TEAM
Empowering Our Students
If you want to learn a craft, study with someone who is successfully doing it every day. Simple, but profoundly important. Each of the PNMT teaching staff is not only an excellent instructor, they are also seasoned and very successful clinicians who have been doing Precision Neuromuscular Therapy for many years. That matters to you as a a participant in the seminars. Theories are easy, results are often much more difficult. The staff can answer questions about clinical practice because they are in the clinic every day, and for many years. That gives substance and credence to what they have to share.
DOUG NELSON
Founder and President
Douglas Nelson is a Licensed and Board Certified Massage Therapist. The founder of Precision NMT seminars, Doug has taught hundreds of seminars to various populations from physician's conferences to educational seminars for lay people. Practicing massage therapy since 1977, he has studied with a host of great educators and worked in several clinical environments. He is the president of BodyWork Associates, a twenty-therapist massage therapy clinic in Champaign, IL which has been in operation since 1982.
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Doug still maintains a very active practice; he doesn't just teach, he has a busy personal practice (seeing over 1,100 client visits annually); the clinic is the laboratory for the development of PNMT. Doug has treated thousands of clients over the years, from the NBA to the NFL, factory workers, and high-level musicians who suffer musculoskeletal pain.
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Doug is passionate about the efficacy of the work and has conducted many clinical research studies to investigate PNMT. He is a member of the International Myopain Association and the International Association for the Study of Pain and is also a regular columnist for Massage and Bodywork magazine. He is the author of Table Lessons: Insights in the Practice of Massage Therapy and The Mystery of Pain. He also contributed the chapter on fibromyalgia to the book Massage Therapy: Integrating Research and Practice.
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Doug was awarded the 2013 Massage Therapy Educator of the Year, the 2015 Pioneer Award from the Illinois Chapter of the AMTA, and elected to the Massage Therapy Hall of Fame in 2018. Doug received the AMTA President's Award in 2020. He has spoken to numerous state and national conferences, both giving workshops and keynote addresses. Doug is also a past president of the Massage Therapy Foundation.
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JAMES IVASKA
Instructor
James Ivaska has been practicing therapeutic massage since 2003. Originally from Evanston, IL he received his training with the Chicago School of Massage Therapy. He has also received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Kinesiology from the University of Illinois which has given him a love for all things anatomy. James has been a T.A. for multiple kinesiology courses at the University level and has been teaching with PNMT since 2011. Since his training he has treated thousands of people for chronic pain or injuries. James now has a private practice in Little Rock Arkansas. James is always looking to learn about the human body and loves to teach about it.
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SARAH LASHLEY
Instructor
Sarah teaches the TMJ Intensive and has always been a natural educator. She first taught English as a second language, then worked as a school administrator in the inner-city of Chicago, before she discovered her passion and gift for healing through massage and PNMT. Sarah began studying PNMT 6 months after receiving her IL massage license in July 2008. Treating her husband's TMJD was the driving force behind her PNMT education and has become her specialty. Nearly 40% of her practice is working with clients that have TMJD. Since 2010, Sarah has had a successful practice, which has recently grown into Somavida Pain Relief Center, where she now hires and trains passionate LMTs to become World Class Precision Neuromuscular Therapists.
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JULIE NICHOLS
Instructor
A native of Cincinnati, Julie received a B.A. in Anthropology from U.C., where her senior research was a cross-cultural comparison of how women view and manage pain during pregnancy and childbirth. While attending U.C., Julie received massage therapy for injuries sustained in a car accident, and was amazed at the results. This experience led her to attend the Ohio College of Massotherapy, where she was first introduced to Douglas Nelson and PNMT seminars. Licensed by the State Medical Board since 2002, Julie enjoys private practice in Cincinnati, OH
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Julie's areas of interest include lower extremity and pelvic dysfunction, and she is currently conducting research on the role of myofascial trigger points in pelvic pain. Her teaching style has been described as energetic and interactive. She finds PNMT both intellectually stimulating and emotionally rewarding, and enjoys sharing the experience with others.
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SETH WILL
Instructor
Seth Will is the developer and teacher of the Precision Mobilization courses (Muscular and Neural), as well as a regular presenter on all other Precision Neuromuscular Therapy Seminars for the past 20 years. He has dedicated over 10 years of formal and informal training and education to massage therapy, acupuncture, neuroscience, theology, anatomy (human dissection) and various methods of physical rehabilitation. Seth has maintained an active clinical practice for over 23 years. In past years he has been heavily involved with community supported agriculture, focusing on small scale rearing of hygienic queen bees and intensive small-scale vegetable farming. In recent years he has run and coached a scholastic chess and archery program where he lives in Milwaukee, WI, with his Wife, children and pets.
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