We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dan Vidal. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dan below.

Alright, Dan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

There was a time in my early years as a therapist when I struggled immensely with impostor syndrome. I knew that I had excellent training and skills as a therapist, but I felt like I wasn’t good enough – like I was still missing something.

That gradually began to change as I began to incorporate Neurokinetic Therapy manual muscle testing into my practice. Slowly but surely, I became more and more comfortable integrating muscle testing into my assessment protocol. As I practiced and progressed through the 3 Levels of coursework, I got more and more confident. By the time I took the 3rd and final course, I felt like Neo in the Matrix, I had cracked the code!

Now I was able to help way more clients, far more effectively and efficiently than I could before. Clients that had been to dozens of other practitioners, and had little to show for it, were now getting results they had never dreamed possible with me.

I no longer felt like an impostor. Not only did I now have all the right tools at my disposal, I knew how and when to use them.

Dan , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Dan Vidal. I’m a licensed massage therapist, certified Neurosomatic specialist, Level 3 NKT practitioner, and owner of my personal practice in Northwest Philadelphia – Paragon Pain Solutions.

Ten years ago I was suffering with chronic pain, and no one knew how to help. I tried chiropractic, massage, exercise – nothing worked.

Then I found something called Neurosomatic Therapy (NST), and my life changed.

NST is a cutting-edge form of massage therapy that relies on a system of postural analysis to pinpoint exactly which muscles are in need of treatment, and apply massage techniques accordingly.

This seemed so promising to me that I decided to change career paths. I wanted to become the type of therapist that I had been looking for.

I enrolled at the Center for Neurosomatic Studies in Clearwater, Florida, and after receiving treatment from fellow students and therapists, my pain was reduced by about 80% in a matter of weeks. A few months later it was completely gone!

I continued to hone my skills after graduation, adding Neurokinetic Therapy (NKT) manual muscle testing to my repertoire. This turned out to compliment the Neurosomatic techniques perfectly, and it supercharged my effectiveness as a therapist.

Upon moving back to Northwest Philly, I opened my own personal practice, Paragon Pain Solutions in Chestnut Hill – offering a blend of Neurosomatic and Neurokinetic therapeutic massage services.

In my 8 years as a therapist, I have helped hundreds of people where no one else could – people suffering from back, neck, hip and shoulder pain, headaches and migraines. People who spent years desperately searching for solutions to their pain have left my office pain-free, often after just a handful sessions.

This is all thanks to my unique assessment process, which allows me to be extremely efficient in the way I apply treatment, and assign work for my clients to do themselves at home.

This is what sets me apart from other practitioners. I got into this work because I was tired of cookie cutter solutions to the complex problems of pain and dysfunction. I wanted to find someone who knew how to assess my individual motor patterns, explain to me how they were related to my pain, and tell me what I needed to do to fix them.

I’m extraordinarily grateful to have become the type of therapist that I had been looking for back then. Now I’d like to continue to use what I’ve learned to help as many people as possible to get out of pain, and take their life back.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

I think once you have the right training and knowledge, patience, dedication and resilience are the most helpful qualities to have in order to succeed.

It takes time to master the skills necessary to be a great therapist. This means that in your early years of practice, you have to humble yourself to the fact that you will encounter cases that test the limits of your skills. There are going to be some clients that you will fail to get good results with, and this is ok.

You must be grounded enough to view these experiences with curiosity, and have a hunger to learn from them. This is what will propel you toward mastery of your craft.

Clients see this. They can tell when you feel overwhelmed and afraid, and by the same token, they can feel your confidence as well. Your confidence helps give them confidence, which in turn puts them in the right mindstate to get amazing results. When they get amazing results, they get excited to share it with other people. This is how your practice grows organically.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

A couple years ago I had been seeing a client for months that was complaining of severe neck pain. We had done a ton of work directly on her neck, and although she would get some temporary relief, the pain continued to come back.

It was getting so bad that she was getting epidurals to block the pain, and was even strongly considering surgery as an option to relieve some of the compression between her lower cervical vertebrae.

The next time she came in, I decided that we weren’t going to focus on the neck anymore, If working directly on it wasn’t getting us lasting results, then the problem must be elsewhere.

I decided to focus on her core. Often there is a close relationship between the muscles of the intrinsic core (abdomen and low back) and the neck. Sure enough, I found a pattern involving her R psoas muscle. When I palpated it, it was extremely tight and tender. We worked on releasing this muscle and then did a couple isometric exercises to activate her other abdominal and low back muscles.

When she stood up, she felt much better, but the real test would be to see if she continued to feel better over the next few weeks until her next treatment. The next time I saw her, she was excited to report that her neck had felt great since the last treatment! Aside from a couple brief flare ups, she was virtually pain free. Remarkable considering the fact that I hadn’t even touched her neck during our last session.

She was able to call off the surgery and return to her normal daily activities. I still see her regularly for maintenance visits, and she has remained virtually pain free since.

Had I let the fact that I wasn’t getting lasting results with her frustrate me, I wouldn’t have been able to see the opportunity to learn from my experience and try another treatment route. Because I stayed cool, and learned from the experience, the reward came back ten fold.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.paragonpainsolutions.com/
• Instagram: @paragonpainsolutions
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paragonpainsolutions
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-vidal-002b128b