aring four practices Massage Therapy
Acupressure
What is massage therapy? Massage therapy is the manual manipulation of soft tissue to promote health and wellness.
What is acupressure? Acupressure is the application of manual pressure, usually through touch, on different acupoints on the body to stimulate its healing response.
According to Shay Beider, Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT) Ms. Beider is the founder and executive director of Integrative Touch for Kids, a non-profit organization whose mission is to facilitate healing retreats for children with special medical needs. She also founded Gentle Massage for Children to provide pediatric massage trainings and certifications internationally.
What are the benefits of massage therapy? Massage therapy has been shown to have several benefits for both pediatric and adult clients. In addition to pain and tension reduction, massage therapy has shown significant changes in improving depression and anxiety in adults. Likewise, pediatric massage also showed reductions in anxiety and found promising evidence for pain management, muscle tone improvement, and enhanced respiration. Additionally, massage therapy has been found to help aid digestion, relieve constipation, and alleviate stress. What is the philosophy behind the practice? The philosophy of massage therapy is diverse, often combining symptom management and enhanced well-being through multisystem integration, which emphasizes balance, homeostasis, healing, well-being, and a departure from symptom abatement alone. What injuries/ailments are commonly treated? Many ailments, in addition to pain, can be treated using massage therapy. These include anxiety, depression, arthritis, and lack of range of motion or muscle tone. Also, massage therapy can treat conditions of the musculoskeletal system, nervous system, and circulatory system, to name a few. What techniques are commonly used for treatment? Traditionally, Swedish massage is used in most of the research studies, but the field is extremely diverse and includes new and ancient techniques, each providing suggested benefits. These include therapies such as cranial sacral, myofascial release, neuromuscular and trigger point therapies, and reflexology. According to the Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals, “there are more than 250 variations of massage, bodywork, and somatic therapies and many practitioners utilize multiple techniques. The application of these techniques may include, but is not limited to, stroking, kneading, tapping, compression, vibration, rocking, friction, and pressure to the muscular structure or soft tissues of the human body.”
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What are the benefits of acupressure? Acupressure may be useful in treating many pain and non-pain symptoms. Moreover, it is safe and easy to do, and can be done on your own wherever you are. What is the philosophy behind the practice? It is recognized that the different parts of the body communicate via energy signals. Acupressure is thought to send signals of energy along various pathways in the body resulting in physiological changes, such as releasing tension in muscles and increasing blood flow as means to promote the healing response. What injuries/ailments are commonly treated? Acupressure is commonly used to treat pain disorders like headaches, neck pain, back pain, knee pain, etc. It can also be effective in treating more non-specific symptoms, such as nausea, fatigue, insomnia, and anxiety. What techniques are commonly used for treatment? At the UCLA Center for East-West Medicine, we utilize a holistic approach. Each patient is given an integrative assessment and individualized treatment plan that utilizes any combination of acupuncture, massage, trigger point injections (page 26), and patient education, including self-acupressure, stress management, Chinese nutrition, mind-body techniques, and other tips on lifestyle modification with appropriate use of medication. East or West Medicine? It truly is both – acupressure should be viewed as a concept, not just a treatment modality. Put simply, acupressure is a method of stimulating the body at certain points to promote healing. This can be done through conventional western medicine means, such as trigger point injections, myofascial release (therapeutic massage), ultrasound, and a TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) unit. Traditional Chinese medicine utilizes not only acupressure, but also acupuncture, cupping, and moxabustion to stimulate acupoints.
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total wellness ▪ winter 2011
East or West Medicine? Touch and massage are within the healing domains of both Eastern and Western medicine. Western thinking tends to focus on symptom management, whereas Eastern thinking often addresses the more global healing process.
According to Dr. Lawrence Taw, MD Dr. Taw is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the UCLA Center for East-West Medicine. He is board-certified by both the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Integrative and Holistic Medicine, as well as in Oriental Medicine, Acupuncture, and Herbology by the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine.