MASSAGES

To go further on the techniques...

You could say that trigger points are a concentrated cluster of tension and pain trapped in the muscles in the form of small knots which, when at rest or when stimulated by the body’s movements, become activated and trigger pain.

This pain can be felt at the trigger point itself, along the route where it tends to radiate, or even somwhere far from the point.

What is Neuro-Structural Integration Technique (NST)?

The NST aims to provide immediate relief from acute or chronic pain through targeted and comprehensive treatment of muscles, tendons and ligaments.

This leads to the whole structure being realigned and to deep physical and mental wellbeing.

So the main goal of NST is to restore the muscular system’s correct position, which will induce homeostasis of all the other systems too.

This then eliminates physiological and psychological pain and dysfunctions and achieves stable structural integrity. Here are some of the conditions that NST is ideal for:

• Cranial and temporomandibular joint problems
• Neck pain, neck tension and thorax tension
• Migraines, headaches and eye fatigue
• Acute or chronic sports injuries
• Frozen shoulder, epicondylitis or carpal tunnel
• Pain in the back, shoulders or knees, sciatica
• Stress, fatigue, nervous depression, enuresis
• Dysmenorrhea, amenorrhea, premenstrual syndrome

Some complex cases may require a multidisciplinary approach, which NST will form a key part of.

Of course, NST practitioners do not provide diagnoses, but they will know how to apply their knowledge to alleviate the problems associated with a lack of wellbeing.

Pain is one of the very first signs that we are not living in tune with the laws of nature and it can drain our vitality and energy levels.

By listening to this pain, we take the first step towards living a healthy life.In contrast, masking it with drugs and surgery, or ignoring it by continuing to live in disharmony will make it impossible to determine the causes of the problem.
Hans Selye’s General Adaptation Syndrome describes this phenomenon in three phases:

• Alarm response through pain
• Resistance by adapting to this pain
• Depletion of sources of resistance, which can lead to death

Adaptation is that amazing faculty of survival that our body uses repeatedly until it is exhausted.

Australia, 1946 – After years of research, Tom Bowen, a healthcare practitioner, found that certain health problems were closely related to specific muscle dysfunctions and that, by treating the muscles and fasciae with his method, he could solve them in the long term.

In 1975, a study conducted by the Australian Government revealed that Tom treated some 13,000 patients a year in his practice, where he worked for 36 years.

When he died in 1982, an initial version of his work was developed by one of his students. While this work had satisfactory results, it had some limitations.

From 1991 to 1995, after his retirement as a top athlete, Australian therapist and international teacher Michael Nixon-Livy set about completing this method.

He studied alternative medicine, diet, human sciences, manual therapy and Erickson’s stages of psychological development.

He poured his passion into studying and reworking Tom Bowen’s work to bring it to fruition within NST.

For over 15 years, Michael has been teaching and providing this wonderful and powerful healing technique to all manual healthcare practitioners.

You can find information on therapists around the world who use this method on his website: nsthealth.com.