The first thing I do for a person who comes to me complaining of pain is to take the history and information. Then I usually put my hands on the area of the pain and palpate. I look for tight hard tissue with trigger points and release them. I watch for trigger point referrals and make sure they are released. Most pain in hypertoned tissue may be resolved this way. Sometimes the pain does not release and has no referrals. When this happens, I get Janet Travell’s Triggerpoint Manual and find the list of muscles that reffer to that problem area. I then clear each muscle in the order listed.
If this does not do the job, I check the joint and the inert material connected to the joint (cartiladge, bone, ligaments, and the non muscle stuff). If this is the problem I open the joint and reseat it and/or push the cartiladge back between the two bones. If a pain or problem still exists, I check various entrapment areas that could affect pain in the problem area. I then open up these entrapments. As a last resort, I check the psychological possibilities. Here the pain is locked into the nervous system and the pain will go away when the situation or incident is brought to consciousness, looked at, and allowed to go away.
William "Dub" Leigh
