Myofascial Release

19 responses so far ↓

•   Molly McMillan // Mar 30th 2010 at 5:55 am

  Hi John,

  Thank you for clarifying the difference between the old form of MFR and your work. It is very different! Not only because the old form is painful and pulls you out of your body, but also because the old form still includes too much linear thinking or a “cookbook” method of treatment. I have found your techniques are about using the artistry of health care and following your intuition, which means looking at and treating each person as a unique individual with a different biology and history than anyone else. The great thing though is you’ve made it so easy! The techniques are so user friendly. And, because we are looking at and treating the clients using their own map we are able to go right to the problem, resolving it much more quickly and permanently than when using other methods. Thank you!
  Molly McMillan, OTR/L

•   Joyce Patterson, PT // Apr 2nd 2010 at 3:49 pm

  I am a physical therapist and all of my MFR training has been with John, so I can not comment on other courses from a personal perspective.

  I do, however, have many patients who have tried these other forms of MFR and bodywork prior to seeing me. They are astonished at how aggressive they are and most did not return for a second session.

  These patients are so appreciative of the gentleness of JFB-MFR and how much more effective it is. I often hear “this therapy just makes so much more sense!”.

•   Ami Kalisek LMT // Apr 2nd 2010 at 4:38 pm

  Another misleading kind of therapy that I have seen is the term Myofascial Massage. I have experienced this kind of treatment and find it to be deep tissue massage, for the most part. Don’t misunderstand, I am not saying this is a bad thing, used to be my ‘gig’. But years of that kind of therapy left me with the same pain I always had. The gentleness and intuitive, body led nature of John F. Barnes Myofascial Release was the first I ever experienced that actually left me painfree for more than a couple days.
  Virginia, I would so much encourage to take a John F. Barnes Myofascial Release class, and experience the difference yourself. You will be amazed.

•   Mary Ryan, CMT, NCTMB // Apr 2nd 2010 at 8:03 pm

  Hello John,

  Thank you for addressing Virginia’s inquiry. From my perspective come’s the “Copy Cat Therapist”. Recently, a new client contacted me because of my website which states the exclusivity of the John Barnes-MFR Approach at my Center. She stated she had been receiving this type of health care from a chiropractor in our immediate area but he closed his practice because of lack of interest in the community to this type of care. After our first appointment the client became very teary eyed and kept stating this was not what she had received at the previous place. This approach was gentle and she could feel it and go with it. And, I showed her the ability she had to do self treatment. And, at the next appointment, she shared how she was feeling her body move and how she was able to go thru/past fear and feel stronger! She began to share with me that this health care practitioner had your articles in binders, your books and brochures available throughout the reception area. And he stated he does MFR. Not knowing what MFR meant she figured it must be what the reading materials were about. Being inquisitive I contacted your office to see if this health care professional had ever taken your Seminars. His name is not listed. This irked me.

  This wonderful client is glowing. Feeling through pain, feeling stronger and more vibrant. Feeling Empowered! She was forced by her body, in constant pain,plus the economy, into early retirement. Now with her enthusiasm of feeling her inner strength for the very first time she is allowing deeper healings to occur.

  MFR is an accepted form of manual therapy by the NIH. The difference with the JFB-MFR approach (method) is, among other things, the gentleness by which a client’s body can release its habitual responses
  of needing to be on-guard all the time. The releases are authentic because each person contains their own authentic road map of their own life within their own bodies/their own minds/their own experiences. May I one day feel a nugget of your persistent patience.
  Mary Ryan, CMT, NCTMB, Center For Therapeutic Bodywork, LLC.

•   Ruth Duncan // Apr 3rd 2010 at 8:05 am

  Hiya John
  In my quest, and enjoyment, of learning about the things that interest me I have attended many different courses on bodywork.

  I love Trager, Bowen, energy work and of course JFB MFR.

  When I first learnt massage I was lucky enough to have teachers who had a diverse learning experience from an advanced Rolfer, PT, chiropractor, JFB MFR therapist as well as massage therapist so my skill level was quite good when I graduated.

  I made many trips to the USA to attend your seminars and have loved the fantastic learning experience not just for my clients but also for me too. Your ability to motivate and encourage every person in the room making each one as important as the next is a wonderful thing to be part of, an experience I have never had with any other lecturer or teacher.

  Many therapists still look at courses to see how many techniques they offer for their monies worth and this is when the emphasis is moved from feeling fascia to learning an approach or technique parrot fashion. I get asked by students as to how much pressure they should be using to do a technique. With JFB MFR it’s not how much pressure you use but how much resistance you feel.

  There are a few courses I have attended, including Rolfing style approaches, where the emphasis of the learning has not been on how to feel fascia but on how to do the technique to reach an outcome. If you do A + B the result will be C.

  If the human being was as easy as that to understand, why are there still so many people in pain? It’s the basic fact that in the unique individual that A + B can equal whatever you want it to equal, the choice is yours and this is something that you promote in your seminars, once you are aware of choice, the possibilities are endless.

  In your own words, and I have heard you say this so many times ‘why limit yourself’ In trying too hard to push something that can’t be pushed in a ‘copy cat’ style of MFR that compartmentalizes and promotes boundaries the therapists will only become frustrated by failure.

  I am still very disappointment from attending another style of MFR course, it was unprofessional, the lecture was poor, there was a divide of knowledge in the group that was promoted by the lecturer which created barriers and I objected to the unprofessional manner in the way other therapies were regarded as useless. We all have opinions but there are ways at voicing them.

  I believe that if you do a therapy, whatever it is, if you take time, listen and feel, the results will be far greater than doing a protocol recipe and JFB MFR promotes how to ‘feel’ and not just how to ‘do’

  Ruth Duncan
  Glasgow, Scotland

•   Margi Sundell // Apr 3rd 2010 at 11:28 am

  I too had just one session from a massage therapist who said he did myofascial release. It was quite painful and full of force – I never went back.

  I kept looking for more effective techniques to add to my massage therapy practice. I decided to take the first course John offered – Myofascial Release I. On the first day of the 3-day course, I knew then and there that this approach was what I’d been looking for.

  The hands-on work is both respectful (non-forceful) and challenging (when staying connected to the ‘resistance’ for some minutes!). And so effective!

  So now after taking more courses in this, the JFB Myofascial Release approach, I’m way beyond my once almost burnout state — every day now I ‘get’ to go to work and assist in an amazing healing journey.

  Margi Sundell, NCTMB

•   Herb Pike // Apr 3rd 2010 at 12:34 pm

  Hi John,
  I agree with everything in Molly’s post.
  I’ve been certified in Trager and absolutely love it. It’s awesome work.
  I also studied the old fashioned myofascial release techniques and they were one of my main tools for years, but after studying with John I’ll never go back.
  Herb Pike PT, MT

•   Kathy Monkman // Apr 3rd 2010 at 1:41 pm

  I ditto all of Molly’s comments above. I’ve been practicing JBMFR full time for over 20 years now and have gone through many layers of my own healing during that time. Yet still this work and it’s gentleness and necessity of “centering” in order to practice has not only allowed me the longevity of a career, but helped me heal myself right along with my clients. Yes I mean during treatments sometimes.
  If I’m going through a challenging patch energy wise or physically or emotionally, and I go in to work and get in to the space I need to be in to interact with the fascia in the ways John Barnes teaches, something miraculous happens in the process in that I am receiving healing at the same time.

  I can’t count the numbers of times I’ve thought “I don’t really think I can get through this work day” because of feeling low energy or chaos or a recent injury as in this last week or whatever and ending up my work day feeling fully energized simply by being a therapist and tapping in to that “source” where all healing occurs.

  Thank you John Barnes…for my rewarding career and for helping me heal along the way.

  Kathy Monkman BSN LMT

•   Carol M. Davis DPT, EdD // Apr 4th 2010 at 4:27 pm

  Dear John:
  I, like several of the others who commented, have had patients come to me discouraged or cynical about traditional myofascial release, particularly people with fibromyalgia who have felt “injured” by the roughness of the technique. One woman actually asked me to list the courses I took with you to be sure that she was getting Barnes MFR not the other kind.
  Because we are taught your principles of locating the restrictions, tuning in to our patients, sinking to their resistance, then taking the slack out from between our hands – releasing at first just the elastic and muscular component of the fascial restriction, and then following the tissue without sliding on the skin as the restrictions release – for up to 3 – 5 minutes; it seems as if we are engaging more than the elastin of the fascia that the other forms of mfr treat. We get more permanent changes with this holding for 3-5 minutes because we are helping to elongate the collagen portion of the fascia through the piezoelectric effect.
  My clinical results confirm this hypothesis time and time again.

  Carol Davis, DPT, EdD

•   Nancy Bournique // Apr 5th 2010 at 4:25 pm

  Hi John,
  I took my first MFR course from you in July of 94. I had been doing therapy for 11 yrs. in various settings and had just started in an outpt. dept. Most of what I knew I learned on the job and considered the whole person. In outpt. ,one particular problem ,discounting the person attached. I had heard many negatives of your approach, which piqued my interest. I knew within the first hour at your MFRI seminar I had done the right thing. Since then I have taken more of your courses, (not as many/often as I’d like) and have been able to assist people in eliminating their pain and getting on with their lives. I am still not understanding why more therapists do not pursue your courses. The proof is in the pudding. Most of the therapists’ don’t want to spend the money. WHY DID YOU BECOME A THERAPIST if not to continue to learn and be the best you could be to help your clients. I am a PTA from MA, where there are few MFR therapists. Fortunately, I have been able to help many people-one short story of a man I met 7 years ago-He had a 900# garage door come down on the top of his head and was in a coma for several wks. There appeared to be no repurcussions-2yrs later, he had a mild stroke, 9 mos. later he developed LBP. The PT eval. him and I was to RX. I’m not always good at following orders-after talking with this man, with what I had learned from your courses, I decided to start with a cerv. compression/decompression and go from there. When he came in for his next RX, all symptoms had resolved. What’s not to like about that. I love MFR by John Barnes and spread my news far and wide-Thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping me become a better therapist and a better person.

•   Melissa Russell // Apr 5th 2010 at 10:31 pm

  When I took my first Myofascial Release class from John Barnes, I was working in the PT department of a pain management clinic. Most of my patients had a history of chronic pain and years of physical therapy behind them. I used several types of manual therapy including deep tissue, trigger point, and structural integration; all with the basic idea of “no pain, no gain”. After treatment patients pain levels would become more tolerable but would increase again over time or increased activity. This was generally accepted as typical chronic pain. After one class of Myofascial Release with John F. Barnes and his instructors I treated all my patients that week with MFR and the results were amazing. JFB MFR seemed so gentle yet it was so effective. My patients were coming back in with smiles of wonder and hope. I needed no more convincing. I saw daily in the clinic what an amazing impact John F. Barnes method of myofascial release had. It’s been 5 years since then and many amazing classes later and I now have my own practice specializing in JFB myofascial release. With the John F. Barnes method of myofascial release your patients will feel the difference!

  Melissa Russell LMT
  Quantum Healing Arts
  Saint Louis, Missouri

•   Jill Rehrig,PTA/CMT // Apr 6th 2010 at 10:11 am

  Hi Virginia,

  I hope you are still following this thread! I encourage you to delve into John F. Barnes’ Approach to Myofascial Release. You will find that the amount of pressure used will vary from patient to patient. Part of the Approach is learning to feel and work with the energy of the body as well, which is based on the unique individual’s needs. Often times the area of injury or insult may be treated a distance “away” from the primary area due to the connective tissue fibers. Working with patients for over 20 years, it still amazes me how incredible the results are! It surely is…The “Missing Link” in healthcare!

•   Marilyn Fay // Apr 6th 2010 at 10:40 am

  I rent out a space to a chiropractor and when he moved in he was sharing he uses Myofascial Release too. But then he mentioned how he “tortures” his clients with deep pressure I realized this is the traditional form of Myofascial Release that people refer to. I explained that the Myofascial Release I learned uses gentle sustained pressure to access the wisdom of the body. The innate wisdom shows up in the form of intuition, emotion, and movement. He explained to me his fear of allowing his patients emotions to come up is he would end up in a courtroom. Healthcare has become so fearful that it has replaced the “care” and is often more Healthfear these days. My clients are often surprised to experience their chronic pain had an emotional component. However, they are happy to see the correlation that their pain reduced fifty percent and can reduce their pain medication.
  What I love about JFB Myofascial Release is that it treats the entire body. It does not separate the mind from the body and it honors the wisdom we come equipped with. It is not afraid to be with pain and feelings. From my own experience I have learned that the cause of tightness is located in a seemingly unrelated area from where I feel pain, however as I let go of figuring it out my body has led the way. When the causes of life long bracing patterns are addressed the entire web of tangled restrictions can let go. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross encourages “ You will not grow if you sit in a beautiful flower garden, but you will grow if you are sick, if you are in pain, if you experience losses and if you don’t put your head in the sand, but take the pain as a gift to you with a very, very specific purpose.”

•   Jean Croll // Apr 6th 2010 at 3:48 pm

  Dear John,

  I’ve been using your Myofascial Release approach for fifteen years, and I find the results so amazing! Over the years, I have treated several bodywork therapists who have come to me with sore arms, hands, and shoulders because they insist on using the “old” MFR techniques, and after just a single treatment they can already feel how I’m not working hard, yet I get results they can’t get with their own clients. Do you have any suggestions on how I can explain this? I just tell them that the work speaks for itself, but I’d like to back it up with a little more!

  Jean Croll, OTR/L

•   John F. Barnes, John F. Barnes, P.T., L.M.T., N.C.T.M.B. // Apr 8th 2010 at 4:37 pm

  Myofascial Release: The Missing Link”

  Thank you all for expressing yourself. To expand on your thoughts and questions about how my approach to Myofascial Release is considered the “missing link” in body work, energy work and massage therapy today and into the future, view these excerpts from my DVD, “The Fireside Chat” on ‘You Tube’.

  Here are the two links to the “Fireside Chat” on ‘You Tube”:

  Part 1

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWRuS9xAbMo

  Part 2

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4QrvlwtBOU

  And for more information about the “Fireside Chat” DVD, view this link on our website:
  http://www.myofascialrelease.com/fascia_massage/public/product_details.asp?ProdTypeID=5

  Thanks,

  John

•   Jennifer Wiegand // Apr 11th 2010 at 10:34 am

  Dear Virginia-
  If you have not yet been to the website, http://www.myofascialrelease.com , you will find many informative and interesting articles wriiten by John that may help answer some of your wonderings.
  There is also a therapist directory. I’d like to suggest that you find a therapist near you and experience a session so that you may see for yourself the difference you are so right on to be curious about.
  The intuitive and energetic component of JB-MFR is indeed the important piece of of this work. This is also what peaked my interest. I had trained in other energy modalities before I went to massage school and understood the inportance and value of the Mind/Body connection. I also studied Trager and many others, but felt something was missing. I found myself in Sedona on a break from massage school and wandered in to John’s clinic there. After afew treatments with the therapists at Therapy On The Rocks, I realized I had found what I was looking for…work that encompasses all aspects of what a person needs to truly heal.
  By the time I got back home I signed up for seminars to attend, following graduation. This is the work I do every day, for myself and others. It has been life changing in the best and most amazing ways I could never have thought possible. I am known in my community for doing this work and helping people heal when not much else has been effective. This is awe-inspiring work! Thank you John.
  Take the leap Virginia!
  Find a therapist near you, take a seminar, visit one of John’s clinics, read the articles, watch the DVDs.
  It is all there for you!
  best wishes on your journey,
  Jen Wiegand LMP, NCTMB
  Kitsap MFR
  Poulsbo, WA

•   Teresa Miller PT // Apr 16th 2010 at 12:02 pm

  I want to reinforce the importance of taking John Barnes Myofascial Release courses. I have had many chronic pain clients come to me after receiving treatment from other therapists supposedly doing Myofascial Release . Once they receive Myofasical Release treatment as John Barnes teaches it, they report a big difference in how they feel after the treatment and a big difference it made in their healing process. There are many therapist out there who have taken a course taught by someone who may have attended one of John’s courses and who then go on to teach what they think the approach is. These watered down and “copy-cat” courses don’t teach Myofasical Release in it’s most effective, artistic and intuitive form. My patients can feel the difference in the intention and connection provided by John Barnes Myofascial Release. So if you are planning to take a Myofascial Release course, take it from John Barnes Seminars not some “copy-cat” watered down substitute. Get the real deal!
  Thank you John for teaching us a way to really assist our patients in their healing process.

  Teresa Miller PT,
  BodyWise Therapy
  Omaha, NE

•   Mary Bart, WCMT // Jun 4th 2010 at 8:09 am

  John,

  A therpist colleague and I have been treating her husband, since his hip replacement.

  I noticed a huge difference in his leg lengths – the leg with the hip replacement appeared to be about 1/2 inch longer.

  When queried about this the surgeon admitted to them that he does this intentionally to the hip-replaced leg, and that the difference is so negligible that there ought to be no concern or adverse effect.

  Everything I’ve learned as a therapist disagrees with this viewpoint. Have I been missing something? Could there be some sound reasons for deliberately creating this asymmetry?

  Mary D Bart, WCMT
  Myofascial Integrity
  Willard, WI

•   John F. Barnes, John F. Barnes, P.T., L.M.T., N.C.T.M.B. // Jun 4th 2010 at 11:22 am

  Ignorance?

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