Fascial dysfunction : manual therapy approaches

Fascial dysfunction is now recognised as one of the main underlying causes of musculoskeletal pain leading to impaired and reduced mobility. These are the symptoms which confront all practitioners of manual therapy in their everyday practice.In this second edition of his very successful book, Leon Chaitow brings together contributions from 20 leading practitioners and researchers from many different fields of manual therapy. Fascial Dysfunction – Manual Therapy Approaches, Second Edition aims to help those practitioners to assess more precisely the dysfunction of their clients and its cause and to increase practitioner awareness of the various techniques which may help them in their attempts to alleviate their clients' problems.

New features of the Second edition include:

• Descriptions of new research evidence and its implications for practice:
  • The dependence of collagen health on a mixture of balanced internal and external tension
  • The importance of adequate hydration
  • The possible role of the telocyte
  • The importance of 'dosage' of therapies in management of fascial dysfunction
• New chapters on:
  • Gua Sha and cupping
  • Global postural re-education
  • Scar remodelling

The book is in two sections. Section I, written by Chaitow with a contribution by Tom Myers, presents a review of the current understanding of the function of fascia in the human body and describes what can go wrong – the causes and effects of fascial dysfunction and disease, and how to assess the problem and remove obstacles to the success of treatment.

Section II contains chapters by experts in different types of manual therapy including three by Chaitow. Each practitioner describes their own approach to the problem of assessing and treating fascial dysfunction and explains their specialist therapeutic approach. These approaches include: • Bowen Therapy • Connective Tissue Manipulation and Skin Rolling • Fascia oriented training applications in sports and movement therapy • The Fascial Manipulation® method applied to low back pain • Fascial Unwinding • Balanced Ligamentous Tension Technique • Gua sha (press-stroking) and Ba guan (cupping): traditional East Asian instrument- assisted manual therapies • Muscle Energy Techniques (MET) • Myofascial Induction Therapy (MIT®) • Neuromuscular Technique and associated Soft Tissue Manipulation Modalities • Positional Release Techniques – (including counterstrain) • Global Postural Re-education: Souchard Method • Rolfing® Structural Integration • Management of Scars and Adhesions • Manual Matrix Remodeling in myofascial injuries: scar modeling technique • Massage Therapy and Fascia • Trigger Point release methods including dry needling