Connecting the missing dots
that keep your physical life fragmented
Hello, my name is Dr. Lance Westendarp, ND, LAc
I work with individuals in Houston, TX as a mind-body integration specialist. In my practice, I combine acupuncture, manual therapy, herbal medicine, naturopathic care, movement training, and embodied awareness practices to support healing, resilience, and growth.
I’m a naturopathic doctor, acupuncturist, and movement educator with advanced training in mind-body medicine, sports medicine, and complex chronic illness. My approach is shaped by over two decades of mentorship in yoga, movement, and traditional medicine—integrating clinical precision with lived, embodied experience to facilitate meaningful and lasting change.
Integrative care and embodied physical education in Houston, Tx
This is a place for healing—
but also for growth, strength, and deeper connection with yourself.
This work helps you feel better—but that’s just the beginning.
People come here with everything from acute pain to long-standing patterns, and start to feel real relief—sometimes immediately, sometimes as their system begins to unwind. But it doesn’t happen by pushing harder or silencing what hurts. It happens through letting go, listening, and reconnecting with the intelligence of your body. When you stop fighting your system and start working with it, change becomes sustainable.
Your body isn’t a machine to fix. It’s a relationship to tend.
Whether you’re navigating injury, illness, or striving for higher performance, the body is always offering information. This work helps you understand that language—through clinical care, hands-on work, movement practice, and internal awareness—so you can build strength, clarity, and trust with your own system.
This is a space for healing, growth, and everything in between.
Not everyone who walks through the door is in crisis. Many come to deepen their practice, build strength, refine their awareness, or reconnect with parts of themselves that have gone quiet. The Center for Embodiment is a space for learning, healing, and exploration—where people of all experiences and backgrounds are invited to grow.
Services I offer
There are several ways to work with me—through individualized integrative care, movement classes, longer-term embodied programs, or self-paced online study.
Some come here to heal.
Others come because they sense there's more.
This work helps you feel better—but that’s just the beginning.
Your body isn’t a machine to fix. It’s a relationship to tend.
This is a space for healing, development, and deeper exploration.
People come here with everything from acute pain to long-standing patterns and begin to experience real relief—sometimes quickly, sometimes as the system gradually unwinds. But this work isn’t about pushing harder or suppressing symptoms. It’s about learning how to work with your body rather than against it. When that shift happens, change becomes more stable and sustainable.
What my clients say
Lance asks the questions I didn’t realize were missing from my healthcare. He listens deeply and brings Eastern and Western approaches together with real thoughtfulness.
MR
Lance balances care and challenge in a way that feels both intelligent and safe. I regained strength in areas that had felt unreliable for years and trust his guidance completely.
SB
Working with Lance helped me simplify my health rather than add more to it. I felt clearer, more supported, and more confident in my body.
PE
I was initially unsure about acupuncture, but working with Lance quickly put me at ease. He is prepared, knowledgeable, and deeply compassionate, and takes the time to explain his thinking and build a thoughtful plan.
MW
Chronic conditions
Support for complex or long-standing health concerns that haven’t found resolution—helping you experience relief and make meaningful progress where you’ve been stuck.
Mind-Body health
For those wanting a deeper mind-body understanding—whether you feel stuck in your growth, disconnected from your body, or are working through emotional patterns that show up physically.
Areas of focus
While every individual is unique, much of my work centers around the following areas.
Handstand Workshop with Dr. Robert Adams, PT, DPT, OCS
Handstand Workshop with Dr. Robert Adams, PT, DPT, OCS
Center for Embodiment | Houston, TX
Saturday July 11th & Sunday July 12th
Beginner - 11 -1pm both days
Intermediate + Advanced - 2 - 5:30pm both days
More information on each track below
About Robert:
As a Doctor of Physical Therapy, hand balancer, and teacher, Robert combines clinical insight with a decade of coaching and teaching experience to guide students toward greater awareness, resilience, and confidence. His movement journey began in 2013, teaching yoga and discovering how powerful intentional practice can be. Through yoga, he started to teach himself how to hold a handstand as an adult. In 2016, he fell in love with a more playful, strength-based approach to skill work — especially handstands — at Ape Co Movement school in Colorado, where he currently trains and teaches. Since then, he has continued to study the discipline of hand balancing, working with performance artists and teachers like Andrey Moraru to refine his craft.
Robert's teaching centers on assessing each student's unique limitations to create a path forward that supports sustainable progress. Having learned hand balancing as an adult has given him more tools and understanding of how to not only build the physical base for success, but also address the fears and other psychological aspects of balancing on your hands.
When he's not coaching or practicing physical therapy, he's usually baking, reading fantasy books, or hiking somewhere off the beaten path.
Two tracks. Choose the one that's right for you. If you're unsure, please get in touch.
Beginner
11am–1pm | $150
Unsure of where to start your handstand journey? Or perhaps you are stuck and want guidance on building a solid foundation for more challenging skills in hand balancing? This is the perfect workshop for you. We will break the handstand down into its components and help you assess what you are missing and the best way to address it. In this workshop we will cover how to build mobile and strong shoulders, core strength and awareness, and lay out a path to work towards your freestanding handstand. You will also leave this workshop with a clear understanding of how to approach your training going forward.
Intermediate + Advanced
2–5:30pm | $180
Already comfortable holding your freestanding handstand and want to level up your practice? In this workshop we will solidify your existing foundation and work on more advanced skills, leading toward skills like the one arm balance and straddle press. Expect to leave this workshop with a clear understanding of the process to identify what you need to work on to unlock advanced skills. You will also receive ideas of how to approach your training of more advanced skills beyond this workshop.
Space is limited. Register below.
Embodied Intelligence:
The gap between doing and being
Most of us were never taught to listen to our bodies. We were taught to manage them.
And yet the body is always communicating — with a precision and consistency that most of us have never been formally introduced to. Learning to hear it doesn't just change how you move. It changes how you decide, how you relate, and how you inhabit every area of your life.
This three-hour workshop will be a direct exploration of that conversation.
Through movement, partner practice, play, and personal and group inquiry, you'll have a lived experience of what it actually means to close the gap between doing and being — in your own body, in real time. We'll explore the science and theory behind what's happening, but the real work is felt, not explained.
Whether you're new to this work or have been practicing for years — there's something here for you.
No movement experience necessary. Just genuine curiosity about what becomes possible when you start listening.
Come ready to move, to play, to inquire, and to be surprised by what you already know.
Open to everyone — whether you work with bodies and minds professionally, or are simply someone who suspects there's a deeper way to live.
Space limited to 30 participants per session. Choose the date that works for you.
Breath - The First Pillar
Of all the foundations of health, breath is the only one you can't negotiate with. Start here — with a few simple questions worth asking yourself.
The Foundations of Health
What I look for in every patient — and the questions worth asking yourself
What Are We Really Reaching For?
A reflection on longevity, time, and the question underneath the question
Discernment: Pain vs. Discomfort
What if the sensations you've been avoiding are actually trying to help you?
Engaging vs Bracing
On the difference between effort that serves you and effort that quietly works against you.
The Power of Constraint
What if limitation is exactly what your practice needs?
FAQs
The Center for Embodiment is an integrative practice centered on movement, awareness, and connection with the body. It brings together movement education, embodied practice, and supportive health services to help people develop deeper self-connection, physical intelligence, resilience, and clarity in how they move and live.
People come here for different reasons. Some are navigating chronic illness, persistent pain, or health concerns that haven't fully resolved elsewhere. Others are drawn to the movement work — looking to build physical intelligence, deepen their practice, or develop a more intentional relationship with their body. Many arrive somewhere in between. What they share is a desire to engage more fully with their own system.
The clinical work — Integrative Care and Attunement — is one-on-one and focused on your specific health history, patterns, and goals. It may include acupuncture, manual therapy, movement, and other tools selected for your particular situation. Movement classes are group-based and open to anyone interested in developing physical intelligence, strength, mobility, and embodied awareness. Many people do both — and the two sides of the work inform each other naturally.
It sits at the intersection of all three without being fully any one of them. Movement classes involve real physical work but are not a traditional fitness model. The clinical work draws on naturopathic medicine, acupuncture, and somatic practice but is not a replacement for primary medical care or mental health treatment when those are needed. The work is integrative by design.
If you're primarily interested in movement, starting with a group class is often the easiest entry point. For those seeking clinical or integrative care, booking an integrative care session is the most direct place to begin. If you’re unsure, you’re welcome to reach out for guidance.
