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A typical experience
I had a new client the other day for an 80 minute massage. I asked him if there is anything that he wanted me to know. He told me that he suffers from a herniated disc that he has had for a few years. He has constant low back and right hip pain that at times radiates down the back of his leg to his knee. He told me that he has had two injections in his low back and has to stay on anit- inflamtory medication. Anything to avoid surgery. The pain is always there. I asked him if he ever saw a chiropractor for his pain. He said yes. But the adjustments hurt his hip so bad that he could not continiue. So here is a guy that thinks he is on the verge of surgery. I knew that there was a very strong probubllity that was not the case. The vast majority of pain people experience is nocioceptive pain( soft tissue- muscle, tendon, ligament, facia). MDs and Chiropractors see pain as neuropathic pain( nerve pain). With that asumption they give the wrong treatments and therapies. Now there is no denying that at times injections and surgery is needed. Not denying that. But most of the time - NOT. 70% to 85% of all pain comes directly from trigger points. Anyway I showed my client a testimonial from a client that I was able to help out of a very painful condition that she had delt with for a couple of years. I showed him that testimonial because all pain has a psychological eliment too it. I wanted him to start thinking maybe he is not on the edge of surgery. I palpated his entire back upper torso, both hips, and right leg. I found a very painful spot on his right L5 erectors. Another very painful spot on his right greater trochantor. A painful spot in the middle part of his lower right hamstrings. And also a tender spot on the right spinous of L3. I knew that if Iwas able to eliminate all those painful palaptory spots that I would most likely eliminate his pain problem. Because a healthy body had no painful spots even with deep massage. Ive been hunting and eliminateing trigger points for thirty years now. He walked out of the massage room pain free. He was pain free for the first time in years. All those other professional people misdiagnosed him because they assume neuropathic pain over nocioceptive pain. I assume the other way around. I'm a Massage Therapist.
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Permalink Reply by Gordon J. Wallis on
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I have not comented here for some time because I've been sick and semi-freaked out because of the New Alaska State Massage regulations. But anyways, thought I'd add to this thread. As you guys know my whole deal is Trigger Points. Sense my last entry in here I've deactivated at least 200 trigger points. I'm going to try and see if I can recored some more video of my work.. But that seems to be easier said then done. I have some already, but for whatever reason they appear upside down when viewed in here.. lol ? But not on a cell phone? I'm thinking about teaching some of what I know maybe next year. There will be no continiuing education credits involved. I will count everyting as income, and pay my taxes and thats it. My main approach to Trigger Point or Tender Point deactivation is based on Acupuncture. Of course no needles are involved and all the techniques fall within the scope or our licenses. Some prety unique and mind blowing stuff, yet simple. And most (90%) of what I will teach can be easily explained via western scientific terms that anyone can understand. You will pretty much be able to take out any trigger point or tender spot on the body with these techniques in just seconds. Of course your clients, that respond to these techniques may need to see you anywhere from 2 to 8 sessiions before their pain problem is resolved. And the sessions may end up being very short near the end of the 2 to 8 sessions. Now on some clients, these techniques wont work, or may only work on some of their Pain points. In which case you will have to fall back on your previous knowledge and work with trigger points. But I find those people to be rare almost. These techniques should work on 75% to 85% of all your pain clients. They will seem like magic to your clients ( and to you too ). But they are all based on science and easily explained. So anyone thats interested, get on my friend list. This trigger point approach is very different. You won't need to worry about pain patterns or palpatory skills in order to deactivate these trigger points quickly and efficiently. The only time I really use pain pattern charts is to show the client that their pain is real. The only problem you will have is if your client is already being treated for their pain by other practioners. Those other practioners will basically re-activate the tender points that you've de-activated. My best clients are the ones that have gone through the gauntlet of heath care providers and have just given up or have only recieved partial pain reduction. Those are the ones you can help, if they have tender points that is.. And they usually do. Now I have posted this testimonial before. Her problem, of course, was trigger points. The trigger points just went un-recognized. Her pinched nerve was not a pinched nerve. It was a trigger point somewhere on the quads. The medical people told her that she neeeded surgery in order to take care of her pinched nerve. And her shoulder problem was a few trigger points in the right places. All though her problems seemed serious and long standing. It was a matter of four or five trigger points that easily deactivated with the correct acupressure techniques. Anyway, if you want to keep in touch, friend request me in here.
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Met another new client the other day that has been seeing physical therapists six months for a rotator cuff injury. Of course the physical therapists did not check for the presents of trigger points. So they were exercising her trigger pointed( injured) muscles. Anyway, I deactivated an upper trap TP, a Pectoralis Major TP, a Infraspinatus TP, and also a Biceps TP. To her surprise her range of motion increased from just over 45 degrees to nearly 90 degrees in just a few minutes. Of course if she continiues to go to physical therapy they will undue the benifits of her trigger point session. I think she gets that now. But it just proves to me what I've known all along. TRUTH REMAINS HIDDEN.
Gordon J. Wallis said:I have not comented here for some time because I've been sick and semi-freaked out because of the New Alaska State Massage regulations. But anyways, thought I'd add to this thread. As you guys know my whole deal is Trigger Points. Sense my last entry in here I've deactivated at least 200 trigger points. I'm going to try and see if I can recored some more video of my work.. But that seems to be easier said then done. I have some already, but for whatever reason they appear upside down when viewed in here.. lol ? But not on a cell phone? I'm thinking about teaching some of what I know maybe next year. There will be no continiuing education credits involved. I will count everyting as income, and pay my taxes and thats it. My main approach to Trigger Point or Tender Point deactivation is based on Acupuncture. Of course no needles are involved and all the techniques fall within the scope or our licenses. Some prety unique and mind blowing stuff, yet simple. And most (90%) of what I will teach can be easily explained via western scientific terms that anyone can understand. You will pretty much be able to take out any trigger point or tender spot on the body with these techniques in just seconds. Of course your clients, that respond to these techniques may need to see you anywhere from 2 to 8 sessiions before their pain problem is resolved. And the sessions may end up being very short near the end of the 2 to 8 sessions. Now on some clients, these techniques wont work, or may only work on some of their Pain points. In which case you will have to fall back on your previous knowledge and work with trigger points. But I find those people to be rare almost. These techniques should work on 75% to 85% of all your pain clients. They will seem like magic to your clients ( and to you too ). But they are all based on science and easily explained. So anyone thats interested, get on my friend list. This trigger point approach is very different. You won't need to worry about pain patterns or palpatory skills in order to deactivate these trigger points quickly and efficiently. The only time I really use pain pattern charts is to show the client that their pain is real. The only problem you will have is if your client is already being treated for their pain by other practioners. Those other practioners will basically re-activate the tender points that you've de-activated. My best clients are the ones that have gone through the gauntlet of heath care providers and have just given up or have only recieved partial pain reduction. Those are the ones you can help, if they have tender points that is.. And they usually do. Now I have posted this testimonial before. Her problem, of course, was trigger points. The trigger points just went un-recognized. Her pinched nerve was not a pinched nerve. It was a trigger point somewhere on the quads. The medical people told her that she neeeded surgery in order to take care of her pinched nerve. And her shoulder problem was a few trigger points in the right places. All though her problems seemed serious and long standing. It was a matter of four or five trigger points that easily deactivated with the correct acupressure techniques. Anyway, if you want to keep in touch, friend request me in here. - Attachments:
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I have a new client that I have started working with. I've seen him once already. He has just gotten out of an induced coma.. I did not ask for the reason.. But at any rate he is very very weak and in pain over almost his entire body.. Neurologists suggested massage therapy. Well I did not massage him, but did my Trigger Point ( Pain Point) thing on him.. OMG, he had nearly 100 pain points on his body.. Maybe only 80, I lost count, but a whole bunch. They all deactivated quickly.. Now of course they or most of the Pain points will come back. But in time, if I can get rid of those painful points he is bound to feel better and gain more strength towards his recovery. He obviously has a serious problem and under Neurologists care. But within my license I can attack and deactivate those 80 or more Pain points. So Pray I can help him. When people come to see me and they are hurting. I act very confident, pretty much because I am( if I find pain spots). If my behavior and attitude is positive, it only helps the client.. At the same time I don't want to give false hopes.. If I cant make those pain points go away after a few sessions, then may be I cant help him.. And he also knows that.
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Gosh I just saw this guy yesterday.. He is doing so much better. He came in without his walker, and moving a lot faster. Now I don't know if its my TP work thats doing it? But one thing is for sure... I did not aggrivate his situation.. Thats for sure.. He still had a bucket load of Pain Points.. However the handful of lateral spinous pain points were gone. I felt good seeing him..He was very noticeably better.
Gordon J. Wallis said:I have a new client that I have started working with. I've seen him once already. He has just gotten out of an induced coma.. I did not ask for the reason.. But at any rate he is very very weak and in pain over almost his entire body.. Neurologists suggested massage therapy. Well I did not massage him, but did my Trigger Point ( Pain Point) thing on him.. OMG, he had nearly 100 pain points on his body.. Maybe only 80, I lost count, but a whole bunch. They all deactivated quickly.. Now of course they or most of the Pain points will come back. But in time, if I can get rid of those painful points he is bound to feel better and gain more strength towards his recovery. He obviously has a serious problem and under Neurologists care. But within my license I can attack and deactivate those 80 or more Pain points. So Pray I can help him. When people come to see me and they are hurting. I act very confident, pretty much because I am( if I find pain spots). If my behavior and attitude is positive, it only helps the client.. At the same time I don't want to give false hopes.. If I cant make those pain points go away after a few sessions, then may be I cant help him.. And he also knows that.
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Permalink Reply by Therese Schwartz on
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That's awesome, Gordon!! Way to go!
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Yea it was good to see so much improvement. It was startling. Ive worked on him twice, four days appart. Again, I don't know if its the Trigger Point work or what, but he is definenitely better. And it made me feel good. Therese Schwartz said:That's awesome, Gordon!! Way to go!
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Being in a Spa, I don't take treatment notes. But if I did, I'd have a good way to measure any progress. I've worked on this client three times. The first two sessions it took 55 minutes to clear out all his Pain Points. This 3rd session it only took 37 minutes to clear out all the Pain Points. His next appointment is scheduled for 25 minutes. Not sure whats required for treatment notes these days. But the number of Pain Points or the time it takes clearing them out is a very good indication of progress or lack of progress being made.
Gordon J. Wallis said:
Gosh I just saw this guy yesterday.. He is doing so much better. He came in without his walker, and moving a lot faster. Now I don't know if its my TP work thats doing it? But one thing is for sure... I did not aggrivate his situation.. Thats for sure.. He still had a bucket load of Pain Points.. However the handful of lateral spinous pain points were gone. I felt good seeing him..He was very noticeably better.
Gordon J. Wallis said:I have a new client that I have started working with. I've seen him once already. He has just gotten out of an induced coma.. I did not ask for the reason.. But at any rate he is very very weak and in pain over almost his entire body.. Neurologists suggested massage therapy. Well I did not massage him, but did my Trigger Point ( Pain Point) thing on him.. OMG, he had nearly 100 pain points on his body.. Maybe only 80, I lost count, but a whole bunch. They all deactivated quickly.. Now of course they or most of the Pain points will come back. But in time, if I can get rid of those painful points he is bound to feel better and gain more strength towards his recovery. He obviously has a serious problem and under Neurologists care. But within my license I can attack and deactivate those 80 or more Pain points. So Pray I can help him. When people come to see me and they are hurting. I act very confident, pretty much because I am( if I find pain spots). If my behavior and attitude is positive, it only helps the client.. At the same time I don't want to give false hopes.. If I cant make those pain points go away after a few sessions, then may be I cant help him.. And he also knows that.
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Had an interesting client the other day. She had scheduled a 50 minute deep tissue massage. When she got in the room I found out that she has chronic low back pain among other things to do with pain. Well I explained my Acupressure Trigger Point Therapy and suggested that we look for Trigger points or Pain points. If I cant find any within the initial few minutes , we will flow into a more conventional perhaps Deep Tissue massage. Well she had about 40 very tender Pain Points. All deactivated quickly.. She also deals with headaches mostly on the right side of her head.. There was a mean trigger point on her right SCM and Masseter, as well as three pain points on the right of her neck.. Her coment after the session was. I feel so light and loose now. But as we know, every muscle with a Pain Point is a shortaned muscle. So she would feel looser. Her Pain points were so tender she would often jump at the lightest touch when they were palpated. A Deep Tissue Massage would not have worked. The areas on her body that were none Trigger Pointed deep slow massage would have been fine because its healthy tissue. But in order for her to feel good.. Those Pain Points have to go. I can't think of any kind of therapy that would help her more. If you are working on a person because something hurts, or headaches or whatever. If Trigger Points are involved ( they usually are ). If your approach as a Massage Therapist does not on purpose or accidently eliminate those Trigger Points. Your client may enjoy the attention, but they will still be hurting. The client had gone through a gaunlet of Nerve Conduction Tests she said were painful.. The Docs told her she had Fibromyalgia.
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Permalink Reply by calvin burnes on
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hi gordon,
well, i finally read all 40 pages of your postings + all your attachments. it took me a while. i am a slow reader and i have a full time job doing technology work (i work for UC Berkeley down here in California), so it took me a while to get through it all. i learned a lot. thanks for sharing all this information with others on this forum. i have a few questions about some of the unusual techniques you use to neutralize trigger points, but i get the impression that you don't want to go into techniques too much in this public forum. so i may ask you a few questions off line. i do have one question which i think is pretty simple: if a client sustains some kind of injury (ie an auto accident), how long do you wait before you start treating trigger points related to that injury?
also, please let me know if you ever decide to teach a course on how you treat trigger points. i am in California (quite a few states away) but would be interested. i have friended you on this forum. you might also want to consider turning all these posts into a book one day. i think there is a lot of valuable material here that could benefit others. thanks.
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I'm at work now, and will answer your question later tonight or tomorrow morning.
calvin burnes said:hi gordon,
well, i finally read all 40 pages of your postings + all your attachments. it took me a while. i am a slow reader and i have a full time job doing technology work (i work for UC Berkeley down here in California), so it took me a while to get through it all. i learned a lot. thanks for sharing all this information with others on this forum. i have a few questions about some of the unusual techniques you use to neutralize trigger points, but i get the impression that you don't want to go into techniques too much in this public forum. so i may ask you a few questions off line. i do have one question which i think is pretty simple: if a client sustains some kind of injury (ie an auto accident), how long do you wait before you start treating trigger points related to that injury?
also, please let me know if you ever decide to teach a course on how you treat trigger points. i am in California (quite a few states away) but would be interested. i have friended you on this forum. you might also want to consider turning all these posts into a book one day. i think there is a lot of valuable material here that could benefit others. thanks.
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Ok, uhm, the simple answer is... Once any broken bones are healed you can start. Now bear in mind I'm an experienced therapist that sees things a bit differently then whats being taught these days as far as TP work Acupressure , and eliminating soft tissue pain( which is 85% all pain ). But I usually don't work on people that have just gone through some kind of accident. Like an auto accident.. Because they usually run to their Medical Dcctor, Physical Therapist, or Chiropractor. Now I know pretty quickly if I can help somebody or not. But if they are currently under Physical Therapy care or Chiropractic and Massage. I can't help them.. Because the other people will undo the TP work I do by digging on and exercising injured trigger pointed muscles. A perfect example of what I'm saying happened just the other day with a new client. She came in just wanting to relax sense her body is sore and hurting. She is getting physical therapy for a painful left hip. The Physical Therapist told her that her left hip is very weak and needss strengthening. The therapy consists of resistance band exercises for that left hip. She has gone through several sessions and her hip still hurts. Well I showed her a video and let her read a testimonial. Showed her several of the attachments that Ive posted on this thread. Well let me tell you.. She had a big bad Glute Med. TP. and another pain point on her PSIS, another one in her Piriformis.. She had many other painful points on the rest of her body... One of the other things she gets are headaches.. Massiters were Trigger Pointed along with her right SCM and Orbicularis Oculi ( forgive me if I spell the muscles wrong? ). Also her neck and Occipital area had some TPs. They all deactivated. Her hip did not hurt when she got up off the table. She understands Trigger Points now. She rescheduled.....
Gordon J. Wallis said:
I'm at work now, and will answer your question later tonight or tomorrow morning.
calvin burnes said:hi gordon,
well, i finally read all 40 pages of your postings + all your attachments. it took me a while. i am a slow reader and i have a full time job doing technology work (i work for UC Berkeley down here in California), so it took me a while to get through it all. i learned a lot. thanks for sharing all this information with others on this forum. i have a few questions about some of the unusual techniques you use to neutralize trigger points, but i get the impression that you don't want to go into techniques too much in this public forum. so i may ask you a few questions off line. i do have one question which i think is pretty simple: if a client sustains some kind of injury (ie an auto accident), how long do you wait before you start treating trigger points related to that injury?
also, please let me know if you ever decide to teach a course on how you treat trigger points. i am in California (quite a few states away) but would be interested. i have friended you on this forum. you might also want to consider turning all these posts into a book one day. i think there is a lot of valuable material here that could benefit others. thanks.
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hey gordon,
thanks for your reply, i will keep that in mind. right now i am recovering from my own soft tissue injury. i seem to have strained a muscle in my neck and it is causing headaches. could be trigger points.... but i want it to heal some more before i start working on the area. anyway, as i have said, i am not a professional massage therapist. but i do have license and insurance and i work on people regularly. my friend seth has a history of having lots of pain, i am pretty sure he has some trigger points. so i look forward to trying some trigger point work on him in the next couple of weeks. i will let y'all know how it goes.
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