Customer Reviews

Trigger Point Therapy for Headaches and Migraines: Your Self -Treatment Workbook for Pain Relief

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
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Ms. DeLaune shares her extensive knowledge of trigger points, and how they can cause persistent pain, in this valuable reference book. The book is cleverly designed in 3 parts, which allows the reader to learn more about trigger points and causes of headaches, while immediately starting to use the self-help techniques. The photographs and diagrams make the material highly accessible, even to those who are unfamiliar with anatomy. The book is most valuable for those who are willing to make the commitment to treat their own symptoms. I highly recommend this book for it's diagnostic approach, helpful hints, and muscle-by-muscle approach. As a long-time headache sufferer, I can attest that Ms. DeLaune's techniques can provide relief.

The author not only discusses trigger points and their associated pain patterns, but also gets into how diet, ergonomics, and other factors contribute to headaches. I prefer Clair Davies writing style (see his Trigger Point Therapy Workbook), but Valerie Delaune does an excellent job as well. Detailed pictures of real models are very helpful and are on almost every page.

Bottom line: Handy reference if headaches are your #1 concern. If not, go for Clair Davies larger book covering the whole body with somewhat less detail.

Ive been a Massage therapist for more than 10 years,specializing in Neuromuscular therapy and Structural Bodywork. Valerie DeLaune has written a great book! Very simple to understand for the laypeople and great information for the beginner therapist and the seasoned therapist. This should be a book to recommend for your clients. I recommend them to my patients and had great results. It has really precise explanation on how to treat trigger points,what causes them, among other interesting information. If you like to get relief from your headaches and migraines this is a must for you!

It works! I've been dealing with chronic headaches for months and got to the point where I had to stop taking so many NSAIDs so I took a chance and bought this book. While I wish I didn't have to work the points every day, I am AMAZED that in doing so I am ususally pain free afterwards. In fact facial pain that I thought was sinus related has been relieved after working the points! To me this information is invaluable.

I spend a lot of time behind a computer, and then turn around and play comeptitive contact sports-- headaches come with the territory. This workbook is packed with superb information on self-help techniques such as applying pressure to trigger points, stretching, and mobilizations. Equally helpful are discussions of "perpetuating factors," or causes of particular headache pain, and subsequent suggestions for alleviating pain long-term by changing work environment, body mechanics, and diet that I'm already applying to my daily routine. The Head Pain Map (pg. 76) was great and helped me quickly identify which sections of text to refer to.
This is a fantastic guide for people who are serious about treating their headache pain and are willing to invest some time and energy into thoroughly reading the text and practicing the techniues consistently. This book is not for someone looking for a 10-minute, instant and lasting fix. My only criticism is that some of the images of trigger points have overlays that are difficult to make out. I used this book in addition to Valerie DeLaune's Pain Relief with Trigger Point Self-help (1.3) Book-on-CDROM for expanding my self-treatment to include levator scapula trigger points and relief for neck and back pain and enthusiatically recommend it in addition to this workbook.

I've struggled with migraines for 10 years and this book not only gave me an understandable reason why and where the pain was originating (not in my head, where I assumed it started), but it also details how to manipulate those "trigger points" for lasting pain relief. Thank you, Valerie!!!

I have chronic pain that responds to trigger point therapy. However, over several years I'd spent a great deal of money having professionals do it. I had done some obvious trigger points myself, but wanted to know more. I purchased this book and the Knobble II to save my hands from becoming fatigued, and began using this book. It not only shows you were the trigger points are, but shows you where the referred pain from those trigger points is. (When you have pain, the trigger point for that pain may be at a different location than you'd expect. This is called "referred pain".) The book expects you to be doing this yourself, and discusses how to apply pressure and the length of time to expect different levels of results. This isn't anything but practical, biomechanical action to stop hyper nerves from firing constantly. It's not the same as acupuncture. When I realized how successful I could be doing this myself, I also bought a trigger point tool for reaching the back. I became able to do all of my trigger point therapy myself, and could get ahead of the trigger points without having to budget a lot of treatments - and now I do my own trigger point therapy at whatever point and whenever I feel I need it. When you stop the nerves from firing using trigger point therapy, it stays that way for a few days to a few weeks. I am now able to do a more maintenance routine. I can't thank the authors enough for sharing their expertise in such a clear and concise way.

I stumbled across this book at a bookstore and was astonished to see diagrams that directly connected the chronic "knots" in my neck and shoulder region to the most frequent locations of my migraine pain. I have the kind of muscle tissue knots that prompted one massage therapist to ask, "So when was the car accident?" (There wasn't any.) Most massage therapists have barely even begun to loosen the knots by the time a one-hour session is up.

I didn't know what trigger point therapy was but had heard about using a tennis ball to help with back problems - it had seemed a little silly. Now I am using this therapy (nearly) every day. It's too early to tell whether it is helping the migraines, but it feels incredible, immediately relieving pain. I use the therapy right before I go to bed and when I wake up in the morning those little healing muscles still feel all gooey and relaxed. It's soooooo easy to do at home - don't wait years and years to take care of yourself like I did.

Although the photos and layout aren't very visually attractive, the substance of the book is wonderful. If you've got knots, get the book!

This book has excellent pictures of all the trigger point locations and easy to understand directions.

Anyone who suffers from headaches or migraines will benefit greatly from this book. I am a massage therapist and consider this information crucial when educating my clients proper self care. It is extremely easy to understand with clear instructions and great diagrams showing muscles and possible trigger point placements. I am very grateful for this book as it has contributing greatly to my education on helping others with migraines and headaches.