History of NeuroMuscular Therapy:
- Integrative NeuroMuscular Therapy (NMT) is a comprehensive system of soft-tissue manipulation techniques that were developed in the 1930s in England by Dr Stanley Lief, a trained Chiropractor and Naturopathic Physician along with his cousin Boris Chaitow, also trained in chiropractic and naturopathy. Together they experimented with NeuroMuscular treatments for muscular pain at Leif’s world-famous health resort in Hertfordshire, England. The treatments were so successful that their NeuroMuscular massage technique became common practice in osteopathic and sports therapy venues all over Europe.
- Over the next several decades, two American Doctors, Dr. Janet Travell and Dr. David Simons, published a two volume set of textbooks titled “The Trigger Point Manual on Upper Body and Lower Body Pain”. These volumes identified with research, documentation, and references that the source of most body pain was related to tiny “knots” in your muscles, or Trigger Points. As a result, a whole new field of study for chronic pain was introduced to the medical, dental, massage, and therapeutic communities, aptly called NeuroMuscular Therapy.
- Dr. Janet Travell went on to become the first woman to hold the position of White House Physician and was the personal physician to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. JFK actually credits her Trigger Point / NeuroMuscular Therapy as the only effective treatment for his debilitating back pain that was so crippling he actually considered stepping down as President. President Kennedy once called her a “medical genius”. Today, medical doctors, chiropractors, osteopathic physicians and physical therapists advocate the use of NeuroMuscular Therapy to ensure maximum health.
Assessing the Patient
The first step in NMT chronic pain treatments is a comprehensive assessment to understand, evaluate and determine the cause of the patients pain. There are many factors that can contribute to the cause of ones chronic/acute pain, such as stress, age, daily activity, pre-existing conditions, family history, nutrition, diet, water intake, and exercise. The therapist will assess any postural distortion and biomechanical dysfunction, the presence of ischemia and trigger points, and determine the presence of nerve compression and or entrapment in the soft tissue(s).