Tag Archive for adhesions

Meet the Therapists – Larry Wurn, LMT

August 26, 2011 alishiac 4 comments

What is your name?
Larry Wurn

How long have you been a therapist?
Since 1989, so 22 years

Larry with his beautiful bride, Belinda on their wedding day.

How long have you been practicing the Wurn Technique?
My wife Belinda and I began developing it in 1989. We then incorporated Clear Passage in 1995.

How did you first become interested in this work?
It began when my wife developed debilitating adhesions, after surgery and massive doses of radiation therapy.

Where did you grow up?
Jacksonville, Florida, then moved to San Francisco in 1969. I became Guest Curator at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in 1972, coordinating large, multi-museum shows throughout the San Fransisco Bay area for the next three years.

What’s your favorite food?
I love Indian and Thai food, and anything with lots of garlic!

Where did you receive your education?
University of North Carolina, then transferred to San Francisco State University during a very exciting time in the early 70’s. That was when our campus became a center of protest of the Viet Nam War. I can still remember police on horseback herding students into or away from certain buildings – while I was just trying to get to class.

What is your philosophy on continuing education?
Continuing education is vitally important. You never stop learning. I learn every day from study, from my co-workers, and from my patients.

What conditions do you have experience treating?
My main focus centers around the adhesions that form wherever the body heals. I have extensive experience treating chronic pain, bowel obstruction, female infertility, endometriosis, intercourse and menstrual pain, TMJ, chronic head and neck pain, low back and post-surgical pain.

Where is your favorite place to go on vacation?
Anywhere exotic – where there is no fax machine, phone service or Internet! My favorite is being “away from it all.” For that reason, I love to scuba dive – to just be one of the fish!

What is your favorite part about treating patients?
I love giving people back their lives, and helping make their dreams come true.

Larry treating a patient at Clear Passage's National Headquarters in Gainesville, FL

What do you hear patients say most often after receiving treatment?
“I don’t want to leave; I wish I lived here.”

What one word describes you best?
Inspired.

What drives you every day?
There are people suffering with physical needs that have found no relief, or whose conditions have worsened, using traditional medicine – drugs or surgery. Some have debilitating pain, some have life-threatening conditions; many have been told “there is nothing that can be done for you” or “it’s all in your head” when it is clear to us that they have very real, tangible problems. In most cases, these are conditions that we can reverse.

I love it that we are so often able to give people back pain-free lives and hope using a non-invasive therapy that is based on compassion, and grounded in science.

I love it that to be successful, we must deeply listen to our patients, ask them what they are feeling, and even what they feel needs to happen in their bodies for them to reach their goals. Thus, we empower each patient to help create and direct her/his own cure. Working together with patients to achieve a great result is exciting, powerful and humbling. I am truly blessed to be able to work with people in need, and to help them find a new life, and achieve their goals.

Have a question or comment for Larry? Post a reply below.

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Meet the Therapists – Kathy Hess, PT

August 26, 2011 alishiac 2 comments

Kathy is an accomplished equestrian

What is your name?

Kathy Hess

How long have you been a physical therapist?

31 years

How long have you been practicing the Wurn Technique?

I have been certified in the Wurn Technique for six months, but I have been doing most of the hands-on techniques for over 15 yrs.

Which Clear Passage clinic location do you work at?

I am the clinic director for the Northern Virginia location.

How did you first become interested in this work?

I felt like I was missing something with my treatments. I started taking Myofascial Release classes, then became interested in treating women’s health issues. I then started taking additional classes in this area.

Kathy with her family

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in the Philadelphia area, specifically Norristown, PA.

What’s your favorite food?

Potato chips

Where did you receive your education?

Univerisity of Pittsburgh

What is your philosophy on continuing education?

I believe it is very important to expand your knowledge base.   I take about 2-3 continuing education classes every year.

What conditions do you have experience in treating?

I have treated patients with chronic pain, adhesions, women’s health issues, orthopedic issues, neurological issues, and amputees.

Where is your favorite place to go on vacation?

My favorite location is Sedona, Arizonia. Going camping anywhere is great to me. I love being outside in the fresh air.

What is your favorite part about treating patients?

Kathy treating a Clear Passage patient

I enjoy helping patients get there life back without pain or limitations

What do you hear patients say most often after receiving treatment?

“I can’t believe I am feeling better.”

What three words describes you best?

Intense, Motivated, and Caring

What drives you every day?

Knowing that I can help people

Have a question or comment for Kathy? Post a reply below.

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Video: Reclaiming Life After Surgery and Bowel Obstruction

August 23, 2011 alishiac No comments

This place is saving lives.

I thought, you know, I do have a chance at a quality of life again, and I know that these people have saved my life.

I thought it was very important that I share some of the things that I have gone through in my life that are directly related to many surgeries that I have had that have caused me to have bowel obstructions and many, many surgeries.


At the age of 38, I entered the hospital and was given a 20 percent chance to live in the emergency room. Immediately, I was taken upstairs to the intensive care unit. My mother and my wife sat next to my bed and watched me for 69 days hoping and praying that I would eventually heal.

They were told that the best thing they could do was that I would at best be in a wheel chair and at best I would have brain damage. After the 69 days, I came out of a coma. I was very miserable and weighed about 100 pounds. At that point I looked at myself, at all the tubes, and wondered, how am I going to get through this.

I finally got out of the hospital and little did I know how important physical therapy would become in my life.

One day, I’m sitting on the sofa with my wife and start experiencing some severe pain. She suggested that we go to the hospital so we go to the hospital. They had diagnosed me with a bowel obstruction. I had no idea what a bowel obstruction was or that I could get a bowel obstruction from my first surgery. They repaired the bowel obstruction, and what I mean by repair is they remove nine inches of what they call a twisted bowel and I remained in the hospital for 32 days.

The most annerving thing I ever heard was, “There’s nothing we can do about this, you’re probably going to get another bowel obstruction, and we will see you again.” I was flored at that point and very confused, very hurt. I did not know what I was going to do.

I started my search. I did not know where to start, I did not know what I was doing, and didn’t really know what a bowel obstruction was. Later I found out that actually it is the adhesion that actually closes off the bowel which could cause a partial and sometimes even a complete obstruction. There’s nothing they can do about these adhesions, which once again, was very upsetting.

I started first by looking on the internet. I searched for weeks looking for something. By the grace of God, I clicked on a site that speaks about an incredible system that has been developed by Larry and Belinda Wurn. This process is actually called the Wurn Technique.

You do not have to go through the painful process of the NG tube and the healing and the pain that goes along with that. There is someone out there that can put you in a situation where it will not happen again. This technology is out there, this technique is out here.

This place is saving lives. There’s no other way I can put it. They are saving lives. That is why I am sitting right here, right now, telling my story.

The Invisible Disease: Chronic Pain

August 4, 2011 alishiac 2 comments

Chronic Pain: The Invisible Disease

You awake in the morning with Pain.

Pain tells your body that it would be easier to stay in bed. You ignore Pain and push back the covers, wincing with the seemingly simple motion. Pain accompanies you as you prepare for the day, tugging and pulling at your joints and muscles with each movement.

Pain travels with you to yet another doctor’s appointment and nods as you describe him with painstaking detail as the doctor scribbles on his notepad.

But when the doctor runs tests, takes x-rays, and orders a CT scan, Pain hides. Despite the doctors attempts to catch a glimpse by prodding and poking, Pain makes no appearance.

The doctor explains that there is nothing there – that Pain is merely in your head like an child’s imaginary friend. You are filled with rage and frustration at Pain as you try to explain his physical presence, but your attempts merely furrow the doctor’s brow as he scribbles a prescription on his notepad. “You’ll just have to learn to live with it,” he says, “But in the meantime, try this.” He hands you the chicken scratched note on his way out the door.

You leave the office defeated, disempowered, and depressed.

Chronic pain leaves thousands of people searching for answers to a pain that seems invisible. Treatments and drug prescriptions often mask the symptoms but provide no relief for the root cause. This pain is given many names: endometriosis, fibromyalgia, myofascial pain syndrome, to name a few. However, the true cause often goes by the name adhesions.

Adhesions form as a natural part of the healing process. Much like thick nylon ropes, they form wherever the body heals from a trauma, surgery, infection or inflammation. Unfortunately, as these adhesions grow and attach to nearby tissues and organs, they can also cause a myriad of health problems.

Adhesions are often the underlying cause of chronic pain, infertility, endometriosis pain, and bowel obstructions.  Because these thick internal scars are invisible on traditional medical tests, such as x rays and CT scans, they often go undiagnosed by physicians and health care professionals.

The Wurn Technique is a hands-on physical therapy designed specifically to treat adhesions. The therapy feels much like a deep massage as highly skilled therapists use their hands to discover and treat areas that are restricted by adhesions.

Educate and Empower Yourself, Learn More About Adhesions…

My Infertility Story: 42 and Denied IVF

July 21, 2011 alishiac No comments

Chloe’s Story

I met my husband at a sailing club in downtown Manhattan in July of 2000. I was 39 years old. We got engaged when I was 42 and since we both wanted to have a child, we didn’t waste any time.

I had taken an HSG dye test at an earlier age and the test had indicated that both of my fallopian tubes were totally blocked. At that time, the doctor thought that it might be due to just mucus so I was eager to find out if the HSG would be successful this time around.

Despite the technician’s attempt to force the dye through my tubes, they both remained completely occluded. My fertility specialist felt that surgery to unblock the tubes would be fruitless.

I did not get too discouraged, thinking that I could always do IVF.  But I was wrong. My hormone levels were too high to be accepted into the program.

Eventually I stumbled across Clear Passage Physical Therapy.  At the time, they had no published data about their success with hormonal dysfunction, but they had shown success with opening blocked fallopian tubes. I showed their literature to my fertility specialist, who shook her head and said, “I don’t think this will work, but if you are going to try it, do it soon so we can move onto other options.”

The following month, I spent a week at Clear Passage. Everything about the place seemed comforting. The therapists were highly trained in several physical therapy modalities. They were medically competent and emotionally intelligent. I felt as if they had a personal vested interest in helping me get pregnant.

I left Clear Passage and flew immediately to San Francisco to meet with a doctor who specialized in Chinese medicine. I worked with her for a week in different modalities and began taking her prescribed herbs and supplements to help with my hormone levels.

When I returned to my doctor the next month, I learned that my hormone levels had skyrocketed. I discussed the supplements and herbs I was taking and my doctor was shocked at the amounts of Chinese supplements and herbs I was prescribed. He advised me to immediately stop taking them and sure enough, the next month my hormonal levels dropped to a normal level. I knew that my hormone levels had peaked and then dropped because of the Chinese supplements, but I wondered if Clear Passage helped bring my levels to a normal level.I know they helped improve my hormones… because after just a few days of their therapy, my period has returned!

It didn’t matter what did it – if my hormonal levels were in range, all I needed was an open tube to become pregnant! I asked my doctor to take a look with a sonogram. I saw him shake his head. “You see that black spot on the screen? That is your left ovary stuck against your uterus. Your tubes are probably so damaged that the only hope for you is a donor egg.” After my appointment I walked through Central Park to home — and cried all the way.

That week I missed my period. Five days after my visit with the fertility specialist I took a pregnancy test. I was pregnant! That black spot on the screen was my baby.

It was then I knew that Clear Passage must have opened at least one of my tubes. Nine months later, I gave birth to my beautiful daughter, Natalie.

I was so happy with my time at Clear Passage that I recently returned for a bit more treatment. I hoped they could help me relieve pain I experienced after the C-section with my daughter. Due to stress in my life, I had also stopped menstruating eight (or so) months earlier.

While I suspected that Clear Passage helped my hormones before I conceived Natalie, I did not have hard evidence to say they helped that aspect. That changed with this visit. I know they helped improve my hormones this time because after just a few days of their therapy, my period has returned! In fact, my overall function is noticeably better.

Natural Fertility eBook

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