What We Treat

Nerve Pain treatment in North Liberty.

Burning, buzzing, numbness, or a shock that runs down a line. Nerve pain has a source somewhere along the route. Finding it is the whole job, and that is what a cause-first evaluation is for.

Burning and buzzing Numbness and tingling Dry needling Book My Free Consult

Sound Familiar?

Does this sound familiar?

  • A burning stripe down one limb that no position turns off
  • Pins and needles that wake you and follow you to the bathroom
  • Dropping a mug because your grip let go without warning
  • Skin that feels numb and hypersensitive at the same time
  • A zap that fires when you turn your head or reach overhead
  • Months of it now, getting slowly worse instead of settling

Two or more? A nerve left irritated gets better at complaining, so earlier is easier.

Why It Happens

Nerve pain is a message. Find the sender.

Nerves run from your spine to your fingertips and toes through tunnels made of muscle, joint and fascia. Anywhere along that route they can be compressed, tethered, or chemically irritated. The pain then shows up downstream, which is why the spot that hurts is usually not the spot causing it.

So we trace it. Where the nerve is being pinched or dragged. Which muscles are clamped around it. What movement pattern keeps reloading the same site before it can settle. The tools follow the finding, not a template: hands-on release, dry needling, nerve glides, and strength work in the right order. Natalie Johnston is a Fellow in Pain Sciences and a Therapeutic Pain Specialist with 24 years of experience.

You have already read everything, and you have probably already had a scan that did not explain it. That is exactly the kind of patient who does well here.

Close-up of one hand rubbing the fingers and joints of the other

The Honest Truth

Waiting doesn’t make it wait on you.

If you keep waiting

  • The rest of your body starts compensating, and the compensations start hurting too
  • Flare-ups get closer together, and take longer to settle each time
  • You move less to avoid the pain, which weakens the exact things that were protecting you

If you start this week

  • Visit one is a cause-first evaluation, and you leave knowing what we found
  • Hands-on treatment starts the same day, not after a second appointment
  • You get a plan with an endpoint: a real one, not an open tab of visits

Nobody regrets starting too early. Plenty of people tell us they wish they had come in sooner.

How We Fix It

Four phases. Built around the nerve.

Every plan has an endpoint. Here’s what the four phases look like when a nerve is the problem.

Weeks 1–2

Pain

Take pressure off the nerve.

Manual therapy and dry needling release the tissue clamping down, so the irritation finally has room to settle.

Weeks 2–6

Prime

Get the nerve gliding again.

Nerve mobility work and restored joint motion give the nerve back the slide it needs to stop protesting.

Weeks 6–10

Perform

Load it without waking it up.

Strength comes back to the muscles that switched off, so the nerve is not the thing holding you upright.

Weeks 10+

Prevent

Keep the tunnel open.

Posture, workstation and lifting mechanics get corrected, because the tunnel closes back down if nothing changes.

I’ve came to Natalie with a complex muscle/nerve damage of my bicep/rotator cuff/shoulder blade that was over 6 months old and slowly getting worse. I’ve tried some other remedies and a different techniques without much help then my doctor reffered me to this place. Natalie used a combination of different methods (dry needling, manual targted massage, stretching and series of exercise) and finally after several visits my condition started to give up! Muscle/nerve spasm went away and motion range slowly increasing.

Olga K. · Complex muscle and nerve damage

Today: a nerve that complains no matter how you sit

The goal: quiet skin, a grip you trust, and a full night of sleep

Nerve Pain Pain to Prevent

Related Conditions

Nerves start somewhere, usually upstream.

Where a nerve gets irritated is often a joint away from where it hurts. Here’s what else we treat.

1

Back Pain & Sciatica

A burning line down one leg that starts before you are out of the car.

Learn More 2

Neck Pain

A stiff neck that sends numbness and tingling into a hand.

Learn More 3

Chronic Pain

Pain that outlasted the injury, and nobody has explained why.

Learn More

Questions, Answered

What people ask before booking for nerve pain.

Usually not, and it is rarely the first step. A scan shows structure, not which nerve is actually generating your symptoms, and scans show changes in people who have no pain at all. A hands-on exam maps where the nerve is irritated along its route. If imaging turns out to be genuinely necessary, we’ll help you get it.

It usually feels like a deep twitch and then a release, rather than a sharp pain. It works on the muscle clamping around an irritated nerve, which is why it pairs well with manual therapy and nerve glides. It is one tool, chosen because your exam pointed at it, not handed to everyone who walks in.

A full plan for nerve pain runs through all four phases, Pain, Prime, Perform, and Prevent, and how long that takes depends on how long the nerve has been irritated. Either way, you get a plan with an endpoint: you’ll always know which phase you’re in and what’s left, not an open-ended string of appointments.

Book Your Visit

Ready when you are.

Request a time and a real person calls you back. No phone tree. No ‘someone will reach out.’ Just a plan.

  • Hours Mon-Fri: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
  • (319) 382-2743 Prefer to talk now? Call us.
  • No referral needed in Iowa

4.9 · 79 Google reviews

Typical response: under 2 business hours

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So we know who to look for when you walk in.

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Motion Matters Physical Therapy and Wellness

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