Is Neural Pathway Integration painful?
No. Dr. Rawlin presses with his fingers on specific points of your body, and the pressure is not painful. He uses no needles, machines, or lasers, and you need no time to recover afterward.
The Method
Neural Pathway Integration
Neural Pathway Integration, or NPI, is the method that Dr. Eric Rawlin, DC, created to treat the connections between your brain and your body. If a part of your body or your thinking no longer works as well as it should, the cause may be in one of those connections and not in the part itself.
Your brain controls your movement and receives your sensation through signals that travel along neural pathways, so when a connection stops working, a muscle or a mental ability works below its capacity. At The Finery in Layton, Utah, Dr. Rawlin tests you to find that connection, and he treats it himself by pressing with his fingers on specific points of your body. The treatment is not invasive and not painful, and you are given no medications, supplements, or injections.
You feel the problem where the symptom appears.Dr. Rawlin looks for it in the connection.
Neural pathways connect your brain and your body
Everything that you do deliberately begins as a signal from your brain. The signal reaches your muscles along motor pathways, and information about your body returns to your brain along sensory pathways1 2. Brain-body communication is the exchange of these signals, and both your movement and your balance depend on it.
Your brain uses the same pathways to protect you. If you injure your right foot, for example, your brain signals your body to shift part of your weight to the left side so that you can continue to walk, and so you limp. The limp is useful while the foot heals. Your brain can continue to send that signal after the tissue has healed, however, and in that case you continue to limp, or you continue to shift to one side when you squat, without knowing why. Researchers have observed a similar effect: people who had sprained an ankle showed altered motor control in the uninjured leg as well as in the injured one, which led the researchers to conclude that the brain had probably reorganized its motor commands3. Other researchers have proposed that, after a joint injury, the nervous system can inhibit the undamaged muscles around the joint4.
You may recognize the result, which is a problem that returns after every treatment. You can strengthen the affected muscles with physical therapy and training, and you can relieve them for a time with massage, so you need not give up any of these. Dr. Rawlin has observed, however, that the brain continues to send the protective signal in spite of them, which is why the tightness in your hamstring can return every week. If your relief lasts only until your next appointment, the cause has probably not been treated. You can still perform well in this condition, because you complete each task by a different movement, but you use more effort when you do so: researchers found, for example, that people consume more energy when they walk asymmetrically than when they walk symmetrically5. Dr. Rawlin calls this adaptation compensation, and he uses the Brain-Body Functional Assessment to show it to you.
How you are tested and treated with Neural Pathway Integration
Dr. Rawlin explains NPI to his clients with a comparison from a house. When a circuit breaker trips, the wiring is intact and the appliance is undamaged, yet no current reaches the appliance until someone resets the breaker. In his clinical experience, stress, injury, and exposure to toxins can interrupt a neural connection in the same way, so that your muscle is still capable of working but the signal from your brain no longer reaches it as it should. He developed NPI to find the interrupted connection and to treat it, with the aim that the signal reaches the muscle again.
He finds the connection by testing you, because you cannot feel a failed connection yourself. He first tests one of your muscles alone, and he then tests it together with the other muscles with which it has to work during a movement. One of his clients, a very good golfer, is an example. The golfer’s quadriceps stopped responding whenever he bent forward at the hips, which is the position in which a golfer addresses the ball. His deep gluteal muscles and his calf muscles each responded when tested alone, yet he could control neither when both were tested together, and a golfer uses both during the swing. He had no pain and was playing well, so he had not suspected either fault.
Dr. Rawlin also determines whether your problem is motor or sensory, so that he knows which pathway to treat. If you can move your foot normally but cannot feel the floor beneath it, for example, your motor pathway is working, and he examines the sensory pathway. If he believes that the cause is within the brain itself, he may also suggest a specialized brain scan, which is described on the Cognitive Acuity page.
You have very little to do during the treatment itself. You are on a treatment table, and Dr. Rawlin presses with his fingers on the points of your body that he has established for that connection. He uses no needles, machines, or lasers, the pressure is not painful, and you need no time to recover afterward. As soon as he has treated a connection, he asks you to get off the table and to repeat the test, so that you and he both see at once whether the result has changed.
What Your Treatment Will Not Include
No Medications, Supplements, or Injections
Dr. Rawlin prescribes nothing and sends nothing home with you, because the treatment consists entirely of the pressure that he applies with his hands.
No Standard Sequence
Dr. Rawlin cannot know from your complaint alone which connection has failed, so two clients with the same complaint may receive different treatment. He treats the connections that he finds by testing you.
No Schedule of Return Visits
NPI is not designed to keep you in treatment, so Dr. Rawlin does not ask you to return at intervals to have a treatment repeated. His clients return when they want him to treat a different problem.
What to expect during your days with Dr. Rawlin
- Duration
- 2–4
- consecutive days in Layton, Utah
- Performed by
- Dr. Rawlin
- every test and every treatment
- Recorded
- On video
- on your first day and again before you leave
You see how you move.
On your first day, Dr. Rawlin records you on video as you walk, squat, lunge, and walk heel to toe, first while you watch your feet and then while you look straight ahead. He then shows you the recording, because most people do not know how they move until they see it. You may notice, for example, that you shift to one side when you squat. This examination is the Brain-Body Functional Assessment.You go through your list one problem at a time.
You and Dr. Rawlin begin with the first problem on your list. He tests the connections involved, treats them, and repeats the tests before he moves to the next problem, so you see the effect of each treatment, or the absence of one, at the time he gives it.You spend full days with him.
You work with him from nine to five on each of your days in Layton. Because you have his full days, he can examine every problem on your list during one visit, even if you would otherwise need appointments with several specialists.You compare two videos before you leave.
On your last day, he records the same tasks again, so that you can compare the second video with the first and judge the difference for yourself.You hear from him after you return home.
He contacts you during the following week, because you can judge a change properly only after you have returned to your normal routine, and he contacts you again later to ask how you are.
You may have been told that nothing more can be done.
You may also have been told that your decline is to be expected at your age. Dr. Rawlin, who is a doctor of chiropractic, began to develop NPI because he kept meeting patients who had been told the same, and he regarded both statements as descriptions of what no one yet knew how to do.You are treated with a method that he developed in daily practice.
He developed NPI in his own practice in Layton, Utah, at the clinic that is now the Neural Pathway Institute. Until recently he taught it to no one outside his own office, so new patients heard of it only from people whom he had already treated.You are told when he has no protocol for your problem.
One brain pathway that he treats has about thirty separate connections, and he has written a protocol for each of them. If you have a problem for which he has no protocol, he tells you so, and he writes one before he treats you. He needed a few months to write the protocols for one such pathway.You can also receive NPI from a practitioner whom he has certified.
He decided to teach NPI so that people in other states and countries could receive it near their homes. Those practitioners complete seminars, online modules, and an in-person certification test through the Neural Pathway Institute6. The Finery is for the client who wants to be treated by Dr. Rawlin himself.You are one of only a few clients each month.
He accepts so few clients because he spends the rest of his time on the conditions that he cannot yet treat fully. Parkinson’s disease is one of them, and he is documenting individual cases. He does not present NPI as a cure for any disease.
You Work With the Doctor Who Created Neural Pathway Integration
NPI can be learned, and Dr. Rawlin now trains and certifies other practitioners through the Neural Pathway Institute. At The Finery, however, the doctor who wrote the protocols tests and treats you himself. You benefit most from that difference if your problem is unusual, because when none of his existing protocols applies to you, he is the person who writes the new one.
About Dr. Rawlin →Common Questions About Neural Pathway Integration
Is NPI the same as a chiropractic adjustment or acupuncture?
No. Dr. Rawlin is a doctor of chiropractic, but he developed NPI outside traditional chiropractic technique, and The Finery does not accept clients who want only an adjustment. He also uses no needles. NPI differs from both in its testing: he selects each point according to the connection that he has found by testing you, and he repeats the test as soon as he has treated that connection.
How many treatments will I need?
Most clients need one visit of two to four consecutive days, because Dr. Rawlin treats every problem on their list during that time and does not schedule return visits to repeat a treatment. He cannot promise you a particular result, however, because he cannot know what he will find until he has assessed you.
Who can perform NPI?
Dr. Rawlin created NPI, and he trains and certifies other practitioners through the Neural Pathway Institute, so you may find a certified practitioner near your home. At The Finery, he tests and treats you himself.
Has NPI been studied in clinical trials?
Not yet. Dr. Rawlin developed NPI in clinical practice, and he records his clients on video before and after treatment, but he has not yet published clinical studies of the method. For that reason he describes to you what he does, and he promises no particular result.
What problems do clients bring to Dr. Rawlin?
Clients consult him about brain fog and other cognitive changes, about problems with balance, gait, and coordination, about neuropathy, and about the lasting effects of a concussion or a stroke. You can read about these problems in detail on the Cognitive Acuity and Conditions We See pages, and during your consultation he tells you whether he believes that he can help you.
Is The Finery the right place for everyone?
No. If you want a routine chiropractic adjustment, Dr. Rawlin’s team will direct you elsewhere during the discovery call, because many other practices provide adjustments. If you have a new or worsening neurological symptom, you should see a physician first. Dr. Rawlin reviews the laboratory results and the imaging that your physicians have ordered, and he does not replace those physicians.
What does NPI cost at The Finery?
The Finery does not publish its fees. You can ask Dr. Rawlin’s team about them during your discovery call.
How to Begin Working With Dr. Rawlin
01
Book a discovery call
You complete a short questionnaire and choose a time for the call. Dr. Rawlin’s team conducts this call in order to confirm that your concern is one that he treats.
02
Speak with Dr. Rawlin
On a video call, you describe your full history to him, and he reviews any laboratory results and imaging that you have sent. In most cases he can tell you during this call how he would treat your problem.
03
Spend two to four days in Layton
You travel to The Finery at 124 S Fairfield Rd E, Layton, Utah 84041, which is about thirty minutes from Salt Lake City International Airport.
04
Follow up from home
He contacts you during the week after you return, by which time you can tell him whether anything has changed.
Ask Dr. Eric
If you have a question about Neural Pathway Integration, or if you would like to know whether Dr. Rawlin can help you, you may submit it here. He reads the questions himself.
Submit your question →
Reviewed by Dr. Eric Rawlin, DC, October 2026.
Sources
- National Library of Medicine, StatPearls, “Neuroanatomy, Spinal Cord”
- National Library of Medicine, StatPearls, “Neuroanatomy, Lateral Corticospinal Tract”
- National Library of Medicine, PubMed Central, “Alteration in Global Motor Strategy Following Lateral Ankle Sprain”
- Journal of Athletic Training, “Chronic Ankle Instability and Neural Excitability of the Lower Extremity”
- National Library of Medicine, PubMed, “The Metabolic and Mechanical Costs of Step Time Asymmetry in Walking”
- Neural Pathway Institute, practitioner training and certification in NPI