Customer Reviews

Trigger Point Therapy for Myofascial Pain: The Practice of Informed Touch

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What a great book. Know first of all that it's written more for clinicians, such as massage therapists. If you have no medical background, you may get confused with some of the medical terms such as abduction.

Having said that, for practitioners who treat musculoskeletal pain, this book is the best trigger point therapy book I've come across. After spending a few chapters covering some of the basics on topics such as the nature of trigger points, Qi, informed touch, etc, the book gets right to the reason why you probably bought the book- the trigger points.

The book does an excellent job of covering all the muscles of the body and their associated trigger points. But that's not where it ends. Besides having some of the best muscle pictures you could ask for, each section on a particular muscle ALSO covers pain patterns a specific trigger point could produce, as well as stretching and strengthening exercises- nice!! While the stretches are clearly depicted, the strengthening exercises are only described- but they are certainly clear enough to follow.

A couple of appendices on meridian pathways, cutaneous zones, and acupoints are also included.

Lastly, the book ends with two indexes. The first is a pain pattern index, which is really a picture reference guide on trigger point referral patterns for the various muscles. The second is a symptoms index. Using this index is as easy as looking up a particular area of the body (such as the shoulder) where you'll then find various symptoms and their potential cause (trouble with reaching up....problem with latissimus dorsi).

All-in-all, it's a great resource for anyone who deals with clients that might have muscular pain and the book could also double as a patient education tool with its great pictures of all the muscles and their trigger points. Also recommend Treat Your Own Rotator Cuff for practitioners who deal with a lot of shoulder patients.

This is by far the best manual I have ever used for my fibromyalgia/myofascial pain. It gives instructions for the physical therapist as well as helping the patient with identifying the location of the problem. Excellent diagrams help you to locate the areas to massage or use accupressure on for relief of pain. The book then gives stretching and strengthening moves for each specific area. For the last ten years I had an area of severe pain that neither I nor my therapist could figure out how to relieve. The first time through this manual, I was able to identify the exact spots to manipulate and I had immediate relief. It is worth 10 times what I paid for that one thing alone. I am VERY happy with this book!

This manual is concise and easy to use. I bought it to use as a ready-reference in my practice and am very happy with the presentation. It can be flicked through quickly to find the relevant muscle or group you are evaluating and the text is easy to follow giving the main points under headings. The drawings are excellent.
I particularly liked the sections at the end of each muscle which gives a stretching and strenghthening exercise for that particular muscle and a drawing. It will be very easy to demonstrate this to patients using the guide. Very simple and easy to follow.
The only downside to the book for me was the non-inclusion of the intrinsic muscles of the foot and their trigger points. I can't quite work out why these would not be included and as a podiatrist is quite an ommission. It does mention in the introduction that it doesn't include all muscles of the body, just the one's that they have found to be clinically significant and it then refers the reader to Travell and Simons.
Overall, a good clinical reference.

Trigger Point therapy is the miracle cure for many aches and pains!

Trigger Point Therapy for Myofascial Pain: The Practice of Informed Touch by Donna Finando is an easy to use book which incorporates illustrations of different stretching exercises that REALLY works out the trigger point knot. I use this book in conjunction with The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief, Second Edition by Clair Davies, which is a better source for diagnosing the trigger point (both cause and location).

So I now own 3 books on trigger point therapy. This one (TPTMP), Donna's "Triggerpoint Self-Care Manual: for pain-free movement" and "The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief" (TPTW) by Claire Davies.
If you are looking for a self-care book to work with then definately go with Claire's.
If you are a therapist or if you really want to learn the specific and targeted stretching excercises that complement your trigger point work then consider getting TPTMT as well as TPTW.
Donna's "Trigger Point Therapy for Myofascial Pain" (TPTMP) provides more detailed info than Claire's book including: Stretches to release trigger points, relationship to chinese meridians, several excellent introductory chapters that describe pain, trigger points and treatment thereof very well. However Claire's book is organized so much better that I would say that I prefer it to Donna's TPTMP...though I do use TPTMP to study the stretches because that is i feel an essential aspect of releasing pain. Claire's book begins each section with a list of possible symptoms in the body region in question coupled with the corresponding potential trigger points. Whereas donna's book just plods thru muscle by muscle ... though there is a symptom index at the back of the book. However, given that by definition, if you are opening one of these books it is because you (or a client) is experiencing a specific symptom, why would you not want a reference book organized by symptom? Seems like a no brainer to me. Not sure what Donna was thinking? And for that matter not sure why Claire did not include stretches in her book?
Hope this helps

I have found the book to be very helpful with trigger points, and where to investigate satellite trigger points. It explains referral zones and causative factors. It also gives you stretching and strengthening exercises specific to the area you are working.

I was excited to see another book by the Finandos' so I ordered "Trigger Point Therapy for Myfasical Pain", discovered it was the updated version of the "Informed Touch". Same great material, but do not be confused by the new title.

This book is a wealth of information on pain referral patterns for any particular muscle, so in that regard I find it very valuable. However it does not give exact information on how to massage trigger points but focuses almost exclusively on how to stretch to relieve targetted muscular pain as well as strengthening exercises but nothing on how to massage these particular trigger points to help break up the spasm. The pictures are grouped regionally so as to find the affected muscle quickly but since the title said Trigger Point Therapy for Myofascial Pain: The Practice of Informed Touch I kinda expected more of the informed touch aspect.

This is one of the most understandable books in its field. Many clear and concise diagrams, as well as an easy, quick way to find trigger points and pages to find them, without timely searching. Impressively written and illustrated for the novice as well.

Donna works with Steven Finando, Ph.D., L.A.c. in TRIGGER POINT THERAPY FOR MYOFASCHIAL PAIN: THE PRACTICE OF INFORMED TOUCH , which goes a step farther in revising and expanding the original edition of INFORMED TOUCH to include chapters on qi, palpatory skills-building and more.