Beyond Muscles: Pain, Posture, and Bodywork through the Lens of Neuroscience

Beyond Muscles: Pain, Posture, and Bodywork through the Lens of Neuroscience is organized by Niel Asher Education.

Description:
This livestream series has now concluded. You may purchase full lifetime access to all session recordings, course materials, CE exam, and certification.

Step beyond traditional musculoskeletal thinking and explore pain, posture, and manual therapy through the powerful and practical lens of modern neuroscience. This recorded three-part series, taught by neuroscience expert and licensed bodyworker Dr. Mark Olson, PhD, LMT, offers an accessible, clinically grounded pathway to understanding how the brain, body, and lived experience interact to shape pain and movement.

Designed for therapists, trainers, and rehabilitation professionals, this course bridges cutting-edge science with hands-on practice—helping you work more effectively, safely, and compassionately with clients experiencing pain and postural challenges.

What’s Included
Lifetime on-demand access to all three sessions covering:
Session 1: Rethinking Pain, Posture & Manual Therapy

Discover what pain truly is—and what it isn’t. Dr. Olson breaks down:

• The difference between nociception and pain
• Pain as a constructed sensory experience
• Sensitization and descending modulation
• Endocrine and immune system influences
• This session reframes pain as an adaptable, brain-driven process, providing a vital foundation for all manual and movement professionals.

Session 2: The Neuroscience of Posture & How Bodywork Works
Explore posture as an adaptive behavioural output, influenced by:

• Nociception
• Emotions
• Interoception
• Social roles and habits

Then dive into what makes bodywork effective—the science behind interoception, c-fibers, deep sensation versus deep pressure, and how therapeutic relationship, context, and intentional input shape outcomes. Learn evidence-informed mechanisms such as ascending and descending inhibition, relieving nervi nervorum, distraction, pleasure, and more.

Session 3: Ethics, Safety, Scope & Clinical Applications

This recorded discussion and Q&A session focuses on:

• Creating implicit safety in the treatment environment
• Avoiding nocebos
• Respecting the body’s adaptive strategies
• Understanding therapeutic boundaries through a neuroscience lens
  Dr. Olson unpacks complex cases and provides nuanced guidance to support safer, more effective care.