What is Strain-Counterstrain?
Counterstrain utilizes diagnostic tender points to identify painful, reflexively protected and contracted tissues. Reflex tissue contractions occur in the body’s deep fascia layers, skeletal muscle tissues, and/or smooth muscle structures in response to a variety of mechanical or chemical insults. Examples include trauma, surgery, postural strain, repetitive motion, infectious or viral conditions, and even inflammatory diets. Once present, this form of reflex muscular dysfunction can contribute to a multitude of symptoms.
How Does it Work?
Counterstrain practitioners remove painful, reflexive tissue contractions from the body via a gentle hands-on process of slackening or decompressing the involved structures. The treatments are completely painless making them a viable option for even the most painful and delicate cases. Counterstrain’s powerful, multi-system effects occur from a deactivation of deep fascial pain receptors (nociceptors) which maintain the body’s soft tissues in a persistent guarded or “over-protective” state. During Counterstrain treatments, there is a palpable, often visible reduction in localized tissue edema. The combination of metabolite drainage and proprioceptive realignment gives Counterstrain unparalleled carry-over. Many patients report lasting relief of chronic conditions after only one or two treatment sessions—a testament to how Counterstrain works.
Counterstrain embraces the concepts of holistic and osteopathic medicine. By normalizing blood flow, muscular tension, vascular drainage, and neural input, Counterstrain maximizes the body’s intrinsic healing capacity. Multi-system diagnosis and manipulation is the key to correcting chronic and acute conditions of all types. This treatment model allows practitioners to identify and correct the source of their patient’s pain and disability, not just their symptoms.
History of Strain-Counterstrain
Strain Counterstrain was developed in 1955 by Dr. Lawrence Jones, an osteopath from the small town of Ontario, Oregon. Dr. Jones was born and raised in Spokane, Washington, the son of an engineer and school teacher. As a teenager, he became interested in osteopathy after watching an osteopath treat his friend’s acute back injury and provide immediate relief using only his hands. He received his osteopathic degree in 1936 from the California College of Osteopathic Medicine in Los Angeles then moved back to Ontario to start his practice. In his early years of practice, Dr. Jones performed primarily high velocity manipulation techniques to joint problems. He admitted that while he could successfully treat about two-thirds of his patients, he could—and should—do better.
Dr. Jones’s motivation to experiment with the concept of positional release was born, in part, from his frustration with the rationale of his time—namely the osteopathic lesion (which has since been renamed “somatic dysfunction”). He was taught to believe that joints became locked or subluxed and that bursting them loose through high velocity thrusts was the only way to treat them. While he generally saw good results from that technique, Dr. Jones occasionally encountered cases that resisted all manipulative skills. “Only stubbornness kept me from admitting I was stumped,” he said. He recounted that he was treating one such case when he discovered positional release.
The patient was a young man with psoasitis (stooped posture) and was unable to stand completely upright without severe pain across the low lumbar area. For six weeks, Dr. Jones was unable to provide relief using HVLA techniques. In prior months, the patient had also been treated by two chiropractors with no relief. He complained of pain while sleeping along with an inability to find a comfortable position that he could stay in longer than fifteen minutes.
Dr. Jones decided to devote one treatment session to finding a reasonably comfortable position for the patient to sleep in. After twenty minutes of experimentation, they were able to find a comfortable position. Dr. Jones recounted, “The patient was nearly rolled into a ball with his pelvis rotated about forty-five degrees and laterally flexed about thirty degrees.” After four months of treatment, the patient had his first positive response. Dr. Jones propped him in position and went off to treat another patient. When he returned, he helped the patient upright and was astonished to find he could stand completely erect in total comfort. Examination revealed a full and nearly pain-free range of motion. Dr. Jones discovered how Counterstrain works by simply putting the patient in a position of comfort. The results were dramatic.
Get Started With Treatments Today
You have come to the right place if you want to learn more about Strain-Counterstrain and see if it is a good fit for your condition. By treating pain early on with Strain-Counterstrain, we can prevent it from worsening.
If you live in Aiea, HI and are looking for pain relief, please contact Atta Rehab right away. Improve your spine/joint health with us today! To schedule an appointment, please call our clinic at (808) 773-8811 or click here.