Hi! I’m Dr. Mark Olson

I’m a neuroscientist, educator, massage therapist, and somatic practitioner with a longstanding interest in what science can tell us about pain, trauma, relationships, bodywork, and human experience.

My work has developed at the intersection of several fields. I hold an M.A. in Education and a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, have spent more than 25 years practicing massage and bodywork, more than two decades teaching massage therapists and other helping professionals, and more than a decade in massage school leadership. I currently serve as Education Director of the Sarasota School of Massage Therapy and as chair of the advisory committee for the Boulder School of Massage Therapy. My background also includes training in trauma-informed and somatic approaches to working with people.

Those different paths have increasingly converged around a central question: How can contemporary science change the way we understand and care for people?

Much of my teaching focuses on places where traditional explanations have not kept pace with the science. Why can pain persist when tissues have healed? What does posture actually tell us—and what doesn’t it tell us? How does trauma influence bodily experience? What actually happens when someone receives massage or other forms of bodywork? How do expectations, context, attention, and relationships influence what we experience?

I’m particularly interested in bringing contemporary pain science and neuroscience into massage therapy and bodywork education. Our professions have inherited many structural and mechanical explanations for pain and treatment that are difficult to reconcile with current research. Rather than simply replacing one set of explanations with another, I try to help practitioners think more carefully about what the evidence actually supports, what remains uncertain, and how we can work effectively without claiming more than we know.

My interests also extend beyond pain and bodywork. My courses explore interoception, memory, cognitive biases, trauma, relational skills, and the neuroscience behind difficult conversations. Across these subjects, I’m interested in the less obvious ways the nervous system shapes how we perceive our bodies, interpret events, relate to other people, and make sense of our experiences.

Whether you’re a healthcare or helping professional, educator, massage therapist, bodyworker, or simply someone fascinated by these questions, my goal is to make complex science understandable without oversimplifying it—and useful without turning it into another collection of easy answers.