I found Active Release Therapy during my soccer playing days. At that time I has bad back pain and pain down the back of my legs. It was bad enough that it halted my running and kicking abilities.

Here is a good u-tube video that shows the treatment I had for the piriformus muscle. Contrary to what I heard in some of these YouTube videos, ART is not gentle and it hurts like heck! I guess it could be that I had a lot of scar tissue to break up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_dIC...e_gdata_player


The results were amazing. It took a few weeks, but was well worth it.

I now get ART on my upper back, neck/head and jaw for TMJ. The jaw treatment is very painful, but it's feeling better as a result. This is the one treatment I can count on to help me. He is quite gentle with my neck and moves it very little. Often he can reproduce my headache or nausea just by pushing on a specific area at the base of my skull. This shows that he has found the culprit.

I am quite sure this will help with my headaches and some nausea, but cure my PCS, na. Pretty sure not. But taking away other problems and pain should reduce the load on my brain.

I watched a few YouTube clips of each of the above mentioned techniques. There are similarities, but also differences. Bowen appears more gentle and similar to accupressure points.