Resonate Massage Therapy

03/24/2026

When you visit a friend who has been following your posts on how foot health can affect mechanics anywhere in the body… 😂🦶💓 💪

03/23/2026

Basking in the glow of a spectacular Arizona sunset & crescent moon, reflecting on the past four jam-packed days at the Advanced FSM Conference. 🌅🌙🌴
I can’t wait to share it with you, but now it’s time to play! 🏜️☀️

03/20/2026

Life is sport. Sport is life. 💙💪
This was one of my favorite slides in a presentation on the ‘complicated’ knee during Day 2 of the advanced FSM conference I’m attending in AZ.

Kim Pittis with FSM Sports reminds us that keeping joints & the tissues that support them healthy is important. Not just for athletes, but for anyone of any age to keep moving & active. Life IS sport!

Looking forward to sharing some of the new info I learned today with my clients of all ages. 😀

03/16/2026

Vestibular injuries & issues can affect how your entire body moves. 👀

I’m looking forward to the presentation on vestibular injury at the Advanced FSM Conference next weekend. 😀

I test for vestibular issues at the beginning of your first session & customize treatment based on my findings. 🎯

Trigger point therapy & FSM work to find & treat the underlying cause of muscle pain & dysfunction.

What if your knee is wonky because your neck muscles are trying to help your eyes/ears/brain deal with a vestibular or balance issue?🤔

🧠 Perimenopause, Dizziness, and the Vestibular System

One of the most under-recognized drivers of dizziness, motion sensitivity, and spatial disorientation in women is hormonal transition.

During perimenopause, estrogen levels fluctuate dramatically. These fluctuations do not only affect mood, sleep, or metabolism — they also influence how the brain processes vestibular information.

The vestibular system is responsible for telling the brain where the head is in space and how it is moving.

It works by integrating three major information streams:

• Inner ear vestibular signals
• Visual information from the eyes
• Proprioceptive input from the body and neck

When these systems align, the brain forms a stable internal model of orientation.

But when the signals do not match, the brain experiences what we call sensory mismatch.

And that’s when symptoms begin.

⚠️ Dizziness
⚠️ Motion sensitivity
⚠️ Brain fog
⚠️ Visual motion intolerance
⚠️ Instability in busy environments
⚠️ Vertigo episodes
⚠️ Increased fall risk

⸻

Why Hormones Affect the Vestibular System

Estrogen is not just a reproductive hormone.

It acts as a neurosteroid, meaning it directly influences neuronal signaling, synaptic plasticity, and brain metabolism.

Estrogen receptors are found throughout the vestibular system, including:

• The vestibular nuclei in the brainstem
• The vestibulocochlear nerve
• The inner ear sensory epithelium
• The cerebellum, which coordinates balance
• Cortical areas responsible for spatial perception

Fluctuating estrogen levels can alter:

• Vestibular neuronal firing rates
• Inner ear fluid regulation
• Otolith function
• Cerebellar adaptive responses
• Sensory integration within the brainstem

This is why many women report sudden onset of:

• Vestibular migraine
• BPPV episodes
• Persistent dizziness
• Increased motion intolerance

during hormonal transition.

Research has also shown that estrogen deficiency may affect otoconia stability, which may increase susceptibility to Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV).

⸻

How the Brain Compensates (and Why That Can Make Symptoms Worse)

When vestibular signals become unreliable, the brain attempts to compensate.

It does this through sensory reweighting.

Instead of trusting vestibular input, the nervous system begins relying more heavily on other sensory systems.

Two common patterns develop:

👁 Visual Dependency

The brain begins over-relying on visual input for balance.

Patients may feel overwhelmed in:

• Grocery stores
• Busy streets
• Scrolling screens
• Driving in traffic
• Patterned floors or lighting

These environments overload visual processing and can trigger dizziness.

⸻

🦶 Surface Dependency

The brain begins relying heavily on somatosensory input from the feet and body.

Patients may feel more stable when touching walls or holding objects.

Common signs include:

• Trunk stiffening
• Reduced gait speed
• Increased sway in low light
• Difficulty on uneven surfaces

These strategies help temporarily — but they reduce vestibular engagement, which prevents the brain from recalibrating.

⸻

Additional Factors That Can Amplify Symptoms

Hormonal transition can also influence other systems involved in balance regulation:

Autonomic Nervous System

Estrogen fluctuations may affect autonomic regulation, contributing to:

• Orthostatic intolerance
• Lightheadedness
• Heart rate variability changes

Migraine Networks

Many patients develop vestibular migraine patterns during perimenopause due to changes in trigeminovascular signaling.

Cervical Proprioception

The neck provides critical positional feedback to the brain.

Muscle tension, joint restriction, or trauma can disrupt this signal and worsen sensory mismatch.

This is why many patients report:

• Neck tightness
• Head pressure
• Visual instability
• Feeling “disconnected” or off balance

⸻

How We Evaluate This at The Functional Neurology Center

At The Functional Neurology Center, we evaluate how the brain integrates the major balance systems.

Our assessments may include:

• Vestibular eye movement testing
• Postural sensory integration testing
• Optokinetic visual motion evaluation
• Cervical proprioception testing
• Gait and balance analysis
• Advanced vestibular diagnostics

One commonly used framework is advanced sensory organization testing, which allows us to see whether the brain is relying too heavily on vision or somatosensory cues.

This helps identify sensory reweighting patterns that may be driving symptoms.

⸻

How Rehabilitation Helps the Brain Recalibrate

The goal of rehabilitation is not simply to avoid symptoms.

The goal is neuroplastic adaptation.

We help the brain learn to correctly interpret vestibular signals again.

This may include:

• Vestibular-ocular reflex training
• Optokinetic stimulation
• Dynamic gait with head movement
• Balance training on unstable surfaces
• Cervical proprioceptive retraining
• Visual motion desensitization

These strategies encourage the brain to re-engage the vestibular system and normalize sensory integration.

⸻

The Takeaway

If you are experiencing dizziness, visual motion sensitivity, or balance instability during hormonal transition, it is not uncommon.

And it is not simply anxiety or stress.

Hormonal fluctuations can directly influence the neural networks responsible for spatial orientation and balance.

Understanding this relationship allows clinicians to design targeted neurological rehabilitation strategies that help restore normal sensory integration.

And for many patients, that can make a profound difference in recovery.

⸻

📍 The Functional Neurology Center
🌐 theFNC.com

There is hope.

DC DACNB

03/11/2026

Hypermobility & hypermobile spectrum disorder (HSD) are hot topics at the Advanced FSM Conference this year.

For the past five years, FSM (frequency specific microcurrent) has had consistent and reproducible results for significantly improving symptoms of HSD & hEDS (Hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome).

Here is a recent case study publication:

https://journals.scholarpublishing.org/index.php/BJHR/article/view/19020

I’m looking forward to seeing this presentation & meeting the author next week at the conference. 🥳

The images in this post are from my first hEDS client three years ago.

Reach out if you are interested in learning more.

03/08/2026

Bluebird day up top! ☀️❄️🏔️ Sunshine, fresh air, sparkling fresh snow, & had the lake pretty much to ourselves. 🩵❄️💙

03/07/2026

FSM improves knee pain, joint mobility, & function… a published case study:
https://www.ijfmr.com/papers/2025/6/59826.pdf

The positive effects of microcurrent (FSM) are well-documented for treating joint pain & accelerating tissue healing. 💪

If you’re not completely bone on bone, FSM can help repair joint soft tissues & a game changer, especially combined with trigger point therapy. 🎯

Tight muscles with trigger points pull on bones via tendons. Those bones pull on other bones via ligaments. These forces can wear down the protective soft tissues (cartilage, meniscus) causing pain & dysfunction.

Eliminating the trigger points takes this pressure off the joint. Identifying and eliminating WHY the trigger points formed in the first place is the ultimate goal. 🤔 This is how I help my clients.

I’m looking forward to meeting the author of this knee study & watching his presentation at the Advanced FSM Conference in two weeks. 🤩

The conference is 4 full days and has a terrific line up of presentations on topics such as hypermobility, MTHFR, primary lateral sclerosis, mold, Lyme, sleep apnea, low back pain, & more.
I’m really excited! 🥳

02/22/2026

Sometimes I just want to get on my own table! 😂 Seriously, if someone did the following things to help me find and treat the underlying cause of my issues, I would be stoked!

🎯 spend the time to look at my symptoms and history with scientific and clinical reasoning

🎯 do structural, postural, and range of motion assessment to look for the culprits

🎯 show me self-care techniques for trigger points causing my pain, numbness, weakness, or restricted movement

🎯 hook me up to multiple FSM & PEMF devices which are customized specifically for ME that relax all my muscles, relax & reboot my nervous system, & get my vagus nerve to do its job

🎯 melt adhesions & scar tissue sticking my nerves, fascia, and other tissues together with FSM & gentle mobilization

🎯 help me feel, find, and use my deep stabilizer muscles so my mover muscles can relax & do their jobs

🎯 do a variety of active & passive trigger point release techniques to release the tight spots the FSM and stabilizer activation didn’t address

🎯 oh, and then throw on some red light therapy, because who doesn’t love that?!

This is trigger point therapy with me-and it’s sooooooooo good! ❤️

By appointment only. Please call/ text to schedule a session or a free 15 minute phone consult. 📞

https://www.massagebook.com/biz/resonate

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02/16/2026

Restorative sleep is #1 when it comes to healing anything & good sleep posture is an important part! 💤🛌

Sleeping with a neutral spine allows your muscles & brain to relax. 💪🧠😴

When you sleep with your spine rotated or twisted:
🔺some muscles are overstretched for a long period, putting tension on your joints, while other muscles are chronically contracted
🔺 your brain tells your muscles, fascia, & ligaments to tighten to protect your misaligned spine
🔺 and all of these things can cause chronic muscle tension & stiffness, trigger points, and reduced range of motion. 😫

‘Neutral’ means aligning your head, neck, shoulders, & hips so that you’re not twisting or bending. Kind of like the good standing posture you’ve been taught all your life, only laying down.⚖️

Make sure you have a good mattress that supports a neutral spine. And a supportive pillow that is not too high, not too low. 🛏️

Back sleeping: putting a pillow under your knees takes the pressure off of your hips and low back. (I like to put a pillow at the foot of my bed to rest my feet on so the covers don’t pull down on them. It can help with calf cramps and neuropathy. 😉)

Side sleeping: shoulders stacked, hips stacked, top upper arm rests on ribs, lower arm out in front of you (not bent up under pillow) and a pillow between knees, lower leg AND feet.

Try that last part with and without the pillow and notice the difference in how relaxed your hips are. 🫵🏼

Stomach sleeping: call or text to book a session for the chronic neck pain or headaches you have now or will have if you sleep with your neck twisted every night! 🤕

Partners, pets, & kids in the bed can perpetuate poor sleep posture so see if you can enlist their help. Let me know what works for a persnickety cat! 😹

Sleep posture could be one of the reasons you have pain, numbness, weakness, restricted mobility or other symptoms of trigger points. 🎯

Trigger point therapy is an outcome-based process that works to find & treat the underlying cause of these symptoms. 💪

02/09/2026

Your brain tells your neck muscles to tighten to protect your C-spine or other areas of your head after a head trauma. 🧠

Trigger points and tight muscles in your neck can cause headaches, migraines, dizziness, vision problems, and other symptoms. 🤕

If you’ve been in to see me, you know I always treat the neck and test for vestibular injury, even if your main complaint is somewhere else.

This is because 50% of proprioceptors in your body are located in your C-spine. These sensory receptors manage movement, balance, & coordination of your whole body. So if your ankle is wonky it just might have something to do with your C-spine!

Myofascial trigger point therapy, FSM, and eye movement retraining techniques have helped my clients resolve chronic issues related to head and neck injuries. 🎯

Call or text if you would like more information, I offer free phone consults. 📞

🧠 THE CERVICAL SPINE: The Overlooked Key in Concussion, Dizziness, Headaches & Post-Trauma Recovery

Why the Neck Matters FAR More Than Most People Realize — and How We Address It at The Functional Neurology Center

When people think of concussion or head injuries, they think brain.
But one of the most important—and most commonly missed—pieces of the entire puzzle is the upper cervical spine (C0–C3).

A major review in the Journal of Athletic Training highlighted something foundational:

👉 Concussion and cervical injuries share almost IDENTICAL symptoms
👉 You cannot separate the neck from the brain when evaluating dizziness, headaches, balance issues, or visual problems
👉 Cervical dysfunction can CAUSE or EXACERBATE concussion-like symptoms

This explains why so many individuals struggle for months or years with:

✔ Persistent dizziness
✔ Head pressure or headaches
✔ Blurry vision
✔ Neck pain & stiffness
✔ Cognitive fog
✔ Poor balance
✔ Motion sensitivity
✔ Fatigue
✔ Difficulty reading, scrolling, or turning the head
✔ “I don’t feel like myself”

Many of these are not only brain-based — they’re the result of disrupted cervical afferents feeding faulty information into the brainstem, cerebellum, and vestibular system.

And THAT is where specialized neurological rehab makes all the difference.

⸻

🧩 HOW THE NECK TALKS TO THE BRAIN

The upper cervical spine contains a dense network of muscle spindles, joint receptors, and mechanoreceptors that continuously send sensory information to:
• The brainstem
• The cerebellum
• The vestibular nuclei
• The thalamus
• The somatosensory cortex

This information is ESSENTIAL for:

🔹 Eye movements (saccades, pursuits, VOR)
🔹 Posture & balance
🔹 Gaze stabilization
🔹 Head-body coordination
🔹 Spatial awareness
🔹 Neck and facial pain modulation (through trigeminal interactions)

When these cervical signals become abnormal—after whiplash, concussion, falls, sports injuries, or prolonged strain—the brain receives conflicting sensory information.

This mismatch between visual, vestibular, and cervical inputs can produce:

⚠️ Dizziness
⚠️ Visual motion sensitivity
⚠️ Brain fog
⚠️ Anxiety-like symptoms
⚠️ Neck-based headaches (cervicogenic)
⚠️ Postural instability
⚠️ Difficulty with reading or screens

This is NOT “in your head.”
It’s a neurophysiological problem with real, measurable pathways.

⸻

🔬 WHAT THE RESEARCH SHOWS

The Cervical Injury Assessments for Concussion Evaluation review clearly notes:

🧩 Concussion symptoms alone are not enough to distinguish brain injury from cervical injury.
🧩 Patients with PCS (post-concussion syndrome) and neck pain improved significantly when cervical rehab was added.
🧩 Combined vestibular + cervical treatment increased return-to-play success by nearly 4x.
🧩 Cervical dysfunction contributes directly to dizziness, headaches, visual instability, and cognitive complaints.

And importantly:
Neck dysfunction can LOOK exactly like a concussion—even without direct head impact.

⸻

💥 HOW WE ADDRESS THE CERVICAL-BRAIN CONNECTION AT THE FNC

We specialize in evaluating and treating the brain–neck–vestibular–ocular system as ONE integrated network.

Your program may include:

✔ Advanced Cervical Spine Neurological Assessment
• Cervical joint-position error testing
• Smooth pursuit neck torsion testing
• Cervical flexion-rotation testing
• Ocular-motor evaluation with head vs. body movement isolation
• Muscle spindle mapping & proprioceptive testing

These tests help determine whether symptoms are coming from the neck, the brain, or BOTH.

⸻

✔ Precision Manual Therapy & Low-Force Cervical Techniques

We use safe, gentle, and highly specific methods to restore:
• Cervical afferent accuracy
• Joint motion
• Muscle spindle firing patterns
• Upper cervical stability

(Sometimes 1–2 degrees of movement can change everything.)

⸻

✔ Visual–Vestibular–Cervical Integration Training

To resolve sensory mismatch, we reintegrate:
• Eye movements + neck movements
• Gaze stabilization
• VOR and cervico-ocular reflex (COR) coordination
• Balance & proprioceptive drills
• Spatial orientation training

This is where symptoms like dizziness, blurred vision, and motion sensitivity start improving FAST.

⸻

✔ Neuromodulation & Brain-Based Rehabilitation

Depending on your case, we may add:
• LLLT/photobiomodulation over cervical & brainstem regions
• Neuromuscular re-education
• ARPwave current modulation
• Cervical proprioceptive laser tracking
• Autonomic nervous system retraining
• Cognitive integration drills

The goal is to normalize the information going FROM the neck TO the brain, and restore the brain’s interpretation of that signal.

⸻

🌟 WHO BENEFITS FROM THIS APPROACH?

We routinely help patients with:
• Whiplash
• Sports concussion
• Car accidents
• Chronic headaches
• Post-concussion syndrome
• Dizziness with no clear cause
• Neck pain + eye strain
• “I feel off balance”
• Long-COVID dizziness with cervical involvement
• Screens and reading triggering symptoms

If you’ve been told “your scans are normal” but you still feel awful — this is EXACTLY the type of dysfunction traditional imaging cannot detect.

⸻

💙 THERE IS HOPE

Your cervical spine is not “just your neck.”
It is one of the most powerful sensory organs influencing your:

🧠 Balance
🧠 Vision
🧠 Cognition
🧠 Pain
🧠 Autonomic function
🧠 Movement
🧠 Overall sense of safety and stability

At The Functional Neurology Center, we combine advanced diagnostics with individualized treatment to help patients finally understand WHY they feel the way they do—and what can be done to change it.

⸻

📞 Ready to take the next step?

If you’re experiencing persistent dizziness, headaches, neck pain, or post-concussion symptoms, our team is here to help.

📧 info@theFNC.com
🌐 theFNC.com
📍 Minnetonka, MN

Cervical Injury Assessments for Concussion Evaluation: A Review
November 2016Journal of Athletic Training 51(12)
DOI:10.4085/1062-6050-51.12.15

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27835042/

02/02/2026

😂 Some clients get pretty excited having improved range of motion, or after discovering a tiny trigger point was causing their pain. But really it’s probably the FSM endorphins!

02/01/2026

What’s causing your pain, numbness, weakness, or restricted movement? Let’s take a look at your unique combination of symptoms + history and find out! 🔎

Trigger point therapy is an outcome-based PROCESS that works to find & treat the root cause of muscle, joint, & nerve pain or dysfunction. 🎯⚡️

A session with me includes any or all of the following depending on your specific symptoms/ treatment goals & is customized just for you:
🔹 evaluation & assessment
🔹 nervous system reset
🔹 vagus nerve reboot
🔹 melting adhesions & scar tissue
🔹 trigger point release techniques
🔹 neuromyofascial release
🔹 activate stabilizer muscles
🔹 massage techniques
🔹 microcurrent FSM ⚡️
🔹 PEMF technology
🔹 eye movement retraining
🔹 red light therapy
🔹 self-care education, learn how to find & treat your muscles at home!

Fix WHY, not just where!
📞 Call/text to set up a free phone consult to learn how these results-based therapies can help with your new or chronic issues.

https://www.massagebook.com/biz/resonate

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