Welcome to Chinese Medicine Modalities! I am an Acupuncturist, so most of these will be from my perspective, ill have information and pictures on each plus videos provided by you tube :) Enjoy, I may continue to update this if I forget something or need to add additional links.
Acupuncture: Is the art of using philiform needles to activate specific points on the body to aide in healing, blood flow, Qi flow and to create relief from pain and assorted illness. The needles are made so that it gently slips through the skin, it doesn't break the skin apart so it doesn't hurt like a normal needle would! The pictures I have demonstrate how small the needles are, and a patient receiving acupuncture, as well the video shows how small the needles are, and how we insert a needle. The video is old, so just to point out, although we can insert needles without a guide tube, we don't anymore, as guide tubes are more comfortable for the patient and easier for the practitioner.
Acupuncture - Video of Acupuncture
Auricular Acupuncture : Did you know almost any part of your body can be considered a mini full body micro system? For example: Your ear can be used to treat multiple parts of your body! Its actually a quite successful and strong treatment! Your practitioner can actually use this to treat your condition with minimal needles!
Acupressure: Acupressure is when your practitioner uses pressure instead of needles to help a patient during treatment. This can be used when a patient is undergoing treatment and a specific area can be quite tender, or if a practitioner would like to incorporate it in her treatment which acupuncture is no feasible, such as a in the middle of a massage, or in the middle of cupping. It doesn't activate quite as well as acupuncture, but it can be effective in some cases.
Cupping: During treatment your acupuncturist may need to do a deep tissue massage, or extract pathogens from the body. In these cases, cupping maybe used to do so. To use the cupping method, your practitioner will use either a plastic, glass, bamboo or even bone cup to suction to your skin. Your practitioner can use a manual method to apply the suction, that almost looks like a bicycle pump. Or they may use fire cupping, a more traditional and stronger method to apply the cup to your skin. The fire is used to void all oxygen from the cup before application to the skin. The fire NEVER touches the patient, and the cup is safely added to the skin to create a suction. This suction is like a hickey... but is a deep massage that lifts skin from muscle to allow blood and energy to that area, besides usually it feels quite nice :) You can have different types of cupping. There is slide cupping, in which the cup is slid all over the back, leg, shoulder, arm, neck to provide relief in a massage type of treatment. Or stationary cupping, where a cup is placed in a single area and not generally moved to allow relief. There is also flash cupping, used to heat a area or cleanse heat from an area with use of fire cupping... Quickly suctioning a cup to a patient and then releasing over and over.. its a unique but amazing experience :) Cupping has been used for centuries by many many civilizations, its almost a topic all on its own..
Video Of Cupping
Guasha: Is the art, of using a tool such as a spoon, bone, ivory, jade etc to scrape the body causing a raising of the skin, and discoloration.. don't worry it sounds much worse than what it is! It is an amazing and useful modality! It brings blood and energy to the area causing healing and the breaking up of scar tissue!! It almost always creates pain relief, and aides healing to the area. Its amazing for neck pain, when you cannot fit cups and shoulder issues.
Electro Acupuncture : This modality is being used more and more here in the west. Most have had TENS, where electric signals are sent to the muscles by using two pads to create a small current in the muscles, to heal and aide in pain relief. Acupuncture can use this modality much in the same way, but ... by use of needles :) We find that if there is a very stubborn case or a severely injured muscles its great to use electro acupuncture to quicken the relief and strengthen the acupuncture treatment.
There are multiple forms of modalities. If there are any questions, let me know ill be adding more modalities as I come across them :)
Roberta. D.Ac, R.Ac
No comments:
Post a Comment