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Motor Point Acupuncture

Created by renowned San Diego based Chinese Medicine Practitioner &Acupuncturist, Matt Callison, this particular style of Acupuncture has proven to be an incredible tool for releasing shortened, tight, and highly toned tissues which are often responsible for restricted blood flow, nerve impingement and joint pain due to muscle imbalance.  This highly effective Acupuncture technique involves the use of Acupuncture needles placed in specific areas of the tissue known as the “zone of innervation” or the area in which the nerve leaving the spine enters the belly of the muscle.  Due to the highly electrical nature of this area, the insertion of a fine, stainless steel Acupuncture needle creates a small twitch response in which all the targeted tissues’ fibres fire and effectively end up “re-set”, relaxing back to a normal, healthy length and tension. The extreme effectiveness of this particular Acupuncture technique in healing both acute and chronic muscle and joint conditions has been proven to such an extent that other health care professions and modalities have created their own versions of it. Sometimes referred to as “dry needling” or IMS, these techniques are essentially versions of  Motor Point Acupuncture.

Conditions that Respond to Acupuncture

• tension headaches
• migraines
• upper, middle & lower back pain
• knee pain due to injury or degeneration
• shoulder pain
• rotator cuff injuries
• neck pain, tension & restricted movement
• greater trochanteric bursitis
• sacroiliac joint pain
• sciatica
• hamstring, gluteal and hip flexor sprains or pulls
• achilles tendonitis
• plantar fasciitis
• ankle sprains
• carpal tunnel syndrome
• tennis/golf elbow

How does Acupuncture differ from Dry Needling?

Dry Needling is a term that is becoming more commonly heard within the health care community in recent years. Many of our patients ask, "What is the difference between the two therapies?"

"Dry Needling" is a term coined by Janet Travell, MD in the mid twentieth century to describe a technique by which hypodermic needles were used to diffuse trigger points within muscles. The "dry" aspect of the term refers to the fact that there was no medicine or liquid contained within the needle. Physiotherapists using this technique today use Acupuncture needles but have chosen to adopt the term dry needling.

One of the most commonly held misbeliefs regarding the difference between Acupuncture treatment and Dry Needling is that Acupuncture only works within a system of specific Acupuncture points in order to affect the flow of Qi. This is untrue. For thousands of years, Chinese Medicine practitioners have needled into "ashi" points within the tissue that are the tight, ropy bands that Western Medicine refers to as "trigger points".

As well, many Acupuncture practitioners have trained specifically in motor point and trigger point release and perform these techniques as part of their treatment, combining it with the concepts of Chinese Medicine for a complete and highly effective holistic treatment.

*note: Most Dry Needling courses require only a weekend of training to certify a practitioner whereas students of Acupuncture spend hundreds of hours (sometimes well over 500 hrs) both observing and needling in a classroom setting as well as a student clinic.