Strain-Counterstrain Technique
Strain-Counterstrain (SCS) is a manual therapy used to manipulate soft tissues to relieve pain and tightness. Developed by osteopath Lawrence Jones in the 1950s, SCS is a commonly used technique in physical therapy. Summit Orthopedics provides Strain-Counterstrain and many other modalities for patients in the greater Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
How Strain-Counterstrain Works
Strain-Counterstrain is a hands-on indirect technique used by physical therapists. This means the patient is placed in a position of ease to undergo passive positional release. In layperson’s terms, your physical therapist will:
- Identify your “tender points”—the parts of your muscles where pain is most
- prominent
- Move you into a position of comfort where your tender points feel less painful
- Keep you in this position for about 90 seconds before you return to a neutral state
- Palpate the muscle or joints, if needed
Strain-Counterstrain helps lessen tightness and pain in your muscles, joints and connective tissue (fascia). It may also improve your range of motion.
Other types of manual therapy can help treat musculoskeletal pain that affects the fascia. Myofascial release therapy is another modality that may help some patients with chronic pain. However, SCS is a soft tissue technique that focuses on tender points, which form due to inflammation or injury that activates pain receptors in the fascia.
There are approximately 200 identified tender points in the body, which makes SCS helpful in treating conditions from head to toe. While tender points often overlap with trigger points (which can form “knots” in your muscles), they are not the same. Trigger points can radiate pain elsewhere, whereas tender points do not.
Benefits of SCS
The main benefit of Strain-Counterstrain is that it helps manage your pain quickly, without medications. Your therapist may perform Strain-Counterstrain before helping you with any strengthening or stretching exercises so you will have less protective guarding, and therefore less pain, as you do them.
Strain-Counterstrain may also help improve blood circulation, decrease inflammation and improve mobility.
Conditions SCS May Treat
The Strain-Counterstrain technique may be beneficial as part of physical therapy for a range of conditions and injuries, including:
- Ankle sprain and instability
- Arthritis
- Headache
- Hip pain
- Knee pain
- Lower back pain
- Neck pain
- Plantar fasciitis
- Shoulder pain
- Tendinitis
SCS may also help treat chronic musculoskeletal pain that has not improved with other therapies. However, it cannot be used on broken bones, ligament tears or when a patient is too tense to relax into a comfortable position.
Who Can Perform Strain-Counterstrain Technique?
Physical therapists who perform Strain-Counterstrain have undergone specialized training. Only licensed healthcare providers can take Strain-Counterstrain continuing education coursework. Some providers complete additional training to become certified Strain-Counterstrain practitioners. At Summit Orthopedics, our physical therapists who practice in SCS have undergone specific training and practice to become proficient in the technique.
Find a Summit Orthopedics physical therapist who specializes in Strain-Counterstrain.
