Literally means “muscle therapy” and is the application of direct pressure to trigger points- painful areas where muscles have been irritated or injured and formed a knot- to relieve pain. The therapist will use their fingers, knuckles, and elbows to press for several seconds on irritated points, until it releases.  This process is slightly painful, but relief occurs once the knot is eliminated and the muscle is released.

Trigger points begin to accumulate in the body before birth and continue to do so throughout life. These points lie dormant until something sets them off; for example, a fall, stress, an automobile accident, or wearing tight shoes. Pain may occur either at the trigger point or at a remote spot where the primary trigger points has ‘referred’ the pain. They feel like a firm round knot and are filled with toxins.

Myotherapy is an offspring of a medical therapy called trigger point injection therapy,  which was developed in the 1940’s by Dr. Janet Travell to relieve the pain caused by trigger points. Rather than invade the body with a needle, Bonnie Prudden proposed that sustained, intense pressure applied to trigger points could achieve the same results. Myotherapy is used to treat chronic musculoskeletal pain.  The after results are long lasting because these are the areas that toxins tend to reside in. By eliminating them, range of motion in the muscles are restored including flexibility and circulation.

Myo-Therapy