It’s much more than just poking some TrPs

By William Huhn

 

Full disclosure – all my clients are informed that prior to my Trigger Point Therapy studies, my medical training – a licensed paramedic.

Clients are also informed that I self-studied TPT, as there are no schools in Canada that offer ‘formal’ Trigger Point education.

It is made clear to my clients that I am NOT a massage therapist, nor have any noteworthy training in massage.

My clients are informed that I have exclusively practiced and studied Trigger Point Therapy for the last 15 years.

 


 

The late Mr. Clair Davies’ book, initially had me believing that Trigger Point Therapy was as simple as treating the TrPs that were causal to the symptoms. After all, it worked for me – one self-treatment to the scalene muscles, and my 7 months of misery ceased. I was fixed… what more could there possibly be to this therapy?

 

The more I read while treated friends and family members, the more I realized that perhaps there was more to TPT. Why did some folks respond quickly and completely, and some, not so much?

 

Once I decided to get serious about learning TPT, I purchased the Travell & Simons Trigger Point Manual. When my books arrived (it’s a 2-volume set) I quickly realized that there was a lot to learn, and study time would be paramount to efficacy in this therapy model.

 

The study hours piled-up and I’m certain that over the years I have spent a couple thousand hours with my face in these books. Not that they take that long to read, but it takes that long to really understand the subtleties and complexities of this therapy, and to start thinking about physical therapy in a totally different way from the mainstream models.

 

Most therapists and medical professionals (i.e. massage, physiotherapists and doctors) know little, if anything, about comprehensive TPT. Here in British Columbia, all RMTs (registered massage therapists) only receive a handful of hours related to trigger points in their 2000-hour curriculum, That’s nowhere near enough training to be able to employ comprehensive Trigger Point Therapy. They are of course, very well educated and I certainly respect their profession, (and often reccomend their services) but they are trained in massage, and most know very little about TPT.

 

I respectfully suggest that professional therapists or doctors who dabble with TPT, should inform their client/patient, of their ability – i.e. that they “dabble with trigger points”.

We have a professional responsibility to our client/patient to be open and honest about the extent of our training and our areas of expertise.