• Make a list of the modalities that you think are most likely to work.  This may sound like a mission impossible… an invitation to train as a scientist and undertake FDA-type clinical trials.  But in fact, what needs to be done is easy.  Simply read The Journey, and choose the modalities that look most convincing to you on the basis of your own background knowledge and beliefs, and what you are able to learn from reading and talking to others.  For example, if you are scientifically inclined lasers or magnets may speak to you.  For others, hands-on modalities may ring more true.  Remember that the therapist’s expectation of success is also important, not just the client’s.  It is hard to fake it; unspoken signals can pass from the therapist to the patient and undermine efficacy
  If you are a therapist and both you and your prospective client believe it will work, it probably will.  Moreover, if you believe it you can tell your client that it is likely to work without being dishonest.
• From your selection of healing modalities that you believe might work, cross out the ones that carry the greatest potential risks.  Certainly avoid pharmaceutical agents, natural or synthetic, that have not been fully vetted for safety, invasive procedures for which you have not been professionally trained, anything that hurts a lot, and anything using high-power energy.
• Finally, cross off your list the modalities that are sufficiently expensive, given your (and your clients’) means, that they risk falling into the category of exploitive.  The possibility of exploitation in non-financial ways also needs to be considered.

Charles Liggins, Board of NACMASA, Secretary of AA SASP, Chairman of the Allied Health Professions Council of SA.
Editor of the Meridian/Meridian World  - Journals of Acupuncture for Physiotherapists. Published December 2003

“In her introduction Phyllis Berger indicates that the book is dedicated to all patients with pain. It is very difficult for an author to write a medical book with appeal for both the patient with pain and health professionals involved in its management. However she has done this admirably.

As one reads the narrative it becomes apparent that the author is not just writing a book, one can sense that she is expressing her thoughts and experience in her particular field and she wishes to share them with those concerned with pain alleviation, patients and professionals alike.

The assembly point for this journey is the erudite foreword by Professor Marshall Devor, of the Hebrew University in Israel. He states that 'the author has produced an annotated encyclopaedia of proposed therapies for chronic pain', no reader will disagree with this.

The journey, in the form of twenty chapters, then commences. Each chapter is a stop off point packed with important information. The author acts as the tour guide through the complex and perplexing terrain of pain in all its guises. She takes the reader into the gloomy caverns of pain and suffering, throwing light into the darkest of corners as she goes.

A number of chapters are aimed directly at patients, the author manages to simplify difficult concepts for them without straying too far from scientific credibility. Indeed these simplifications will prove to be of considerable value to health professionals when counselling their patients.

Although each chapter of the journey is compelling in its own right the 'highlight' chapters for the reviewer were those relating to acupuncture, electrical stimulation analgesia, effects of electric currents and magnetic fields. Each of these chapters explains the physical and physiological and therapeutic effects of the particular modalities used and presents evidence for their efficacy. Protocols for needle and electrode placement are suggested for a wide range of painful conditions, particularly the difficult types involving the autonomic nervous system. The illustrations are outstanding and each item is rounded off with case histories.

The author has pioneered the use of a particular form of modified direct current called the A. P. S. (Action Potential Simulator) apparatus. In the chapter pertaining to this she reviews the local research and then gives a detailed account of its use in the management of a range of pain syndromes affecting the musculo-skeletal, neurological and other systems, again following up with case histories.

Throughout the book it is apparent that the author is presenting an account of, and evidence for, the fact that an intelligent and eclectic use of physical therapy modalities is capable of resolving many pain problems, including thosethat have had no response, or a disappointing response, to medication and/or surgery. Indeed an outstanding sentence in the chapter on exercise indicates that 'ninety percent of all back pain can be eliminated without drugs or surgery!

There is no doubt that this book will be a valuable resource for a wide range of health professionals at undergraduate and post-graduate levels. It should find its way onto the library shelves of pain management clinics, the education establishments and all the hospital departments and private practices where physiotherapists, and other health professionals, are involved in pain management. As a physiotherapist I feel privileged to be the reviewer for this particular book - it is a wonderful account of the journey to pain relief.”