The Hidden Key to Chronic Pain Relief: Healing Through Myofascial Release with Gwen Bernardo

✨ If you’ve been struggling with chronic pain, anxiety, or feeling “stuck,” this conversation may open a door you didn’t know existed.

In this powerful episode of The Daring Well Podcast, Rita Mercer sits down with Gwen Bernardo, a myofascial release therapist, to explore the deep connection between the body, trauma, and healing.

After a life-altering horseback riding accident that left her with both physical injuries and unresolved emotional trauma, Gwen spent years searching for relief through traditional therapies—without lasting results. It wasn’t until she discovered myofascial release that everything changed.

Gwen shares how this gentle yet powerful modality helped her release stored emotional pain, dramatically reduce anxiety, and reconnect with her body in a way she never thought possible.

Together, Rita and Gwen unpack:

• What fascia is and why it plays a crucial role in chronic pain
• How trauma and emotions can become stored in the body
• Why traditional treatments may not always address the root cause
• The importance of the mind-body connection in true healing
• Practical ways to begin releasing tension and reconnecting with your body

This episode is an invitation to slow down, listen inward, and explore a new pathway to healing—physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Chapters Breakdown

• From Trauma to Transformation 
• The Missing Piece in Healing
• What Is Fascia & Why It Matters
• Releasing Stored Emotions & Chronic Pain
• Practical Healing Tools & Next Steps 

Connect with Gwen

Gwen Bernardo, MFR Therapist, CMT

Website:  https://performancemfr.com/

Discount Code - Ask for "Jumpstart Program" for Daring Well Listeners (Save $500)

Find a local Myofascial Therapist in your state or country: https://mfrtherapists.com/

Transcript

00:00

Introduction

Welcome to The Daring Well Podcast with Rita Mercer.

But a lot of the issues, again, are in the tissues, and until you have an opportunity to release those trapped emotions and the trapped pain, you're never gonna get there 100%.

And that was what was so fascinating to me as a scientist, was that to really complete that, you need that somatic piece.

Welcome back to The Daring Well Podcast. My guest today is Gwen Bernardo. Gwen is a myofascial release therapist.

She specializes in facial health and chronic pain relief. After dealing with 19 years of physical and emotional stress from a serious horseback riding accident, Gwen's life was changed by myofascial release.

So we're going to learn about what it is today, and I'm excited for her to share more about her story.

I'm excited for you guys to hear more about ways to overcome pain by finding ways to heal and learn to listen to your body, because the body knows how to heal itself. So again, thank you so much for joining The Daring Well Podcast, Gwen.

Welcome again.

Oh, thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm really looking forward to this conversation.

Yay.

Yay.

1:27

Horse Accident Trauma

So as we get into your My Daring Well story, tell us a little bit about that horseback riding accident. I know we were doing our little pre-chat and we were just talking about this love of having a horse. So I am in that camp too.

I love horses. We have one down the street and I love just walking down and just hanging out with it.

Tell me about that story of you fallen in love with horses and wanting to work with horses and then how this horseback riding accident just caused a big shift in your trajectory of what you do now.

Yeah. So thanks for asking. So like many little girls, I was a horse crazy little girl and I loved horses and wanted everything horses and used to dream about them.

Unfortunately, my parents weren't in a financial position to get us a horse. So they would ask me, if I wanted to eat three meals a day and have a roof over my head, they would say then, sorry, you have to wait until you're a grown up.

Well, of course, I would be okay sleeping in a stable, but they were not game for that. So fast forward about 30 something years and I was in a position to purchase a horse. I was not a rider.

I just really want to stress that I just was a horse crazy person. Anyway, my husband said, well, if you're going to buy a horse, maybe you should take a lesson.

And I went and unfortunately, I found a very inexperienced trainer who put me on a very inexperienced horse and I was a very inexperienced rider. And that is a dreadful combination.

Bad recipe.

It is a yes. If you have a young rider and a young horse, the solution is black and blue. So anyway, I get on this horse and something spooked him.

And he took off at a run right at a fence that was on the far side of it, a solid wall, and I had literally no control over this horse.

And at the very end, right before the fence, he made a sharp left and I went flying into the fence where I got a concussion, cracked my head open, broke three ribs, and twisted my ankle. And it was a pretty bad accident.

But I still wanted to buy a horse, so like a crazy person, the very next day, went out with the same trainer, because I didn't have any experience, and bought a horse that of course had a genetic mutation, and wound up dying a year later.

So not only was there this physical injury and physical insult, there was also, unbeknownst to me, the anxiety of the horse running off and having no control.

This plays a part later in my story, that I didn't even realize that there was that emotional aspect of the horse running off with me and having no control.

And then, of course, the emotional aspect of buying a horse that had this genetic mutation, and he was sick for a year. So it just compounded everything.

My whole life's goal and dream was to be a horse mom, and in the course of a year, it was just completely shabbered.

Yeah, that sounds terrifying, being on an inexperienced horse and running almost into a wall. That sounds so scary.

Yeah. And this was, I realized many years later, had really held me back in many areas of my life to the point where I had gone to hypnotherapy to move past this accident. I had moved, you know, done talk therapy.

I did all of the therapies and I still couldn't get past it. I also had to do physical therapy for the hematomas and the broken rib and the ankle. So there was a physical and an emotional component to it.

So fast forward a couple years, I have a new horse. He gets hurt, worked alongside an equine physical therapist, decided to change careers and become one myself.

So in 2010, I became a therapist for horses, and that changed my career from what I was doing in the past. So horses have always been a big part of my life.

That's so cool. Yeah, I love horses. So what age did you say you first had this love of horses?

I remember being a very little girl.

So five, six, seven, just it started and they're magical. So, you know, draw horses, horse stickers, you know, the whole. And it's funny because my parents are artists and city folk.

So they never understood the whole love of horses. They were just like, why? You're not a farmer.

We're not farmers. Why do you like? Where is this coming from?

I don't know. I don't know. Luck.

Luck, I guess.

So all those years of just loving horses. And so you became an equine therapist. So break that down of like what that means.

So the horse is the client? Yes.

The horse is the patient. So for any of your guests, if you've ever done physical therapy, you know how unpleasant it can be. And I don't know if you know how hard it can be on your therapist.

But it's a very physically demanding job because now my client weighs 1600 pounds. So and if you're not familiar with physical therapy, congratulations, you've made it this far.

But basically we use heat, ice, you know, physical mobilization, soft tissue mobilization. It's just a way to help the body get stronger and move with more range of motion. But instead of working on a person, my client was a 1600 pound animal.

So it was fun. But I'm so grateful that I get to work with people now because they don't bite or kick. So that's fun.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So when you think about walking through those moments of overcoming the physical pain and the emotional trauma of the horseback riding accident, like what was that moment of change for you that you knew that it was that you needed to do something

So I had had my physical practice, my equine practice for about 15 years, and I needed some continuing education.

7:48

Healing Journey

And I sort of came to this work, not really believing in it because it's so very gentle, and it seemed a little hootily doodily if I'm going to be honest with you. And one of the things that they talked about was how emotions get stored in the body.

And I come from a very scientific background, and that to me just did not make any sense. I just didn't believe it. But that's going to be another part of the conversation, which I'm excited to talk about.

So you were talking about the class.

So one of the quotes that you said, what do you have to, the instructor said to you, what do you have to lose if you took off the brakes and really allowed yourself to let go? When you said that quote, I thought that was powerful.

So take us back to that moment of sitting in class and what shifted for you in that moment.

So I took the class, very gentle, brought it back to my practice, and was seeing a lot of results in my practice to the point where the riders began to ask me if I could work on them.

They're like, oh, Cooper is lifting his legs higher, or his back is doing better, or whatever the condition was. And even though I wasn't trained for people, I said, well, muscles are muscles, fascia is fascia, I can do some work on you.

And they got really excited about how much better they were feeling and how much the results that they were getting.

And I thought to myself, I should probably get some of this work done myself, so I can experience what the horses and the people are feeling.

And I went to what was called a healing seminar because it was for laypeople, I didn't have my license to touch. And I got about six to seven hours of this work.

And during one of the seminars, now remember my mindset is emotions are not stored in the body, and the mind and the body are completely separate entities. So I just want to set that expectation.

The instructor said, what's the worst that could happen if you take off your brakes? And I said to myself, nothing. And the next thing I know, my life changed.

And all of these emotions came flooding back, all of these memories came flooding back, just from the traumatic work, from the trauma.

And not really having the dime drop until then, that it wasn't even so much the physical pain of running into the fence, it was the emotional component of being run away with, of being out of control, of not being able to be in control of the

situation that altered me. Because when I got back from having this work, I just want to set this up, my husband and I have a very good marriage, but he did say to me, oh my God, you're bitching at me, Les, whatever you did is really helping at you.

And I said, I didn't realize I bitched at you. And he said, I didn't realize it either until it stopped. And we'd been married for 20 years at this point.

Right? So that's pretty profound, that for all of this time, I'd had this snappy little thing happening when I thought it was a delight, and he thought I was a delight.

But clearly, something was going on underneath, and once this was revealed and almost this thing was removed from me, apparently, I've become more pleasant.

So the weight of emotions really lifted from your body and your mind. Yeah.

And then I continue with this work. I still get treated once a week. There is a center out in Sedona where they do a minimum of two weeks, and you get 30 hours of treatment in two weeks.

After that, I mean, full disclosure, I suffer from anxiety and from depression for years and years. I got diagnosed in my 20s and I'm in my 50s now.

And after receiving 30 hours of this work, a couple of months later, I felt like a leaded blanket had just flipped off of me. And I'd say 90 percent of my anxiety was gone. And that happened, now it'll be a year and a half ago.

So, so much easier to live without that cloak of anxiety. When I start to feel a little anxious, I'm able to stop and sort of regulate myself and say, okay, is this something that is worth having anxiety about? Is this something I can deal with?

What can I do to change that? Where, I mean, really, literally, it felt like a leaded blanket was just dropped off of me, and here's the kicker, I didn't know I was wearing it.

Because we become so used to our situations as human, we're very adaptable. So we just adapt to whatever is happening.

And become numb to it.

And become numb to it. And I didn't realize, I mean, I knew I had anxiety that I didn't realize how crippling it was.

Until it wasn't.

Until it wasn't there anymore, and then I became even more pleasant. So.

Wow.

13:19

Myofascial Explained

Wow. Thank you for sharing that, Gwen. And so as we're talking about myofascia, I think it's important to break it down.

Like, what is that? So can you break that down of like, what is myofascia? And then what do you wish people knew about myofascial release?

Okay, so that's a great question.

So fascia is probably the most unsung hero of our body. It is the connective tissue that holds us all together. But it also is our organs, our tendons, our ligaments, our skin, our muscles.

We have fascia in our mouth, in our eyes, in our ears, under our fingernails. It's the whole system. It's because there's fascia in every cell, including in your blood, it's the fastest system.

It's faster even than your nervous system.

Wow, I didn't know that.

Yeah, so it's exciting. But because it's all connected, you can get a fascia restriction someplace.

And depending on the insult or the injury or the trauma, and how your body, where it manifests, it can show up someplace else in your body, because it is one continuum.

If you think of like a sweater, if you have ever gotten your sweater hooked on something, what happens? It pulls at the neck. But it's hooked on, let's say, your arm.

Everybody is so busy treating the neck, that they forget to just unhook it on the arm. So what myofascial release does is it treats the symptom, but it looks elsewhere for the cause.

For the source.

For the source of it, because it looks at the body holistically. And it looks at the body as a whole and doesn't just say, oh, your neck's hurting, let's just treat your neck, your neck, your neck.

Well, what if your neck is hurting because you had a shoulder insult or something happened to your hip or you twisted your ankle in a horseback riding accident 20 years ago, and it's finally over time made its way up to your neck.

So that's what's exciting about this. And I'd say probably 90 percent of people's pain is trapped in their fascia. So it's a great modality.

And what do I wish people knew?

15:28

Myofascial Release Benefits

I wish people knew that this was an option to don't have to wait to try.

Like, most people come to me after they've seen the chiropractor, after they've seen the physical therapist, and after they've seen the acupuncturist and the massage therapist, and they haven't gotten results that they were hoping they would get, or

it isn't lasting. Like, they keep seeing the chiropractor, like, years. And they keep have to get adjusted. And they finally decide they're going to try something different.

Then people come and see me. So I want to let you know, you don't have to do that. You can see your myofascial release therapist first.

And save yourself a lot of time and energy and effort.

Yeah. And we'll definitely put in the show notes, the international resource directory for everyone to find one in their local area. But for people on that journey, we'll get back to your story in just a second about the myofascia.

So people on that journey, like, how do they know to ask for it? Like, if you don't know, you don't know. And so, like, do you get a referral from your primary care?

Or is it when you go to chiropractic? Like, how does that come into the conversation of your medical care plan?

So that's a great question. So that's part of why I'm coming on shows like this. And thank you again for having me, is to let people know that their fascial system is important.

And believe it or not, there are, you know, some doctors, some physical therapists, they're not aware of the system as a whole. They're, you know, they focus on what they're focused on.

So they may not even realize that the problems are coming from elsewhere. Nothing against Western medicine at all. And we definitely need doctors and physical therapists and chiropractors and acupuncturists.

We need all of those things. But it's just, it's an education about that the problem probably is, we like to say the issues are in the tissues. And so...

The issues are in the tissues.

And since that's what as myofascial release therapists we work in, just know if you have chronic neck pain that you've been like, why can't I get rid of this?

Go see a myofascial release therapist. At least talk to one. And see if it jives with what you have to say.

Because if you've been treating the neck, treating the neck, treating the neck, treating the neck, treating the neck, and you're not getting somewhere, chances are it's not your neck.

It's showing up as your neck, but there's somewhere else that's the problem. And once you resolve that, the neck is going to get better. It's going to release.

That's powerful.

That's powerful. So what you would want people to know about the myofascial release is that it's available. Is there anything else that you want them to know about myofascial release?

It's available.

If you go to someone who is John Barnes trained, we are gentle.

I like to call it the velvet wrecking ball because some people have had myofascial release like the old school, which is a lot closer to physical therapy, and it can be very, very deep and very, very painful.

And so sometimes people, when they're asking me about it, they're like, oh my God, I went and I saw someone and I was bruised. And I want to let you know, no, we work with the body, not in or on it. That makes sense.

So that the pressure is always what your body is asking for in that particular moment. We don't go in with an agenda. You know, we treat what we see.

We treat the patient in the room. We don't treat, you know, oh, if someone says, there's no protocols in this work. So if someone comes in and they're like, well, I have a bulging disc at L4.

It's not like, oh, let me look this up. And there's a protocol and da, da, da, da, da. We treat the person again, holistically.

That's powerful.

That's good to know. Is it covered by insurance?

So that depends on the provider. It also depends on their licensure. So doctors can provide this, nurses can provide this, occupational therapists, physical therapists.

If they take insurance in their practice, they will let you know. So if you're listening and you're curious, when you find an alfalfa relief therapist, you can ask them. My licensure is massage therapist.

So I'm able to take a health savings account, but I'm not set up to provide typical PPO or HMO.

Got you. Got you. Important question to think about when you think about for care.

Sweet. So let's jump back to your story. But yeah, we're talking about this in my own fashion.

Everybody's probably like, what is that? And so let's break that down. So it's the connective tissue, and it's throughout all of our body, including the cells, and you said the blood?

Yeah, there's aspects of it in your blood.

That's wild.

I had no idea.

Yes. And believe it or not too, we can work in the mouth, we work in the nose and the ears. So it's great for TMJ, it's great for snoring.

So ladies, if you have a partner who snores, find yourself a myofascial release therapist and send that man there. They may be able to help because it could be a fascial restriction. I mean, that was incredible.

When I was a student and I was learning, I was just playing around and I worked on my husband, and I worked on him one time, and he stopped snoring for two weeks, which was really great because if he had even stopped snoring for one night, I would

have been thrilled. So the fact that he, I treat him, we do touch-ups, but I'm able to sleep through the night now.

Wow, and him too.

Oh yeah, and he sleeps through the night too. But come on, it's all about me. I'm glad I could sleep through the night.

Yeah.

So going back to your story about your Daring Well story, so what were some ways that your minds had had to shift when you think about this mind and body connection?

21:14

Mind Body Connection

So it was really fascinating.

I read a book by Van Der Koop called The Body Keeps the Score, and I'm sure your listeners are familiar with it if they're into wellness at all. But it's amazing that trauma, emotional, physical, spiritual can change your DNA.

And again, coming from that scientific background, when I realized that and also had that experience, I did after the six hours of the treatment, realizing that emotions get trapped in our bodies.

And no matter how much talk therapy I did, and no matter how much hypnotherapy I did, until I had that ability to release from my tissues, that was what dropped the dime for me.

And also it was important for me to realize that thinking about it, like if we could think our way out of our pain and our emotional challenges, we would because we're all really smart, right? And we all think a lot.

I wish it was that easy.

But a lot of the issues again are in the tissues and until you have an opportunity to release those trapped emotions and the trapped pain, you're never going to get there 100 percent.

And that was what was so fascinating to me as a scientist, was that to really complete that, you need that somatic piece, you need the time.

Then what separates myofascial release from let's say a typical massage or a deep tissue massage, is that we use time and pressure.

So where a massage kind of glides around using oils and lotions, and I call it jazz hands and around the body, no disrespect, massages are great.

This is an actual physical therapy where you sink into the tissues and you wait and you wait and you wait, and we wait at the barrier for 5, 10, 15 minutes and allow that tissue to really soften. We liken it to taffy being pulled.

And so that begins to release those adhesions in the fascial system, put some space back in and allow the body to heal itself because only your body can heal you, right? So we want to support the body in its best way possible.

Wow.

Wow.

Thank you for sharing that. So for you, it sounds like a whole mind and body change, but also emotionally and spiritually for you as well.

Yes.

So what ways would you say you found growth through all of that?

So believe it or not, working with my fascial release has made me a lot less judgmental, which has been really interesting because it's challenged a lot of my beliefs, and now I believe things that other people might think are a little wacky because

people are like, no, no, my body, there's no connection and emotions are instead. I'm like, no, but until you experience it, so I'm able to give people more grace and also knowing that they might have burdens that they don't even realize that they're

carrying, and that's been a real eye-opener for me because again, I had this lead blanket on me for 50, how old am I, 54, 52? I had for 52 years, parental expectations, one of my parents died when I was very young.

All of these things compounded on and put on, and then of course, what's going on in the world today. And so if we're able to release that out of ourselves, it's huge. It's empowering.

It makes us, something I like to say is put your mask on first before you assist others. And especially as women, we like to help others before we help ourselves. But like self-care is so important.

So yeah, that's why I wanted to come on the podcast and just share with your listeners that if you're suffering in pain or if you're having, this works great for emotional stuff as well.

It's a modality that if you haven't heard of or you're not familiar with, it really encourage you to try because if you take off your brakes, the sky's the limit. Wow.

Wow. So it taught you to learn to trust yourself?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes. That I am enough.

So learn to slow down, to tune into your body, learn to sit with discomfort.

All of those things, yes. Now I even can meditate and before that, forget it. I was so in my head, I was never able to slow it down.

But that is definitely something that has changed is now I'm able to get into my body and be present and really slow my mind down, which is very refreshing. So there's a lot that we have to think about.

And so having that gift of clarity and ease and just sort of living in the flow of my body has been a great gift.

Wow.

26:10

Self-Treatment Tips

Wow. We've got so many cool thoughts of just kind of ways to heal our body. And so what are some ways people can self-treat with myofascial release with either trauma symptoms or with anxiety?

Like what are there some ways that they can self-treat?

So it is a physical modality. Most people are familiar with the dreaded foam roller, big white foam roller if you've ever.

Yeah.

I see you're nodding. You're like, yeah, everybody who's ever been to PT is familiar with this. But I want to make a suggestion on a different way to use it.

Most of the time, you put it someplace and then you start rolling around on it, and it's very, very painful. Or sometimes people have tennis balls or something that has some oomph to it.

I prefer a tennis ball or a racquetball, but if you only have the dreaded foam roller, you can use this.

The trick is that you find a spot and it's on your back, your neck, your leg, and you allow your body to just ever so gently soften on to the ball, not rolling it around, not going searching for the most painful part.

Just even start by laying down on it, let's say in the center of your back, and just allow yourself to soften, and then put a timer on for a minimum of five minutes because that's actually how long it takes for fascial restrictions to begin to

release. The trick is don't talk to your kids, don't pet your dog, don't doom scroll. Sit with your body for five minutes and notice what you're feeling. Are you feeling discomfort?

Does it feel the area on the foam roller, let's say, does that feel connected to someplace else? Are any emotions coming up? Are you frustrated?

Where are you feeling that frustration in your body? It might be separate from where you're feeling it on your back that you're laying on it. That's how you can self-treat using myofascial release principles.

Again, I like a racquetball or a tennis ball much more than that white foam roller, but that's me personally.

Yeah. I've got several foam rollers. I think we've got like three in our house.

I definitely like the idea of having the tennis ball because it's a little bit more, you can isolate the spots in your body that you want to target. Cool. Cool.

Anyway, this is a hands-on bodywork.

I encourage people to self-treat if you can't get to a therapist, but we're going to put in the show notes the place where you can find a local therapist. I am in Los Angeles, and so if anyone wants to join me, sessions are an hour.

I love working with people, and if you're actually from out of town, I offer a program where you get 15 hours of treatment in a week. So come drop your kids off at Disneyland, and you put your mask on first, and come get treated.

If it's okay with you, I'd like to offer your listeners a special. Is it okay if I offer a special to your listeners?

Heck yeah.

Normally, the week of treatment is 4,000, but for listeners of this podcast, and you have to mention The Daring Well Podcast, I'd like to offer $500 savings. So please don't be afraid to come and get 15 hours.

It can be, excuse me, ate a frog there for a second. Completely life-changing and I would love to work with your guests. And Southern California is a great destination if you're not already here.

Heck yeah.

Thank you so much for being generous with that offer.

Oh, my pleasure. I really do believe that everybody deserves to feel great. And so I want as many people to experience myofascial release as possible.

Awesome, awesome.

Any other words or wisdom before we wrap up today?

You know, just that you really do deserve to feel great and there is hope. That's one of the things that I can offer, especially my clients and people who work with me. But again, because 90 percent of our pain is trapped in our fascial system.

When you work with someone who offers myofascial release, there is the hope that you're going to get to the source of the problem and just feel better emotionally, spiritually, physically, and I like to add ecumenically. Why not?

Throw it all in there. That's sweet. Yeah, that's good encouragement because I think sometimes when we're going through chronic pain, we feel like it's never going to resolve itself.

I've gone to too many doctors and nobody knows the answer. Keep pushing more pills and not finding the source. I love that you've given some good resources and ideas that people can consider for their wellness plan.

So yeah. Well, awesome, guys. Well, and Gwen, give us the ways that we can connect with you.

So I know you said you're in LA, but what's the website? What are the ways that people can best connect with you? How do you best serve people?

My website, so the name of my business is Performance Myofascial Release, and my website is PerformanceMFR for myofascialrelease.com.

And the best way to work with me is in person. I would love, again, I treat in Chatsworth, California, which is North LA. I would love to work with people in person.

And again, I will give you the reference. It's if you want to look for a local therapist who's trained the way I am trained, mfrtherapist.com. And that will take you to the directory of local therapists that are available in your area.

And we'll make sure that's in the show notes, too. Sweet. I'm starting to get on Instagram.

I'm sort of afraid to let people know. Because I don't post that much. But if you don't mind seeing a post every once in a great while, it is performancemfr is my Instagram handle.

Sweet, sweet.

So Instagram and the website, best places to find you. Yes. Awesome, awesome.

Well, thank you again, Gwen, for joining. It's been such an honor, such a joy to hear you share more about fascia, to share more about ways to release trapped emotions in our body, and to learn how all of this is really connected.

Our mind is so connected to our body. And so thank you for sharing all of that.

Thank you again for having me on. It has been my pleasure.

Absolutely, absolutely. All right, guys, welcome. Thank you for joining The Daring Well Podcast.

That's all for today. And don't forget to like, to share, and subscribe wherever you hear this episode. Wishing you a fabulous day, my dear.

Until next time, keep living, keep loving, and keep daring well. Take care, guys. God bless.

Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of The Daring Well Podcast.

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