Focus on Myofascial Pain

Elliot and Will

 

 

Elliot R. Shratter

Prior to my practicing Myofascial therapy, I studied English literature at Penn State University and received a BA in 1969.  I worked with emotionally disturbed adolescents in a psychiatric hospital. In 1972 I earned a Masters degree in Special Education and Rehabilitation from the University of Pittsburgh. I taught emotionally disturbed adolescents in both private and public schools in Pittsburgh for 7 years.

 

During the past 24 years I have had the good fortune to study with some of the masters in the field of musculoskeletal pain. I studied and got to know personally Janet Travell, MD, one of the foremost authorities on myofascial pain syndromes.  I took a number of seminars from John Barnes, PT, the developer of the technique called “myofascial release.” And I had the opportunity to take a number of courses from Brian Mulligan, a physiotherapist from New Zealand who developed the technique called “mobilization with movement.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also feel fortunate to have established professional relationships over the years and to work on a daily basis with people in the health profession here who care deeply about their work and the people they treat.

 

I am thankful for the opportunity to offer help to someone in pain.

Back in the late seventies and early eighties, I owned a number of outdoor stores in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They were stores similar to REI or LL Bean although on a much less grand scale.  Times were tough in those days. Interest rates were at 18% and unemployment in Pittsburgh was topping out at 14%. It was a difficult time to be in business. I was getting severe tension headaches on a daily basis.

 

I couldn’t listen to loud music. In fact, I couldn’t listen to any music except possibly Brahms Lullaby because other music would intensify the pain.

 

Fortunately I found my “Pain Killer.” He was a chiropractor who did no manipulations but used a pressure technique on tender areas in my neck, head and shoulders. The headaches gradually diminished and I was once again able to listen to raucous music.

 

The pressure technique that the chiropractor used was called the Nimmo-receptor-tonus technique. One day after a chiropractic session I got into my car and turned on the radio. A woman by the name of Bonnie Prudden was promoting her book called Pain Erasure Myotherapy. The description of the technique sounded a lot like the Nimmo method. I bought the book, began applying the pressure to myself and no longer needed the chiropractor.

 

After closing the outdoor stores in 1985, I enrolled in a school that taught what at the time was called Myotherapy. The school was The Shaw Myotherapy Institute and was located in Springfield, Virginia.

 

I graduated in 1987 and opened up a practice in Pittsburgh. In 1993 I moved to New Mexico and have been practicing here, in Albuquerque, ever since.

©2012-2020  Elliot R. Shratter

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