Fascial facilitation helps to reduce pain and re-align displaced and dysfunctional areas of the body. Chronic pain, which has been present for more than six (6) weeks duration is most effectively helped by full body fascial facilitation.
Pain of acute onset seems to be associated with a specific event, for example, a knee or ankle sprain. Treatment carried out only to the painful area helps to reduce pain, but may not reduce the possibility of re-occurrence! By treating the whole body, the local painful region will settle more quickly and the chance of recurrent pain will be minimized.
Chronic pain, although localized in a specific body region, is usually the result of many body areas being out of balance. After many years of research, full body fascial facilitation has been found to be the best way to control chronic pain! Chronic pain in the body, is multilayered like an onion. To localize the source of a shoulder pain (for example, requires a number of therapy sessions.) It is for this reason that at least three to six treatment sessions are recommended and often scheduled at the start of your therapy. The ideal treatment interval between treatments has been found to be one week!
Two or three sessions of full body fascial facilitation may be necessary before the therapist has some idea of the main problem causing the pain. During these early sessions, painful re-actions may occur! Facilitation wakes up unhealthy tissue! Unhealthy tissues does not wake up and say “Oh, Joy and Peace in the World!” Rather it wakes up and says, “Who told you to disturb me?!” So after the first treatment or two, you may feel ten times worse or better. Give it 24 to 36 hours to find a new balance in the body.
Remember, that by being patient and waiting for the rest of the week between sessions, your self-healing mechanisms will be working twenty-four hours a day to restore your body to a state of wellness! Should your pain be too severe, contact your therapist (preferably by email: info@integratedphysio.com) and, if necessary, use some form of pain relief such as local heat, cold or pain medication. The dormant, underlying tissue dysfunction must be woken up by facilitation for healing to occur. Once the “sleeping tiger” of dysfunction is stimulated, the body’s self-healing process will be started, usually leading to pain reduction and a return of the body to a balanced energetic state.
Fred Samorodin, RPT
(with acknowledgements to H.L. Jones, RPT)