“The treatment themselves do not ‘cure’ the condition, they simply restore the body’s self-healing ability.” -Leon Chaitow
What Is It?
* NOTE: Structural Energetic Therapy (SET) has replaced NMT/TPT. SET is a more comprehensive cranial/structural system of sessions that addresses and releases the core distortion in the body. I incorporate NMT/TPT into sessions so that we can help your entire body balance, feel, move, etc., better.*
Neuromuscular Therapy (NMT) is also called Trigger Point Therapy (TPT). Trigger points are very small areas of damage in the muscle tissue that cause aches and pains experienced in the body causing postural distortions, biomechanical dysfunctions, and injuries. The focus of this technique is to find these “trigger points” in the body’s tissues that are overworked, contracted, and hypersensitive. Then, address these “trigger points” with concentrated finger pressure or specialized tools.
Trigger points typically refer pain to in other areas of the body. A trigger point in the neck may cause temporary headaches, eye pain, or pain down the arm while a trigger point located in specific areas in the hip girdle may cause temporary low back pain or pain down the leg. Once these trigger points are released, proper posture and more flexible body movements are achieved.
Who Does It Help?
If you have a history of injuries and these injuries are affecting your daily life or the pain is spreading to other parts of your body…
If you are suffering from chronic pain for long periods of time…
If you require rehabilitation therapy from an injury(s), accident(s), etc…
If you are wary of going to the doctors for more medications and “prep” for future surgeries…
NMT/TPT is very effective for breaking the chronic pain cycle. This therapy helps clients to restore postural alignment by invigorating normal physiological functioning (i.e. efficient blood flow, effective nerve responses) in muscles and nerves of the musculoskeletal system.
What To Expect From A Session
Generally, a massage session involves working the entire body with some communication throughout the session. In an NMT/TPT session, the massage practitioner works in a focused manner in a specific area, trying to reduce muscular tension and break up adhesions and scar tissue on a deeper level. The massage practitioner and client must work together (communicate constantly throughout the session) to release tightness, spasms, and referred pain patterns from these muscles. Sometimes an NMT/TPT session can be nauseating depending on how much toxins are released in the chronically, contracted body tissue, how hydrated the person is, the health condition of the client, etc.
I incorporate NMT/TPT into SET sessions so that we can help your entire body balance, feel, move, etc., better.
Resources For Further Learning
Trivia: Janet Travell was the American physician who coined “trigger point” and pioneered TPT in the United States. She was asked to be the first female Personal Physician to US President John F. Kennedy, because of her very successful treatments to his back pain using TPT.