Treating Chronic Pain

Treating chronic pain can be challenging. Often the reason for the pain is not clear, and it may take several types or combinations of treatments before you find relief. When treatment is started, some people may have increased pain because their chronic pain has caused them to be inactive and they have lost strength and flexibility. But over time treatment should reduce the pain and increase your ability to function.

You may learn new ways of doing ordinary tasks to reduce pain. Often chronic pain cannot be cured, but it can be managed well enough to significantly improve the quality of your life. Be sure to seek treatment if your pain lasts longer than 2 to 3 months. Early treatment may prevent the pain from getting worse.

Some chronic pain is caused by specific conditions that can be treated. For example, there are treatments for headaches. If left untreated, most back problems only get worse as time and gravity take their unforgiving toll on our bodies.

For many people, before the first episode of low back pain there is a larger overall pattern of imbalance in the body — probably the legs were not providing adequate support, with a resulting dysfunctional adaptation to old injuries and to gravity. When passing a critical threshold by bending over and slightly twisting to pick something up, the vertebra slips a little too quickly and a little too far past what is normal. The nervous system registers the danger and sends the muscles and ligaments into a fearful spasm, thereby locking up the vertebrae by creating a joint (facet) restriction.

How Rolfing Can Help

Rolfing addresses the root structural causes of chronic pain by releasing fascial restrictions and rebalancing the body in relationship to gravity. Rather than simply managing symptoms, Rolfing works to correct the underlying patterns of tension and misalignment that allow pain to persist. Many clients experience lasting relief from chronic back pain, neck pain, headaches, and other long-standing conditions through a series of Rolfing sessions.