Ending Pain: Coaching the Body with Neuroscience, Movement and Trigger Point Therapy

by Chuck Duff

Doctors and therapists erroneously view pain as the result of injury or disease. Renowned bodywork teacher and pain therapist Chuck Duff discovered that the ineffectiveness of these beliefs stems from a failure to understand the true origins of pain. His Coaching The Body® system recognizes that pain originates in the brain as a response to danger signals from trigger points that feed the brain’s innate protective instinct.

CTB interrupts these peripheral danger signals using highly effective manual therapy techniques to remove trigger points. These techniques exploit the brain’s neuroplasticity by providing an experience of pain-free movement. Chuck has taught thousands of manual therapists how to dramatically improve their success rates with even difficult pain cases. After decades of teaching, Ending Pain makes his revolutionary approach available to a wider audience. It also applies CTB principles to self-care and movement-based therapies such as yoga and corrective exercise.

317 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 20, 2022

About the author

I am a Renaissance man who loves challenging the status quo. I studied Buddhism and psychology at University of Chicago, then moved to a career in software research and innovation. I am a serious guitarist and a trained chef. My daughter is a talented dancer and photographer. My own back pain led me to research pain science and develop CTB, a novel integration of Thai bodywork and trigger point therapy. I taught at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine and founded the Coaching The Body Institute in 2001. I remain pain free by practicing what I preach.

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a lay person, so this book would probably be better in the hands of a massage practitioner, chiropractor, doctor, or other medical professional. Or at least someone slightly more familiar with anatomy than I am. If you are one of these people - PLEASE buy this book. If you're like me and simply curious in how the body works, then I'd still recommend it.

The author, himself a practitioner, provides a fascinating look at the human body, the brain, and pain. He takes you through his own journey, then explains the relationship between pain and the brain (as well as where current practices may be lacking), before explaining the trigger point techniques (many based on Thai massage poses, but with added science).

As someone who has struggled for years with pain that runs down the side of my legs, the part of the book that focused on such pain originating in the hips/glutes rang especially true. As I've made my way through different chiropractors and massage therapists, the ones that worked all focused on specific points in my hips/glutes.

I would be very curious if the techniques would help resolve the headaches I get every day, which last from when I wake up to when I fall asleep (result of a concussion many years ago). No one has been able to come close. Maybe one day I'll find someone who uses these techniques and be able to see for myself.

Note: I received an advanced copy of this book.

[RACHEL · Rating 3 out of 5]

I tried to stick with the book and read thoroughly, but after only getting 30% in after 2 weeks I decided to skim the remainder. I am giving 3 stars because I understand I am not the target audience for the book. It seemed to be more for people who wanted to study and become a provider of the service. With the significant dive into anatomy it was difficult to stay interested enough to make much of the small chapter on the potential benefits one could implement on their own.

Thank you to Goodreads as I won a Kindle copy of the book in a giveaway. However, I think I need to be a little more cautious in reading the descriptions of giveaways in the future.

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pill free medicine

For aches and pains, whether acute or chronic. This method allows the practitioner to use certain points in the body to release the patient from pain. This book is very technical and does require knowledge about various parts of the body. Although this book is designed to guide people into helping others, it does provide assistance when working on yourself.

#GoodreadsGiveaway

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ending Pain

Lots of scientific information in here, however, this book can be used by anyone to read and learn from. If you have chronic pain, I highly recommend. I wanted to get this book because even though I don't suffer with chronic pain, the little nuggets in here help with random pains as well. There is a self-care section, too. Thank you for my copy.

[Jon Huegli]

Keen insight to the causes and management of pain using sound scientifically predicted outcomes. The author is cogent and clear in presenting otherwise highly specialized concepts and models.