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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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it's sad my video clips don't work. When I email or text them they work fine?
Gary W Addis, LMT said:The video won't load, supposedly the file is corrupted
Gordon J. Wallis said:The video of me relieving the internal organ stress via the spinal segment or neurotome that effects all the tomes. This is cool stuff. I love it.
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Internal organ stress often times shows up as trigger points on the abdominal wall. Those trigger points exasperate the internal organ stress, as well as any symptoms. I've been able to help a lot of young women that suffer from dysmenorrhea.
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Along the same lines as the previous entry on this thread. A new client came in the other day. When I asked her what she needed from the massage. She said, as I often here. I just need to relax. When I asked her, Is anything hurting on your body. Then she said no, nothing hurts physically. She said my pain is deep inside. As she said that, she placed one of her hands on her abdominal area. Then I said.. Oh, emotional pain.. She said yes. I didn't ask her as to what her emotional pain was... I figured if she wanted to tell me she would. Anyway , I suspected trigger points in the abdominal area. I remember being under severe emotional stress when I was in a custody battle years ago with my X wife over our son. I could feel my stomach not up. Severe emotional stress can effect the internal organs, and that often shows up on the abdominal wall in the form of trigger points that are related to the organ of stress. She had an 80 minute massage, and I knew she just needed to relax... I worked mostly on her back neck and feet. Just wanting to rub that stress out. Anyway when I had her turn over on her back I went emediately to her neck and head. When you work the head and neck really good you stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system that relaxes the body even more.. But as I started to work on her neck I thought that it would be better to check her abdominal area first, before I finish with the relaxing head and neck work. She gave me permission to palpate her abdomin after I told her that it would help reduce her over all stress if we were to find and eliminate any pain points that may be in that area. I found a mild pain point on her left upper quadrant, a medium painful point about 3.5 inches to the right of her belly button, and a most painful point right below her solar plexus where I think the stomach is. She was surprised to find those areas painful to touch. She was also surprised when I eliminated those three painful areas via acupressure techniques. After that I worked her neck and head really good. Ending with some modified cranial sacral type work. Of course I did not resolve her deep emotional stress. But when she got up off the table, she had a soft calm relaxed look about her. That was cool.
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Permalink Reply by Gary W Addis, LMT on
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Some notable names in MFR therapy teach in seminars to push clients into talking out their emotional problems-- you know, cheap psychoanalysis, called "unwindings" during massage sessions. I agree with you, Gordon, that's not something we manual therapists ought to be doing. Instead, if we confront obvious psychological problems in a client we should refer them to a professional, licensed, educated psychologist. Since we are not qualified to interpret and treat emotional stress, we should treat the physical manifestations of the stress, and stay they hell out of their personal, emotional lives. And oftentimes, taking care of the physical symptoms as you skillfully did also leads to mental, emotional healing as well.
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See if this video works? Tennis elbow relief done fast.
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yes, it worked perfectly. Good job!
Gordon J. Wallis said:See if this video works? Tennis elbow relief done fast.
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This is kind of interesting. A new client came in with the complaint of low back pain when she walks, and really tight shoulders. She has seen a chiropractor and a native healer. The healer is working on her knots. I asked her if she is feeling better. She said no, but she is hoping this massage, along with her recent chiropractic visit, will make her feel better in the following days. Well here is what I found. Gluteus Medius pain points on both hips. A pain point on the left transverse spinous of L3. Two paraspinal or Rhomboid pain points between both shoulder blades. A pain point on the left Upper Trapezius. And two pain points on the lateral spinous of L2 and L3 on the right side. One lateral spinous pain point on the left side at L3. Now all those pain points were very noticible. They made her flinch or say ouch with only medium palpation pressure, despite all the chiropractic and native healing care. Now here is the real interesting part. When I first palpated ther Piriformis trigger point. She complained that not only did it hurt where I was palpating, but her low back felt uncomfortable and she felt pain moving up her neck( I later checked her neck out, and it was fine ). She had a lot of pain on the L2 and L3 vertebrae. The nerves that inervate the Gluteus Medius as well as the Piriformis exit from the L2 and L3 vertebrae . And L3 spinal movement is related to C3 spinal movement. And C3 is related to the Upper Trapezius . ALL THOSE AREAS ARE CONNECTED. That's why she had that weird low back neck pain sensation when I initially palpated her Piriformis. Anyway, fortunately all those pain points deactivated. Unfortunately she lives too far away for any follow up visits. But that was cool. I will down load a chart that you have seen before, if have been following this thread. It illustrates those connections. Yea that was cool.
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Sense I can only, for whatever reason, only load one attachment at a time. Here is a Dermatome chart that illustrates the C3 connection to the upper trap, and L3 connection to the Piroformis. Now bear in mind there is an individual variation in dermatomes and in Dermatome charts. Also there is also a lot of overlap Inervation between neighboring vertarae segments. But with these two charts. You can see the connections.
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I made a slight typo, as usual when writing in here. I first palpated her Piriformis right after I had palpated her Gluteus Medius on the right side. I neglected to say that when commenting on her case in here. I don't mean to make things confusing. I think faster then I type. Gordon J. Wallis said:This is kind of interesting. A new client came in with the complaint of low back pain when she walks, and really tight shoulders. She has seen a chiropractor and a native healer. The healer is working on her knots. I asked her if she is feeling better. She said no, but she is hoping this massage, along with her recent chiropractic visit, will make her feel better in the following days. Well here is what I found. Gluteus Medius pain points on both hips. A pain point on the left transverse spinous of L3. Two paraspinal or Rhomboid pain points between both shoulder blades. A pain point on the left Upper Trapezius. And two pain points on the lateral spinous of L2 and L3 on the right side. One lateral spinous pain point on the left side at L3. Now all those pain points were very noticible. They made her flinch or say ouch with only medium palpation pressure, despite all the chiropractic and native healing care. Now here is the real interesting part. When I first palpated ther Piriformis trigger point. She complained that not only did it hurt where I was palpating, but her low back felt uncomfortable and she felt pain moving up her neck( I later checked her neck out, and it was fine ). She had a lot of pain on the L2 and L3 vertebrae. The nerves that inervate the Gluteus Medius as well as the Piriformis exit from the L2 and L3 vertebrae . And L3 spinal movement is related to C3 spinal movement. And C3 is related to the Upper Trapezius . ALL THOSE AREAS ARE CONNECTED. That's why she had that weird low back neck pain sensation when I initially palpated her Piriformis. Anyway, fortunately all those pain points deactivated. Unfortunately she lives too far away for any follow up visits. But that was cool. I will down load a chart that you have seen before, if have been following this thread. It illustrates those connections. Yea that was cool.
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typists, executive secretaries, they type w/o having to slow down to think, for they are typing the words of the boss. We normal working stiffs, though, we have to do everything for ourselves
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Even though massage therapists aren't trained or suppose to diagnose. I had two new clients recently that were obviously misdiagnosed. I find it upsetting. I'm not going to get into too much detail like I have in some of my other posts.. Cause it's almost like a broken record. . I guess I'm suppose to feel good, because I actually did help them both dramatically.. But I'm feeling more angery because of the miscare they both recieved over the last two years. It's rediculus. No need for them to be hurting for two years. Whoever they went to, did not know what they were doing. I can't figure out any other reason? Well I can, but then that would even be worse. One was told she had sciatica. A pinched nerve from her low back that radiated pain down her lateral left leg, sometimes her posterior left leg. That's what she was told and treated for. Well her low back was fine. No pain even under deep pressure. However she had several jump response trigger points in her left Glutes and lateral leg muscles, as well as one in her left inner thigh. All the pain patterns from those trigger points send pain down the leg and into the lower back. Whatever therapy she had in the past obviously never addressed those trigger points. I can only imagine the kind of therapy she was receiving ? Anyway her sciatica was gone after her massage... She is going to come back for some follow ups.. I'm sure she will need a few. After all, it's been two years. But her problem is over. The other client. A young women that was in an auto accident two years ago. She was noticibly afraid and apprehensive about her massage. She has had neck pain for the last two years sense her accident. When she turned her head to the left it hurt. I could tell it was having an effect on her emotionally. She looked stressed There was a quiet depressed sense about her. Like she had given up or something. Someone referred her to me. Not a medical person. She left way better and smiling. It was cool. She could turn her head without pain. It was trigger points in her upper traps and levator scrap. One in her lower neck. A couple rhomboid trigger points each side. And quite a few lateral spinous pain points on the right side in her T spine. They all deactivated, and we were finished in 25 minutes. She is coming in for maybe three more short follow ups, and her problem will be over. Oh, I remember she had one pain point on her right PSIS. Now when I say both those clients will be better. I'ts only and educated guess based on my experience. But if you come in and you can't turn your head to the left without pain( for two years ), and you walk out being able to turn your head to the left with no pain. That's clinically significant. That means you have ruled out any pathology( disease, pinched nerve), or abstruction( bone in the way ). It's trigger points that are in the way. If I fail. That means I can't make those trigger points stay away. And I doubt that's going to happen. For two years with both of these clients.. Nobody thought TRIGGER POINTS. I can only post one attachment. But it makes my point.
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Upper Trapaezius and Psoas trigger points deactivated. "ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY IS INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM MAGIC." - Arthur C. Clarke
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