Your nervous system controls everything you feel, how you move and whether you experience pain. When it receives faulty information, it creates protection you do not need. We test the signals your brain relies on, identify the faults and reset them so your body works the way it should.
Based in Shiremoor, Newcastle. Serving North Tyneside, Whitley Bay, Tynemouth and surrounding areas.
| 17 years clinical experience | 5-star rated (30+ reviews) | Free taster session | Free parking on site | Sessions available this week |
Functional Neurology is the clinical application of neuroscience to assess and improve how your nervous system works. It is not about diagnosing neurological disease. It is about identifying dysfunction in the way your brain processes information and correcting it so your body functions optimally.
Your brain constantly receives information from thousands of receptors throughout your body. These receptors are in your muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints, skin, eyes and inner ear. They detect stretch, pressure, position, temperature, vibration, light and movement. Your brain uses this information to make decisions about how to move, how much tension to create, whether an area is safe and whether pain is needed.
When this information is clear and accurate, your brain allows smooth, pain-free, efficient movement. When the information is unclear, conflicting or suggests threat, your brain creates protective responses. These show up as muscle tightness, restricted range, weakness, pain and movement patterns that do not feel right.
The key insight of Functional Neurology is that many physical problems are not caused by damaged tissue but by faulty information processing. Your muscles are not tight because they are injured. They are tight because your brain is telling them to guard. Your movement is not restricted because of structural limitation. It is restricted because your brain does not trust that range. Your pain is not always a sign of damage. It is often a sign that your brain believes protection is needed.
At Breakthrough Pain & Performance, we use Functional Neurology and P-DTR to test the specific receptors and pathways that inform your brain. We identify exactly where the faulty signals are coming from and reset them. When your brain receives accurate information, it stops creating unnecessary protection. Pain reduces, movement improves and your body feels like it belongs to you again.
Your nervous system stores information about every significant event your body has experienced. Accidents, surgeries, falls, sprains, impacts, infections and even periods of high stress all leave their mark. At the time, your brain created protective responses that made sense. It increased tension, restricted movement, switched off certain muscles and created pain to prevent further damage.
The problem is that your brain can hold onto these protective patterns long after the original event has healed. The tissue recovers on its own timeline, usually within weeks or months. But the nervous system pattern can persist indefinitely if the receptors in that area continue to send unclear signals.
This is why you can have an injury that healed years ago but an area that still does not feel right. It is why you can rest for months without improvement. It is why strengthening exercises sometimes make things worse. Your brain is still acting as if the threat is present because the information it receives still suggests threat.
Something as simple as dropping a weight awkwardly or an odd sleeping position can disrupt receptors. The tissue impact may be minimal, but the neurological consequence can be significant. Your brain acts as if the threat is still present because the faulty receptors keep telling it so.
Your brain relies on input from multiple systems to make decisions about movement and protection. We test all of them to find the true driver of your problem.
Muscle spindles detect the length and rate of change in your muscles. When they malfunction, your brain receives inaccurate information about muscle position, leading to inappropriate tension, weakness or pain. We test muscle spindle function throughout your body and reset faults that are causing dysfunction.
Golgi tendon organs detect tension in your tendons where muscles attach to bone. When they malfunction, your brain may inhibit strength or create tension to protect against perceived overload. We identify and correct Golgi tendon organ dysfunction that limits your strength or creates guarding.
Located throughout your joints, these receptors detect position, pressure and movement limits. When they malfunction, you may experience pain, instability or restricted range. We test joint receptor function and reset faults that are limiting your movement.
Located in your skin, these receptors detect touch, pressure, stretch, temperature and vibration. When they malfunction, particularly around scars, they can drive pain and protective patterns in areas that seem unrelated to skin. We test skin receptors and reset faults that are creating problems elsewhere in your body.
Your visual system provides critical information about where you are in space, what is around you and how to coordinate movement. Eye movement dysfunction, convergence problems and visual processing faults can drive neck pain, headaches, balance problems and movement restrictions throughout your body. We test visual function and address faults that are contributing to your symptoms.
Your vestibular system in your inner ear detects head position, acceleration and rotation. It is fundamental to balance, spatial orientation and coordinated movement. Vestibular dysfunction can cause dizziness, balance problems, neck tension, headaches and widespread protective patterns. We test vestibular function and identify when it is driving your symptoms.
By testing all these systems, we find the true source of your problem rather than just treating the area that hurts.
P-DTR stands for Proprioceptive Deep Tendon Reflex. It is a precise neurological assessment and treatment method developed by Dr José Palomar that tests and corrects receptor dysfunction throughout the body.
The central insight of P-DTR is that your brain makes decisions based on receptor input. When receptors send clear, accurate information, your brain allows normal function. When receptors send unclear or threatening information, your brain creates protective or dysfunctional responses.
In a P-DTR assessment, we use specific muscle tests to identify dysfunction. When a receptor is malfunctioning, it affects the muscles it relates to. By testing muscle strength and response, we can identify receptor dysfunction.
The assessment process works by challenging receptors while testing muscles. When we stimulate a receptor that is causing dysfunction, the muscle test changes. A strong muscle becomes weak, or a weak muscle becomes strong. This tells us exactly which receptor is the problem.
Once we identify the faulty receptor, we reset it using specific inputs. These inputs might be pressure, stretch, vibration, position or other stimuli that the receptor responds to. The correction takes seconds and is completely painless.
After the correction, we retest immediately. In most cases, the muscle test normalises. The receptor is now sending accurate information. Your brain no longer needs to create the protective or dysfunctional response.
This process of test, identify, correct, retest is fundamental to P-DTR. We do not guess what might be wrong. We test systematically. We do not assume the correction worked. We prove it with retesting.
P-DTR allows us to be extremely precise about what is causing your problem and to correct it efficiently. Rather than treating broadly and hoping something helps, we identify the exact receptor fault and address it directly.
Understanding that your nervous system drives most pain and movement problems changes everything about how you approach treatment.
It explains why your scans might show nothing wrong when your pain is very real. Scans show tissue. They do not show what your nervous system is doing with the information it receives.
It explains why rest does not always help. You are not resting an injury. You are waiting for a nervous system pattern to change, which it often will not do without intervention.
It explains why the same problem keeps coming back despite treatment. If the nervous system driver is not addressed, the symptom will return once the treatment effect wears off.
It explains why strengthening exercises sometimes make things worse. Loading an area your brain does not trust can increase the protective response rather than resolve it.
It explains why your pain moves around or fluctuates without obvious cause. Your brain constantly recalculates threat based on the information it receives, and that information changes with stress, sleep, overall load and many other factors.
Most importantly, it means there is usually something that can be done even when you have been told otherwise. If the problem is in the information system rather than the tissue, we can test that information, find the fault and correct it. This is why people who have had pain for years can feel significant change in a single session.
If any of this resonates, the problem is likely in your nervous system rather than your tissues. This is exactly what we assess and treat.
A precise three-step process that resolves dysfunction by addressing the neurological signals that create it.
We conduct comprehensive neurological testing to identify exactly which receptors are sending faulty information to your brain. This involves muscle testing throughout your body, combined with challenges to your visual system, vestibular system, joint receptors, skin receptors and proprioceptive pathways. We systematically narrow down which specific inputs are driving your symptoms.
Using P-DTR techniques, we apply precise inputs that restore normal signalling from the identified receptors. The corrections are gentle, specific and take seconds. Once your brain receives accurate information, it no longer needs to create protective responses. Muscles that were tight relax. Muscles that were weak activate. Movement that was restricted becomes available.
We immediately retest every change we make. You feel muscles become strong that were weak. You feel range improve that was restricted. You feel pain reduce that was present. This is not guesswork. Every correction is verified with objective testing before we move on.
Result:
Many people feel significant change in their first session. Simple cases often resolve in one to three sessions.
Your first appointment is 60 minutes. We begin by taking a detailed history of your symptoms and relevant past events. What symptoms do you have. When did they start. What was happening in your life at that time. How have they progressed. What have you tried. What activities are affected. Have you had accidents, surgeries or significant injuries in the past, even if they seem unrelated.
This history is important because your nervous system stores information about past events. Something that happened years ago can still be driving dysfunction today.
We then assess your body systematically using neurological testing. We test muscle function throughout your body to identify patterns of weakness, over-activation and inhibition. We challenge different receptor types to see which are causing the problem.
When we find a receptor fault, we correct it using gentle, specific inputs. The correction takes seconds. We retest immediately and you feel the change.
We continue this process throughout the session, addressing the various dysfunctions we identify. Some may directly relate to your main complaint. Others may be contributing factors or related patterns.
At the end of your session, we explain what we found and what we changed. We discuss whether further sessions are likely needed and what realistic expectations are for your situation.
Functional Neurology helps anyone whose symptoms are driven by how their nervous system processes information rather than by tissue damage. In practice, this is far more people than you might expect.
We help people with chronic pain that has not responded to conventional treatment. We help those with acute injuries who want faster recovery. We help people with headaches and migraines, particularly those with neck involvement or visual triggers.
We help athletes and active people with performance limitations, recurrent niggles or asymmetries they cannot resolve. We help desk workers with persistent tightness that returns despite stretching and treatment. We help people recovering from surgery whose progress has stalled.
We help those with balance problems, dizziness or vestibular symptoms. We help people with movement restrictions that do not have obvious structural cause. We help anyone who feels like their body is not working the way it should and has not found answers elsewhere.
If your symptoms are driven by faulty nervous system signalling, we can identify that and correct it. The first step is assessment to determine whether this approach is right for you.
“I never knew my nervous system could cause so many of my problems. After one session my shoulder moved freely for the first time in years.”
— Client, Newcastle
“Sam found issues with my vision that no one else had tested. Correcting them changed my neck pain completely.”
— Client, North Tyneside
“I was sceptical that testing my muscles could identify why my back hurt. Then I felt the immediate change and understood.”
— Client, Whitley Bay
Many people feel clear change in the first session. We prove changes with immediate retesting so you know something has shifted before you leave.
Simple cases often resolve in one to three sessions. A straightforward receptor fault that is driving a single symptom can be identified and corrected quickly.
Complex cases with multiple layers take longer. If you have had problems for years, there are usually multiple dysfunctions to address. At your first appointment, we give you an honest assessment of what we find and what the realistic path forward looks like. We do not lock you into extended treatment programmes. You see progress and decide whether to continue based on results.
No. Scans show tissue, not neurological function. Many people with significant scan findings have no pain, while many people with severe pain have normal scans. We assess function, not images.
Most approaches focus on the area that hurts. We test your entire nervous system to find what is driving your symptoms, which is often distant from the painful area.
It depends on your situation. Some people resolve in one to three sessions. Complex cases take longer. We assess at each visit and you see steady progress.
Yes, sciatica is often driven by neurological dysfunction rather than just nerve compression. We test to identify the true cause and address it.
Yes, especially if those haven’t worked. We complement them by fixing neurological roots.
If you have symptoms that have not responded to conventional treatment, the answer is often in your nervous system. Book a Free Taster Session and find out what is really driving your problems. In 15 to 20 minutes, we assess your situation, demonstrate how neurological testing works and show you whether this approach is right for you. No obligation, no pressure, just clarity on what is going on and what it would take to fix it. Based in Shiremoor, Newcastle. Serving North Tyneside and surrounding areas. Sessions available this week. Free parking on site.
