Abstract
Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) is a technique in which a person is trained to voluntarily relax individual muscles. It induces both physiological and psychological relaxation by reducing the response to stress, reducing skeletal muscle contractions, and decreasing the sensation of pain (McCaffery & Pasero, 1990). PMR was first developed by American physician Edmund Jacobson in 1934. His protocol involved the tensing and relaxation of 16 muscle groups (Freeman, 2004). Because the PMR therapy developed by Jacobson was a long procedure, Joseph Wolpe in 1948 developed a method called abbreviated progressive relaxation training (APRT), which focuses on relaxing several muscle groups simultaneously. Wolpe taught students to tense muscles and then relax them as opposed to focusing on tensions and relaxing them (Wolpe, 1990). Several therapists since that time have developed further adaptations, so the art of relaxation therapy is now highly variable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)