Nelson trades martial arts for healing arts in Wilkins
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Being a serious practitioner of martial arts for about 30 years had taken its toll on Wiley Nelson.
A series of concussions left him with brain injuries, resulting in severe problems with his memory and ability to concentrate. “I could barely read,” he says.
As he was living near Washington, D.C., Nelson volunteered to participate in a low-energy neurofeedback study for several months at the National Institutes of Health, where he said he had very good results.
Back to about 90 percent of pre-injury functioning, his recovery got him thinking about the body’s own ability to repair itself. It also instilled in him a desire for a change in his life path and career.
“I wanted to do something besides make people fall down,” quips the former martial arts instructor.
His transition from a focus on hurting to one of healing began when he enrolled in the Pittsburgh School of Pain Management. There, he became trained and certified in therapeutic massage and body work and myofascial trigger point therapy.
“Myofascial” refers to the system of continuous, connective tissue that spreads throughout the body in a three-dimensional web.
His training led him to a series of teaching positions on the East Coast, which helped him further regain his confidence and increase his desire to help others.
“If you find something that works, especially if you’ve been in a state of disability, I think it’s your responsibility to try to pass it on.”
That’s exactly what Nelson is doing in Wilkins, where he has opened his practice, Pittsburgh Neuro-Muscular Therapy, on Brown Avenue.
The therapy is a comprehensive program of soft-tissue manipulation that balances the body’s central nervous system with the musculoskeletal system. The goal is to help relieve pain and dysfunction by alleviating the underlying cause, instead of just treating the symptoms.
Balancing the body’s musculoskeletal and central nervous systems is an aspect of health care that has been overlooked, according to Nelson. He believes his is the only such practice in the Pittsburgh area.
It is estimated that 80 percent of all pain complaints are musculoskeletal in origin, but “mainstream medicine has an almost hands-off approach,” in which doctors rely heavily on pharmaceutical drugs and surgery, he says.
“Drugs can suppress symptoms, but they seldom ad-dress the causes of myofascial pain. You can eliminate the root cause through some very simple manual techniques.”
Nelson’s two-sided approach includes trigger pointtherapy to relieve pain and neuromuscular therapy to reestablish better patterns of motion and balance. “My goal is to give the body the ability to go where it needs to go.”
Muscular pain and dysfunction can be relieved, he says, through pressure applied to trigger points – areas in the muscle and tissue that are highly sensitive to pain when compressed and send referred pain to other parts of the body.
Upon locating an area of tension while palpating the fascial layers, Nelson applies gentle pressure in the direction of the restriction until the pain releases.
The treatment methodology is similar to acupressure but is based on Western anatomy physiology, not the Chinese medicine model, he explains.
Neuromuscular therapy is not a substitute for medical care. All clients must fill out a thorough medical questionnaire prior to treatment and are advised to see a doctor in the case of pain that could indicate a serious medical condition.
Because the therapy is pressure-based rather than friction-based, like a massage, clients stay fully dressed. Sessions include some stretching of the muscles and are designed to be relaxing with little to no pain.
“If you balance out all the tension within a structure, everything falls back into place,” he says. “It’s like giving your body a gentle nudge to repair itself.”
Headaches and carpal tunnel syndrome are almost all related to poor body use, according to Nelson. Clients who had chronic migraines or back and neck pain have had better results from the therapy than from traditional medicine, he claims.
The practice also offers neurofeedback, or brain wave biofeedback, a noninvasive procedure that involves monitoring and analyzing brain wave (EEG) signals and reflecting that information back to the brain. He credits the treatment with reducing the symptoms of headaches and depression, as well as cognitive, mood and energy problems associated with fibromyalgia.
Functional improvement also has been observed in patients who have suffered strokes and mild to moderate brain injuries, as well as those with ADD, ADHD, depression or who are in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, autism or Parkinson’s disease, according to Nelson.
The number of sessions required for any treatment depends on the condition, but could range from one to a long series, with most falling within a five- to 10-visit range.
Nelson also teaches strategies and techniques of self care that enable clients to be their own therapists, such as proper stretching and exercise. “My goal is not client retention, it’s to make someone feel better.”
http://www.gatewaynewspapers.com/woodlandprogress/84157/
Several concussions? Ouch. I’m moving to Tai Chi when I get older.