OVERALL APPROACH

You cannot have full strength if your muscles do not have their proper length. When we have soft tissue injuries, our muscles can tighten in some places and over stretch in others, creating imbalance. Imbalance leads to incorrect posture and gait, which, left un-checked, leads to pain.
Pain hurts, so our bodies will attempt to avoid the pain by shifting the burden off of the injured tissues onto other structures, which soon leads to secondary injuries, and to more pain. If we do not correct this pattern, we will move into yet another imbalanced pattern, tying to avoid the pain of the injury and the secondary issues.
See how this can all become twisted pretty quickly? It’s kind of like an onion, and we just keep adding layers.
Our approach is to correct imbalanced tension patterns in your body, so that your bones, muscles, connective tissues, and gravity, can all play nicely together again. We work to lengthen the muscle tissue, and to ease the post-injury scar tissue into a more functional pattern, so that the tension on your joints returns to a normal, balanced state, and range of motion can be restored.
And then we teach you ways to maintain this balance on your own. Because when you have balanced, full range of motion, your strength can return, and you’ll feel better.

TRIGGER POINT THERAPY

Trigger points can form in muscles which have been overused or injured. They feel like nodules or taut bands of fibers within the soft tissues – kind of like a little bit of half-cooked macaroni.

Trigger points can present themselves as referred patterns of sensation like sharp pain, tingling, dull ache, pins and needles, heat, or cold, or they can create symptoms like nausea, blurred vision, ear ache, or disturbance of equilibrium.

It is very common to attribute the discomfort of tight muscles and trigger points to arthritis. This is part of why massage therapy can often help relieve arthritis pain symptoms.

Often times pain is felt at a remote site, and treatment of the pain site might feel good, but not bring relief. Fortunately, trigger points have a generally predictable pain referral pattern, so it is often a simple task to relieve the pain if these patterns are known.

Releasing trigger points can release endorphins, so there may be a feeling of being energized as well as relief from pain. Recent studies have shown that as much as 95% of unexplainable pain is attributable to trigger points.

MUSCLE ENERGY TECHNIQUES

A large number of techniques fall into this category including: Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF), Post-Isometric Relaxation (PIR), Reciprocal Inhibition (RI), Hold/Relax and Contract/Relax techniques, Manual Resistance Techniques (MRT), Active Isolated Stretching (AIS), Facilitated Stretching.

Essentially, what is required is that the client uses his or her strength against the therapist’s resistance for a short period of time, to allow certain cells within the muscles and connective tissue to reset their length.

Muscle Energy Techniques can be very gentle or more agressive, and can be adjusted for use at any stage of the healing process. This makes this group of techniques especially useful in early stages of injury recovery, and for use in pediatric populations, where more aggressive approaches may not be appropriate.

We have developed a way to incorporate deep oxygenating breathing with these techniques. For as gentle as this treatment is, the results are surprisingly quick and long-lasting.

CLINICAL MASSAGE

This is a blanket term used for soft tissue corrective techniques, or manual therapy. These require client/therapist interaction and are performed with the intention of improving function and decreasing pain.

Manual therapies currently available at Oregon Clinical Massage include: Trigger Point Therapy, Deep Tissue Massage, Myofascial Release, Postural Alignment, Pelvic Stabilization, Positional Release, Muscle-Energy Techniques, Cranio-Sacral Therapy.

A clinical massage therapy treatment session will probably include several of the above, and which ones we use will be determined by your presenting concerns at the time of service.

It will also generally include stretching and/or exercise homework so that you can maintain the progress you have made during the session.

After a clinical massage treatment, the therapist will write out a few notes for your file to keep track of progress, and will receive payment at the time of service.