Arnold Askew, LMT, GCFP - Somatic Solutions

08/22/2026

🚨 Upcoming live, hands-on, 14 NCBTMB-approved CE-hour course on Somatic Therapy and "Understanding and Transforming Chronic Pain" August 29-30!

The best continuing education does more than renew your license. It changes how you think, how you work, and what you can offer.

Join us for 14 NCBTMB-approved CE hours ✅ and practical chronic pain training for massage therapists and bodyworkers who want better tools and better outcomes. 📍 North Charleston, SC | August 29-30. Only $300.

👉 Info and registration here - https://www.somaticsolution.com/course-0826-sc

08/22/2026

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

This is where a small somatic exploration can be useful.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

08/15/2026

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

Watch them walk.

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

You may notice:

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

These adaptations can be completely understandable.

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

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

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

In somatic education, we can slow that process down.

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

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

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

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

08/08/2026

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

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

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

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

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

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

Explore how shoulder blade movement, breathing, guarding, and simple somatic strategies can support clients with persistent neck and shoulder pain.

07/25/2026

😫 Consider a desk worker who receives massage for recurring neck and shoulder tension.

The treatment helps. Their neck turns more easily, the shoulders feel lighter, and the familiar ache decreases.

Within a few days, however, the tension returns.

This does not mean the massage failed.

The hands-on work may have reduced pain, changed sensory input, and lowered muscular tone. The missing piece may be what happens when the client returns to the activities that occupy most of the day.

In this educational case, the client spent hours reaching toward a mouse with the forearm unsupported. Each time the arm moved forward:
🚨 the shoulder blade remained relatively fixed
🚨 the neck tightened
🚨 the breath paused
🚨 the jaw clenched slightly
🚨 the upper trapezius helped stabilize the arm

Instead of abandoning massage, the practitioner added a brief learning component.
After the hands-on work, the client practiced small shoulder-blade slides with the forearm supported. The movement remained easy enough that the jaw and breathing could stay quiet.

The home practice lasted less than one minute and was connected to an existing habit: three gentle slides after opening the computer and again after lunch.

The goal was not perfect posture.

✅ The goal was to help the client carry the benefits of the session into the movement pattern that repeatedly brought the tension back.

Manual therapy can create a valuable window of change. Somatic education can help the client recognize and use that window.

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

07/18/2026

Clients with persistent neck and shoulder pain are often told to pull their shoulders down and back.

That cue may be useful in a specific exercise, but it can become another form of holding when applied all day.

The shoulder blade is designed to move across the rib cage. It needs to adjust during reaching, turning, breathing, walking, and using the arms. The goal is not to hold it in one correct position. The goal is to restore comfortable movement options.

Here is a simple clinical exploration:
✅ Have the client sit with one forearm supported on a table or pillow
✅ Ask them to let the teeth separate slightly and keep the jaw easy
✅ Invite the shoulder blade to slide a very small distance forward around the ribs
✅ Slowly return toward the starting position
✅ Repeat two or three times, then rest

The movement should remain small enough that the client can notice:
🚨 Does the neck tighten?
🚨 Does the shoulder shrug?
🚨 Does the breath pause?
🚨 Does the jaw join the movement?
🚨 Can the shoulder blade glide without the whole trunk becoming rigid?

This is not primarily a strengthening exercise. It is a sensory and motor-control exploration.

The client is learning to distinguish shoulder-blade movement from neck effort. Once that distinction becomes clearer, strengthening and functional training may become more efficient.

Small movement can provide information that a larger, more forceful movement hides.

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

07/11/2026

When working with persistent neck and shoulder pain, one of the most useful observations is also one of the simplest:

What happens to the client’s breath when they move?

Ask them to turn their head, reach forward, raise an arm, or shift position on the table. Then watch for the small details.

⚠️ Does the breath stop before movement begins?
⚠️ Does the upper chest lift and remain fixed?
⚠️ Does the jaw tighten?
⚠️ Do the shoulders rise?
⚠️ Does the client rush through the movement?

These responses do not automatically identify the cause of pain. They do, however, tell us something about how the client is organizing the task.

Breath holding and muscular guarding can be appropriate when a task is heavy, difficult, or uncertain. But when the same strategy appears during a small, low-load movement, the nervous system may be using more protection than the task requires.

Rather than telling the client to relax, try changing the conditions:
✅ Support the weight of the arm
✅ Make the movement smaller
✅ Slow the pace
✅ Allow a comfortable breath between repetitions
✅ Ask whether the jaw can remain easy

The clinical question becomes:
❓Can the shoulder blade and arm move without the neck preparing for danger?

This does not replace strengthening, manual therapy, or rehabilitation. It helps the practitioner identify whether excessive effort is interfering with those approaches.

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

06/21/2026

🔥 Many clients with persistent pain are not just dealing with pain. They are also dealing with protective effort that shows up before the movement even begins.

🚨 They hold their breath.
🚨 They grip through the abdomen.
🚨 They tighten the jaw.
🚨 They brace the shoulders.
➡️ And over time, that protective strategy can make simple movement feel harder, less efficient, and more threatening.

This article explores how bodyworkers and movement professionals can use a somatic lens to notice breath, bracing, and unnecessary effort as meaningful clinical clues, not minor details.

It also looks at how small movement, better pacing, and clearer cueing can help clients move with more comfort, confidence, and choice.

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

Learn how breath, bracing, and protective effort shape movement in persistent pain from a somatic perspective for bodyworkers.

06/06/2026

🔥 In persistent pain work, more effort is not always the answer.

Many clients already use too much effort for simple tasks. They brace, grip, hold their breath, and recruit muscles that do not need to be working so hard.

This can make movement feel heavy, unsafe, or exhausting.

❓Somatic education offers a different clinical question: “What is the least effort needed to perform this movement clearly?”

That question can be powerful.

When clients learn to reduce unnecessary effort:
✅ Movement often becomes smoother
✅ Breathing becomes easier
✅ Protective muscle tone may decrease
✅ Confidence can improve
✅ The client gains more options

This does not replace strengthening, rehabilitation, or hands-on work.
It gives those approaches a better foundation.

When the nervous system learns that movement can be safe, clear, and efficient, other interventions often become easier to integrate.

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

05/31/2026

💨 What happens to the breath?

One of the simplest clinical observations in persistent pain work is also one of the most useful: what happens to the breath?

Ask a client to roll, reach, bend, or gently tilt the pelvis.

Then watch.
⚠️ Does the breath pause?
⚠️ Does the abdomen grip?
⚠️ Does the chest lift?
⚠️ Does the jaw tighten?
⚠️ Does the client rush through the movement?

These are not random details. They often show how the nervous system is organizing the task.

Breath-holding can be a sign that a movement feels less safe or more demanding than it actually is.

In somatic education, we can use this observation gently. Rather than saying, “Stop holding your breath,” try asking: “Can the movement be small enough that breathing stays easy?”

✅ That question changes the task. Now the client is not forcing range. They are learning how to move with less threat, less urgency, and more choice. For many clients, that is where useful change begins.

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