Without Awareness, There is No Choice!

Imagine you were injured a couple of years ago.  You received on-going therapy in the form of hot packs, ultrasound, massage, electrical stimulation, exercise and flexibility training, joint mobilization and muscle energy techniques, medication and psychological counseling to no avail.  All of the standard tests show nothing and you desperately want to get better.  You’ve been given a multitude of different diagnostic labels and all the experts are telling you there is nothing wrong.  You feel imprisoned in a body that won’t respond and allow you to play and work again.  You feel helpless and out of control.  What if something was overlooked?  What could it be?

THE INSTINCTUAL “FREEZE RESPONSE”

When many of us are injured, we go into a state of disassociation at the moment of trauma to survive.  Our body/mind experiences an instinctive “freeze response” and this positional, physiological memory becomes indelibly imprinted into our mind/body awareness.  The sympathetic and parasympathetic autonomic nervous systems become stuck in a state of hyper arousal that is not under our voluntary control. (1)  It is like having your foot on the accelerator of a car and the other foot on the brake.  This consumes an enormous amount of energy and eventually exhausts us.

Because this positional memory becomes disassociated and locked in our subconscious, we have no awareness of it and without conscious awareness, we have no control of it.

This “freeze response,” over time, creates holding or bracing patterns that eventually produce increased chronic muscular tone, spasm, and myofascial restrictions that eventually become symptoms.

Traditionally, therapy focuses on symptoms, explaining why modalities, exercise, joint mobilization and muscle energy techniques, massage and/or medicine can, many times, only produce poor or temporary results.

Why didn’t good psychological counseling help?  Possibly because the majority of psychological therapy is done in consensus consciousness.  In other words, “talk therapy” and analysis are focused on the conscious level and the cause of the chronic symptom complex is on the instinctual level, which is not accessed by words and analysis, or for that matter by traditional therapeutic interventions or medicine.

What can help this state of disassociation?  Myofascial release and myofascial unwinding.

Myofascial restrictions do not show up in any of the standard tests, so myofascial restrictions that solidify these chronic holding or freeze response patterns in our bodies are missed or misdiagnosed in healthcare.

Myofascial release frees these powerful, structural restrictions that place enormous pressure upon sensitive structures that produce pain, headaches and restrictions of motion.  And myofascial unwinding (the motion facilitation component of the myofascial release approach) guides the patient into significant positions of past traumas.

In the safety of the therapeutic environment, the therapist gently holds the patient in these significant positions of past trauma.  In these therapeutic positions, the patient’s tissue memory releases the instinctual bracing patterns.  The “freeze response” is then deactivated, which allows for continued structural release and elimination of symptoms.  The release of tissue memory creates awareness to return the patient to conscious choice and control of his or her destiny.  The patient can then progress toward the ultimate goal of healing and health.

Reference:

1. Levine, Peter.  “Walking the Tiger: Healing Trauma.” North Atlantic Books. Berkley, CA 1997

John F. Barnes, PT, is the proprietor of Rehabilitation Services, Inc., TBD Myofascial Release Seminars.  Through his advancement in healthcare, he has authorized the Myofascial Release Search for Excellence textbook which acts as a reference and supplement to all of our seminars.

John F. Barnes, PT, is the owner of the Myofascial Release Treatment Centers in Sedona, AZ and in Paoli, PA (suburban Philadelphia).  In addition Barnes presents Myofascial Release Seminars across the country and in Canada.  He has published 2 books and produced three videos on his Myofascial Release Approach.  For more information on Treatment Centers, Seminars, or Merchandise please call 1-800-FASCIAL or write to MFR Seminars, 222 West Lancaster Ave., Paoli, PA  19301 or visit our website @www.myofascialrelease.com

PT.OT. SPEECH TODAY Vol 6, No. 14

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

John F. Barnes, PT, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania as a Physical Therapist in 1960; he holds physical therapy licenses in Pennsylvania, Arizona, New Jersey, Delaware, Colorado, and Hawaii.  John is on the Counsel of Advisors of the American Back Society; is an Editorial Advisor of the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies; and is a member of the American Physical Therapy Association.

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Beyond the benefits of reduction of pain, spasm, and increased range of motion and function achieved by Myofascial Release, the elimination of fearful behaviors, compulsions, and anxiety attacks is possible.

Other therapeutic approaches are based on the “neuronal doctrine” which has shown to be obsolete as the old, outdated scientific paradigm.  The physiological aspects of Myofascial Release eradicating fear is now being supported by the “new” science.

The following is an excerpt from the March/April issue of Discover Magazine by Oril Van Mourik in an article titled, “A Future Reminder:  Reshaping the Past”.

“Remember your first encounter with a stove?  “Don’t touch that!  It’s hot”, you were warned, and the message was clear.  “Stove=-Danger”.  Eventually, of course, you came to understand that stoves are pretty harmless, provided you avoid the burners.  And just like that, you unlearned your fear of stoves.

Unlearning a fear may sound simple, but for years neurologists believed such emotion was entrenched, set in stone by fixed neuronal networks in the brain, and thus unaffected by new information.  Now a study led by Bong-Kiun Kaang at Seoul National University has altered that view.  Every time a long-term memory or an associated emotion, like fear, is retrieved, proteins found in the synapses between neurons are degraded, allowing that memory to be updated by incoming information”.  You can go to http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/1150541v1 for more in-depth information.  1

This physiological response corresponds with our Myofascial Release experience.  As the mind/body gets in touch with unresolved emotions and/or memories the structure releases and authentic healing begins.

The following excerpts from my book, Myofascial Release:  The Search for Excellence, Chapter 8 (www.myofascialrelease.com) may help to explain the scientific aspects of Myofascial Release.

New neurobiologic research and Selye’s classic work are concerned with the phenomenon of state-dependent memory, learning, and behavior.  State-dependent memory, learning, and behavior is the general class of learning that takes place in all complex organisms that have a cerebral cortex and a limbic-hypothalamic system, and pavlovian and skinnerian conditioning are specific varieties of it.

Memory and learning of all higher organisms fall into two classes of internal responses:

1. There is a memory trace on the molecular-cellular-synaptic level.
2. n involvement of the amygdala and hippocampus of the limbic-hypothalamic system in processing and encoding, and recall of the specific memory trace may be located elsewhere in the brain.

The limbic-hypothalamic system is the central core to Selye’s general adaption syndrome, the three stages of which, the alarm reaction, the stage of resistance, and the stage of exhaustion, take on a profound significance.

To ask how the mind communicates with the body or how the body communicates with the mind assumes that the two are separate entities.  My experience has shown me that they are a single unit.  The body is not just a reflection of the personality, it is the personality.

Therefore mind-body awareness are two sides of the same coin, different aspects of the same spectrum, immutably joined, inseparable, connected, influencing, and communicating constantly.  Myofascial release techniques and myofascial unwinding allow for the complete communication necessary for healing and true growth.  I believe that the body remembers everything that ever happened to it.

The link between mind-body awareness and healing is the concept of state-dependent memory, learning, and behavior (also called déjà vu).  We have all experienced this, for example, when a certain smell, or the sound of a particular piece of music creates a flashback phenomenon, producing a visual, sensorimotor replay of a past event or important episode in our lives with a vividness as it if were happening at that moment.  I would like to expand this theory to include “position-dependent memory, learning, and behavior”, with the structural position being the missing component in the state-dependent theory.

Studies have shown that during periods of trauma people make indelible imprints of experiences that have high levels of emotional content.  The body can hold information below the conscious level, as a protective mechanism, so that memories tend to become dissociated or amnesic.  This is called memory dissociation, or reversible amnesia.  The memories are state or position dependent and can therefore be retrieved when the person is in a particular state or position.

Myofascial Release is the wave of the future.  Enjoy the ride!

John

John F. Barnes, P.T., LMT, NCTMB

John F Barnes is the President of the Myofascial Release Treatment Centers in Paoli, Pennsylvania and Sedona, Arizona.  He is the author of Myofascial Release, the Search for Excellence (Rehabilitation Services, Inc., 1990) and Healing Ancient Wounds, the Renegades Wisdom (MFR Treatment Centers and Seminars, 2000).  Barnes is on the Counsel of Advisors of the American Back Society and the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies; is a member of the American Physical Therapy Association.  For more information call 1-800-FASCIAL (372-2425 or visit www.myofascialrelease.com

1.  Bong-Kuin Kaang, et al.  Synaptic Protein Degradation Underlies Destabilization of Retrieved Fear Memory. Science. February 2008

<http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/1150541v1

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

John F. Barnes, PT, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania as a Physical Therapist in 1960; he holds physical therapy licenses in Pennsylvania, Arizona, New Jersey, Delaware, Colorado, and Hawaii.  John is on the Counsel of Advisors of the American Back Society; is an Editorial Advisor of the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies; and is a member of the American Physical Therapy Association.

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We have all experienced or treated patients whose symptoms after a whiplash accident far exceed what could reasonably be explained by the velocity of the accident.  Full-blown symptoms have been frequently seen at automobile speeds below 10 to 15 mph.

Most victims of even relatively minor motor vehicle accidents usually describe a sense of detachment and shock.  The major symptoms of the whiplash may not appear for 48 hours and then may progressively worsen for many days, weeks or even months despite extensive care. 1

In both the forward and backward motions involved, the front of the brain (which has the consistency of well-set Jell-O) slides forward and impacts against the rough and jagged edges of the eye orbits.  The orbito-frontal areas are particularly susceptible to hematomas, contusions, and intercerebral hemorrhages.  Particularly if the head is turned to either side at the impact, a phenomena called shearing may occur.

Psychoneuroimmunology research implies that “every cell in the body can communicate with every other cell.”  The reason that myofascial release and myofascial unwinding have been so effective with whiplash victims and other post traumatic injuries may be explained by the fight/flight/freeze response developed by Dr. Peter Levine. 2

He postulates that the fight/flight/freeze response is seen in animals in response to life-threatening experiences.  In other words, the preyed upon animal will flee or attempt to fight, but if run to the ground will enter a freeze response where it assumes a state of immobility while physiologically still manifesting high levels of activity of both the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems.  2

Myofascial release and myofascial unwinding release the contracted tissue, the tissue memory, and allows healing to commence.  Dr Levine goes on to say that if the animal survives the attacks, it will go through a dramatic period of discharge of this high-level autonomic arousal through the motor system.  This discharge involves trembling, profuse sweating and deep breathing.  This type of discharge is frequently seen after a deep myofascial release, followed by substantial improvement.

In the case of a motor vehicle accident, a holding pattern develops to protect the body against impact.  As a result of the freeze response, this holding pattern is maintained indefinitely, manifesting sustained muscular contraction with resultant myofascial pain and tightness.  1

This explains why traditional therapy’s focus on symptoms is not enough for a complete resolution of the problem.  Myofascial release and myofascial unwinding release the muscular contractions, the myofascial restrictions and the holding patterns maintained by the “freeze response.”

The fight/flight/freeze response answers many questions we therapists encounter with our trauma victims.

Myofascial Release can resolve the instinctual “bracing patterns” that impede progress.

Reference:
1.  Robert Scaer, MD, Bridges Magazine, Observation on Traumatic Stress, The Whiplash Model.
2.  Levine, P., Walking the Tiger, Healing Trauma Through the Body

PT . OT .  SPEECH TODAY Vol.  5, No. 40

About the Author:

-John F. Barnes, PT, conducts myofascial release treatment in  Paoli, PA and Sedona, AZ.  Additional information on Myofascial Release Treatment Centers and Seminars can be obtained by calling 1-800-FASCIAL

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A massive amount of research is emerging that validates the principles of my Myofascial Release approach.  I am going to paraphrase some important information from a new book, “Energy Medicine in Therapeutics and Human Performance” written by James L. Oschman, Ph.D.

“A dramatic discovery reveals that there is actually no such thing as a disease.  Medicine’s disease model has simply run its course.  Like horseshoes and the bustle, it is a paradigm soon to be replaced.”

Traditional medicine looks at symptoms, gives it a label and only treats symptoms.  Symptoms are only the tip of the iceberg!  The medical approach is to drug patients so they temporarily are free from pain, but it does nothing about the “straightjacket” of pressure that is causing the pain.  Traditional physical, occupational and massage therapy, acupuncture, chiropractic and other forms of therapy only treat the symptoms caused by the “straightjacket” of pressure that causes and perpetuates the symptoms.  This is why so many patients have only temporary results never seeming to get better with traditional therapy.

Science has now discovered what I have been teaching for over 30 years, i.e., symptoms, diagnostic labels, and diseases are a blockage of our bio-energy caused by a prolonged inflammatory response.  Trauma and the resultant inflammation response create Myofascial restrictions that ultimately create the symptoms of pain and disease processes.

“The results of inflammatory responses that have outlived their usefulness are labeled: chronic pain, headaches, restriction of motion, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, heart disease, arthritis, asthma, bowel and menstrual disorders, cancer and the list goes on and on.  There is no such thing as disease!”  Myofascial Release allows the chronic inflammatory response to revolve and eradicates the enormous pressure exerted on pain sensitive structures by myofascial restrictions to alleviate symptoms and to allow the body’s natural healing capacity to function properly.

Myofascial Release views symptoms as only the “tip of the iceberg.”  In other words, symptoms are effects of a much deeper cause.  Traditional physicians and therapists only treat effects.  The Myofascial therapist treats the entire cause and effect relationship.

About the Author:

-John F. Barnes, PT, conducts myofascial release treatment in  Paoli, PA and Sedona, AZ.  Additional information on Myofascial Release Treatment Centers and Seminars can be obtained by calling 1-800-FASCIAL

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I am sure that you have heard of or experienced the flight or fight response, but have you ever heard of the freeze response?

For years, I have taught that one of the many benefits of Myofascial Release and Myofascial Unwinding is the release of the holding or bracing patterns of the mind/body complex.  It seems that during times of trauma the subconscious develops a protective pattern that becomes locked into the mind/body complex like a “frozen moment in time.”

I believe that it is these “holding patterns” that have frustrated therapists using traditional therapy in their efforts to help their patients have a speedy and complete resolution of their problems.

In his informative book “Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma,” Peter Levine, PhD, develops an intriguing model that may explain the effectiveness of Myofascial Release.

The behaviors of fleeing, fighting and freezing are so primitive that they are thought to predate the reptilian brain.  These survival tools are found in all species from spiders and cock-roaches to primates and human beings.  When neither flight nor fight will ensure the animals safety, there is another line of defence; immobility (freezing), which is just as universal and basic to survival.  No animal, not even the human, has conscious control over whether or not it freezes in response to threat. 1   When an animal or human is traumatized, it will enter the freeze response as a survival strategy.  This state of immobility is beyond conscious control and becomes a vicious cycle maintaining physiological high levels of activity of both the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems.

In humans, trauma occurs as a result of the initiation of the instinctual cycle that is rarely allowed to finish.

The duration of the immobility (freezing) response is normally time-limited; animals go in and they comE out.  If the animal is not killed and when threat is over, the animal then discharges an enormous amount of energy in the form of shaking, profuse sweating and deep breathing.  It then returns to a state of calm alertness.  The human freezing response does not easily resolve itself because the super-charged energy locked in the nervous system is imprisoned by the emotions of fear and trauma.  The result is that a vicious cycle of fear and immobility takes over, preventing the response from completing naturally.  When not allowed to complete, these responses form the symptoms of trauma. 1

Myofascial Release allows for a completion of this instinctive cycle in a safe, natural and effective manner.  Working in reverse, Myofascial Release and Myofascial Unwinding start with present day restrictions and compensations.  The release of fascial restrictions alters the habitual muscular “holding patterns.”  With Myofascial Unwinding, the therapist eliminates gravity from the system.  ****RUSS—This unloading of the structure allows the body’s righting reflexes and protective response to   temporarily suspend their influence.  The body, guided by the therapist, can move into positions of past trauma, which allow for a release of the instinctual “freeze” response in a safe, gentle and natural manner.

As this occurs, Myofascial Release techniques are utilized to eliminate structural compensations for a resolution of the patient’s long-standing symptoms.

The goal of Myofascial Release is to return the patient to a pain-free, active lifestyle.

Reference:
1. Levine, Peter: Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma. North Atlantic Books, Berkeley, CA  1997.

John F. Barnes, PT is the owner of the Myofascial Release Treatment Centers in Sedona, AZ and in Paoli, PA (suburban Philadelphia) in addition Barnes presents Myofascial Release Seminars across the country and in Canada.  He has published 2 books and produced three videos on his Myofascial Release Approach for more information on Treatment Centers, Seminars, or Merchandise please call 1-800-FASCIAL or write to MFR Seminars 222 West Lancaster Ave Paoli PA  19301 or visit our website @ www.myofascialrelease.com
PT . OT . SPEECH TODAY  Vol. 6, No. 8

About the Author:

-John F. Barnes, PT, conducts myofascial release treatment in  Paoli, PA and Sedona, AZ.  Additional information on Myofascial Release Treatment Centers and Seminars can be obtained by calling 1-800-FASCIAL

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Traditional science considers the fascia and the proteins of the body to be an insulator that is incapable of conducting energy, information and consciousness.  When a traditional biologist wants to study tissue, they crush it, pulp it, and put it into a centrifuge.  The tissue is then spun at high velocity to separate the solid from the fluid.  The solid material is then thrown away and the fluid is studied.  However, back in 1941, Professor Szent-Gyorgyi said this was an erroneous way of doing research on living tissue.  He proved that by dehydrating the proteins that the removal of water converted the proteins from conductors of energy into insulators.

Water is essential for life!  Dr. Szent-Gyorgyi then stated that by taking away the water, you are studying non-life!  Keep the proteins hydrated, and they are semiconductors of energy.  He went on to demonstrate that all substances are semiconductors.  He states our communication system of the body relies on water.  A 10% change in water content can trigger a million fold change in charge transportation along a protein.  Of course, the scientists of the time then ignored this important discovery because it did not fit the model of reality that they had memorized.  This is bias!  It is considered to be unscientific to be biased.  I believe it goes beyond this; the scientific community has become entangled into what is intellectual dishonesty!

This false and obsolete information (that the soft tissue of our body is an insulator), is still being taught in all medical, dental and therapeutic schools in the country.  For more detailed information please read pages 72-74 in Dr. James Oshmann’s new book “Energy Medicine in Therapeutics and Human Performance.”

Remember that trauma and inflammatory processes dehydrate the fluid component of the fascial system.  These fascial restrictions then exert enormous pressure on pain sensitive structures and inhibit the vital communication that flows through the liquidity of the fascial system and every cell of our body that ultimately produces symptoms of pain, headaches, restriction of motion and disease.

The following information is paraphrased from Dr. Ervin Laszlo’s new book “Science and the Akashic Field.”  Dr. Laszlo is considered to be one of the most profound thinkers alive today.  In “Science and the Akashic Field,” philosopher and systems theorist Irvin Laszlo shows how the discovery in physics of the zero point energy field (zpe), which the Myofascial perspective experiences as being centered or channel 3, is also the discovery of the universal “information” field that is the source for all of physical reality.  The following is some scattered observations from his book.  Dr. Laszlo considers the impoverished discourse of science has had a negative impact on society and that the worldview most consider scientific is an antiquated and obsolete view.

“For years scientists and philosophers have stated that the physical brain is the source of consciousness, yet there is no evidence of this!”

Dr. Laszlo believes that the primary reality is the quantum field or zero point energy field or what he calls the akashic field.  The akashic field, which underlies physical reality, is a vast sea of energy and information that flows through us and the universe as a hologram. We were taught that nothing travels faster than the speed of light; however, Russian physicists have discovered “torsion waves” that travel as energy and information at the speed at the order of 10 to the 9th power that means one billion times the speed of light!

Remember, being centered is the timeless, spaceless dimension accessed through the subconscious via our intuition that allows us to access the holographic field that is the memory of the universe, i.e. the akashic field or universal wisdom.

In discussing how the akashic field or zero point energy field performs in the living organisms, Dr. Laszlo states that the living organism is not a mere biomechanical machine, the traditional paradigm. A living organism is dynamic and fluid with all components in instant and continuous communication.  This kind of instant, system-wide communication cannot be produced by the traditional view of solely physical and chemical interactions among molecules, genes, cells and organs.  The speed with which activating processes spread throughout the body makes reliance on biochemistry alone insufficient.

“The conduction of signals through the nervous system cannot proceed faster than about 20 meters per second and cannot carry a large number of diverse signals at the same time.  Yet there is evidence that the entire organism acts as one.”  This instantaneous communication flows through the fluid of the body in and around the microtubules of the fascial system.  “It has been found that this instantaneous communication is at 20,000 times the speed of light, relativity theory’s supposedly unbreakable speed barrier.”  To summarize, the fluid within and around the microtubules of the fascial system (the container of our mind) carries almost instantaneous energy and information throughout so we can function as a coordinated, balanced whole.

The fascial system is the primary communication system with the much slower neural system, a secondary system of conduction.  Our innate intelligence flows through the fascial matrix carrying vast amount of information, instantly capable of storing far more information than the brain.

Traditional science still clings to the erroneous view that the connective tissue is just an insulator even though it was proven wrong back in 1941; instead the fascial system is a structural three-dimensional web that holds and conducts liquid, energy, and information.  Wet connective tissue is a liquid crystal acting as a semiconductor that is capable of potentially giving our patients and ourselves access to the wisdom of the universe!

Fear, anger, hate, anxiety, alienation and hopelessness are not just feelings.  Neither are love, serenity and optimism.  All are physiological states that profoundly affect our health.  However, as our experience has shown us, trauma, inflammation or unresolved emotional holding patterns, dehydrates and tightens the fascial system.  This loss of fluid and the resultant solidification of the ground substance of the fascial system block this important communication that eventually produces the symptoms of pain, headaches, anxiety, restriction of motion and disease.

I would like to quote from the book “The Field” by Lynne McTaggart, which states that “In the near future the idea of using drugs or surgery to cure anybody will seem barbaric.  It has been discovered that humans emit highly coherent photons (the tiniest particles of light).  Our DNA uses wave frequencies of this light to drive all of the physiological processes of the mind/body.  New evidence shows the brains conversation with the body are waves and frequencies rather than with chemical or electrical impulses alone.  Our brains are simply the retrieval and readout mechanism, of the ultimate storage medium, the force field that surrounds us and infuses with every cell of our body.”

In healthy individuals, the quantum light is highly organized.  In people that are ill, cancer patients for instance, have lost the organization of this internal energy so the subatomic communication between the various parts of the body has broken down.  In effect, their light is going out.  It may be that all illness is a kind of scrambling of the frequency of this energy.”

Myofascial Release structurally and energetically opens and re-hydrates the human fascial system of liquid light for the coherent flow of frequency, vibration, information and organization necessary for the health and quality of life.  I’ll ask you again, are you ready to move out of the dark ages of healthcare?

Myofascial Release is a logical expansion of the very roots of the health professions.  It incorporates quantum theory and systems theory into practice, but it does not necessitate the dismantling of traditional healthcare.  Rather, Myofascial Release represents a powerfully effective addition of a series of concepts and techniques that enhance and mesh with our traditional medical, dental, and therapeutic training.  Myofascial Release is not traditional therapy, nor is it alternative therapy.  Myofascial Release is authentic therapy due to the important, substantial and tangible results it provides on all levels of human existence.

This exciting period of transition poses an important opportunity for us to grow, as human beings while providing the quality of care our patients deserve, allowing us all to move into authentic living and healing.

About the Author:

-John F. Barnes, PT, conducts myofascial release treatment in  Paoli, PA and Sedona, AZ.  Additional information on Myofascial Release Treatment Centers and Seminars can be obtained by calling 1-800-FASCIAL

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Traditional therapy has viewed pain from two different perspectives.  One school of thought was to avoid pain, “mask” the symptoms and teach the patient to cope with his or her problem.  This approach did not cause direct trauma, but forced people to be satisfied with limited results.  There was the possibility of cumulative trauma since untreated restrictions caused microtrauma to the patient’s system over time.  This microtrauma was like a ticking time bomb left in the system, forcing a return of symptoms or a shift to another area.  This is rarely a satisfactory solution.

The other school of thought was “no pain, no gain.”  Too many times patients were instructed to exercise and force their way through the pain.  The result:  a lot of strong patients in agony.  Or manipulation and other aggressive manual techniques produced force into osseous structures while paying no attention to the tight surrounding myofascial environment.  The aggressive force used created the possibility of increased pain, injury or a return of symptoms because the environment of every osseous structure, the myofascial system, had not been released first.

Myofascial release can safely and effectively free the osseous structures and/or create a more open environment to enhance the effectiveness of manipulation, mobilization procedures, muscle energy techniques and exercise and flexibility programs.

Is there a possibility of another option for the relief of pain and the restoration of motion?  I strongly believe the possibility exists, based on my years of experience and the experience of over 20,000 physical therapists (one-third of the profession) that I have had the opportunity to train in this approach.

I would like you to consider the possibility of a third treatment option of relieving pain and restoring motion:  therapeutic pain.

One aspect of the myofascial release approach is where the therapist applies gentle, sustained pressure into the fascial system, creating what the patient reports as a feeling of good pain or a good stretch.  Release of the pressure of the fascial system around the muscles, nerves, blood vessels and the osseous structures creates a free mobile environment of these pain-sensitive structures, producing consistent results in relieving pain and restoring functional mobility.

Another aspect of myofascial release is the sophisticated facilitation techniques called myofascial unwinding.  The fascial system is a piezoelectric tissue, so when the therapist applies gentle sustained pressure into the fascial system through compression, traction or twisting the fascial system, or moving a particular body part (taking gravity out of the system), it creates a flow of the body’s bioenergy.  This flow triggers the mind/body complex into spontaneous motion.  This spontaneous therapeutic motion allows the body to assume positions in space that represent positions of past traumas.  These positions of trauma represent one’s subconscious fear, negative memories and/or pain that have created holding or bracing patterns which have impeded progress of traditional therapeutic approach.  It is these positions in space and the re-experiencing of this pain memory which is never injurious, that takes the threat out of the system and allows the mind/body complex to let go of these holding or bracing patterns so that healing can commence.

Working in reverse, myofascial release, and myofascial unwinding, release the fascial tissue restrictions, thereby altering the habitual muscular response and allowing the positional, reversible amnesia to surface, producing emotions and belief systems that are the cause of holding patterns and ultimately symptoms  Thus it is important for the therapist to quiet his or her mind and feel the inherent motions.  Quietly following the tissue or body part three-dimensionally along the direction of ease takes the patient into the significant restrictions or positions.  With myofascial unwinding, the therapist eliminates gravity from the system.  This unloading of the structure allows the body’s ***RUSS***righting reflexes and protective responses to temporarily suspend their influence.  The body can then move into positions that allow these state- or position-dependent physiologic or flashback phenomena to reoccur.  As this happens within the safe environment of a treatment session, the patient can facilitate the body’s inherent self-correcting mechanism to obtain improvement.

The myofascial release approach is more than just an assemblage of techniques. Instead, it creates a whole-body awareness allowing the health professional to facilitate change, growth and the possibility for total resolution of restrictions, emotions and belief systems that impede patient progress.

About the Author:

-John F. Barnes, PT, conducts myofascial release treatment in  Paoli, PA and Sedona, AZ.  Additional information on Myofascial Release Treatment Centers and Seminars can be obtained by calling 1-800-FASCIAL

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Therapists incorporating “hands-on” therapy into their repertoire greatly enhance their ability to help others.  Myofascial release respects the wisdom of the mind/body and its capacity to self-correct.

It is important for those providing “hands-on” treatment to realize that the mind/body is a repository of information.  The mind/body can be used as a biofeedback system for the master therapist’s finely trained, sensitive hands.  It can then be used as a handle or lever to provide access to emotions and belief systems and allow for structural and biochemical change.

The master therapist recognizes the importance of therapeutic pain, and instead of masking it, enables the patient to go into and through the pain, fear, or lesion.  As the patient does this, awareness occurs and function will improve spontaneously.

Therapists will be concerned with releasing the body’s fascial restrictions mechanically and reorganizing the neuromuscular system.  This reorganization occurs by supplying the central nervous system with new information (awareness) that allows for change and improved movement potential and consciousness.

Mastery means not only achieving a certain level of skill but is also an attitude.  Masters are fully aware of what they are doing.  They understand the importance of touch as an expression of acceptance, nourishment, and a form of biofeedback to glean information from patients’ mind/body awareness.  Their touch should be applied with focused awareness and conscious purpose.  The focus should be fluid, moving from tight and narrow (logical, analytical thought) to open, feeling every thing at once without thought or effort (intuition, insight).

Ron Kurtz described ordinary consciousness (basic, working consciousness) as “goal-directed, focused, externally oriented bounded by an awareness of space and time.”*   Ordinary consciousness operates out of habit, barely paying attention, in hot pursuit of goals, ignoring the possibility of information available in the present moment.  People who constantly function in ordinary consciousness are on automatic, unaware, and “in kind of a trance.”*   To experience deeply and wisely, one must be balanced, fully aware, using the analytical, logical, narrow focus, and gleaning the insights available from a creative, feeling, open focus (focused awareness).  This is a vital way of functioning and a goal we should have for our patients.

The compulsive, narrow-focused therapist has difficulty easing back.  Frustration surfaces quickly and in an effort to try to make something happen, he or she uses mere technique or force.  Effort is a function of the ego creating either/or situations, thereby setting up resistance.  Effortlessness (case) allows ego to let go and creates the environment for the spontaneous to occur.  Quality therapy feels easy and right.*   It has a spontaneous flow that leads to discovery.  The logical, analytical mind has relevant information with which to make purposeful decisions and treatment choices.

The alert therapist looks for patterns in patients, the mechanical or automatic in movement, experiences, and words.  Increased tone in the musculature during movement, posture, or expressions is a response to one’s emotional state or thought and is not part of conscious awareness.  The therapist should focus the patient’s awareness on any motion with which the breathing is not easy, where there is a sense of resistance, and where effort to a difficulty with reversibility is involved.  This awareness will allow the patient to reorganize, for understanding follows, rather than precedes, experiences.

Another hallmark of a master is flexibility and courage.  Recognize the importance of the status quo as long as it does no harm and as long as it works.  Always be open to new and better ways.  Just because things have always been done a certain way does not mean that way has any value.  Think for yourself and through your personal experience, decide if it has value for you or your patients.

One of the laws of nature is the path of least resistance, which is fine as long as it is taking you where you want to go.  Being stuck in the left-brained, automatic trance is mindlessly following the goals and ways of others.  Choose your own path by the creative use of your insight and willpower, and then have the courage to stick to it.

In making your decision always ask, “What is in the best interest of my patient?”

When you come from that orientation, your intelligence, flexibility, and courage will be rewarded time and again.  That attitude benefits you, your patient, and your profession.

Mastery has to do with stillness.  Eliminating unnecessary internal thoughts and external verbal chatter creates the necessary sense of calm.  This quiet ease allows the master to be fully aware of the patient’s emotional state, fluidity of motion, automatic habits in expression and motion, and the feel of tissue restrictions.

Stillness instills confidence in the patient and gives the patient’s central nervous system information about what calm and ease feel like.  One cannot learn to be calm and at ease by just intellectualizing these attributes.  Through the experience of touch, a sense of ease can be transmitted to the patient, which can be an invaluable lesson.

We should learn from each patient and it should not be work.  Stay light and joyful in what you do.  Teach your patient to re-experience a sense of joy.

Tell you patients not to view what happened to cause their dysfunction as a defeat but rather to see it as a lesson.  By looking for the positive, they can see its value, learn from it, and allow themselves to heal.  Help them to understand that one of the best lessons is that they may not be able to change the circumstances of their life.  But they can move from being passive, helpless recipients to active participants.  This important change in perspective creates a partnership between you and your patients where you can help them to help themselves.

Thus, mastery is teaching through example.  The master is real, calm, nonjudgmental, intelligent, sensitive, strong, yet flexible, supportive, compassionate, empathic and joyful.

Enjoy the dawn of this new era and allow your journey to be exciting and fulfilling.

Reference:

Kurtz R., “Body centered psychotherapy: the Hakomi therapy.”  Ashland, OR: Author and the Hakomi Institute, 1988

John F. Barnes, PT is the owner of the Myofascial Release Treatment Centers in Sedona, AZ and in Paoli, PA (suburban Philadelphia).  In addition Barnes presents Myofascial Release Seminars across the country and in Canada.  He has published 2 books and produced three videos on his Myofascial Release Approach.  For more information on Treatment Centers, Seminars, or Merchandise please call 1-800-FASCIAL or write to MFR Seminars, 222 West Lancaster Ave., Paoli, PA  19301 or visit our website @ www.myofascialrelease.com

PT . OT . SPEECH TODAY

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The health-care system is collapsing under its own weight and obsolescence.  Health professionals are concerned about loss of control, diminishing income and their future potential.

All this consternation about managed care and the collapsing health-care system is to me no more than a reshuffling of the deck chairs on the Titanic.  You have a choice, you can go down with the Titanic or you can expand your abilities and talents with techniques that produce consistent results in a safe and cost efficient manner.

It is now common knowledge that a study presented by the New England Journal of Medicine, the most prestigious medical journal in the world, showed that in 1993, consumers spent approximately $14 billion on alternative medicine and therapy techniques - more than what was spent on traditional medicine, surgery and therapy combined.  Furthermore, $10 billion of that amount was paid in cash.  And these figures are growing exponentially each year.  This long-range study demonstrates that the use of alternative approaches to health care is not a small trend.

This represents an enormous shift in awareness in the masses, who are demanding and willing to pay for techniques that produce the results that they desperately need; and this has been our experience.  Patient’s are referred to our Myofascial Release Treatment Centers in Paoli, PA and Sedona, AZ from all over the world.  The average patient we see has not had acceptable results, despite spending between $50,000 to $100,000 on traditional medicines, surgery or therapy and having every test know to mankind and every treatment except for myofascial release.

We see these people on an out-patient basis for approximately two to three weeks (five days per week) as part of our Intensive Myofascial Release Treatment Program.  The vast majority of people we see have their lives turned around so they regain the quality of their life and can return to work.

Insurance companies are willing to pay for myofascial release (the CPT code is 97250) or if they have run out of insurance, the patient is willing to pay cash to return to a pain free, active lifestyle.

There seems to be two different realities:  one where therapists still using obsolete traditional techniques are running around like Chicken Little crying “the sky is falling, the sky is falling!”  and another where facilities and therapists focusing on the myofascial release approach are flourishing, with minimal burdensome paperwork, very satisfied patients and lucrative incomes.  So, you have a choice of realities.  In fact, we receive numerous letters from insurance companies, hospitals, health-care facilities, private practices and physicians looking for highly trained myofascial release therapists.

Is the Titanic going down?  Yes!  Is the sky falling?  Only if you persist in clinging to the past.  Consider another perspective.  This is a wake up call!  This turmoil is a tremendous opportunity.

The limitation of treatment visits is the best thing that could have ever happened.  This has forced everyone to stop and really examine what works and what doesn’t work.  You know how it is:  a person will receive hot packs, modalities and exercise for months or years even if it doesn’t appear to be working.  They continue because their insurance covers the treatments.  With the limitations now on visits, they will receive their allotted number of traditional treatments and then they will seek out a therapist skilled in myofascial release, put their hands in their pockets, pull out some cash and say, “Please, help me.”

I know that many of you work in busy hospitals, extended care facilities and rehabilitation centers and often spend more time on paperwork than on actual hands-on therapy.  This assembly line approach is not healthcare!  I know that you have to take care of yourself and your family, but I have a suggestion:  Do what you have to do now and look for facilities that focus on myofascial release that will give you the quality time to provide effective healthcare or open your own private practice.  You can keep your present job and start private practice part-time.  It does not take a large expenditure of money.  You only need some space, a treatment table and knowledge of myofascial release.

I recommend this at every myofascial release seminar and I receive calls and letters weekly from those who have taken my advice.  They basically say that they have switched to a heath-care facility that focuses on myofascial release and provides the proper environment and time necessary for quality care, or that within six to eight months they were generating sufficient income from their new private practice to switch to it full-time.  They also report that they have very happy clients and a sense of personal fulfillment and professional achievement.

This paradigm shift will be enormous in the next couple of years, providing an incredible opportunity for facilities and individuals willing to expand their knowledge and allow their skill level to grow.

Let us all work together to enhance the quality of patient care.  We can do it!

PT . OT . SPEECH TODAY Vol. 5, No. 51

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

John F. Barnes, PT, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania as a Physical Therapist in 1960; he holds physical therapy licenses in Pennsylvania, Arizona, New Jersey, Delaware, Colorado, and Hawaii.  John is on the Counsel of Advisors of the American Back Society; is an Editorial Advisor of the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies; and is a member of the American Physical Therapy Association.

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As therapists it is our responsibility to discipline ourselves to be centered and to educate our patients in the value of silence so that they can access their healing wisdom.  Only when the therapist and patient are deeply centered in mutual silence do the depths of their wisdom merge with universal wisdom for authentic healing to occur.

For years I have recognized that great therapists have an intangible quality that differentiates them from the average therapist.  I have become aware that our educational training focused on the conceptual aspect of our consciousness ignoring our deeper consciousness where our wisdom lies.  In my seminars I have been labeling our intellectual side as Channel 5.

Our educational system taught us what to think, not how to think!  Unfortunately, this was not true education, but instead was mass hypnosis forcing us to memorize “facts” while ignoring or ridiculing our intuition, instincts and wisdom, which I label Channel 3.

Traditional therapy and medicine imposes its will trying to force logic on an illogical body.  The channel 5 mentality vainly focuses on “fixing” symptoms.

As one moves deeper into Myofascial Release we realize that our past traditional training crippled us by forcing us to memorize a paradigm of reality that is terribly flawed, erroneously based on principles that ignore an entire physiological system; the fascial system and the mind.

One of the greatest barriers we as therapists have to hurtle is unshackling our mind from the intellectual prison enforced upon us.  Rational thought, logic and intelligence is important, but we must have the courage to expand into the very important type of intelligence based on feelings (Channel 3).

Interestingly, a few weeks ago in an article titled, “The Secret Skills of Leaders” in the magazine US News & World Report, these points were made describing what traits great leaders possessed.  German sociologist Max Weber called it “the firm taming of the soul:  Today psychologists call it “emotional intelligence”. (EQ)

Psychologist Samuel Goldman says that emotional intelligence is the overlooked yet essential ingredient of leadership.  In “Primal Leadership”, his book due out this spring, Goldman argues, “that instinctual intelligence is the primary factor that distinguishes great leaders from average ones”.

A balance of both IQ (Channel 5) and EQ (Channel 3) is essential for great leaders and therapists alike.  Myofascial Release performed at the highest level allows the patient to expand beyond Channel 5 into Channel 3 where authentic healing can occur.

The traditional model of reality thrust upon us gave us the false impression that we are small, inconsequential, helpless, and so we identified with the limited “false ego”.  In fact, neuroscientists have discovered that the database available to our subconscious (Channel 3) EQ is in excess of 10 million to one of that of our intellect (Channel 5).  So we mistakenly identified with this miniscule aspect of consciousness and we now need to correct this error by identifying with the vastness of our loving essence and the incredible, authentic power of our feeling intelligence (Channel 3).

Our goal is to continually develop the prodigious power of our feeling intelligence EQ, as therapists to help our patients tap into the healing power of Channel 3 where our intuition, instinct and wisdom expresses itself in the most loving way.  I feel that the conversation about talking during treatment may have left some patients confused.  Myofascial Release therapists listen to their patients, but more than hearing their words we are also reading their body language, repeated phrases (patterns) and the emotional tone of their words or phrases.  This tells us much more than the words, for this is the patient’s EQ or emotional intelligence speaking from their bodily wisdom.

After the first few treatments, too much talk, anything over 10% of a treatment session, can be the patient’s way of denying or camouflaging their deeper inner fears.  It takes courage for the patient to feel these deeply held emotions.  It is our role as the therapist to gently guide them into their inner silence so that the hidden information and deeply held emotional patterns stuck in the subconscious can emerge for true healing to occur.

If the patient insists on talking incessantly that is their choice; however, they came to their therapist for their experience, guidance and wisdom.  And if the patient insists on controlling the session and ignoring the advice, they may be denying themselves of the most meaningful healing experience of their life.

Hasn’t it been said, “Silence is golden?”

Sincerely,
John F. Barnes, PT

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

John F. Barnes, PT, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania as a Physical Therapist in 1960; he holds physical therapy licenses in Pennsylvania, Arizona, New Jersey, Delaware, Colorado, and Hawaii.  John is on the Counsel of Advisors of the American Back Society; is an Editorial Advisor of the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies; and is a member of the American Physical Therapy Association.

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