Dr. Lawrence G. Stern grew up in a holistic, healing home and studied kinesiology at the University of Maryland. Familiar with chiropractic from an early age, he pursued the profession after treatment for a sports injury.
A former elite athlete himself, Stern — who played soccer for Team USA at the 10th Maccabiah Games in Israel and played college baseball — combined his passion for sports and healing as a member of the medical teams for the 13th Maccabiah Games in Israel, the World Tae Kwon-Do Championships in New York City and the Olympic Games in Atlanta, among others.
Stern is also a practitioner for The Breathe Network, an organization whose mission is to offer innovative healing support to survivors of sexual violence and connect them with healing arts practitioners throughout the country who offer trauma-informed, holistic support.
“For 12 years, people would come to my office, talk about their neck or back, and I had a treatment for it,” said Stern, who practices in Mount Kisco.
But over time, he gained interest in a type of chiropractic that also addressed emotional trauma, and at a 1996 convention, a keynote address had him overcome with emotion.
“I started to cry because I knew that’s what I was looking for,” he said. The experience eventually inspired him to write a book, Honoring the Intelligence Within: From Fragmentation to Coherence.
What was the care called? Developed by Dr. Donald Epstein, the technique was known as Network Spinal Analysis (NSA). It is now called NetworkSpinal.
How does a chiropractor apply the treatment? NSA is a gentle chiropractic technique that transitions the body from stress physiology to a state of openness and receptivity. In this state, the body can heal, grow, and develop new neural strategies.
And you’ve now been inspired to write a book. Why is it called Honoring the Intelligence Within? I don’t look at the symptoms as just pain. I look at the symptom as what is my body trying to tell me. Do I need to change my behavior, change my choices so I need to listen to the intelligence within?
What was it like to switch hats and become a writer? I’ve learned so much in 40 years of serving humanity [but] I didn’t know how to lay it out. I got a million words, what am I going to do with them? So I had to figure out my intention, and once I had that, it all fell into place.
Let’s go back to how you became a chiropractor. I always had a keen interest in the biomechanics of the body, and chiropractic was always around me in conversation. So if I got injured, I went to [see one for treatment]. Then when I was playing semi-pro soccer, I ended up in a chiropractor’s office after I was badly injured. It kind of called me innately and changed my life.
Where does traditional chiropractic fall short for you? If you have a system on overload, the traditional method is not going to sustain.
Tell me about a few of your successes. I have one particular patient who has herniated disks and all kinds of musculoskeletal problems, but a treatment plan began by just listening. You could hear all her fear and her angst and so the twofold steps were obvious. Let’s reduce the tension inside the central nervous system, let’s reduce the stress and bring more ease into the nervous system. Then we’ll address the musculoskeletal.
Domenico is one of my testimonials in the book. He has a host of musculoskeletal problems and has been in constant pain for the last 17 years. With traditional chiropractic care not working, listening was crucial again. He had incredible childhood traumas and time only makes the problem worse. So I taught him how to listen to his own body, and in his testimonial, he’s had weeks and months of no more pain. Gone. Gone.
What can readers learn from your book? People don’t realize that they are their [own] most valuable resource. Our bodies are capable of healing far greater than we’ve been led to believe, and we need to know there’s a better way.
Honoring the Intelligence Within: From Fragmentation to Coherence was published Oct. 16, 2026, and is available on Amazon.
For more information, visit awaken-wellness.com.
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