It was first suggested I visit John Guttenbeil when I complained to a friend about my sore back and knee. Six months earlier I had a left knee reconstruction as a result of rupturing my anterior cruciate ligament and after the operation had made a very slow recovery.
The muscles in my leg were still wasted, my knee felt weak and my lower back had developed a chronic pain.
My friend had told me on a number of occasions (every time he heard me complaining) to go and see John but I admit I was rather hesitant having heard his somewhat vivid description of him,
"A big strong islander with powerful hands who would get stuck into my muscles."
At that time I felt very weak and sore so that was the last thing I thought I needed. Anyway I kept on complaining until my friend eventually said
"Listen mate. Either go and see John or don't ever tell me about your pain again,"
I thought that was fair enough so having made an appointment I went to see this guy for treatment and later realised it was the best and one of the most important decisions I had ever made.
John was a truly amazing guy who had been working with an ancient healing art, in its pure form, for 50 years out of his home.
His wife took his bookings and managed the business side of things for him and John just worked away all day, most days, performing miracles on people who had been in pain for months, even years.... and he would so often easily take their pain away in only one or two 45 minute sessions. Even people who were told they needed surgery got better, with just John's massage, in a very short time.
After seeing him a few times I became his biggest fan. I sent everyone to see him, from the elite athletes I knew to my father, brother and my sister for the nagging shoulder pain she had complained about for years. He never needed to advertise, his patients did that for him and he worked when and on who he wanted to, he was always in demand.
I not only admired his skill but pretty soon I was thinking what a great lifestyle he had, totally free of stress, a physical job that kept him strong and active and most important the satisfaction of being able to help people when nobody else had been able to. Not to mention his never having to worry about where his next dollar was coming from which was very different to my situation at the time. I then began to wonder who was going to carry on this work when
John finally decided to retire. There was no one else following in his footsteps and he was nearly 65 and already talking about retirement.
I thought the best thing to do was to somehow record the knowledge he had either by writing it down or getting it on film. I wasn't sure of the best way to go about it and I eventually decided I would need to learn and understand what he did and be able to do it myself, before I could hope to document it.
After he agreed to teach me I went to his clinic every week for 6 months, with a video camera, a dozen questions and anyone I could find who was in pain so I could watch him work.
And now here I am: twenty years have passed and I have written this book and put his entire method and philosophy down in a training course on DVD and text book.
I have also taken what John taught me, combined with what I learnt for myself working full time with the techniques since 1988 and developed a comprehensive self treatment program for sciatica and back pain sufferers which is already helping thousands of desperate people get rid of their chronic back pain.
John's teacher was a Japanese man who lived on the island of Tonga where John grew up. He befriended John when he was in his mid teens and one day took him aside and told him:
"From now on you are going to work with me and I'm going to teach you a skill that you can use for the rest of your life. You will make enough money to feed and clothe your family and be able to help people who are in pain." he continued , "This skill was taught to me by my father and it was taught to him by his father, in fact it has been in our family for many generations and it is knowledge and skill that very few people have. I am now going to pass it on to you"
John then worked side by side with this man for 5 years before he left Tonga for New Zealand and the start of his journey with the therapy that he carried on for 50 years before I met him.
To be honest, when I first started training with John and his techniques I had not intended to make it my career. My plan was to understand his method and to help him pass the knowledge on but the more I practiced the better I got and pretty soon it began to consume my life.
The realisation had come to me that I was born to do this work and carry on John's legacy. (I now call it SLM bodywork) Over time I developed my skills and knowledge and put together a course which I use to teach others who want to follow us and learn these truly wonderful techniques and the philosophy behind them. I also wrote a second e-book explaining the work more fully for people who were interested called, How to Fix Pain Using Massage and Bodywork' and also give it away for free for anyone who would like a copy.
After 20 years working with all types of bodies, including many elite athletes plus extremely chronic pain sufferers that the medical profession had given up on, I feel I have a unique understanding of pain and how it develops in the body. Equally important, I am very confident of being able to take it away and it is this knowledge that I pass on in the books and course I have written.
This Bad Back Book will explain a completely different approach to fixing
your back pain and one that has worked for hundreds of years to produce results
that conventional therapists don't believe are possible. I happily give it
away for free not only so that people can understand what exactly is going
wrong with their body, but more importantly to help them avoid being conned
into paying out their hard earned money for treatments that are totally illogical
and therefore doomed to fail. I also use it as a way to explain more detail
about my self treatment program
and how it can help you use proven techniques and exercises to rebalance and
strengthen your body without irritating the problem you already have. As you
read on you will see just how important that can be.
John has now passed on to a better place but I, and my students, will carry his legacy forward for many years into the future.
To download your own copy of ‘The Bad Back Book' along with 2 FREE bonuses ‘How I fix Pain Using Massage and Bodywork', plus access to a 70 minute talk Steve Lockhart did on the subject at a recent workshop, click here.
Next Chapter: Introduction Return to Contents Page.