Our therapists on St. Albert Trail in north Edmonton find the muscle knots that keep coming back. Slow, hands-on pressure works each one loose, for relief where it sits and where it sends pain.
$115.50 / 60 Minutes (+GST)
The knot that won't quit
You can find it with your thumb and press on it until it aches, and by the next morning it's tight again in exactly the same place.
A knot across the top of your shoulder can send an ache up the side of your neck and into your head, and a tight spot low in your back can turn up as pain in your hip. That referred pain is why stretching the place that hurts so often misses the muscle causing it, and why the tension keeps returning.
Hesitating is reasonable when a spot is already sore, and several of our clients came to us after paying for massages that never reached it. Here the pressure starts where you can take it and builds only as the muscle lets go, and you say when it’s too much.
Trigger point therapy is hands-on massage aimed at myofascial trigger points, the tight, tender spots in a muscle that most people call knots and that can send pain somewhere else. Your registered massage therapist finds each one by touch, holds steady pressure until it starts to release, then works the tissue around it so the muscle can recover.
Your therapist works through the muscle until they reach the spot that’s tender, and often the one that sends a familiar ache elsewhere when it’s pressed (you’ll usually recognise it before they say anything). Telling them where the ache travels helps them find the next one.
Steady pressure stays on the point until the tissue under it softens, which is a different job from the long strokes of a general massage and a big part of why the muscle lets go instead of bracing.
Once a point releases, your therapist works and stretches the muscle around it, because a knot rarely sits alone.
You leave knowing where your knots sit and what tends to set them off, from the way you sit at a desk to the shoulder you carry a bag on, so fewer of them are waiting at your next appointment.
Trigger point therapy is aimed at knots that keep returning to the same muscle and at the pain they send elsewhere. Clients most often come to us with neck and shoulder knots from desk work, headaches that start in the upper back, and low back and hip tension that long days of sitting make worse.
Each linked condition page carries the research for that condition, and that research tests massage more broadly rather than trigger point work on its own.
A trigger point massage starts with where it hurts and where the pain goes.
Your therapist works through the muscle by hand, feeling for a band that’s tighter than the tissue around it and a point along it that’s tender to the touch.
A good trigger point therapist checks in as they go, and your answer is how they know they’ve found the right one.
Once the point is found, your therapist holds steady pressure on it. The first moments are the most intense, and then, as the muscle stops guarding, the tenderness fades under the same pressure.
That easing is what trigger point release feels like from the table.
Knots tend to collect in the same few places.
Trigger point massage therapy works on the knot you have now, and whether it stays gone depends on what keeps loading that muscle. A knot that formed after one hard weekend and a knot you’ve carried through three winters of desk work are different problems, and the second one takes longer to stay gone.
Your therapist will tell you which kind you have after the first session.
Thirty, sixty and ninety minutes all book online, and you can pick a therapist by name or select all of them to see every opening the clinic has that week.
Pressure and focus start from what you tell us rather than a routine, and your therapist says what they are finding while they work. You hear it as it happens.
Before you leave, we can put your next appointment on the calendar, and our own booking page will tell you the current week may already be full.
Come a few minutes early your first time, because there is a short health history to fill out, and filling it in the waiting room spends the hour you booked on paperwork instead of treatment on the table.
You know what the hour will involve, what it costs, and when you are coming back.
Got Knots Massage is one of the best places in town. I see Nadine the owner, and she does trigger release therapy on me. She keeps me relaxed and in alignment! I drive 45 minutes each way to see her,…
They not afraid to press hard on sore muscles. Experts at finding knots on their own
the best I’ve had yet
they are all great
the best that I have ever had
My pain is gone
going to this company for over 10 years
The best at what she does
Super easy direct billing
going to Nadine for over 20 years
Wouldn't go anywhere else
Clinic-wide membership with the Natural Health Practitioners of Canada means the receipt you hand your insurer is the same document whichever therapist you book, and the hour you get is held to the same standard.
It is a discount you buy once and spend as the sessions come, instead of a monthly fee you have to remember to cancel.
Eleven years with no lapse and no downgrade, on a rating anyone can check.
Most people book 60 minutes, which is $115.50 plus GST. Thirty minutes suits one knot you can point to, and ninety gives your therapist time to follow the pain back to where it starts without rushing. If you aren't sure, book the hour and decide from there.
| Session | Price |
|---|---|
| 30 minutes | $73.50 |
| 60 minutes | $115.50 |
| 90 minutes | $157.50 |
We bill your extended health provider directly, so you only pay the part your plan doesn't cover, and the card we keep on file isn't charged until your insurer has paid its share. We can bill your primary plan only. If your plan needs a doctor's referral for massage, send it to your benefit provider before your appointment, not to us.
Alberta Blue Cross – Sun Life – Canada Life – Telus Health (Manulife, Canada Life + 20 more) – Medavie (incl. Veterans Affairs & RCMP) – Green Shield
Nadine Munro has been a Registered Massage Therapist since 2000 and founded Got Knots in 2009. Every therapist on our team is an RMT with at least 2,200 hours of training, and together we've treated more than 4,300 clients since the clinic opened.
FocusDeep tissue, cupping and children's massage
FocusPrenatal, deep tissue and kids massage
FocusHeadaches, migraines and TMJ pain
In our clients’ experience it does, for the knot itself and often for the ache that knot was sending somewhere else. The research on massage for chronic pain, fibromyalgia and tension headaches is on those pages, and it tests massage more broadly rather than trigger point work alone.
It’s tender, not sharp. The tenderness should fade as the knot lets go rather than build. Tell your therapist the moment it crosses that line. Worked spots can feel bruised for a day or two afterwards, much like the day after a hard workout.
Usually, yes, although a long-standing knot tends to come back until whatever keeps tightening that muscle changes. That’s why your therapist works the whole muscle as well as the point, and why you leave with an idea of what sets that knot off, whether that’s eight hours at a desk or the way you sleep.
Usually one to a few sessions, depending on how long the knot has been there. A recent one often settles quickly, while one you’ve carried for years takes more, closer together at first and further apart as it holds. Your therapist will tell you what they think after the first appointment, once they’ve felt what’s going on.
No. Trigger point therapy at Got Knots is hands-on only, with every release done by your therapist’s hands. Trigger point injections are a medical procedure done by a doctor, and dry needling is offered by some physiotherapists and chiropractors, so if either has been recommended to you, ask the person who recommended it.
Usually, if your extended health insurance covers massage by a registered massage therapist, because trigger point therapy is booked as a massage appointment. We handle direct billing wherever your plan allows it and keep a card on file for the rest, so call 780-455-7160 if you aren’t sure what yours covers.
Visit us
Find us at 13220 St Albert Trail NW #104 — right on the commute between downtown Edmonton and St. Albert. Open Monday through Saturday, with direct billing to most major benefit plans.
Serving north Edmonton and the St. Albert corridor
