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Interview with the fascia expert Dr. Jurgen Foerster
Within fascia therapy, fazers serve as effective devices for treating soft tissue. dr Jürgen Förster is head of the school for physiotherapy at the University Hospital RWTH Aachen and developed the Fazer instruments together with a group of experts. These fazers offer a number of uses and benefits for both patients and therapists.
What new treatment options result from the use of Fazern in physiotherapy?
In physiotherapy, the treatment goals result in principle from the diagnostics or from the assessment of the findings. With Fazer you can easily achieve different goals better, faster and more gently for the therapist.
What are the benefits for patients and physiotherapists?
For therapists, these are really obvious or, so to speak, obvious. These are devices that are intended to protect the therapist's joints. These protect the hands, both the four long fingers and, in particular, the thumbs, which are subjected to significantly less stress. The participants in Fazer courses feel this after just a few uses. In addition, the precision of the therapy increases and probably also the effectiveness, since the available resources are used more efficiently.
What is the difference between the horizontal and vertical treatment direction with the fazers?
The direction of treatment actually determines the mode of action. Whether I work horizontally by scraping or pushing, or vertically by applying pressure, changes the effect of the fazer on the patient. The direction of treatment is therefore a very central aspect of the form of therapy.
What effects does the Fazer treatment have on the fascial network?
The effects are of course dependent on the objective, the patient, the findings and the stage of the disease, whether it is an acute disease, an acute injury, a scar or chronic symptoms. The objective changes and, of course, so does the effect that we want to achieve with the Fazer treatment.
In this sense, there is no principle effect of the Fazer, such as with a pain-relieving drug. We have various goals that we achieve with the Fazer, including analgesia, i.e. freedom from pain, better blood circulation or metabolism. Depending on what we do and how we do it, the effects then change.
What types of injuries are Fazers particularly good for?
Fazer can almost always be introduced into your treatment or used in your therapy. I believe that chronic pain conditions, such insidious processes in the area of the musculoskeletal system, are a very good indication. It can also be used to some extent in acute conditions, for example in acute hypertension that causes joint blockages.
Does treatment with Fazern accelerate the healing process compared to manual treatment?
A serious answer to this question is currently not possible because, to my knowledge, there are no data or studies on this distinction. Of course I hope so and I believe so too. For me, the Fazer treatment is simply a qualitative increase in therapy, because it improves the tissue quality and thus also the functionality of the structures.
