Tension-Headache Books

Chronic Pain Self-treatment written by Bernard Schatz, P.T. is a ground-breaking, awareness-expanding book that every family should own.

This book comes with a recommendation by none other than Patch Adams, M.D. who himself referred a patient for treatment with Mr. Schatz resulting in an astonishing change in pain level for that patient.

Well-written and honest, this self-treatment manual can teach you how to reverse chronic pain. We all know that when we visit our health care professionals for treatment of chronic pain, one of three things will happen. Either you'll be handed a prescription for medication, or you're sent off to physical therapy, or in the worst case scenario, you're booked for a surgical procedure.

As Mr. Schatz so aptly explains, medication merely masks the symptoms of chronic pain, it does NOT cure the underlying problem, the reason why the pain exists. Mr. Schatz discovered many years ago that the reason for chronic pain is contracted tissues that press on nerves.

While physical therapy MAY help, in Mr. Schat'z experience in over 50 years as a physical therapist, the results can be short-term or not work at all. In fact in some cases, physical therapy can actually exacerbate someone's pain.

Surgery can be beneficial for some but for many others, surgery causes scar tissue which then presses on nerves and causes pain. One problem solved while another is created.

In laymen's terms, this book will teach you how to work on your own chronic pain issues. The book is packed with real life case studies addressing various forms of chronic pain as well as detailed drawings by the author that show you where and how to work on your affected areas of pain.

When I use the term "work" it doesn't adequately describe the technique. The technique involves gently coaxing and exploring the tissues that are painful. Using lotion, you will discover areas that are tender and painful but you will also discover that in these painful areas there are small substructures, sometimes feeling like bb's or larger knots or ropes. As you gently explore these areas, you are actually doing the technique!

As Mr. Schatz describes, when one part of the body is affected, the areas adjacent to that part become affected. No doubt when you read this book and begin to use the technique, you will find areas of pain that you weren't aware existed, having long ago gotten used to having this pain. You will learn to gently coax and gradually soften the painful tissues until they are healthy, supple and most importantly, pain-free.

You may be wondering why I'm such a huge fan of this book. I became an apprentice to Mr. Schatz many years ago after being his patient. As a certified massage therapist, only one year into practice, my forearms burned and hurt even when I wasn't massaging someone. I was treated by Mr. Schatz in 4, two-hour sessions and was astonished by the results. Not only was I pain-free but I had learned how to use the technique on myself.

I was so amazed by the results, especially when regular massage had NOT worked, that I asked to become Mr. Schatz's apprentice. I worked with him on all of his patients for the next four months and became the first and only Certified Schatz Technique Practitioner.

We went into private practice together for the next two years where we helped countless people to reverse their chronic pain. Mr. Schatz left our practice a few years ago to concentrate his efforts on this new, even more reader-friendly book, Chronic Pain Self-treatment.

Mr. Schatz and I stay in touch but we have not been business associates since he left our private practice. I will not benefit by the sale of this book. My wish is to get the word out about this technique so that you, the reader will benefit by learning how to reverse your chronic pain.

I know this technique works because it constitutes more than half of my private practice. Why do people come to me instead of buying the book you might ask? The answer is that clients are referred to me by physicians and other health care professionals because their patients have reported to them that finally, something has worked!

While I certainly could have learned the Schatz Technique by reading the book, as a massage therapist I wanted to experience it myself. I cannot state this firmly enough, this technique is NOT massage. I do massage people in my practice for the purpose of relaxation and massage is a wonderful destressor in this hectic world but massage does not reverse the cause of chronic pain.

I cannot speak highly enough about Mr. Schatz's newest book, Chronic Pain Self-treatment. It is packed with the knowledge of a man with over 50 years of experience. It will teach you that you CAN learn how to reverse your chronic pain.

It will take some time and patience on your part but if you consider how many years it took for your chronic pain to develop, you will understand that coaxing your painful tissues back to good health is well worth the effort!

Like the author of this book, I too am a physical therapist. While I do not have the half century of experience of the author (which I heartily applaud!), I do have nearly 20 years, and have had a special interest in the area of soft tissue dysfunction for nearly that entire time. Specifically, I have studied and applied various forms of myofascial trigger point manual therapy.

The approach I use is most consistently aligned with that detailed in "The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook" written origninally by Clair Davies in 2001. For those not familiar with this book, it is basically a "cliff's notes" version of the Travell and Simons "bibles" of trigger point evaluation and treatment, with emphasis on self treatment of trigger points with soft tissue manipulation.

I recently found myself in need of another copy of Mr Davies' book, and as I browsed for it here on Amazon, stumbled onto a very negative, very biased review of the book by a Ms JoAnn Christy, a massage therapist. In her review, Ms Christy made repeated reference to a technique she was treated with and subsequently learned to perform in her practice called "The Schatz Technique" by a physical therapist named Bernard Schatz.

In my years of studying Trigger Point and other soft tissue therapies, I have studied or read about numerous methods including Mr Davies work, the original Travell and Simons volumes, the work of Bonnie Prudden, Ida Rolf, Raymond Nimmo, Leon Chaitow, Paul St. John, and others. But never heard of this "Schatz Technique". So, curiosity piqued, I decided to look into it more. I read various reviews of Mr Schatz's book, and even found a recorded podcast Mr Schatz had done describing his method. What I read and heard about systematically probing for sensitive bands and nodules sounded strangely familiar so I decided to purchase the book and read it in its entirety which I now have done.

Overall, I feel I can recommend this book. It is easy to read, and instructions are clear and easy to understand. The techniques taught are safe and indeed gentle and should be quite effective for many many people. The case studies give a useful perspective on how extensive a problem soft tissue dysfunction can be and how much time and effort are often needed to help resolve a problem. Mr Schatz is a lively writer, and appears to be a very caring and compassionate therapist.

Now for my reservations. From a clinical perspective there the method is rather labor intensive on the hands which would be difficult for a person with hand/arm problems. Additionally, Mr Schatz mentions how tissue dysfunction arises from various physcial/emotional stresses (which I and many others agree with!) but does not discuss managing those factors that caused problems in the first place. Perhaps treatment sessions wouldn't need to last 2-4 hours at a time if patients were educated on how to minimize or interrupt the self-inflicted damage causing their problems. The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook does this, as well it teaches ways of doing self-treatment that minimize stress on arms, hands fingers and thumbs. Mainly though , my reservations are more about the presentation of this method than the method itself. For anyone reading this that has any type of trigger point education this is going to sound *awfully* familiar. Particulary Mr Schatz describing how tight, contracted tissues can include what he calls "TCF (meaning Tight Contracted and Fibrotic) Relay Points". These TCF relay points "...are small areas of compressed tissue that relay the perception of pain to points in other areas. When a TCF relay point is pressed, pain is felt at that particular point and is also perceived at one or more distant areas." Sound familiar? If you have any knowledge of Travell and Simons it should, because that is basically identical to the definition of a myofascial trigger point, a definition that has been around for greater than 50 years.

Granted, Mr Schatz's technique encompasses looking for and dealing with problems in other tissues such as skin and scars, so I can understand some possible reluctance on his part to not have his method "branded" as simply another variant of trigger point therapy. But the way this book is written it appears Mr Schatz, caring and intelligent as he must be, has either practiced for the last 50 years in a vacuum or else has a desire to be uniquely recognized or set himself apart. Which it is I don't know. Another thing that is a bit if not disturbing at least off-putting, is a slight tendency toward martyrdom: example on example of physicians he has encountered over the years either ignoring him or not listening to or acknowledging the success of his technique. In fairness though, Mr Schatz is not the only one guilty of this; Clair Davies has done a fair amount of this as well in his books.

I think Mr Schatz and his book have a great deal to offer, but I get the feeling that maybe he and his one and only apprentice are living in a bit of bubble, believing they are the only two of their kind doing this kind of therapy when they are not! Granted there are some subtleties of the method that are unique (use of lotion as a neccessary connecting agent that serves as a "spotlight" into the state of the soft tissues, the VERY mild "exploring" of tissues being sufficient intervention to create a therapeutic effect rather than trying to mash on and force tissues to respond...ideas I like and agree with!), but face it, you guys are basically practicing trigger point therapy; why not call it that, and see if you don't get more recognition and acceptance. As a case in point, I want to conclude this review with a story.

In the early 1950's, around the same time as Janet Travell began writing extensively on Myofascial Trigger Points, a chiropractor named Raymond Nimmo took the risk of alienating himself from his profession by treating soft tissues rather than adjusting bones. Nimmo would systematically explore the soft tissues of the body seeking out nodular and sensitive areas, many of which would, when pressed, cause pain to radiate to distant areas. He initially termed these spots "Noxious Generative Points". Later, Nimmo became aware of Dr Travell's writings in the medical world. Believing it would ultimately serve patients better to have consistency in terminology, Nimmo dropped the use of his own terminology in favor of Travell's medically established "myofascial trigger point". The result is that Nimmo's receptor tonus method is still, over 50 years later, being widely taught to and used by the chiropractic profession. So, Mr Schatz, if I may so bold as to offer a suggestion, why not do the same as Dr Nimmo? You have a very enthusiastic apprentice, it seems, perhaps with some encouragement to tone down her bias and need to bash other useful methods she might become an ambassador for how your method also has very useful things to add to the growing field of myofascial/pain therapy, and perhaps YOUR method may be still around 50 years from now!

Anthony Friese, PT
Weston, WI

Loker's book Migraines and Dreams realizes two revolutions in psychology and psychotherapy. First, it presents a completely new conception of migraine and a new method of interpretation of dreams. Medical people have discovered many unusual organic processes in the head that account for migraine headache, and they therefore consider headache a harmful manifestation of some organic defect or dysfunction. But they failed to expose any organic defect or dysfunction that could be held responsible for the organic processes that cause headache. Moreover, they found that (a) those processes are controlled by the cortex, which also produces thought; (b) pain sensitivity is increased again by the cortex simultaneously with the production of headache; and (c) no animal model of migraine exists. These suggest that migraine headache may be purposefully produced by the mind, which would make migraine a psychosomatic state necessitated by the higher functions of the human cortex, or mind. Psychologists, as well as medical people, view migraine headache as a harmful manifestation of some dysfunction. But they claim that it is caused by some psychological dysfunction, not an organic one. And both psychologists and medical people have failed to produce a satisfactory method of therapy of migraine based on their conception of this disorder.

Migraines and Dreams exposes the fact that these two mental products have very definite and interrelated self-protective functions. Psychotherapy consists of discovering the precise self-protective functions of the symptoms and dreams of a patient and realizing self-protection consciously so that symptoms become unneeded. This understanding makes extremely fast and effective psychotherapy possible. The book contains 50 original case histories that expose the psychogenesis, meanings, and functions of the symptoms and dreams of migraine patients and illustrates the method of psychotherapy. In opposition to this, all existing methods of therapy, which all are based on the belief that symptoms are only harmful manifestations of dysfunctions or defects, antagonize the symptoms and thereby make them all the more needed. This means that all those therapies antagonize the mind's self-protective products and fail as they should. Loker's method of psychotherapy is self-applicable.

The second revolution realized by Loker's book is his explanation and use of the method of making scientific discoveries, which is explained briefly by Isaac Newton's in his book The Principia and used by him and all other physicists. It is because psychologists ignore this method that psychology is still a primitive science with "schools" instead of theories, and there is so much suffering due to psychological, or mental, disorders. Loker's theory of migraine is only a small part of his general theory of all automatic responses, which is presented in his book Cognitive-Behavioral Cybernetics of Symptoms, Dreams, Lateralization.

I admire anyone who can actually write a book -- usually. In this case, it seems the author fails to understand the most basic principles of migraine, which is, in fact, a true neurological disease. Migraine cannot be "terminated" by following this author's advice, with or without a psychotherapist.

Migraine has nothing whatsoever to do with "automatisms created by evolution for self-protection and are controlled by your unconscious to force you to correct your certain severely self-harming behaviors." If it did, those with migraines would not continue to suffer from this debilitating disease.

The old theories of migraine personality and psychological causes of this disease were debunked many years ago. Perhaps Mr. Loker should review the medical literature of this century.