Relaxation appears to be the key to successful resolution of focal dystonia. A problem is that the term "relaxation" seems to never be defined. A practical definition is that relaxation is lengthening of muscle fibers and tension is shortening of muscle fibers. Central to relearning to control the fingers is the ability to distinguish between the contrasting feeling of relaxation and tension in the affected muscles. Tense the muscle, concentrate on how it feels, relax the muscle concentrate on how it feels. Eventually the ability to relax the muscle(s) will be relearned but it takes patient practice. Recommended reading: Calm Down by F.J. McGuigan. I have taught Progressive Relaxation at the graduate level and am using it to treat my dystonia (writer's cramp that generalized to guitar playing and typing). I expect mine will take two or more years to resolve. It snuck up on me and I ignored it for years.
My suggestions: 1. Read Calm Down. 2. Think about when the hand is tensed in situations other than playing the guitar(gripping steering wheel when driving; using tools; writing; drawing, etc.; mine seems to have been the result of too much note taking and drawing/gripping a pencil). 3. Congratulations to Leisner for his success but his ideas are not logical nor scientific so beware. 4. The few scientific studies that have been done are interesting but their published methodology sketchy. Sample sizes too small to be meaningful. The analyses are correlational and they apparently had no comparisons groups. Their results could have been due to many factors unrelated to the treatment. Their writings are tantalizing but of little or no practical significance.
