Pain and and Rehabilitation Medicine seeks to expand the practice and efficacy of the art of physical medicine as an approach where knowledgeable touch is the crucial therapeutic intervention in the assessment as well as the treatment phases of therapy.

A novel acupuncture model enhanced by informed touch provides an authentic and immediately effective therapy method, blending classical Chinese, Japanese and French meridian therapy methods with Western physical medicine techniques inspired by nineteenth century osteopathic and physical medicine practices of body palpation, which sought to understand and correct the myofascial constrictions at the root of a patient's pain and dysfunction.

In this highly technological age in which we find ourselves, this is vital, not only for the elusive problems of chronic pain but for patients who experience the myriad complex visceral, stress and fatigue disorders that currently plague our overextended healthcare system.

Physical and Manual Medicine is a highly adaptable integration of disciplines, and is of potential therapeutic value in many pain and general medical conditions.

Manual therapy is a specialized form of physical medicine delivered with the hands as opposed to a device or machine. In manual therapy, practitioners use their hands to put pressure on muscle tissue and manipulate joints in an attempt to decrease pain cause by muscle spasm, muscle tension, and joint dysfunction.

The use of manual therapy as a therapeutic intervention likely predates the earliest medical writings known to man. Hippocrates (460-357 BC), considered by many to be the father of modern medicine, wrote extensively on the methodology and benefits of manual medicine. His writings include descriptions of numerous manual techniques for various musculoskeletal disorders. And although he is responsible for our earliest known writings on manipulation, Hippocrates himself describes manipulation as an "old art"(Harris). Since Hippocrates time, countless groups have practiced manipulation, including American Indian tribes, Arab physicians, European surgeons, and the Bone Setters of East Asia, England and North America (Paris, Harris, Wadell, Lomax).

Because perception and tolerance of pain vary widely from individual to individual, pain is difficult to define and describe. Essentially, pain is the way your brain interprets information about a particular sensation that your body is experiencing.

Information (or "signals") about this painful sensation are sent via nerve pathways to your brain. The way in which your brain interprets these signals as "pain" can be affected by many outside factors, some of which can be controlled by special techniques.