Knowing HOW It* Works — TELLS You How to WORK It!

And Your MOST Important ASSETS Are Your Knowledge, Your Skills, Your Insights & Your WISDOM

PLEASE NOTE: The Information presented in DSL Coursework can become very complex for some people. If you are not very interested in or inquisitive about sciences such as anatomy, kinesiology, physiology & physics and related linear data, if you do not like lots of information or thinking deeply about such things, if you do not like to read, my Courses might not be for You.

And some people have told me “This sounds great, but I just don't want to think this hard." Fair Enough! …

We DO have a BIG focus on meditation & mindfulness, AND we are definitely into having emotional & intuitive depth & interaction in what we do. But it's kind of a 50 – 50% balance, Thinking & Linear Analysis on one hand, Feeling & Intuition on the other. YET ... if you're a person who has a desire to become more scientific, or more intuitive, we can work with that. We encourage development & support of BOTH.

THEREFORE: Since there is no way for me to know how motivated you are, how well you absorb & apply more scientific or linear thinking, and such, I do not Represent, Promise, or Guarantee that you will be successful at "becoming an expert" or making more income from what you learn in my Courses or from my eBooks.

I DO Promise to make my Best Efforts to support you in learning what’s here and getting the potential results from my courses. I can help you get started on that path. SO ... if you want to get maximum value from my programs, videos, or eBooks ...

I can provide the Ingredients. And You will do the Cooking!

Thank You For Reading! — DSL

My Basic Premise for this Pilot Program

Over the 44 plus years I've been in the Field of Massage, Bodywork & Yoga Therapy, I've been ALL over this country. And I've worked with people from around the world.

And I've Also TALKED to a LOT of those People, including Massage Therapy School Graduates, about a lot of issues affecting the MT field.

Also, in 2015, I studied at a Massage Therapy School in Arizona that was considered to be Highly Therapeutic in the nature of its training & content. ... (I only went because I was living in Arizona and taking care of my Elderly & Sick Parents, so I decided I should have a License in case I needed extra income. But even with all my years of experience, and that I had TAUGHT in massage schools, Arizona State would not accept any of that as credentials. Never having gone to MT School, I had to take a full 750-Hour course.)

ANYWAY, one thing I learned was there are a LOT of massage therapists who have excellent training in a wide variety of massage techniques. And many have become very successful massage therapists.

YET, many of them do NOT feel they can perform really high level evaluations on Clients who have complex, long-term chronic, difficult-to-treat soft tissue issues. So they are not able to develop Treatment Strategies to reliably handle such Clients. They end up doing Poke & Hope. — Poke around in the muscle and Hope it gets better! — In many cases, that works out okay. But in more Complex cases, the results are often disappointing, or worse.

AND THEY KNOW IT! ... And it Frustrates Them. That is in great part because the massage school they graduated from DID NOT TEACH such high-level evaluation and a treatment strategy processes. And even the "highly therapeutic" school I went to, they didn't either! They got close, but nothing like what I do. In talking to massage school owners, that seems to be a very common situation.

I was especially distressed when talking to therapists who were getting out of the massage business because of various pains & dysfunction they had. When I asked them if their massage school instructors could help them, they said the instructors did not know how to fix their problems either! ...

But I Did!

In Addition, I've had many Clients, including Therapists who became Clients, ask me how come NO other therapist ever worked with them the way I do? Or there were a few widely experienced Clients who had maybe one therapist who worked somewhat similarly.

Truth is, there ARE a FEW therapists out there scattered around the world who do a FEW things similar to what I do. Yet they are Far Too Few & Too Far Between. And Too Hard to Find!

Then the Client often asks if I have trained any people in my Methods?

Well, the ANSWER is, unfortunately, NO. I've been very busy since 2012 taking care of my Elderly, Sick Parents, dealing with being Shut Down by COVID-19(84), writing several books, and other such things.

I did train a number of therapists around the country back in the 1990s, but that was 30 years ago. So most of them are probably retired by now.

BUT NOW ... I'm ready to LAUNCH my FIRST Fully Online Education & Mentoring Program.

Now, the Marketing Experts say I'm supposed to pick a Very Narrow Niche of People to focus my marketing on. And it DOES make sense from the point of view that Designing the Program for ALL Massage Therapists at ALL levels has its Challenges & Problems.

As you'll read below, though, I have designed this Foundational Program to be VERY flexible, VERY customizable, and VERY adaptable for whatever level of Therapist comes my way and is interested in and motivated toward what I'm offering. That's because MUCH of the program is 1-on-1 Contact via Zoom, telephone, or other such platform.

SO HERE'S THE DEAL ...

My Marketing is Primarily Focused on Massage Therapists who give a Great Massage, and are Very Successful at it. Yet they want to be able to do Higher Level Evaluations and Develop more Targeted, Relevant Treatment Strategies for those Complex, Chronic, Difficult-to-Treat Clients I mentioned above.

HOWEVER, don't be fooled by the marketing. Whether you are a recent graduate from a Massage Therapy School, or an Advanced Rolfer or NMT / MFR Practitioner, or whatever, I will, within reasonable limits, adapt this program to YOUR interests & needs, based on our communications & interactions from the VERY BEGINNING of the Program.

And Because this is a First Time Pilot Program, and I am asking YOU for your input, feedback & interaction along YOUR interests & needs, the PRICE is going to be about HALF of what I plan to charge in the near future. And THAT price is a FRACTION of what it costs to go to, for example, Structural Integration (Rolfing®) School in Boulder, Colorado. (The Rolfing Basic Training is $26,000 now!) ... And as you'll read about on my home page on this website, the Rolf Institute did NOT teach what I wanted to know how to do ...

Yet you will be learning that material here in the DSL EdgeWork Program..

So take look around this website. There is a LOT of information about my work on the Home Page of this site, and on the page with My Life &Work Story, if you've not been there yet.

There, you will, for example, learn why I decided NOT to become a Rolfer!

And Check out my videos on YouTube ( DSL EdgeWork ). Get In Touch with Me. (Use the "Get In Touch" button at top of these webpages.) Let's TALK and see if I can Help YOU with Your Practice.

BELOW, you'll see the Curriculum Modules listed with Descriptions.

DSL Edgework: Mindful Medical Massage, Myo-Structural Bodywork & Yoga Therapy

THIS IS A "PILOT PROGRAM" — It will most likely be a One-Time Opportunity to get access to DSL EdgeWork at HALF the Price I will be charging in the near future AND it will very possibly have a lot less individualized attention in the future.

Yet I want to make sure everything works right, that I am giving participants the Relevant Value they need and want, and they are moving through the course as best as possible. I want to make sure my Educational Videos and PDFs do the job. So I'm going the Extra Mile in this PILOT PROGRAM.

While there will be Group Interaction (which can be VERY valuable to expand all of our perspectives) each participant will go through the program more-or-less as an Individual, with individualized attention.

You'll have access to videos, PDFs and such for the Core Information, which you will keep. We will do Group Coaching on (mostly likely) Wednesday nights on an Ask Me Anything basis. And I will not close the call for the night till ALL Questions are answered. (Although, sometimes, my Answer might be: "We will cover that topic in Module #???")

You will also have a Weekly, 1-on-1, Private Zoom, Skype or Phone call with ME, about an hour in length, but for THIS program, I will not be very strict on time limits.

I'm more interested in you learning what you need to learn, not in sticking to a precise schedule.

We will cover whatever you need to move ahead in your Life or Practice. This is a combination of Mentoring & Coaching.

This PILOT PROGRAM might be the only time I do it with this much flexibility and individualized attention. If it goes well, I might not do as much, or any, 1-on-1 in future programs. Or it will be an additional charge.

I've not taught a LOT of DSL EdgeWork online before. I HAVE taught enough online that I know most of the work IS teachable & learnable online for motivated participants.

I've even coached Therapists thru a bodywork session on the PHONE!

Yet I am NOT sure how quickly ALL participants will be able to grasp the concepts and applications. And many or most of them will be very different in how they learn, and how fast they learn. And I want NONE of them Left Behind!

So this will be a CUSTOMIZABLE, "As WE Go" Education & Mentoring Experience for the Participants. I will adjust and modify any of it depending on the Feedback I get from Participants.

AND as I said, I will be working with Participants on a 1-on-1 Basis to a Great Degree. That way I can gauge how well you are learning and applying the Method. And I can make sure the program is geared to Your Individual Interests & Needs to the greatest degree possible.

THEREFORE, below is a TENTATIVE List & Description of the Modules and Is Subject To Change. ... That includes the Module Names AND Content of each Module and the Order they show up in. And the order might be different for different participants.

The CORE, Fundamental Information will be the same, but how it is delivered and the sequence might change, depending on your particular situation. And you might give me some New Ideas of what should be in the course!

Because I'll be working 1-on-1 with you, I will offer any Participant to Request I provide any Module in a different order for you than is presented here if it works better for you. And I will modify the content as necessary, if it fits in with the overall Method of Therapy.

The Purpose of the Pilot Program, then, is to engage YOU, the Participant, in helping make the program Relevant & Accessible for and by all them. And that should help make the Program more accessible & relevant to Future Participants.

That Development Aspect is also why the Pilot Program is about HALF the Price that it will be in the near future.

HERE ARE THE MODULES:

• Basic DSL Release Technique & Mindful Mindset for Successful Myo-Therapy

This is THE Primary Manual Therapy Technique DSL has used for more than forty years to achieve significant results in relieving tension & stress in muscles that had for MANY YEARS resisted all attempts to get them to Let-Go. It seems TOO simple at first, yet there are MANY important nuances in how to use it and how it works.

The Biggest Factor in successful therapy is MINDSET: knowing where the Client's and Therapist's Minds should be focused, and what REALLY makes a muscle Let-Go of tension. We will also go deep into the study the medically proven physiology & neurology on why this technique woks as well as it does.

Frankly, sometimes, this Technique takes longer than I would like. But I gained a lot more confidence that my Technique worked so well after learning that the medical science was clearly behind me. I was not just "getting lucky." ... And I hope YOU will gain that confidence as well. ... And when people have been in pain for many years or decades, they don't care if it takes a few extra weeks or months for it to work. But YOU need to be able to transfer YOUR confidence over to the Client so they can & will stick with the process.

And this content should give you the ability to immediately start using the technique with your Clients.

• Myo-Structural Decompression & Balancing — Standard Series

I prefer not to work with generic "protocols" or "recipes" or a "To Do List." You might have heard the term "One size fits NO one." A standard protocol can be helpful for many Clients, but in very complex cases, it is less useful, sometimes counter-productive.

Yet in the early stages of learning DSL Edgework, it can take some time to thoroughly Learn & Apply the Evaluation Principles for developing custom designed Treatment Strategies, especially when a Client with very complex issues shows up (such as in multiple car accidents). Yet there is a pattern of treatment for Effective Myo-Structural DE-Compression & Balancing that most people can benefit from. This gives the Therapist "something to do" for the Client while the Therapist goes through the learning phase of the DSL EdgeWork Structural / Postural Evaluation. ... And by performing the Process with your Clients, you'll develop your FEEL for how the DSL Release Technique works. And so will your Clients!

• BodyMind Breakdowns & C.E.M.&.N.T. 

This module Educates the Therapist on many of the problems emerging from C.E.M.&.N.T. — Chronic, Excess Musculo-Fascial & Nerve Tension & Stress. ... Knowing such things and how they happen and breakdown expands the mind of the Therapist and prepares them for the Challenges of CONFIDENCE that the Basic DSL Release Technique can be so effective for so many things. And educating Clients in how it all works gives them more confidence in the process, especially if they are a Client who needs a lot more time than others do. Which does happen.

• Self-Care & Massage Tools

Some of the Program Participants might be among those Therapists who have suffered over-stress of their OWN Neuro-Musculo-Fascial systems. Or they have Clients who are suffering the same. Or they want an on-going self-maintenance program. We help them develop various things they can do on their own, including effectively using massage tools, when there's no one around to help them.

Surprisingly, most of the videos I've seen on using Massage Tools do NOT show a LOT of the things I do with them. But I was in pretty bad shape, and had no one to work on me. So I had to figure it out myself. I will show you what I know!

If you ARE a Therapist who has significant issues going on, we can get this module in sooner rather than later.

• BIO-Structural Analysis & Homeopathic Interview

Orthodox Medicine tends to think of "structure" as the bones & joints, and only occasionally and minimally the muscles. And not much else. There seems to be a strong bias against creating assessing muscles as a primary cause of troubles. Maybe that's because with a few exceptions, they do not have great skills in recognizing, evaluating & treating excess muscle tension.

Ida P. Rolf (of Rolfing® fame), however, expanded the view of "structure" quite a lot when she started addressing the soft tissues — muscles & fascia — as far more integral to the structure of bones & joints.

OUR understanding is far more "wholistic." There is a Living, Breathing, Feeling, Thinking Human Being above, behind, or within the structure.

The BIO- prefix (meaning Relating to Life, Biology) in BIO-Structural refers to the fact that there is a Human Being behind and operating the structure, with a lot of physiology, neurology, & metabolic processing going on behind the scenes. They keep the structure living and going.

Our understanding of the Bone & Muscle Structure and the Physics of what makes a Structure "stand up" without falling down, is critical to observing stable posture & fluid movement. We learn about the physics of physical structures, combined with how the nervous system holds everything in place and moves it all around gives deep insights as well.

This incudes study of:

• Advanced Structural Anatomy
• Structural / Functional Kinesiology
• NeuroMuscular & MyoFascial Physiology
• BodyMind Philosophy & Neurology
• Structural / Physical Sciences (Physics)

Connecting The Dots

I'm sometime shocked how many physicians have told their patients that an injury they had many years or decades ago could not possibly be causing them a problem now. But there are MANY people whose body or life IS controlled by traumatic or injurious things that happened to them many years or decades ago.

Yet they've been "trained" by their doctor or therapist to discount those events. Very often, they won't even mention them to you unless you probe REALLY deeply. Some people take a LONG time before they tell you REALLY important stuff.

The Homeopathic Interview is about digging into a Client's past & current Reality & Health History to better understand what's really affecting them right NOW. All too often, events in the distant past are having a BIG effect on them currently. Unearthing and knowing these factors — and Connecting the Dots — can explain a LOT of things and can help the Client RE-associate parts of their BodyMind that have become DIS-associated, and affect better possible treatment strategies. ... We will look into the various aspects of Homeopathy that apply to such psycho-neuro-musculo-fascial therapy. (There is a LOT more to Homeopathy than just the little white pills some of homeopaths prescribe.)

• Myo-Structural Balancing & Postural Evaluation

Knowing WHICH muscle, or which parts of which muscle, to work, and WHEN, is a VERY important aspect of Therapeutic Bodywork & Yoga Therapy. Because the SOURCE of the problem is NOT always where the Client experiences the problem. A deep understanding of advanced structural anatomy & functional kinesiology help determine the Locked Short Muscles, which are usually the muscles causing the most problems and are the first musculo-fascial units to work with.

Recognizing the Locked-Long Muscles helps avoid throwing the Client further out of balance when systematically releasing their myofascial structure. And very often, the locked-long muscles are the one that hurt the most. So you have to be able to explain to the Client why it's not a good idea to work on the muscle very much until the structure starts to rebalance.

There have been a few times I broke that rule to give the Client some instant relief. I GREATLY regretted doing that!

• Myo-Structural Balancing Strategies

Once you have the Basic Understanding of "What's Going On" in your Client's BodyMind, it is time to figure out how to apply the information: What To Do, What NOT To Do, and When to Do It. This is done mostly by many Case Studies giving you a wide-ranging view of what can show up in people and what the possibilities are.

We will use MY Case Study as a prime example. That's because I had a very complex situation that was far worse than most of the Clients I ever worked with!

Beyond he physical & medical sciences, sometimes it does take a Moment of Intuition to "figure it out." And you are NOT always right. Sometimes there is a process of elimination going on. Sometimes, Clients have OLD compensation patterns covered up and HIDDEN by NEWER compensation patterns. So when you release the NEW compensations, sometimes the OLD compensations come up with a vengeance.

But your ability to prioritize the possibilities is greatly enhanced, and intuition almost always works better when it is a Well-Informed Intuition.

• Let-Go Yoga Principles & Practices

Many Clients get Surprisingly Great Results JUST from a properly designed & applied set of Let-Go Yoga Postures. Practicing a custom designed Series of Yoga postures between therapy sessions can enhance and maximize as well as speed up a Client's results. DSL has several unique nuances making DSL's Let-Go Yoga more effective than much of how yoga is more commonly taught. It also helps the Therapist with their own Self-Maintenance. 

To Start, we cover using yoga posts to recreate the hands-on version of the Myo-Structural Decompression & Balancing offered in the 2nd Module above. In the yoga approach, it starts with a simple, 3-posture process that is surprising in the positive results produced by JUST those three stretches! 

• Advanced Neuro-Musculo-Fascial Physiology & Neurology

Knowing the Bones, Joints, Muscles & Fascia is a Big Job. There's only so much they can do within their inherent constraints. But when you start adding in the nervous system to your thinking, it's like Playing with a Deck of 52 Wild Cards! The possibilities are pretty close to infinite!

What we do is study & understand the most fundamental principles of the nervous system, especially the Parasympathetic, Sympathetic, and Poly-Vagal systems. We learn about the Gamma / Alpha systems, and Golgi Tendon Organs and Muscle Spindles. And don't forget Renshaw cells! We do it all in the context of treating the neuro-musculo-fascial system as precisely as possible. We start with all that and see how far & deep we can go.

• Adjunctive Release Techniques

There are three Adjunctive Manual Tools or Techniques used VERY occasionally, maybe 10% of the time in total. But when you need them, there they are. The most used is the DSL Neuro-Fascial Release Technique (similar to Skin Rolling in NMT), used to reduce irritation in the Superficial Fascia, the deepest layer of the skin.

We also use Traction, and "Rocking & Rolling" on some occasions. What rocking & rolling the joints does is set up a "Pattern Interrupt" that "confuses" the nerve system, which often makes it "give up" its tension patterns. Traction de-compresses the joints while stretching muscles. But we do it with "The Edge" Technique so as to not trigger a "stretch reflexive reaction" causing the muscle to react with a contraction.

• Advanced Structural Anatomy & Functional Kinesiology

Once you have the Basic Principles of Structural / Postural Evaluation down, and know how the primary postural muscles work or breakdown, then we start diving deeper into the many other muscles and factors to continually expand you knowledge & perspectives.

This area of study can, for some people, be the most time consuming because there are SO MANY bones & muscles. We will cover the Major Muscles we work with in Myo-Structural Balancing and what they do in real depth. Then, you will have the perspectives and principles you can evaluate the other less treated muscles with a great anatomy book or online program on your own.

For those who want a Masterclass where I guide you through a highly detailed evaluation of most to the muscles of the body, that can be arranged. However, that will take a lot of time and that Masterclass would be a separate program with its own cost.

• Internal / External Ergonomics & Design

Very Often a Client's issues are arising from the way their environment at home or work is set up. It occasionally happens that unless the Client makes certain changes — like the re-positioning of their computer monitor, or maybe it's how they're lifting weights at the gym — they will keep re-triggering and reinforcing their Negative Habit Patterns. Sometimes, you need to make an on-sight visit to figure it out and even RE-Design how they have everything set up.

Too, sometimes, no matter what you do to their environment, their body cannot adapt until their internal, musculo-fascial tensions are relieved. A person who is always searching for "the right shoes," or the "right mattress," has to realize it is how their body is NOT conforming to the shoes or mattress that is a MUCH bigger problem. And until their muscles are more relaxed & balanced, their body will resist conforming to their environment.

This is a lot about educating them, as well as SEEING what they are doing, or not doing, that increases their problems. It might also give you insights into which muscle groups are really causing the most problems, and in more need of therapy.

• Common Pathologies Revisited

An Extension of the C.E.M.&.N.T. and BodyMind Breakdowns Module, we take those principles and examine a wide range of pathologies to see what can be done about them.

• Philosophy, Psychology & Science of BodyMind Therapy

DSL EdgeWork operates on a number of Philosophical Principles that direct and motivate how we think, feel & operate in the world. One philosopher said people and their behavior are controlled by their Philosophy in Life. But if you don't know what your philosophy really is, you cannot do much about it. Yet sometimes, our philosophy was unconsciously selected by our deeper psychology. We examine a few of DSL's Core Philosophies to see how they can influence how we think, feel, and operate in our Life & Work. And sometimes, we assist our Clients in such a Self-Exploration, as well.

To be Fully Transparent, I would start the whole program with this module. Yet I know a lot of people want and need to get right into the actual therapy. That's why I teach the Tension Release Technique right at the very beginning. But if people re interested in this, we a work some of it in as we go. Just let me know.

• Psycho-Emotional Perspectives & Integration

Understanding or knowing about our thinking & emotional processes and the physiology / neurology behind them can expand our perspectives beyond just looking at posture and structure, as important as those are. The Polyvagal System is a big part of this Module.

A Major Element of that is the work of Alfred Korzybski. He is the man who promoted the idea of Colloidal Tissues "absorbing" various nerve inputs and being remodeled by those here inputs. AND, another name for the Colloidal Tissues is ... FASCIA! It also so happens that Ida Rolf, founder of Structural Integration and highly focused on fascia, who was a trained chemist, studied with Korzybski. He also had come very important observations of human life and produced some philosophical theories that are foundational to my Philosophy of Life and DSL EdgeWork.

One of his principles was Time-Binding. That it is our jobs, as fully actualized Human Beings, to condense our knowledge, skills & Wisdom and hand it off to the "Next Generation." That hand-off could be from Teacher to Student, from Parent to Child, or from Therapist to Client. And THAT is what allows each generation to start out at a higher level than the previous generation. When people Time-Bind, they are advancing civilization. When they STOP Time-Binding, civilization begins to all apart.

So I approach this entire course as it being my job to "Hand Off" as much as I can to YOU so YOU can go beyond what I have done in MY Life and make your own unique, creative contributions to society.

I am also very focused on the development and interactions of AI (I prefer to call it Augmented Intelligence rather than artificial intelligence) and EI (Emotional Intelligence or Emotional Quotient). I believe there is a big market of potential clients, especially in the corporate world, executives who are recognizing the value of EI. With the proper focus, DSL Edgework can play a big part in helping people unleash their Emotional Selves.

My Intention for this Pilot Program is to give you the Education & Insight you need in order to BE where I was when the DSL Method was up and running and I was successfully treating and training other therapists with great results.

I have learned a LOT since then, but all the Fundamental Principles are still the same, with a few critical additions that I WILL include in this Pilot Program.

You will have the information I had, and you will know my foundational perspectives & insights, that I was using when I became a "successful" Therapist and Instructor.

From there, your SKILL development will depend on how well and how much you apply what you learn, delivering therapy in the treatment room, which I have no control over. After the Pilot Program is complete, I will be available on a Mentoring / Coaching Basis to give you more insights and help, but you have to USE the work to really understand and master it.

I will be Available at NO Extra Charge for ONE MONTH after the program I complete. Beyond that, I will work with you at a more than reasonable rate.

One area that can be challenging is applying the principles of Structural Anatomy & Functional Kinesiology to my Method of Postural Evaluation. I will be giving you the principles of postural analysis, and a lot of examples. Yet there are so many possible variations as to what you will run into with your Clients, there is no way we an cover even large fraction of them in a couple of modules.

To really master it for all body parts and all situations will require you study the anatomical & kinesiological factors on your own, beyond the scope of this Foundational Program.

If you wanted me to guide you through most or ALL the muscle / bone relationships in the body, that would take a LOT of time. My intention is for you to understand the principles enough that you can get a great anatomy & kinesiology book or online program* and use the Principles to study and learn all the many details of more muscles on your own.

(* I have several books and programs myself and I'm STILL looking things up all the time, there is SO much to know!)

CONTINUING EDUCATION MASTERCLASSES ...

HOWEVER, if after the program is complete, enough participants who want to study such material with my direct support, I can produce a Masterclass on that topic, such as "Anatomy & Kinesiology Applied to Postural Evaluation." To go over most of the muscle / bone relationships in the body might require a 2 or 3 hours a week for about 12 weeks, maybe less. The very first one of those Masterclasses would be a Pilot Program too, as I do NOT know for sure how well that can be done online. So the cost for a Pilot Masterclass would be VERY reasonable for the first group.

One thing for ME on THIS Pilot Program ( School of Hard Knots ) is to see what areas we might want to produce Supplemental Masterclasses.