Where Structural Rehabilitation Meets Whole-Person Healing
Fix Back & Neck Pain works with naturopathic physicians, functional medicine practitioners, integrative MDs, acupuncturists, and somatic therapists who understand that back and neck pain has dimensions the conventional medical model often misses. We share that understanding — and we bring clinical tools that make your whole-person approach more complete.
A Shared Framework
Naturopathic and integrative practitioners know that chronic pain is not simply a structural problem. The nervous system, the immune system, the emotional and somatic history of the patient — all of these contribute to why pain persists, why it responds or doesn't respond to treatment, and what genuine healing actually requires.
We practice from the same understanding. Trent Shuford has spent 35 years at the intersection of clinical bodywork, somatic awareness, and structural rehabilitation. His approach to manual therapy and spinal rehabilitation integrates the nervous system dimension that purely mechanical models ignore — recognizing that the psoas holds not just postural patterns but autonomic tension, that fascial restrictions carry emotional as well as structural history, and that the conditions of safety and skilled presence in a session matter as much as the technique.
The clinical tools we bring — MedX spinal strengthening, myofascial release, spinal traction, photobiomodulation — are evidence-based and measurably effective. They are also applied within a relational, whole-person framework that your patients will recognize and trust.
What We Offer Your Patients
MedX Spinal Strengthening
The deep lumbar and cervical stabilizers are systematically undertrained in most people with chronic spinal pain — regardless of how comprehensive their wellness program is. Yoga, Pilates, conventional exercise, and even many physical therapy protocols cannot specifically load these muscles because pelvic stabilization is required to isolate them. MedX provides this isolation with medical-grade precision, producing measurable strength gains at 7 angles through full range of motion. For your patients whose pain persists despite an otherwise excellent self-care practice, this is often the missing structural piece.
Myofascial Release and Psoas Work
The psoas is the primary hip flexor and one of the most clinically significant muscles in the body for integrative practitioners. Because of its proximity to the diaphragm, the solar plexus, and the autonomic nervous system, it responds to stress, unresolved emotional tension, and nervous system dysregulation as readily as it responds to postural load and prolonged sitting. Our psoas work addresses both dimensions — the structural tightness and the held autonomic tension — using sustained myofascial release techniques that create the conditions for genuine release rather than temporary relief. Many patients report emotional as well as physical responses during and after psoas work. We hold this with appropriate care and clinical competence.
Fascial Release and Somatic Work
Fascial restrictions carry the history of the body — injuries, surgeries, habitual postures, accumulated stress. Our fascial release work is assessment-led and sensitive to the systemic nature of fascial tension: a restriction in the hip flexors may be expressing as thoracic stiffness; a restriction in the suboccipital region may be contributing to jaw tension and cervicogenic headache. We work with the whole fascial system, following the tissue rather than imposing a predetermined protocol. For patients engaged in somatic therapy, counseling, or trauma-informed body work, our manual therapy often complements and deepens that process.
LED Red Light Therapy (Photobiomodulation)
Full-body LED red light therapy is one of the most evidence-supported and side-effect-free modalities available for systemic inflammation, tissue healing, mitochondrial function, and nervous system regulation. For your patients with chronic inflammatory conditions — fibromyalgia, autoimmune joint pain, chronic fatigue — photobiomodulation provides measurable cellular-level support that integrates naturally with nutritional, botanical, and lifestyle interventions. Sessions are 20 minutes, deeply relaxing, and produce cumulative benefits with regular use. No contraindications with most naturopathic and integrative protocols.
Piezowave Shockwave Therapy
For patients with chronic tendinopathies, calcific deposits, plantar fasciitis, or soft tissue injuries that have not resolved despite comprehensive natural treatment, Piezowave acoustic shockwave therapy stimulates genuine tissue repair — neovascularization, collagen remodeling, and breakdown of calcification — that the body's healing systems alone cannot produce after the acute phase has passed. This is not a symptomatic intervention. It resolves the underlying tissue pathology that is perpetuating the pain.
Spinal Traction
Mechanical decompression for disc herniation, stenotic presentations, and radicular symptoms. For patients who are managing disc-related pain with anti-inflammatory botanicals, acupuncture, or other natural approaches, spinal traction reduces the compressive loading that maintains the disc herniation — creating the mechanical environment in which natural resorption can occur. Highly compatible with naturopathic disc management protocols.
Pain That Persists Has a Nervous System Story
Integrative practitioners understand central sensitization — the process by which chronic pain rewires the nervous system, amplifying signals and lowering the threshold for pain perception. What is less often discussed in the integrative context is how specific structural deficits contribute to this process.
When the deep lumbar stabilizers are chronically weak, the spine is repeatedly loaded in ways that generate ongoing nociceptive input — maintaining the sensitized state even when inflammatory markers are normalized, even when gut health is optimized, even when stress is managed. The structural deficit keeps feeding the nervous system the signals that sustain chronic pain.
This is why patients who have done everything right — nutrition, sleep, stress management, acupuncture, botanical anti-inflammatories — sometimes still have pain. The structural piece has not been addressed. MedX lumbar strengthening removes this ongoing nociceptive driver in a way that no amount of systemic optimization can replicate.
We are happy to discuss the nervous system dimension of specific patient presentations. Call us.
What the Body Holds — and How We Work With It
Trent Shuford's clinical work has always recognized what somatic practitioners know: that the body holds unresolved experiences in its tissue, and that skilled touch in the right conditions can facilitate release that goes beyond the purely physical.
The psoas is the anatomical center of this understanding. As the deepest hip flexor — connecting the lumbar vertebrae to the femur and passing directly beside the diaphragm and kidneys — the psoas is the muscle most directly affected by the fight-or-flight response. Chronic stress, unresolved threat, early attachment patterns, and cumulative relational strain all express in psoas tension. This tension maintains anterior pelvic tilt, compresses the lumbar spine, restricts diaphragmatic breathing, and contributes to a chronic low-grade activation of the sympathetic nervous system.
Releasing the psoas — genuinely releasing it, not just temporarily lengthening it — requires sustained pressure, patient presence, and a clinical container that feels safe enough for the tissue to let go. This is what we provide.
For patients in somatic therapy, trauma-informed body work, or other modalities that address the body-mind interface, our psoas work frequently deepens and accelerates that process. We are glad to communicate with the patient's other practitioners when appropriate and with patient consent.
For practitioners interested in the deeper dimensions of what the body carries, Trent's book — You're Carrying Something That Isn't Yours — explores these themes through the lens of 35 years of clinical and somatic experience.
For Your Patients Who Want to Go Deeper
Viveka.Life is Trent's online wellness platform — built on the Triangle-Pendulum framework that integrates body, mind, emotions, and center as a model for inherited tension, nervous system regulation, and whole-person healing.
For your patients who are engaged in an integrative healing journey and want structured support between appointments — check-ins, body awareness practices, somatic exercises, educational content, and direct access to Trent's clinical insights — Viveka.Life provides this on two tiers — Essentials at $8/month and Premium at $14/month, with annual options.
The platform is particularly appropriate for patients who are processing chronic pain, inherited somatic patterns, or stress-related physical presentations and want a framework that honors the whole-person nature of their experience.
Visit Viveka.Life ↗How We Work With Integrative Practitioners
Communication and Coordination
We communicate with referring integrative practitioners the way we communicate with any referring provider — with clinical respect, appropriate detail, and timely follow-up. With patient consent, we share assessment findings and treatment progress. We are available by phone for clinical consultation about specific patients.
Complementary Scheduling
Our sessions are typically once per week — making our care easy to integrate with acupuncture, naturopathic visits, somatic therapy, and other regular appointments. We do not require exclusive treatment relationships. Your patients can continue their full integrative protocol while working with us.
Shared Philosophy
We do not practice from a framework that dismisses or minimizes the role of the whole person in chronic pain. We do not communicate to your patients that their condition is purely mechanical or that emotional and systemic factors are irrelevant. We hold the structural and the somatic dimensions together — because in our clinical experience, that is where genuine healing lives.
Resources for Your Practice
Two pages built specifically for referring providers — printable patient materials and the deeper clinical evidence base.
Clinical Toolkit
Three downloadable PDFs covering the full referral workflow, billing and out-of-network coding, and patient-positioning flyers ("How to Refer a Patient," "MedX Spinal Rehabilitation," and "When Conventional Care Hasn't Worked"). Available as PDFs or printed copies sent to your office at no charge.
Visit the Clinical Toolkit →Research & Evidence
Peer-reviewed research summaries organized by clinical area — lumbar extension strengthening, chronic low back pain outcomes, cervical rehabilitation, post-surgical rehabilitation, and special populations. Outcome statistics and study citations for the protocols used in our practice.
Visit Research & Evidence →Conditions We Commonly See From Integrative Referrals
- Chronic low back pain with systemic inflammatory component
- Fibromyalgia with significant spinal pain
- Chronic fatigue with musculoskeletal involvement
- Psoas-dominant presentations with autonomic involvement
- Chronic pelvic pain with lumbar and fascial components
- Cervicogenic headaches and tension headaches
- Post-viral musculoskeletal pain and deconditioning
- Autoimmune-related joint and spinal pain
- Chronic tendinopathies unresponsive to natural treatment
- Stress-related lumbar and cervical pain patterns
- Somatic presentations with trauma history
- Athletes with overtraining-related spinal pain
Ready to refer?
Use the form below to refer a patient now, or visit our full referral process page for the complete overview of how we work with referring providers.
Let's talk about your patient.
Call us at 425-758-4619 and describe what you're seeing. We practice from a whole-person framework and we are glad to think through complex presentations with you before you refer. If we are the right next step for your patient, we will tell you honestly. If we are not, we will tell you that too.
referrals@fixbackneckpain.com · 2447 152nd Ave NE, Redmond WA 98052 · Mon to Fri, 9:00 to 6:00 · Sat, 9:00 to 2:00 by appointment