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Rhonda Hogan, The Trigger Point Specialist
For more than 20 years, Rhonda has been treating people’s trigger points. This style of Acupuncture is a more aggressive therapy where, after insertion, the acupuncture needle is manipulated with the goal of getting the tight muscle to twitch until fatigued. Once the muscle reaches exhaustion, it also releases it’s tension relieving the pain caused in body parts attached to the offending muscle.
Where Trigger Point Acupuncture Excels
Many painful conditions can be addressed with Trigger Point Acupuncture. Commonly neck and back pain, tennis elbow, plantar fasciitis, TMJ, Frozen shoulder, tendonitis, joint pain, digestive, nerve and a host of problems that are thought to be serious but instead are merely muscles gone awry.
Common Reactions
The reactions patients have to trigger point acupuncture are all over the map. Some people just lie there and don’t respond. Others jump when their muscles first jump. Some say they are feeling a sharp pain. Others vocalize along with the twitching. It’s common to hear “that’s it” from patients once the twitching starts. The rare few are very vocal, sometimes with profanity! Some people feel no pain, others significant amount. After the treatment, most are sore as if they had a hard workout, Almost all immediately feel the tension reduction under the soreness. Most say “it was worth it”. Muscular soreness is the typical response to a treatment. The sensation is similar to a hard muscular workout. It lasts 1-2 days but leaves behind a muscle different than before the treatment.
When do patients feel results?
The results people feel are all over the map. Some patients feel immediate relief from their complaint and leave stunned that they finally feel something that has given them at least relief from their long lasting issue. Others take a few treatments for relief. Some people are cured in a few treatments and need a maintenance treatment every month or two. Some patients get noticeable relief but not a permanent cure.
Common Misunderstandings
Indirect (distal) treatment location is one of the reasons that people mis-understand acupuncture. Maybe they have heel pain and the acupuncturist is treating their calf muscles. Perhaps they have elbow pain and the treatment is to the forearm. The treatment is often not directly where the pain is felt, but often a related muscle. The body is an amazing, interconnected system of mechanical, chemical and electrical parts. It is logical that a problem in one part of the body can cause a symptom in another. Wiggle your fingers and watch your forearm. Watch peoples calf while they walk. Another is that needles are inserted into Nerves. They are inserted into muscles that may be undesirably stimulating nerves.
About Rhonda Hogan
Rhonda has been in private practice in Somerset since 2004. She has treated thousands of people and given over 10,000 treatments. Because true Trigger Point acupuncture is not commonly practiced and requires special education, people travel from a further distance than her non trigger point patients to get treated by Rhonda. A life-long fascination with health and the human body’s functioning led to a career in Acupuncture. She previously worked in a Pharmaceutical company’s microbiology lab under extreme aseptic conditions monitoring the purity of water (This makes her super-careful with clinic cleanliness) . She received her Masters in Acupuncture from Tri-State College of Acupuncture in NYC. She is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Chinese medicine from The Pacific College of Health and Science and expects to graduate in April 2021. Her Bachelors in Biology is from Lehigh University.
If you are concerned about the pain from the treatment, Rhonda is happy to work with your level of tolerance.
Watch our videos to see the muscular twitching caused by trigger point.