The other day my dear friend had a case of a frozen shoulder. She woke up one morning and couldn’t raise her arm even to the shoulder level due to a severe pain in her shoulder. She wanted to know if there was any massage she could do for the frozen shoulder. So I sent her the link to Acupressure Points for Frozen Shoulder but I also remembered there was a specific technique for frozen shoulder.
It’s called Niel-Asher Technique or NAT. It was developed by an osteopath in London Dr. Simeon Niel Asher in 1999. It’s a step-by-step approach using trigger point therapy to unfreeze the frozen soft tissues around the shoulder. It’s one of many things I want to learn but I haven’t. My dear friend lives in a beautiful island of Hawaii anyway, I looked up if there was a certified practitioner there and I found several.
So I sent her the link, she chose the one she likes based on the Yelp reviews and email correspondence, and had a treatment. She said the treatment was painful and nothing like a regular massage but to her surprise, after one session her pain was reduced in half and she was able to raise her arm slightly above the shoulder. She also gets acupuncture done which we both think is complementary to NAT and she is now about 95% healed within a month.
If you or your loved one is suffering from a frozen shoulder, you can find a certified NAT practitioner in your area by going to Find A Therapist link. Or just send the link below to whoever needs help just like I did for my friend. They are usually Chiropractors, physical therapists and massage therapists.
For massage or manual therapists, they have free tutorial videos and video courses on how to treat the client’s frozen shoulder for CE credits. For Do-It-Yourselfers, they also have video courses on how to treat your frozen shoulder yourself at home and exercise you can do. You can check them out from the link below and they are on sale right now (as of 12/4/17). I think for those with frozen shoulder, these resources to get rid of shoulder pain so they can get back on their normal life pain-free is a nice gift.
Niel-Asher Technique: http://bit.ly/NAT-home
NAT Practitioner Finder: http://bit.ly/NAT-finder
Frozen Shoulder Courses: http://bit.ly/NAT-frozen
It won’t be a one-time fix though. It will take multiple sessions to safely thaw out the frozen soft tissues. But I highly recommend trying these non-invasive manual therapies first before you have a surgery which I think should be the absolute last resort because you will have scar tissues and you will have to go through a rehab anyway.
Massage Monday #371 – Niel-Asher Technique (NAT) for Frozen Shoulder http://bit.ly/mm-120417