Book excerpt: Michael Shea, one of the foremost experts on myofascial release, presents straightforward, practical instructions for dramatically releasing pain and restriction of motion in the body's fascia, muscles, and connective tissue. He introduces a soft tissue, hands-on approach for massage therapists, physical therapists, and other healthcare practitioners that reduces tension and stress in their clients' entire myofascial systems, as well as their musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems. Therapists with little or no background in myofascial release and deep tissue reorganization can follow this book's easy guidelines in order to facilitate substantial orthopedic changes and pain reduction in their clients. Illustrated with 70 black and white photos, Myofascial Release Therapy includes an at-a-glance section that provides a step-by-step procedure for quick reference. Each photo is supplemented with instructions, as well as with arrows for easy reference in the clinic. This book provides the first integration of the verbal, visceral, and palpation skills of the therapist. It also includes work on the viscera as a way of integrating soft tissue work through the abdomen and pelvis. While manuals on the bones, muscles, and viscera have previously been divided into separate volumes, this book combines them into one. The author offers specific tools and protocols for helping patients "destructure" past somatic experience and reform it into something healthier. He illuminates the interconnectedness between bodies and their relationships to the outside world, including how sensations, feelings, and emotions are organized in the body and how they are coupled to meaning and memory. The result of many years of experience and knowledge, this book provides compelling evidence that myofascial release therapy encourages more rapid healing response of injured tissue.