By Susan Greenleaf

Kathleen Lavelle is a Bonnie Prudden myotherapist with a fulfilling career. But when Massachusetts News asked if myotherapy was a field that she had always planned to pursue, she laughed and said that she had graduated with an Art Degree and never heard of myotherapy.

What brought the career change for the Cape Cod therapist?

It all started when she accompanied a family member with chronic neck pain to a myotherapist and saw the results.

The therapy is a hands-on, drugless non-invasive method of relieving muscle-related pain which was developed by Bonnie Prudden in 1976. She had become famous in the 1960s because of her report that shocked President Eisenhower when it proved that American children were some of the least physically fit in the world. This was the beginning of a public awareness campaign that forever changed America’s attitude toward physical fitness.

Myotherapy uses a method of pressure applied to highly irritable spots on the muscle called "trigger points" that remain in the muscle after any kind of trauma or injury. Success is usually speedy because the patient is encouraged to take an active part in follow-up exercises done at home.

"What I love about it is that you can teach people how to help themselves and it works!" shared Lavelle. "A trained therapist can show a family member or friend of the patient how to do some basic trigger points, to try and relieve pain between sessions. It’s very difficult to see a loved one hurting all the time if you can’t do anything for them. So we recommend that the patient bring someone with them that can learn the myotherapy and be able to work with them."

After bringing a family member with cervical syndrome for treatment, Kathy learned the basic therapy and discovered she was good at it. "I went because I cared for this person and they showed me what to do for her and it was amazing." Then she attended a seminar that Bonnie did locally and decided to enroll in her school. She graduated from the school in Stockbridge in 1989. (Since then, Bonnie has moved to Arizona.) Shortly afterwards, Kathy married but continued her studies. "I put a lot of effort into my career because I loved it and it worked."

Lavelle says, "The reason we use Bonnie’s name is because it tells the patient we have a certain level of qualification and education. There’s a lot of people in the alternative fields now that hang out a shingle and maybe went for a weekend course. I did not."

Lavelle went through 1400 hours in myotherapy training. Prior to that, she went to various colleges to get prerequisites in anatomy and physiology. She took classes in life- drawing and life-sculpture and modern dance in order to understand how the body moves so she could teach people to exercise without reinjuring themselves. She must go to the organization in Arizona every two years to keep her certification.

When asked what kinds of people come to her, Lavelle said, "I see people with different disorders like fibromylagia and arthritis. Headaches are a big thing. Many people are sitting behind a computer all day long and not taking time to do simple exercises every two hours to give their muscles a break. They’re punching away for hours, looking forward, answering the phone and commuting. Those things lay down trigger points and they’re patterns that need to be interrupted. So I see a lot of patients for upper back, neck and shoulder pain and a lot of it has to do with lifestyle."

How many people walk away with success stories? Bonnie Prudden says there is a 95% success rate. Lavelle says, "I would say 8 or 9 patients out of 10 not only find help but are successful with myotherapy. Some people take longer than others to feel better, depending on what they’ve gone through. I’ve had a patient who had back pain for 33 years. This, of course, took a lot of undoing. Now I only see her once a month."

When asked how often she normally sees a patient, she said five or seven times. "Initially I saw one gentlemen with bursitis in his right shoulder several times in a row. His shoulder was stuck but now he can move it again. And it didn’t take long. He just couldn’t believe he could lift his arm again. It was amazing.

"I had a patient come all the way from Connecticut to the Cape because this was the last step before surgery. She had ‘plantar fascitis,’ which are bone spurs in the bottom of her feet and couldn’t walk. She was in a panic because she sets up pottery shows and had to sit in a chair and have her husband do everything because the pain was too difficult for her. She just couldn’t believe seven months later how much improvement there was. Now she can set up the show and walk the show. I love that I can help. I like to teach people how to help themselves because it works."

Myotherapists work by physician referral only. Lavelle said, "We need to make sure there’s no pathology before you begin working on a patient, that they’re medically sound, they’ve been checked out, that they don’t have a broken bone for instance or a tumor that may be causing back pain. It’s best for the patient to involve as many people as possible to make sure their medical history would make them a good candidate for myotherapy."

Is it difficult to get a referral from conventional physicians? Lavelle said initially ten or fifteen years ago it was difficult, as it was much more unfamiliar. "Now patients are going into the doctor’s office saying, ‘I want to try something else, what else is there?’ For those people that aren’t getting results with traditional care, there are things the doctor can refer them to and it’s a good option for the physician."

To contact Kathleen Lavelle call 508 759-9717. For more information on Bonnie Prudden Myotherapy there is a website at www.bonnieprudden.com.
 

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