How is Coaching the Body different from traditional Thai massage?
Traditional Thai Massage therapists tend to follow standard routines which may be adjusted for specific client complaints, but are not generally able to address specific clinical issues. CTB practitioners are fully trained to address specific pain issues and are highly competent trigger point therapists.
Thai massage is passive on the part of the receiver. While this is fine for general relaxation sessions, we have found that true resolution of serious pain cannot occur without involving the receiver at a conscious level. Modern science supports this with emerging studies on the neuroscience of chronic pain.
Your therapist will involve you in resolving your pain using breath, muscle contraction, and reporting of tenderness and other sensation. Most importantly, you will be aware of pain-free movement during the session.
How is Coaching the Body different from regular table massage?
The most obvious difference is that the receiver remains fully clothed and lays on a padded mat for the treatment. But as the session progresses you will notice more differences. First, we begin with a series of specified assessments to analyze how your body came into its current pattern, then apply a series of clinically tested protocols designed to coax your central nervous system out of its protective engagement.
Rather than laying silently as with Swedish or other table massages, you will be actively involved in your treatment. During your CTB session, your therapist will want to know what sensations you experience, to maximize the effectiveness of the trigger point work. Your therapist will also ask you to contract muscles, or notice the quality of your joint movement.
CTB also uses various forms of heat, electronic point stimulation, vibration, and muscle energy techniques. All of these support coaching your body to experience pain-free movement.
What are trigger points?
Repeated studies have shown that most pain is the result of muscular adaptations called trigger points. Trigger points are like little clenched fists that live within your muscle tissue. Trigger points are often the result of the central nervous system attempting to protect a certain area of the body by “locking it down,” for example after an injury.
This becomes a problem once the injury heals but the trigger points persist. These small, local contractions can pull on their surrounding tissues and tendons, creating a domino effect of pain and limited range of motion.
There is much more detail on trigger points and how CTB addresses them in this article by Chuck Duff, the founder of CTB: https://thaibodywork.com/articles/trigger-points/
What conditions can CTB help?
Many people come in with an injury or diagnosis that is thought to be the reason for their pain.
Sometimes, this is accurate. Many times, it isn’t. Western medicine always looks for a pathology behind pain—something torn, inflamed, or diseased that is “The Problem.”
Unfortunately, this belief system has a pretty poor track record in getting to the bottom of pain conditions and resolving them. People end up with the same ineffective recommendations: surgery, cortisone shots, pain killers. At best, these are often dead ends. Sometimes, they can cause additional complications and even increase your discomfort.
Coaching the Body has demonstrated dramatic results for people with:
Headaches/migraines
Shoulder, hip, or knee pain
Frozen Shoulder
Thoracic Outlet Syndrome
Torn Rotator Cuff
Hand & Finger Pain/numbness
Lower Back Pain
Sciatica
Tendonitis
Arthritis
Plantar Fascitis