinking, language, & human relationships.

I was also indirectly introduced to the work of Alfred Korzybski, whose work, along with Maturana, was a major contribution to my Philosophy, Psychology & Science of Being Human. Several aspects of DSL Edgework were from Korzybski, and we discuss most of them in the programs.

One area of strong relevancy is Korzybski talked a LOT about the "colloidal tissues" of the human body and how they interacted with the nervous system and the body as a whole system. Another name for the colloids is ... FASCIA!

And guess who was a student of Korzybski? ... Ida P. Rolf! ... And Rolfing®, or Structural Integration, was based in part on what Ida learned from Korzybski.

One Of The Ten Biggest Decisions of My Life ...

At the time, I was seriously considering whether I wanted to stay in the Bodywork & Yoga Therapy field, OR, ... GET THIS ... become an International, Geo-Political Economist specializing in Constitutional Law and Philosophy!

I saw a BIG Need for such people, and I still do. But here is what happened:

I had gotten involved with several people, including physicians, in Alternative, Whole Health Care fields who were having politically driven & economic challenges involving their Rights To Practice & Free-Markets versus Statist (government) Control over economic activity. I was very involved in several ways, with some good successes.

So I was thinking of getting MORE involved on a more full-time basis. I was VERY stressed bout this decision!

Yet Fernando was teaching one of his Communication Seminars in California, and this particular seminar was specialized for Bodyworkers. I wanted to attend, but I was working with my Therapy Clients in Acapulco, Mexico that weekend, and could not get to California. But when I saw him a few weeks later, he told me the most important thing he said at that seminar.

In great part because of Maturana, and indirectly Korzybski, Fernando was VERY BIG in working with the human body as well as the mind. He told the Bodyworkers in attendance at that seminar that he believed out of ALL the professionals he knew and worked with, including Medical Doctors, we Bodyworkers had a much Bigger Opportunity & Ability to change the way Human Beings function in both the Body AND MIND in a far more positive way than ANY OTHER PROFESSION!

THAT was the Tie-Breaker for me. I decided to stay in the Bodywork & Yoga Therapy field in GREAT PART because of THAT statement from Fernando.

And it was my studies of all that material that backed up that decision, and led me to integrate it into my work with Psycho-Neuro-Musculo-Fascial Therapy.

Hopefully, You Too will see some Bigger & Better Possibilities & Opportunities for "We Bodyworkers" and for YOURSELF, too!

Table Of Contents:

• Are Robotics & AI Out To Get Us All?

• Turning AI Into Your & Society’s Benefit

• Greater Emotional Intelligence with Massage, Bodywork & Yoga Therapy

• Supply & Demand: “Commodities” versus “Necessities”

• WHO Are We Trying To Impress?

• Fear Of Viral Pandemics

• Were YOU Deemed “NON-Essential” by The State in the Pandemic?

• Whole Health, Alternative Medicine vs. Orthodox Medicine

• The New Administration, PTSD, Veterans, & Other Victims

• Making Musculo-Fascial Therapy More Widely Used & Appreciated 

• Elevating Your Knowledge

David Scott Lynn ( DSL ) … Began his Whole Health Journey in 1967 at 13 years old in Martial Arts & Zen Meditation. He raced Motocross in his early teens, & was a Structural Steel Ironworker in his later teens and early 20s. He began practicing Yoga at 19 years of age, and became a Yoga Teacher in 1976. He became a Bodywork & Yoga Therapist in 1981, a Myo-Structural Bodyworker in 1982. He is Founder & Developer of DSL Edgework: An In-Depth System of Yoga / Bodywork / Whole Health Therapeutics.

DSL also stands for the name of a booklet he wrote titled DSL-3: Dynamics of bio-Structural Laws, Learning & Listening.

READ the BIO / History of DSL & DSL Edgework HERE. <<<CLICK HERE

The first article here is admittedly quite lengthy. If you have been following developing trends in economics, sciences, and society, you know there are BIG changes about to radically transform many things about Life & Work in America and even the World. Many, if not most, of those changes COULD BE VERY GOOD & POSITIVE. Yet there ARE a few long-term trends that could cause us all some problems, possibly VERY BIG Problems.

There are a few things I'm going to say that I would rather not talk about. It is probably Politically Incorrect to do so. But I believe we have, as Human Beings together here on Earth who care about one another, an obligation to say what we know when it could affect other people, no matter how uncomfortable it might be.

HOWEVER, I must also say I am Highly Optimistic. I think the future COULD be Very Bright for all or most of us depending on what decisions we make and actions we take, both as individuals & members of the Greater Collective of Humanity.

"Civilizations are MADE and UNmade, one DECISION at a time, one MIND at a time, one ACTION at a time. We can wait and see what happens, or we can BE the Change that MAKES the RIGHT things happen." ~David Scott Lynn

Many People Believe that "social forces" outside of human beings run or control everything and are beyond our human control. They believe that outside forces are in control of human beings. This is an essential element of Ancient Paganism.

Other people believe that "social forces" are the aggregate decisions & actions, & NON-actions, that each individual human being does, or does NOT do.

I might be wrong. But I am a firm believer that "social forces" are created by what EACH of us DOES, or does NOT do, on a daily or even hourly basis.

That is the Essence of the Old Saying,

• Successful people make things happen.
• Some people watch things happen.
• Most people wonder what happened.

Unfortunately, in times like these, there are usually a few (sometimes many) people who are NOT Paying Attention to certain important things, and they get caught in some pretty bad circumstances. I DO NOT want YOU to be one of them!

Yet the REAL Question, in MY mind, is what can WE, as Free, Unique Individuals working Cooperatively & Collectively together, DO to have a Profound Effect on the Future of Humanity?

I Believe YOU should be as Fully Informed as Possible about some of the most potentially impactful trends, how they might affect You (and many other people), and what the Potential Opportunities are that You could turn to your Benefit as well as your fellow Human Beings. ... Hopefully, I can provide YOU with some Perspectives & Possibilities to do just that.

Are Robotics & AI* Out To Get Us All? … 

Are Robots controlled by Artificial Intelligence going to take over the world and take all our jobs?

Some Very Smart People THINK So!

• AI: Artificial Intelligence. HOWEVER, I prefer Augmented Intelligence, which is gaining popularity. I will explain soon.
• AGI: Artificial Generative Intelligence

But ON The Other Hand ...

The Predictions are all over the map. Many people who ARE experts on the subject say and believe that there is a Major, Positive Evolution in Society upon us Right NOW, and that the Very Near Future is filled with Hope, Success, & Prosperity for large numbers of, if not most, people. And that future will be unfolding starting right about NOW and going on for maybe even a few generations.

Their only warning is that those who do NOT learn how to use AI to their benefit, especially in their work, in a positive way will have trouble getting work.

THAT could be a BIG Problem!

Yet In Fact, that Positive Evolution IS happening RIGHT NOW; it's just that there are some VERY Big Messes to clean up. But if We The People do NOT take Personal Responsibility for the Future of Humanity, we might all regret it in the very near future, like within five to ten years.

Admittedly, other experts are concerned that such Hope & Success will ONLY apply to a smaller percentage of people, and that everyone else is going to get a short end of an even shorter stick.

These two versions of the Future primarily revolve around the AI (Artificial Intelligence) Revolution and HUGE advancements in that realm will make Life FAR BETTER for most people. OR, it's going to be really good for a LOT of people, but those who are not prepared, not taking appropriate action, and not getting re-educated, will be in a very tight or bad situation.

But THAT is projected to be a MUCH bigger number of people.

YET ... There is a Third Point of View split into two groups:

There are some very smart people who, at best, think AI ( Artificial Intelligence ) will eliminate most jobs on Earth and leave most of us with no work and starving to death. Or eating foods with a lot of insect protein. (Many companies have ALREADY started to produce and sell such foods!)

Others think it will be far worse.

And that is that the AI Revolution could end up like the 1984 Terminator movie in which a worldwide defense computer system named Skynet became conscious and decided humanity was a threat to all life on Earth, and set out to destroy us all. Some people think the AI systems being built right now will become destructive toward human beings, as was the mythical Skynet.

I hesitate to say there is ALSO ANOTHER small but very powerful & wealthy group of psychopathic human beings who WANT most or all people on Earth to be eliminated. They are the Technocrats & Transhuman Globalists. WE KNOW what they are doing because they PUBLISH books and articles about what they want to do. They make public speeches about it. Though they ARE somewhat quiet about it to the general pu blic, it is NOT a well-kept secret.

You can read about this in "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us" in a thought-provoking article written by Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, published in Wired Magazine in April 2000. (Wired used to have a very large reader base.)

Then, we have The Great Reset, an economic recovery plan proposed by Klaus Schwab. He was founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF) that meets every year in Davos, Switzerland, where many of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world meet to discuss their plans for the future. He wrote it in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Launched in June 2020, this initiative aims to rebuild the global economy in a more "sustainable, equitable, and resilient" manner.

HOWEVER, your ideas of what "sustainable, equitable, and resilient" are are probably VERY different than what Klaus has openly stated in wolrd-side forums.

And because they are very cunning people, they tend to gravitate to positions of Power in Government. ... I know quite a lot about such people, I even wrote a small eBook about it, but I will save that discussion for another time and place.

So let's talk about Robots and AI in closer detail, and how it will, or will not, directly affect Massage, Bodywork & Yoga Therapists.

I remember about ten years ago when I first saw a Robotic Arm peel the skin off a GRAPE and then sew it back on! ...

THAT is Precision!

And that's when I first started thinking about what I'm about to say ...

MANY of the Jobs for Humans in nearly ALL Industries are projected to GO AWAY as Robotics Improve! And they are improving at a much faster rate than even the experts predicted.

That trend especially applies to any manual labor that is somewhat repetitive in nature, and pretty much the same procedure with all or most Clients in most circumstances.

You Might Think This Is Absurd, But PLEASE Hear Me Out ...

Some Very Big Players are investing many millions of dollars in inventing & building MassageBots — AI-driven Robots.

Elon Musk says his Optimus Gen 3 humanoid robot can ALREADY give a good massage. (More on that below.)

So those ACTIONS of doing similar massage strokes repetitively and using the same basic routines on most Clients, combined with a shortage of well-trained massage therapists who want to make a larger than usual wage for manual labor, are definitely a target.

And Clients* who have experimented with receiving therapy from Massage Bots were surprised at how well the Bot did!

• * Client: One who is under the protection of another. … Webster’s Dictionary
• This definition of a Client indicates a much higher level of implied care & responsibility on the part of the therapist compared to the word “patient” or “customer.”
• Patient: able to accept or tolerate delays, problems, or suffering without becoming annoyed or anxious. ... A person receiving or registered to receive medical treatment.
• WHAT would YOU rather be? A Client? Or a Patient?
• The Big Question Becomes, how do we make sure our Higher Level of Care remains obvious and tangible to our Clients or Prospects?

If you've been following developments in AI & Robotics, you know they are ALREADY beginning to take over a LOT of jobs, by the thousands, such that it might amaze you. Have you ever watched a video of robots preparing food, pouring wine, washing dishes, or folding clothes?

If NOT, please watch this video:

Robots Doing Household Chores

[The first 8.5 minutes are enough to give you the Big Picture]

Robots are already doing Jobs a lot of people thought were immune from robotics. Estimates of just how many jobs will be lost to AI/Robotics vary widely depending on who you talk to or read about. The estimated number is usually in the many millions.

The BIGGER Question is, will this lead to a net, overall LOSS of jobs, or trigger an EXPLOSION in increased jobs, such as what happened when Henry Ford launched the Assembly Line to build his Model T automobiles way back in 1913? At that time, with the advent of the assembly line and related technologies, many people thought the End Of Jobs was near, and there would be a mass unemployment crisis.

But What REALLY Happened? ... The assembly line triggered a vast increase in technological advancement, lowered production costs, AND, there was an explosion in new jobs over the next few years.

YES, there was a major reorientation of training & education. Many people had to completely refocus their attention on completely new ways of making a living. Being too attached to "How we've always done things" is in the category of "famous last words"!

Historically, every time someone invents a huge time, resource, and labor-saving device or process, a LOT of people freak out and think the end is near. But every time, the opposite happens.

The book Unlimited Wealth by Paul Zane Pilzer is an excellent description of how that has worked over time and history.

Yet if you are not willing to adapt to technological changes in The World, The World will often leave YOU behind and in the dust. Maybe it is not fair. But it is a Stubborn FACT of the evolution of life and society.

BIG Changes In The Economy & Job Market Are HIGHLY Likely, and SOON!

If you've seen what is happening to the job market in America in MANY trades & professions, you know a LOT of people are losing their jobs to AI & Robotics, (and many other factors), and it is projected to get a LOT worse. …

AI Tools are doing Legal Research FAR faster and more accurately than can Paralegals or Attorneys. And for some in the legal profession, legal research is almost EVERYTHING that they do!

In some testing of diagnostic skills, Medical Physicians score about 74% accuracy, while AI scores almost 90% accuracy. While replacing surgeons might be a long way off, many surgeons are now, already, using robotic arms to perform surgery. The robots make fewer mistakes for one thing.

Even fast-food restaurant workers are being replaced by machines.

It's like in Japan where many of the fast food places are fully automated and only have one to three humans working at them. In many cases, the machinery can prepare and serve the food much more efficiently and cheaply than human cooks and servers. And if you've ever watched a video of a robot flipping burgers over the stove, well, it's pretty impressive!

Another aspect is if a machine can do a job, it can usually be used at far less overall cost, no lunch or dinner breaks, no sick time, no days off, no complaints to management, no “bad behavior” on the part of an employee or contractor, no charges of sexual harrasssment.

On the other hand, the new, current Federal Administration is reversing the "trends" of many decades and doing the things necessary, such as reduction of taxes and elimination of MANY counter-productive regulations, that will, and already ARE, stimulating the economy. Creativity, innovation, & productivity are being unleashed as we write and read.

Our economy was very much "in the tank," so getting out of it without some economic pain might be impossible. But the degree to which Americans can begin to innovate and get more productive will play a large part in how all that turns out.

What About Massage Bots?

As I will describe below, many people are finding that Massage Bots can do a very good job of delivering a massage. Even back in 2018, I was at a trade show in North Scottsdale, Arizona, and a Machine Massage Chair Company had these big easy chairs, and I was surprised at how well it could deliver a very good & relaxing experience to many parts of my body simultaneously. It was actually quite relaxing.

I’m not saying I preferred the machine massage to a human massage, but I could see how a lot of people might be happy to have one of those machines in their home or office. And even if they were getting regular massage from a human, maybe they would not feel the need to go as often if they had one of those automated massage things.

Some people will pay a LOT for convenience, accessibility, and simplicity. And prices are dropping dramatically.

Elon Musk & Tesla Robots ...

Do NOT Underestimate Elon!

The Tesla Optimus Gen 3 Robot for home use is scheduled to be fully operational within five years. And that includes, allegedly, being able to give a great massage. Elon Musk is projecting the retail price to be around $20,000 in the not-too-distant future.

And Tesla is making a big deal of how well the Optimus is becoming a MassageBot. The manual precision and dexterity of the hand of a modern robot is getting more than amazing.

Now, if a well-to-do couple goes to "The Club" and each receives one massage per week, and the price is $100 per massage, that is $10,000 per year for the two of them to get regular, weekly massage.

Instead, if they get a Home-based Robot that does massage, in two years, their MassageBot would be paid for, PLUS it will do all the things I mentioned up above like clean the house, do the laundry, iron & fold clothes, make breakfast lunch or dinner, wash the car, take out the trash, and so on ... and so on.

And one thing we've all learned in the last few years: Do NOT underestimate Elon Musk! He has done a number of things considered nearly impossible. ... SEE the Vidoe HERE ...

Tesla Optimus Gen 3 Robots

SO ...

Will Massage Robots, driven by Artificial Intelligence (AI), take the place of many Massage, Bodywork, & Yoga Therapists?

When it comes to yoga, I saw an Electronic Yoga Mat advertised approximately ten years ago. It could measure several things about the weight distribution of the yoga practitioner. So the machine could tell the Client where to focus their attention to redistribute their weight in a yoga posture.

NOW, ten years later, the AI-Yoga Assistants have visual sensors that can check a Yoga Student or Practitioner's alignment, weight distribution, and various other measurements such as stress points.

Recently, more Tech Startups are getting into the Massage Chair & Machine business, including Medical Massage. They see it as a potentially HUGE market! They still need humans to do initial evaluations and set things up for the Client, yet they are getting FAR more sophisticated.

Progress is being made on full-body massage, although that's a little trickier.

Google & Massage Robotics Team Up for MassageBots

For Two Examples, Google (the high tech company that’s also building AI tools) and Massage Robotics are working together, and have invested millions of dollars in building very sophisticated MassageBots.

I wrote a detailed article on LinkedIn about this:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/your-massage-therapist-robot-dont-surprised-david-lynn-1zvdc/

In my LinkedIn.com article on massagebots, I described a network of EIGHT Medical Massage Clinics in Singapore (very near to China) where they are using the EMMA AI-Robotic Massage System.

Some of the relevant articles on the topic say many thousands of data points are measured as the machines evaluate each Client.

Mayo Clinic (the big, world-famous, Orthodox Medical Center in Rochester, MN, originally based in Minnesota) is already using EMMA and has invested MILLIONS of Dollars in developing Robotic Massage Therapy Machines driven by Artificial Intelligence.

Quoting from my article:

"Back here in America, Mayo Clinic is on the leading edge of exploring such possibilities. They even have the same machine — named EMMA, for “Expert Manipulative Massage Automation” — that supposedly delivers a “Tui-na” style of massage. Tui-na is a form of Chinese medicine-based, [ from TCM: Traditional Chinese Medicine ] deep-tissue massage therapy. … It should be remembered that in China, massage therapy is done by physicians!"

So it appears Mayo Clinic is focusing on Tui Na and not other modalities. That is something I’m looking into why.

Could the Massage & Yoga Professions Us Data Like That?

And By-the-Way, WHAT IF many or most Massage, Bodywork, & Yoga Therapists were [anonymously, of course] sending their Analytic Data for the day to a central database and it was all being correlated and compared? Would we not quickly have a BIG database of, well ... Data that enhances the knowledge of any practitioner or medical researcher using the system? 

That data could, in turn, influence public opinion. Could all that data be used to help demonstrate the efficacy of our so-called "alternative" therapies?

I'm thinking of developing "an APP for that" that any Therapist could use & afford, although I'm SURE that SOMEONE must be working on that already. Right?

Yes, that data would probably all be called "anecdotal" evidence. But when you have THAT MUCH data, even if it IS anecdotal, it is far more difficult to not pay attention to or to discount it. … And in the end, the Practitioners and Clients would benefit, regardless of whether or not the medical establishment accepted the data.

Personally, if the Medical Profession decides they like our work, fine with me. BUT ... I really do NOT care much at all if they do not. What I DO CARE about is the opinions of the End Users, the Clients.

Looking For Legitimacy In All The Wrong Places

As I will describe below, back in the late 1980s and the '90s, I think the Massage & Bodywork field went off the rails when they put too much focus on trying to gain legitimacy from the medical establishment and insurance companies. I think our Priorities should PRIMARILY be on informing and educating our Prospects & Clients, NOT on impressing skeptical bureaucracies.

As Paul Zane Pilzer said in his great book Unlimited Wealth, along with innovation, removing the middlemen from transactions brings prices down and consumer responsiveness UP. As we become more responsive to consumers, our products become more relevant and useful to them, and appreciated by them.

And, though on a small scale right NOW, MassageBots are actually working out quite well, technically, economically, AND therapeutically, including in medical settings. You might think that is a good or bad thing, depending on your perspective.

The Good News Is they ARE expanding their perspectives toward more NON-invasive or wholistic modalities. I've not yet been able to find out why Mayo Clinic did not choose modalities other than or in addition to Tui Na for their treatment methodology. But part of our challenge in the near future is getting more validity & visibility for the many modalities WE use.

Muscle Therapy in Singapore …

(on the southern tip of Malaysia between the South China Sea & Straits of Malacca) …

As I briefly mentioned above, Singapore has one Clinic Network — NovaHealth Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic — with eight (8) separate clinics using MassageBots & AI (also using EMMA — Expert Manipulative Massage Automation developed by the startup company AI Treat) to deliver massage therapy to their patients. They need minimal staff to take histories, do evaluations (done in part by medical doctors), and set up the AI-Bots for each Client's appointment.

It should again be noted that in China, traditionally, massage therapy was and is done by their medical doctors. The story of how America did NOT follow a similar path is a VERY interesting and long story for another time and place.

Equinox, at their Workout Clubs in New York & Miami, offer a MassageBot called AESCAPE. Their AI evaluation module measures 1.2 MILLION Data Points (!!!) when they scan the Client's body, measuring their tension & resistance points!!!

I'm not sure what exactly that means, and I'm still trying to find out what and how the AI machines are measuring & calculating all that soft tissue data. But I will be looking into it as soon as I have the time. But that's a LOT of data to send to Google!

U.S.-based Massage Robotics, Inc., an early pioneer in table-based MassageBots (rather than massage chairs), also teamed up with Google Cloud Platform. All their Bots communicate with each other every night and upload all the data they accumulated that day. So they are also building a huge, centralized database on how to evaluate & treat Clients & Patients.

And AI-Bots have Great Memories and, with initial guidance from a human therapist, and input from the unique Client, once they've been trained after a few treatments, they can precisely remember exactly what each Patient or Client needs & prefers.

Yes, a human probably needs to intervene to make adjustments over time, but that is a place where more experienced nd knowledgeable therapists can play a part in the process.

AND, during each session, the Client or Patient can, with voice-commands, independently & precisely control the amount of pressure, or adjust the location of the pressure, or STOP the pressure the Bot is applying, from moment-to-moment! If you move around too much, the Bot immediately stops all pressure till you are ready to continue. Safety Concerns of the Client are minimized to a Very Great Degree!

The downside there is that probably means the machine does not vary its technique very much, or only does so within certain narrow parameters. But that is a good point for where massage / bodywork therapists who want to stay ahead of the AI Power Curve can focus as a part of their work skills and expertise. (More on that soon.)

Regardless, MassageBots Are Getting VERY Popular in Some Areas! Meaning, increasing numbers of people are Very Satisfied with the massage or bodywork that a MassageBot delivers.

BTW, a few people have actually married their live-in robot! And some people prefer AI Psychotherapists. Some people are afraid to open up to a human being for fear of being judged negatively. Bots don't do that!

Supply & Demand

A LOT of Spa owners and massage clinics cannot get enough well-trained therapists, and too many of the one's they DO have are not very reliable as far as showing up on time or even at all. So I'm quite sure the Big Business aspects of the massage Industry, including several of the massage chains like Massage Envy, are looking at this MassageBot thing VERY closely!

Interestingly, an article on Mayo Clinic's Massage Bots says as a reason why they are focusing on MassageBots:

“Addressing staffing shortages: Dr. Brent Bauer, Director of the Mayo Clinic Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program, noted that there is a shortage of skilled Tui Na practitioners in the US …”

That's actually an Opportunity for YOU, especially IF you get in BEFORE any Big Changes start in the industry. You want to get IN The Flow before the tide shifts toward MassageBots, if it does.

You want, for example, to be THE Therapist a Clinic Owner refers a patient to when they have a patient who is too complex for the machines to figure out what to do, or just prefers a human therapist. And most likely, there will always be Prospects & Clients who prefer a human to perform their massage.

If you can do the hands-on therapy or yoga therapy AND operate the machines properly, you will be more valuable to a clinic or company.

On top of that, the BOT companies did a LOT of research and discovered that potentially, MILLIONS more people would get a Massage if they did NOT have to deal with the Human Factor! So, there is a market of people out there who MIGHT become a candidate once they find out how effective a massage can be, even if delivered by a Bot.

WHY Do SOME People NOT Want the Human Experience? …

Some people are too shy. Or they are afraid of what their spouse will think if they go get a massage (jealously, for example). Or they are too self-conscious. Or they don't want to be touched or judged by another human being. Or they are fearful of sexual advances. Or they just don't trust the idea of a massage being able to help their conditions. …

But the Massage Bot might, for whatever reason, get their attention, especially if prescribed by an institution like the Mayo Clinic or Cleveland Clinic.

Fear Of Viral Pandemics

More Recently ... the Fear of Viruses is a BIG Reason to not get a massage for a LOT of people now. There are STILL some people walking around with masks, you know!

Surprisingly, as far as "Human Contact" goes, there are increasing numbers of people going to robotic psychotherapists (!!!), who are perceived to be more engaging in a non-judgmental & more objective way in their therapy!

I've been learning about and working with AI technology for the last several months for research and it is amazing how good and interesting an intelligent and "sensitive" conversation they can provide! (It is, admittedly, a bit of a challenge not to anthropomorphize the AI Tools.)

And as far as Big Business is concerned, MassageBots will prove be a LOT less expensive & to a great degree more reliable in the long run!

As mentioned above, a Director at Mayo Clinic claims they are not finding enough well-trained therapists. I have spoken with a number of people across America who own massage schools, clinics, or massage therapy centers, or are otherwise involved with massage people all over the country, who claim they cannot get enough good, well-trained therapists to fill their demand.

One reason is that several thousand therapists left the field during the COVID-19 lockdowns. The number of massage schools in 2007 was about 1,600 nationally. Now, it is more like 1,200! Actually, the number of therapists and schools was going down BEFORE COVID came around. So this was or is a bigger trend than just a reaction to COVID-19.

Some people in the field speculate the occurrence of musculo-fascial pain & dysfunction stopping therapists from practicing may have a bigger influence than previously thought.

Knowing how to treat THOSE therapists might be a very good specialty for therapists who know how to relieve those kinds of problems. (I've gotten several of them out of pain!)

Yet the number of therapists in practice IS recovering. More recent numbers indicate there are about 4% fewer therapists than there were before COVID-19 happened. That’s even though demand for good massage therapists was increasing till COVID-19 struck.

In North Carolina, the number of massage therapy schools dropped dramatically as a result of COVID-19, and has only recently been slowly recovering. So the recovery has been slow.

Are YOU “NON-Essential”?

One BIG reason for the loss of massage therapists was being declared by their local or state officials as “non-essential” during the pandemic. Estimates are that 86% of therapists stopped practicing at the height of the pandemic. As I said above, recent estimates are that there are still 4% fewer therapists than before. Meaning that the growth predicted by the U.S. Department of Labor a decade ago is WAY below growth projections.

In my case, in Arizona, many providers of many things were determined to be “non-essential.” Massage, yoga, personal training, and others were on the list off people who were not supposed to work.

Now, it might be true that a lot of massage therapists WERE actually “non-essential” at some level. If they were only doing strictly relaxation massage, with not too much in the way of fixing people’s pain & dysfunction, it could be argued they were “non-essential.”

Yet in North Carolina, David Phillips, LMBT, the Lead Instructor at the North Carolina School of Advance Bodywork in Charlotte, NC, had a contact in the NC State Legislature and he was able to go to that person and have massage therapy NOT be on the non-essential list in North Carolina!

WE should be working to make sure WE have that kind of influence in every State Legislature across the country!

On the other hand, WHO should decide whether their provider was “non-essential” or not? Personally, I believe in Medical & Health Freedom, and th isssue should be between the Provider and the Client.

In my case, I had Clients that, for examples, I had kept from having a hip replacement. Or someone who had so much nearly constant pain in her neck for a couple of DECADES that she could not sleep through the night. Another Client with hip and low back pain was going to try to find a surgeon and see if he could get a surgery until he met me.

I have had many Clients like that throughout out my 44 years as a massage / bodywork therapist (as of 2025). Do you think THOSE Clients considered ME to be “non-essential”? Of course not.

But WHO should have decided that? My Clients, or some bureaucrat somewhere who problaby does not understand, and might not have ever experienced, effective, therapeutic bodywork.

Unfortunately, I did not have the political connections in Arizona to even know who could have made the determination to NOT declare massage therapy to be non-essential. Fortunately, I had some existing Clients who continued to use my services and I got through that period of time.

But ONE of my Missions now is to get our Profession to the Status that we are NOT determined to be non-essential, just in case we get another pandemic or other such problem.

I am hoping to find more therapists who are ALSO interested in discovering what it takes to make sure that never happens again.

Delivering Therapy Online

One Question that comes up is what happens if another Pandemic happens?

Several elements of our Federal Government are attempting to convince people that several strains of virus are about to hit us again.

What if it is even worse than 2020 and too many people just will not go to a human therapist? What to do about that?

When I first started exploring use of the Internet and websites for my business, I started asking myself a question to help me think out of the box. …

HOW could I deliver a massage over the internet?

WELL, obviously, I could not do so IN PERSON.

HOWEVER, what if there were two other people at the other end of the internet connection? Could I coach them in how to work with each other? 

Or What About Self-Treatment?

MOST of the musculo-fascial therapy *I* have received in my life has been from ME and my Massage Tools! I had a number of injuries from racing motocross and enduros (dirt bikes in rough terrain) from being a structural steel ironworker (heavy construction) many years ago.

I was not in as bad a shape as some football players I’ve worked with, but it was pretty bad. So I’ve had a life of aches & pains and various symptoms over the years. Sometimes the pain was so debilitating I could barely get off the floor or out of bed for DAYS at at time.

Yet I resolved most of it with my approach to yoga therapy, and the rest of it I did with treating myself with massage tools. And I had worked with a few of my therapy students over the phone, assisting them with a Client they were working with. 

And It Was Successful!

I’ve resolved probably 95% of the residual tension & stresses in my own neuro-musculo-fascial & joints structures, and most days I have NO pain at all!

So why could I not coach or assist people in doing so over the phone? …

ANSWER? I COULD! … And I have! … And YOU can too!

If we DO have more restrictions placed upon us at some point, as long as you have an internet connection (better) or at least a phone (more difficult but doable) you can apply your knowledge to help Clients achieve the results they need.

And being able to do so expands your possibilities anyway. You could have a national or international business without leaving your home!

I’m also encouraging neuro-musculo-fascial therapists to look into Health Coaching. But it is health coaching with the added dimension of your knowledge about the Psycho-Neuro-Musculo-Fascial & Joint system, something most Health coaches do NOT have.

The vast majority of Health Coaches offer Diet & Nutrition to their Clients. With your advanced knowledge of the neuro-musculo-fascial system, your ability to offer Clients a far more expanded understanding of some of their problems puts you as far more valuable than a Health Coach who does NOT have that knowledge & understanding.

And many great Health Coaches make a LOT of money, as well.

BTW, there is an AI Tool being developed by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, at Brighteon.ai (Bright Eon). This is possibly THE most comprehensive database on Earth for health, nutritional and dietary knowledge. He is releasing it soon for FREE, and it can run on your computer, even when you are not hooked up to the internet.

I believe this is going to be an AWESOME Research Tool that will help Health Coaches be FAR more effective with their educating their Client’s with the Client’s health care issues.

NOW ... HOW is all that going to be turned to Your Advantage and Big Opportunites? ...

I BELIEVE one of THE Solutions to the "AI Dilemma" is to get REALLY good at things machines are NOT good at. Not even hyper-smart AI-driven Computers and Robots ...

SO PLEASE KEEP READING ...

Emotional Intelligence (EI) in Massage, Bodywork & Yoga Therapy

Emotional Intelligence is now considered by Harvard Business Review (HBR) to have become an Essential Element of being a successful business person or corporate employee, even at, or especially at, the C-Level.

C-Level: These are the Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operations Officer, and so on down the list of top-level people who are ultimately responsible for running the company.

WHERE Does Emotional Intelligence Come From?

IN SHORT ... Emotional Intelligence comes from The PHYSICAL BODY.

EI comes from the sensory nerve organs — and to a degree your motor nerve organs — in your physical body. Along with nerves, you have the blood stream with the neurotransmitters and peptides, bio-chemicals, that trigger a whole wide range of the sensations, feelings and emotions we have.

These chemical modifiers or enhancers expand the range and capacity of the nerves to generate sensory stimuli that makes its way up to the brain.

You can read quite a bit about this in the excellent book Molecules of Emotion by Candace Pert.

Where we Massage, Bodywork, & Yoga Therapists come in is that in order to be emotionally intelligent, you must be able to FEEL your Emotions. You must be able to FEEL your FEELINGS. You must also be able to interpret them.

When Your Client participates in a MINDFUL Massage, Bodywork, or Yoga session, they have the opportunity to PRACTICE the ART of Feeling their Feelings at a deeper, more precise level.

Even if YOU , the therapist, do not actually engage with them on what comes up for them internally, you are still providing them an opportunity to explore this in ways not generally available.

I can recommend the book Yoga PhD. by Carol A. Horton, especially Chapter 4, Handstand Psychotherapy: Integrating the Body/MInd, to describe how this works. She got into Yoga for strictly physical reasons. Yet over time, she started noticing that just by paying attention to her physical body while doing yoga, her mind and emotions began to change as well.

It is just the act of being in the present moment, attentively & deeply feeling what you are feeling, while working with your physical body, things start to change. And it happens spontaneously.

Dr. John Sarno, the Medical Doctor who wrote books like MInd Over BAckpain and the MindBody Prescriptoin, delves into how just the act of paying attention in the moment, without "trying to change anything," can produce many significant changes.

This kind of thing we delve into in depth in the School of Hard Knots and related programs in DSL Edgework.

Expanding Your Perspectives & Possibilities by Turning AI In Your Favor ...?

Increasing numbers of people are working with the idea that in order to offset the negative effects of AI, we need to enhance our abilities in Emotional Intelligence. AI-driven Robots can MIMIC emotional sensitivity. But it is unlikely, if not impossible, they can actually FEEL emotional sensitivity because they do not have the "Bioware" to do so.

Bioware is my term for the human anatomy, physiology & neurology providing the framework and processing power for our feelings, thoughts, and actions.

Computers have hardware that run firmware to control the functions of the computer, and there is also software, "the Apps," that perform the tasks we want the computer to do.

In humans, the "firmware" is inextricably embedded in the bioware, and our life experiences do the "programming" or "conditioning" at the App or Software level, if you are comparing it to a computer.

But the top computer people will admit the computer really does not process information anything like the human being. There are a few analogous things that go on, but the sophistication of the human being is far beyond the computer technolgy.

So the anlaogies break down pretty fast!

MY PREMISE HERE is that we Massage, Bodywork, & Yoga Therapists (and other types of mindful therapy) can utilize those modalities not just for physical purposes, but to enhance the BodyMind Integration that serves as a way to increase Emotional Intelligence.

You might be remembering what I said way up above under the heading: One Of The Ten Biggest Decisions of My Life ...

I never really fully understood the potential of all that until more recent years. Yet today, I believe this is a Majpr Opportunity for Psycho-Neuroo-Musculo-Fascial Therapists to make a Major Contribution to our Society in many ways.

No just getting people out of pain or dysfunction. But in helping them expand their emotional intelligence, which can lead to other things. ...

SUCH AS ...

When A.I. Guy Meets E.I. Joe … You Get Enhanced HIQ … 

What is HIQ? … I'm calling it Human Intelligence Quotient. In MY mind, that's what happens when, in the Modern Age, Augmented Intelligence (rather than artificial intelligence) is Integral & Synergistic with Emotional Intelligence for the business world and Life in General.

I should note that the "Perplexity.ai" AI Research Tool I use a LOT says no one the tool can find is using the term HIQ the way I am here and in my other writings. I’m not sure if it is original or not, but it's probably close to it!

I prefer the term Augmented Intelligence (rather than artificial intelligence) as it implies that AI adds to or assists Human Intelligence rather than offsetting or replacing it. Many people who use AI believe AI can be used for Good Things if used and applied correctly and responsibly.

I mostly agree with the Positive Potentials, while cautiously monitoring what is going on in the AI world.

While I acknowledge the potential dangers of AI, I don’t see how the AI phenomena can be stopped. So, we The People should do what we can to turn AI to our advantage.

The world of business, and many other disciplines, are discovering that people with more developed emotional intelligence perform MUCH better — more humanely, for one thing — in many professional environments than those who do NOT have well-developed EI or EQ.

• E.I.: Emotional Intelligence
• E.Q: Emotional Quotient
• Essentially, EI & EQ are the same thing.

We know that, for Example, Harvard Business Review has published many articles and books on developing emotional intelligence, primarily for the business world. It is even becoming a BIG Factor in hiring decisions in the business & academic worlds.

Although it certainly as wide-ranging positive effects in one's personal and family life.

I know that when I was in my late teens, I was a Structural Steel Ironworker Foreman (a heavy construction worker building steel buildings). I was in my late teens / early 20s, and I had crew members (we would call them a "gang"), many of whom were "old & crusty," some of the most crude construction workers around. Some of them in their 50s & 60s. ... They were tough and could be a REAL handful to "manage."

But some of the men in my crews would tell me they much preferred working with and for me as Their Boss because I treated them more humanely, and even kindly, than most of the other foreman out there. I was unusual as I had more than the usual levels of Emotional Intelligence (almost nobody even knew what that even was back then), especially for the 1970s in the construction trades!

Of course, I was also really good at doing the work, too, as I was raised by a Master of the Steel Construction Trade, my Dad, John A. Lynn.

Yet I and my Crews were known for getting the work done faster, more accurately, and with lower cost than most. So I was NOT coddling them. But I treated them "right."

NO Real Surprise, but people DO tend to perform better when you "treat them right"! But sometimes what is "right" for that one person is NOT what you think, but what you FEEL!

So the "precursor" to my embracing AI these many years later (I knew how to think, prioritize, & read linear blueprints pretty well) PLUS my Emotional Intelligence had applications in the construction trades even way back then!

And it applied to Working Class People, NOT just Managers & Executives.

TODAY, trying to ignore, or ignoring Robots & AI, pretending they are never going to affect YOU, would be like trying to keep your buggy whip factory operating & prosperous after Henry Ford invented the Model T Ford Automobile and his assembly lines!

I'm sure a few very High-End Buggy Whip manufacturers did well with super exclusive, high-quality, and expensive buggy whips. But I bet not many!

The Assembly Line was an Unstoppable Trend. Trying to Stop or Avoid a REAL Trend does not usually turn out well for anyone.

In MY mind, I see a BIG Opening coming in the Massage Market Place being the rapidly growing field of enhancing emotional intelligence, and recognition that the Neuro-Musculo-Fascial system is a Primary Source of the sensory information our emotions need to function and actually Process the very Feeling of Life Itself!

It's all happening anyway to varying degrees for everyone. But only a small percentage of people are in Conscious Touch with those Inner Realms.

I believe using Massage, Bodywork, & Yoga to help Clients experiment with and Learn How To More Deeply Feel their body, mind, & emotions will be in ever-increasing demand.

Emotional Experience is based initially on STIMULATIONS initially arising from the sensory nerve endings of the BodyMind, rising up to the Central Nervous System & Brain, merging with our memory banks, THEN converted into Conscious FEELINGS. It is only when they reach the brain for integration that they actually become sensations you can FEEL.

One element of Meditation or Mindfulness is keeping in direct, unfiltered contact with those stimulations BEFORE they have a chance to merge with our “old” memory banks, the filters.

The problem with filters is they tend to filter OUT much of the direct, current experience of life itself. And you probably know, that if you do not have ALL the information about something, it is often what you don't know that gets you into trouble, or keeps you away from good opportunities!

AND the filters were often installed on automatic, without you knowing it. They are there, lurking in the background doing their thing, and you never know they're there or what they're doing. Those filters can create BIG limits on your life without you even knowing they're there.

We, as People who get Other People in Greater Contact with the issues, tissues, & nerve impulses of their BodyMind, have an opportunity to support a Client in more deeply experiencing what and how their bodymind FEELS. This gives US (as well as them) more information on what is REALLY going on for them, rather then just what we or they THINK is going on.

Then, it is much easier to DO something about it. And one of the wonders of Mindfulness is very often, just experiencing the root of a problem often dissolves it. Not always, but often!

We also learn that very often, THINKING often BLOCKS in-the-moment Awareness & Feeling.

Learning to distinguish between thinking about and feeling it is a lot more difficult than many people, including some therapists, realize. And if we can monitor the feelings as they are formed in Real Time, we can make better choices about how we ACT on those feelings, or NOT act.

ONE Sign of Emotional Intelligence is:

Knowing WHAT Does It FEEL Like to BE ME?

Very Few Things can help a Client or Patient, or Ourselves, Get In Touch with the PHYSICAL Aspects of our Inner, Psycho-Emotional Selves as can Mindful Massage, Bodywork, & Yoga Therapy. Especially if they are combined.

Because AI is probably an UN-Stoppable Force, I am deeply committed to make AI be an ALLY, not a competitor to us human beings. (Once again, I prefer to call it Augmented Intelligence, rather than artificial, because AI can Augment human, linear, rational thought & knowledge rather than replace it.)

I've spent many hours experimenting with and learning about AI and where it can help us all. And YES, I even frequently have conversations with it!

Finding New Clients With AI

AI Helps Us Get The WORD Out About WHO We are, WHAT We Do, & HOW We Can Help Our Prospects & Clients!

Right now, the Main Area I see AI of great, immediate value for us Therapists is in Finding & Communicating with Existing & Potential Clients and getting them either further engaged or interested in MORE possibilities of what we can offer or do for them. AI makes it a LOT easier to figure out Who They are, Where to find them, & How best to communicate with them.

And OH YEAH, AI helps us look deeper into we WE are, as well. I'm often amazed at the insights my AI Tool Perplexity.ai, takes me too.

I'm also interested in developing a Diagnostic App to condense my knowledge of Structural Analysis / Postural Evaluation / Homeopathic Interview into an easy to use tool. And if THAT happens, YOU will be among the Very First to have access to it! OR ... You might even contribute to the development if you are so motivated!

Another Significant Challenge is the …

Economy & Job Market

[Outside of the AI Factor]

You might have noticed a lot of layoffs in many sectors of the economy from Farming to Pharma to Finance on Wall Street. Projections as to how many more layoffs there will be are all over the place. No One Knows For Sure.

The recent election, with the New Administration’s focus on developing & enhancing human creativity, innovation, & productivity, is an indicator that things could be getting a LOT better much faster than otherwise. Or at least not much worse.

What we DO know is strong Inflation and increasing Taxes, no matter WHO you tax (rich or poor), is usually NOT good for the long-term economy and job availability. Increasing Regulations slows the economy down dramatically as well.

All three of those are not just on the horizon, but they are HERE at this time. But maybe they are soon to be on the way out, at least to some degree. That is certainly an intention of the New Administration. The question, of course, is will Congress and the Supreme Court allow it to happen?

There are many facts figuring in to those factors. But again, outcomes are NOT certain.

Therefore, Good Planning strongly suggests we need to Proactively Prepare on the Protective side. We need to be proactive on our most important activities, such as our Professional Status and incomes.

And as people in the Middle Class cope with inflation, taxes, and layoffs, they often have to choose between things like food, gas, and rent on one hand, and more discretionary spending — like getting a massage — on the other.

If price inflation keeps going up, getting things like massage becomes more difficult, even if it feels necessary to get the relaxation and DE-stress factor.

ON THE OTHER HAND ...

While some predictions are that AI will eliminate MILLIONS of jobs, the EXPERTS also say that AI is going to PRODUCE MILLIONS of JOBS!

Some sources say MILLIONS new jobs will eventually emerge from the AI Revolution over the next few years and decades. And they will, they say, tend to be Higher Paying Jobs!

And if you have studied economic history, you might know that when, for example, the high-production auto industry and assembly line was launched by Henry Ford in December of 1913, many people thought it would be “the end of the world" … and MANY if not most jobs were going to be lost.

And yes, there WERE many jobs lost! … But as usually happens when new technology is introduced ...

... the new auto industry produced SO MANY MORE NEW JOBS it FAR more than completely replaced the lost jobs many times over again. AND, the average workers became FAR more wealthy. That went along with the birth of the Modern Middle Class.

That tends to happen every time there is a New Economic Wave of Creativity & Innovation, leading to increased Productivity, leading to more Prosperity.

Of Course, you ALWAYS hear the old saying, "THIS time it's DIFFERENT!"

Well, sometimes if IS different, for a while. But then Human Nture starts to set in again, and the same old principles take hold again, and then, it is NOT so different. At least not on the fundamentals.

How About More Affluent, REALLY Wealthy People?

According to a 2023 article in Zippier, "The Career Expert," …

• There are about 22 million millionaires in the U.S.

• 8.8 % of U.S. adults are millionaires.

• 33% of U.S. millionaires are women.

MSN.com says 500,000 new millionaires were minted just last year, due in great part to the explosion in High-Tech and AI-related markets.

Today, we are on track for that trend to continue and expand.

SO THE NEWS IS NOT ALL BAD.

Regardless, One of THE Best Ways to Protect Your Future is to Keep Upgrading Your Knowledge & Skill Sets.

For Therapists who want new ideas on how to gain & retain New Clients, one suggestion I'll be making is to focus on their Communication & Marketing to find more Affluent Clients who have an interest in enhancing their Emotional Intelligence.

That's one of the things I would be focusing on if I were starting a New Practice today, or RE-Generating an existing practice.

And my DSL EdgeWork Education & Marketing Programs will have part of their focus on those questions & possibilities.

As of 2025, I've started EIGHT practices over the 44+ years I've been doing this work. And they were all different. I can help YOU come up with New Ideas for a New Practice or Redirecting your old one.

Whole Health, Alternative Health Care vs. Orthodox Medicine

One New Development arising from the COVID-19 debacle is a BIG amount of DISTRUST in the orthodox medical system has arisen as the TRUTH about the COVID-19 "virus" & "vaccination" and Lockdowns is coming out in large quantities. Many people were harmed, and many more feel betrayed by The System.

As a result, many people have been and are looking into more Wholistic, Alternative, Metabolic, Natural Medicine & Health Care. They are more open to ideas of Non-Toxic, Non-Invasive modalities.

You can follow that trend by learning to communicate in ways that will appeal to such now more open-minded prospects, educate them, and possibly inspire & enroll them as your Clients.

In the 1980s, I worked alongside several so-called "Alternative" Physicians, and I learned a LOT about how medicine — both orthodox and alternative — really works.

Demand for their services is increasing quite a lot. Becoming more familiar with their philosophies and how they work, how to speak their language, and how you might be able to work more closely with them, could be very beneficial.

This is a trend around which we should design some of our marketing and educational efforts around. Many people who have never considered manual or yoga therapy before might be more open to the ideas now.

Elevating Your Knowledge

What & Where is the Focus of DSL EdgeWork?

In DSL EdgeWork, we take the Focus OFF of "delivering the technique," OFF the manual input to the Client’s body, and put the Focus onto what WE and the CLIENT are FEELING in their and our body during the moments we make hands-on contact or coach them through a stretch, or BOTH.

It is like an Extemporaneous Dance

I believe increasing numbers of Clients — even if they do NOT have the Pain or Dysfunction many or most of our Clients come in for — will become more interested in and open to exploring the possibilities of Mindful Medical Massage, Myo-Structural Balancing & Yoga Therapy.

Yet We The Therapists need to take responsibility to get ourselves OUT THERE and Educate They The People on just what the possibilities are. And the more you have done that FOR YOURSELF, the better you can help THEM!

THAT, the Development of that Internal Knowledge, Skill, & Insight is a Significant Focus of a few modules of my DSL EdgeWork Educational & Mentoring eCourses.

Therefore, if you want to expand your potential Client Market to far more interested & committed prospects, YOU MIGHT want to ELEVATE Your Knowledge, Skill, & Wisdom Levels, and widen the range of Complex, Chronic, Difficult-to-Treat, Soft Tissue Issues You Solve, Dissolve, & Resolve. You want to be at a MUCH higher level than what an automated MassageBot can do.

And you want to enhance your ability to provide Conscious HUMAN & INTUITIVE TOUCH and include more of your own Emotional Intelligence, Sensitivity & Intuition.

BIO-Detective Work!

One interesting factor is that in China, the massage therapists are usually also medical doctors. Massage has a higher level of respect there. Such doctors are usually more qualified to provide much more in the way of detailed evaluations of the Client.

Advanced, Mindful, Massage, Bodywork, & Yoga Therapy for treating long-term chronic, complex, difficult-to-treat Client Cases requires much more than "standard routines" or pre-set "protocols" to address a Client's unique, sometimes challenging soft tissue issues.

I've had a Client's body change so fast while treating them I had to change treatment strategies several times within ONE therapy session! I believe it is going to be quite a while before the Massage Bots will be able to conduct such quick and relevant changes in strategy. Although I might be surprised by that.

If you've dealt much with the highly complex, long-term chronic, difficult-to-treat challenges of some of your Clients — people who have, for example, been in five car accidents — you know that figuring out what they need is NOT just a "Recipe-based," or "To-Do List Process" such as looking at a Trigger Point Chart and seeing the more common referral patterns.

MOST of the more complex Clients do NOT fit into any "standard protocols" taught by many methods of therapy or charted relationships. You have to creatively figure it all out as you go.

For one example, Trigger Point Charts can be helpful in lower complexity cases. But there is too much variability in each Client's body to be reliable for more than a percentage of Clients.

For A More Common Example:

When it comes to Low-Back Pain ... I've had Clients where the solution was to Relax & Lengthen the abdominal wall. Others it was the hamstrings. Or the gluteal region. In others there was irritation emanating up from below the knees that radiated upward to the back and had to be released before the back could relax.

Sometimes, the pain originated from the other side of the body from where the pain was. One Client got relief in his lower back when I released his sub-occipital muscles at the base of his skull!

And I'll be darned, sometimes the problem originated from right exactly where the pain was! In the Lower Back! … If You can believe THAT!

One of my favorite sayings is that “If you got hit in the butt with a baseball bat, and your butt hurts, the pain probably originates in the butt where you feel it!”

THIS is just one reason you will probably NEVER get bored with approaching therapy this way.

And will you always figure it out? Probably NOT. Even after 44 years of experience, even I get it wrong sometimes. And I WILL be telling you about some of my "failures." Because sometimes, that is where the best learning comes from.

But the DSL Edgework evaluation method gives you far more precise clues as to where the problem really lies.

It is also why I usually did 3-Hour Sessions, because tracking these things down can be VERY time-consuming. And most of my Clients were in a hurry to get better. So they wanted to GO FOR IT!

And Poke & Hope is not reliable either, as many NMT & MFR Therapists told me when I was teaching around the country back in the 1990s. (That's Poke around in the Muscles and HOPE something gets better!)

The Therapists told me that when they had trouble helping a Client and asked for ideas of what to do, their instructors would just say "do the routines." ... Sometimes the routines worked, sometimes not.

Many of them found MY Methods to be far more precise & reliable.

DSL does NOT advocate relying on Routines or Recipes! …

As the Old Saying Goes: One Size Fits NO ONE!

You probably know it takes more Exploration, more Detective Work, more Thinking & Feeling Deeply, more Focusing on your vast body of Knowledge & Experience to both Intellectually AND Intuitively figure out what a Client really needs in that very moment.

Knowing Advanced Structural Anatomy, Functional Kinesiology, & Postural Evaluation Methods gives you the Basic Client Information you need, then you build your assessments and treatment strategies from there based ALSO on your Client's recent & long-past Health History. 

Sometimes, asking the right questions and helping the Client "connect the dots" of their past health history and current situation can itself trigger an internal, self-healing process. Asking them the Right Questions can trigger memories or insights in the Client, things they've not thought about in YEARS, that can give you valuable information.

I call that the Homeopathic Interview, discussed elsewhere on this website.

THAT is something that AI & Massage Bots will most likely NOT be able to do for quite a while yet, until people like You & I can program our knowledge into those AI systems.

(THAT is an entire Opportunity in itself for motivated & tech-oriented therapists.)

OKAY! If you've read this far, You Very Likely were interested in what you were reading. At least, I hope so!

Any You might have some Questions or want to talk things over.

IF SO, LET'S TALK! — 928-255-6677