Trigger Point Therapy

One day in 1985 I was working on a project at the kitchen table - not sitting in a chair, but standing next to the table and slightly bent over in a mildly strenuous position - when suddenly I felt something snap in my back that dropped me to my knees. In extreme pain, I managed to crawl to the living room where I lay on the floor for hours.

I spent the next two days in bed, barely able to roll over because of the pain.

For the next twenty years I had to live with a very tender area of muscles located along my right iliac crest which would tighten up and become increasingly painful if I stood in one position too long or even if I was just in an emotionally stressful situation. At least once or twice a year I would do something to aggravate the muscles and would find myself again confined to bed for a couple of days and unable to walk. Pain medications were of little or no use. During one particular bad period I couldn't even sit in a car seat for more than fifteen minutes without the pain developing.

Throughout these years I was working as a nurse and so had ample access to multiple doctors. I had x-rays and injections and physical therapy and a variety of different pain medications, but nothing truly helped.

Then one day, on the advice of an acupuncturist, I went to see a chiropractor. Luckily, I happened to find a really good one who used Muscle Response Testing to pinpoint my problem. He found that my problem really wasn't with the muscles in my back, but in an overly tight stomach muscle which was pulling my hips around and thus straining my back muscles. Using his thumb he applied strong pressure on an area of the stomach muscle for about thirty seconds and then had me stand up. I was amazed. The knots in the muscles of my back which had been there constantly for almost twenty years were completely gone. I walked out of that office three years ago and haven't had any back problems since. For $75, and with thirty seconds of thumb pressure, he had cured what a dozen doctors and thousands of dollars hadn't come near fixing.

What I didn't know then, but have since learned, is that he used what is called Trigger Point Therapy to get the stomach muscle to relax. A trigger point is an area in the body of a muscle which has tightened up (usually as the result of an injury) and is now unable to relax. This keeps the entire muscle in a constant state of tension and thus pain. As in my case, trigger points can last for years. And also like my case, frequently the area that is painful is not where the trigger point is. A trigger point can usually be felt as a spot on the main body of the muscle which feels like an undercooked piece of spaghetti or small pea. What occurs is that the trigger point is in an area of the muscle in which nutrients enter and waste products exit, but because that area is clamped down then nothing can enter or leave, and so the spasm persists. Treatment by therapists consists of applying a firm pressure to the point then rapidly releasing it. This produces a pumping action (much like the little fuel pump on a lawnmower) which flushes the area and thus allows it to finally relax.

There are studies which suggest over 90% of the patients seen in Pain Clinics are there as a result of trigger point problems.

Working with clients that complain of chronic arm, shoulder, or neck pain and even some headaches I have almost invariably found trigger points that are easily treated and relieve the pain with only one or two sessions.

However, the method I use is NOT the same as that used by Massage Therapists and Physical Therapists. Their's is a physical approach, whereas mine is an Energetic approach.

Koichi Tohei was a Japanese expert in Aikido, and one of the people who helped bring it to America. In his book "Kiatsu" he talks about how he learned to use his energy to help heal himself and others (i.e. he was doing Reiki but he did not know that there was such a thing). One of the things he discusses is how massaging an area of tightness in the neck or shoulders (trigger point) can result in pain relief for about a day, but then the problem frequently returns. What he recommended was lightly placing the thumb on the problem area, then Intending for energy to infuse the area. This resulted in the tightness slowly "melting away" painlessly and, he felt, more permanently than the massage approach. Since adopting this technique I have found it to work in pretty much the way he describes.