MLT was born in 2004 when Arik Gohl, a medical massage therapist in Tacoma, Washington, was searching for a more effective and less physically demanding way to treat his patients.  In practice since 1999, and within three years after being licensed, Arik had suffered a repetitive stress injury due to overuse.  He decided there had to be a better and more potent way to treat musculoskeletal injuries other than using therapist challenging deep tissue and trigger point.  Conferring with a close friend, a Doctor of Chiropractic, Arik wanted to know if there were any therapist friendly modalities from the chiropractic world that he could use that were within his scope of practice.  One technique that he learned was the Logan Basic Technique.  This therapy utilizes gentle pressure to a low back structure called the sacrotuberous ligament.  Developed in the early twentieth century by Dr. Hugh Logan, this technique was found to have great effect in quickly reducing muscle spasm in the muscles of the back and is still widely used today.

After learning the Logan Basic Technique, Arik inquired as to whether other ligaments of the body could reproduce a similar effect with different muscle.  After he was told that this had not yet been explored, Arik decided to start his own research into the subject.  He discovered that many of the ligaments in the body could be gently coaxed into greatly reducing muscle spasm and tension very quickly with long lasting results.

With the results he was achieving with his patients, Arik knew he was making a vital discovery.  He needed to find out why these results were occurring.   After consulting with physicians and clinicians, he began studying the Pub Med database of case-studies (www.pubmed.org).  Arik found high level research articles showing that ligaments played a very large role in giving the brain information on how to keep the body in balance.  He found that even slight injury to ligaments could induce significant dysfunction within joint and muscle structures.

Within three months, Arik arranged a one-on-one meeting with a PhD and world renowned researcher, Dr. Moshe Solomonow, at the University of Colorado, Denver.  Having studied many of the articles written by Dr. Solomonow, all of which supported the active role that ligaments play in regulating neuromuscular control, Arik  felt it was vital to gain the support of someone so highly respected in the research world.  After meeting with Dr. Solomonow, it was obvious that Arik was onto something very unique and uncharted.  Leaving Denver with Dr. Solomonow’s support and respect, Arik delved into his destiny of developing and teaching his new therapy, Manual Ligament Therapy.

Many years later and with over 10,000 hours of research and development, MLT is a tried and proven modality that effectively treats most musculoskeletal injuries quickly, easily, and with very little effort on the clinician's part.   Manual Ligament Therapy is now used by clinician’s of all backgrounds and is in the process of nationwide and international exposure.