“An appallingly high percentage of doctors and other practitioners are still pretty much out of the loop regarding trigger points” (from “The trigger point therapy workbook”, by Clair Davies, which sits on my shelf). Yet at least starting to understand the complex and profound effect they can have on the body was KEY to my recovery. Trigger point pain can be immense, it can be persistent, weird and alarming, it can mimic other conditions and it can confuse the hell out of you with symptoms that make no sense at all.

Trigger point therapy is still the most regular treatment that I seek, with appointments that are on an average of every 2 to 4 months apart, since its the crucial maintenance top-up that keeps my body out of the really chronic, wide-spread pain that prevents me from having a life. Going to my therapist isn’t something I do to see this persistent condition “off” for all time; though she’s achieved some impressive benchmark improvements that have stuck for years now (I’ve been seeing her for over four years) yet these sessons can make me feel reinvented and profoundly relieved by the time I step off the couch. Even my therapist, who sees these cases daily, has been known to take a step back in amazement at how complex and new the latest configuration of trigger-issues is that I present with, diving in with the kind of sigh that suggests she could use much more than the hour than we have available to us to tackle it all. The body’s propensity to present with a whole new set of circumstances, time after time, is quite incredible and I have to bow to its creativity; I certainly keep her challenged and engaged.

Those issues have included the very weird and the wonderful, from an out of alignment coccyx that was holding a distorted position from many years ago (some BIG big releases of emotion came out of those sessions), to the kind of tooth pain that made me think major dental work was imminent, to severe lumpiness and bruising – generating the worst kinds of fears -around my armpits and breasts. In fact (aside from my most prsistent issue, nerve pains to the head and neck), chest and breast pain have been some of the most common things I have presented with; mimicking angina or whiplash on more than one occasion or making it impossible for me to wear a bra on many others. Yet all  of these proved to be treatable via some impressively subtle and quick myofascial manoeuvres in the hands of someone who is so inexhaustibly curious about this aspect of health that she is constantly training and expanding her knowledge though every kind of book or workshop out there. She knows that what she hears from me is likely related to some completely different part of the body – which is a mainstay of trigger point understanding – and so she plays my body like a miniature piano and yet, somehow, the tune always sounds far better when she’s finished. And yes, trigger point pain is closely related to fibromyalgia; so closely that no one really understands…yet…where one conditions stops and the other one begins (I like the phrase that they are “terrible twins” in the attached article) yet by tackling this somewhat more mechanical side of the twinship, its other aspect seems to be encouraged to fall into line, delivering another few weeks or months of more than tolerable health. If I’m going on holiday or doing anything else that is important to me, I will always schedule a session of trigger point therapy in the week or so before I go.

So, if you have mystery, unshiftable, constantly morphing and moving pain affecting anything from your back to the toes and soles of your feet, to your teeth or your ears, the nerves or circulation in arms, legs or hands or those weird toxic headaches that are almost (but not quite) like a migraine and that come and go for no apparent reason, in fact anything that might seem like muscle, tissue or nerve pain, this topic might be relevant to you and the following article (below) is the most plain-speaking introduction to the it that I’ve come across. If its not a recovery appoach that you’ve considered then, you never know, opening this door might be just what you need to get the new year off to a far brighter start.

Trigger Points & Myofascial Pain Syndrome– A guide to the unfinished science of muscle pain, with reviews of every theory and self-treatment and therapy option

My wonderful therapist is Sue Perry of Two Nine O Five pain clinic

Disclaimer: This website is not designed (nor should not be construed) to, provide medical advice, professional diagnosis, opinion or treatment to you or any other individual, and is not intended as a substitute for medical or professional care and treatment.