Was wondering...?

[Elayna]

Hi everyone...

So I was wondering if you guys could help me out with something. Amazing enough I just recently discovered this board and was like..Cool.

I myself am wanting to go into massage therapy. I have always had a "knack" for it i guess you could say. I guess just mainly becuase I love it so much. I have been doing some research into the different asian healing arts, not much but whenever i get a few extra minutes.
And so, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to intergrate the asian healing arts with the "western" healing arts so to speak. Right now I am looking into reflexology, sports massage, swedish massage, hot stone work, and of course acupuncture(the thing with the needels, LOL).

So if you all have any thoughts or suggestions on this i would really appreciate to hear them.
Maybe we can make a new funky whatama callit art. LOL LOL.

Anyways....TTYl

 

[pstarr]

For acupuncture, there are any number of fine schools you can attend. Swedish massage actually has its roots in Chinese massotherapy...

 

[Shaolinwind]

Hi everyone...

So I was wondering if you guys could help me out with something. Amazing enough I just recently discovered this board and was like..Cool.

I myself am wanting to go into massage therapy. I have always had a "knack" for it i guess you could say. I guess just mainly becuase I love it so much. I have been doing some research into the different asian healing arts, not much but whenever i get a few extra minutes.
And so, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on how to intergrate the asian healing arts with the "western" healing arts so to speak. Right now I am looking into reflexology, sports massage, swedish massage, hot stone work, and of course acupuncture(the thing with the needels, LOL).

So if you all have any thoughts or suggestions on this i would really appreciate to hear them.
Maybe we can make a new funky whatama callit art. LOL LOL.

Anyways....TTYl

I was just short of finishing massage therapy school when I had to leave Pennsylvania. There are several modalities, and eastern and western healing arts are genuinely linked. You build a basis on Swedish massage and then branch off into something simple like Shiatsu. I had a very keen interest in Reiki, a non-touching art involving the chi energies. Any school will cover all the different modalities but typically concentrate on Swedish, the mother of all massage modalities. It's a fun idea to choose to specialise in something like reflexology, but in a world that doesn't tend to believe the whole body can be connected to the foot it's a hard industry to thrive in. The best idea is to be as broad as you can.. Hot stone, Lomi-Lomi, reiki, accupressure, whatever you can get your lil' hands on, do it.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Tui Na (pronounced Twee Nah)

Chinese acupressure.

 

[Elayna]

Hey everyone thanks for the wonderful advice!!

Shaolin,
I tottaly hear you in being broad in the career angle. I mean it seems these days if your not in swedish massage people really dont know what to do. LOL.
So thats why Im hoping to not only have that but once i get some clients intergrate the other healings arts in you know. Not sure if it will work, but at least I know I can make money with swedish. LOL. Especially in Atlanta. Anyways, thanks for the nice response.

Xue..
I was wondering if you could elaborate more on chinese acupressure?? PLEAASEEE. LOL.
I will do some reasearch on it, but you know how bush days can be with kids. LOL.

Anyhooo, thanks all.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Xue..
I was wondering if you could elaborate more on chinese acupressure?? PLEAASEEE. LOL.
I will do some reasearch on it, but you know how bush days can be with kids. LOL.

Tui na
http://www.answers.com/topic/tui-na

Acupressure & Tui Na
http://www.ywacupuncture.com/albanyacupunctureatuina.htm

Basically applying pressure to acupuncture points instead of using needles. However it can be more painful than using needles. The area you apply pressure to, if there is no problem in the associated area of the body tends to cause little pain but if there is a problem in the associated area of the body, depending on severity, it can hurt quite a lot. Acupressure for headaches got me to reconsider and go with acupuncture for headaches, it is much less painful.

There is much more to it than you can generally find information on in the West. It is similar (key word similar) to shiatsu, not wishing to offend the Shiatsu people, but it is much older and more extensive and from China.

It is taught as part of the OMD curriculum and Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

 

[lhommedieu]

Some of the connections between traditional Chinese healing arts are ellucidated on this thread.

Best,

Steve

 

[RBaddorf]

Acupressure is only a very small part of Tuina. It is also, rolling, vibrating, pulling, pressing, plucking, rocking, and bone setting to name a few. Chiropratic, and massage both have their roots in Tuina. Bone setting is not just aligninment of broken bones, but also the realignment of joints (Chiropratic without the hard snaps) in a natural position.

 

[Fuzzy Foot]

In answer to your original question. Yes it can work (because it is working in some places), if you are talking about working with other professionals in other healing (western & eastern) disciplines. The hard part, is finding those individuals interested and willing to work with you on whatever professional level you're at, and of course doing it legally within state (or whatever) practice laws. It is getting better because the public is starting to demand this co-operation amongst their health providers, but its painfully slow. For 3 reasons. Economics, politics, and philosophy. Economics- no one wants to give up control or their piece of the pie (as they see it). Politics- Is how the rules get changed, and he who has the gold makes the rules (the other golden rule). Philosophy- The eastern vitalism (wholoistic) philosophy that the body is more than the sum of its parts vs the western mechanistic philosophy that the body is only parts or only the sum of its parts. There is some overlap and common ground philosophically and the key is to find it with those you wish to work with whether they be clients or other practioners and build from there. No small task, but again yes it can be done. You may consider training in both a western and eastern healing discipline, in which case either side would be willing to "hear your case" and it would likely give you more options to blend the two. But be aware the middle of the highway is a tough place to be and I've seen practioners conflicted about which side of the road they should really be on, what they should be doing, and why.