I’m currently working on a documentary project that I’ve been working on for a while. A few years ago a friend of mine suffering from terrible back pain told me about a new treatment method his doctor had recommended; trigger point dry needling. He said it was the best pain killer he has ever had. It got me thinking about alternative medicine and complementary pain therapies. A lot of people brush it all off as rubbish, but there must be some truth to it. It’s a growing industry gaining more and more medical support by the minute. I tried to speak to doctors that were qualified in delivering dry needling and it seemed many of them had been on the same trigger point dry needling courses. This got me off topic a little and I started planning segments about the culture of medics, and the social circles they move in.
Another shelved idea. I tried to get access to patients that had undergone dry needling treatment but this wasn’t easy. Patient information is obviously highly confidential and I wasn’t able to get anything directly from osteopaths and chiropractors. So I went through my friend. First off, he himself had received treatment, and he belongs to various dry needling patient forums where people discuss their recoveries and treatment paths. I managed to get quite a few people to talk to me and it seemed the general response was overwhelmingly positive. I even managed to get some footage of dry needling courses taking place in Melbourne. The training is extremely thorough and all the doctors I spoke to said they didn’t hesitate at all about offering dry needling as pain relief. I am hoping to make the entire film seem like a treatment path. I am starting with some stories of patients suffering with ongoing muscular pain, and then building in the doctor’s training and then finally, the closing scenes will be of the success stories after treatment.