Sean M. Wheeler, M.D. · Sports medicine and pain physician
A sports medicine approach to back, neck and shoulder pain. If you have been told there is no hope, that sentence is usually about an algorithm—not about you.
Body Guitar Clinic is diagnosis-focused, non-narcotic, rehab-centered, and built to put you back in charge of the story. We look at you, not only at the MRI. We leave you with a diagnosis, not a flowchart.
Your body is a finely tuned instrument. Care for it and learn to use it correctly, and it will play music that is unique to you—your life song.
— Dr. Sean M. Wheeler, M.D.
It is the most common cause of disability worldwide. Did previous doctors look at you, or just your films? Did you leave with a diagnosis, or an explanation of the algorithm? Back pain is complicated. Sometimes we have to unravel more than one problem. A differential diagnosis is not an either/or recipe.
Read about back painNeck pain and shoulder pain travel together. Most pain doctors treat the neck. Most sports doctors treat the shoulders. Dr. Wheeler is trained in both, which is why this clinic is a one-stop for a problem that usually gets split in half.
Read about neck and shoulder painBracing muscles are the little endurance muscles that pull joints into themselves. String muscles are strong and tight. Good for a sprint. Bad for a 16-hour day. That is the Body Guitar Theory in one breath. The rest liveson the theory page, and inUPRISE, 2nd edition.
The book
UPRISE, by Dr. Sean M. Wheeler, M.D., asks the only question that still matters: why aren’t patients getting better? The first edition was Publishers Weekly’s National Book of the Week. This edition introduces the Body Guitar Theory—a new way to talk about spine stability.
Warm, specific, and not a billboard.
Dr. Wheeler and the entire staff are fantastic. The skill, the urgency, the compassion to get my back pain under control. And then the plan to understand the why I was having issues.
I've been seeing Dr. Wheeler for many years. I am extremely confident in his work. He is highly skilled as a pain management doctor, professional, and friendly.
I went in with awful headaches starting in the back of my neck. He had a spine in his office to show and explain his diagnosis in a way that the patient could understand. My headaches are so much better.
I drove my mom more than 400 miles for her to see him. He was able to alleviate her back pain that had bothered her for the past 6 years. She had seen several doctors where she lives but nobody had any answers.
Teachers, healers, mentors—the old site said all three, and it still holds. We explain how the body works, what is causing the pain, and why a given plan is the plan. Then we stay with you through the rehab that makes the diagnosis worth having.