Chi Kung and Tuina

 Now, I know that this is my blog about Tuina, the wonderful, effective Chinese massage healing therapy so you might be wondering why on earth I'm talking about Chi Kung.


The reason is that as a Tuina practitioner, you are using your
body, your energy to help others to heal themselves.  You need to put yourself back in balance to be able to continue to do this.

Regularly practising Chi Kung will help you to keep your five elements and thus, all your organs in balance and to regulate the flow of Chi around your body. 

But there's more to it than that. 
Practising Chi Kung will also help you to become a more effective
practitioner of tuina and help you to heal people faster.



Better Diagnoses, Faster Healing


By practicing Chi Kung you will learn how to increase the amount
of Chi in your body and then, how to release this Chi into your patients'
bodies. You will, through practicing Chi Kung, be more sensitive to the flow of Chi through your patient's
body and you will sense where the flow is blocked and where the Chi isn't getting through. 



If you regularly practice Chi Kung, you will then be able to
emit some of your Chi, through your hands and tuina massage, directly to where
your patient needs it.  Thus giving them the Chi they need and speeding up their body's process of healing itself.



And don't tell me you're too busy to fit in some Chi Kung either!  You can do a basic set of
balancing element exercises in as little as seven minutes.  You're not telling me you don't have a spare seven minutes in a day?


But most importantly of all, Chi Kung will help you to remain
balanced, focussed and centred.  This is, I believe, something that all tuina practitioners need to be if
they're going to be effective in treating their patients. 

Have you heard of the Tweenies?  They're children's TV characters who
are supposed to be children aged from 2 to 5 years old. 
Children of this age group can have all sorts of health problems and niggles, from endless colds and coughs, to allergies, to asthma, eczema, fidgeting, bed-wetting to growing pains.


But who am I kidding? 
Children of all ages have all sorts of health problems, some serious, some not serious but which nevertheless, affect their enjoyment of life.  Let's take eczema for example.  The standard medical response is to prescribe creams and maybe steroids. End of story.  But with tuina, we've managed to cure eczema and stop it returning. 
No chemicals, no medicines, just using traditional Chinese medicine
massage therapy.


Tuina is incredibly effective in dealing with those constant companions of childhood; coughs and colds.  It even cures tonsillitis and pharyngitis. Tuina has successfully treated food allergies, asthma, digestive disorders, growing pains and hyperactivity amongst many, many other illnesses and ailments.
 
Tuina is the first choice of medicine to treat children in
China.   People in China do have access to modern Western medicines, yet they stick to Tuina because it works.


And because Tuina is non-invasive, it can even be used on newborns, to soothe colic, restlessness, pain. No-one is too old or too young for tuina, which is one of the reasons why I love it.

 
But the main reason that I wrote Tweenies instead of children in my title is that whilst Tuina is great for all children, it is especially useful between birth and the age of five.   

 
During this time a child's meridian systems are still developing and most of the child's behavioural, neurological and physical developments occur.  By using Tuina in these years we can ensure a proper flow of qi or energy throughout the body, to support correct development in all these areas and thus prevent the child from
developing a weak immune system or developing behavioural problems.

 
This is just one of the reasons why I'm a fan of Tuina for tweenies and everyone else too.  

You know that I'm a great believer in the healing power of tuina, the ancient Chinese medicine that uses massage to help the body to heal itself, but today I bring you news of a scientific study that shows just how effective tuina can be.

This study, which you can find in full here, http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1472-6882-11-87.pdf looked into various treatments for the relief of chronic fatigue syndrome. 

CFS and alternative medical therapies

Chronic fatigue syndrome or CFS is a devastating ailment that can stop people's careers and put their entire lives on hold.  It robs people of the energy they need to live and to enjoy life and whilst conventional medicine has finally admitted that CFS exists, it is still not that good at diagnosing or treating it.

This peer reviewed study into the effectiveness of various treatments for chronic fatigue syndrome, compared the use of various complementary and alternative medical therapies, including tuina as well as conventional drug based treatments.  

Tuina proved to be as effective as conventional medicine

This study found that "qi gong (Chi Kung), massage and tuina were demonstrated to have positive effects."

One study "tested tuina and tai chi as compared to fluoxetine." The standard drug prescribed to treat and relieve the symptoms of CFS.  The study found that "the tuina group had more symptom reduction than the fluoxetine group, but there were no significant differences between tuina and tai chi or tai chi and fluoxetine after 1 month of treatment."

What this shows is that Tuina is at first more successful at treating CFS and after one month it is still as effective as drug therapy.  This study proves what I've known all along; that tuina is an effective, safe and non-invasive way of healing the body of several ailments.

I'm convinced that as more research is carried out in the West, or more of the research from China is translated, we will see yet more studies proving the efficacy of this traditional form of Chinese medicine

Tuina can help people.  I know that because I see it every single day.  I also know that more people could be helped with Tuina if we had more qualified tuina practitioners to treat them.

But I don't believe in long-distance, hands-off training.  I want all the tuina graduates I train to be able to use tuina as effectively as I do.  That means one thing: they have to learn hands-on with me.  This is the way the Chinese teach tuina.  Potential tuina practitioners have to undergo an apprenticeship where they can learn from their trainer everything they need to know to be a good tuina practitioner.

Now, it is one thing me saying how hands-on it is, but it's another to experience it for yourself. So I thought I'd give you an example of what I mean when I say 'hands-on' and why I know we offer the best Tuina training in Ireland.

So here we go.  Let's take a look at a day in the life of a typical tuina student.

Our working day is from 10am to 6pm, but my student has to meet me at 9.45am so we can discuss the cases we will be working on throughout the day and schedule what she'll be doing that day.

From then on, she works alongside her teacher.  She is guided on how to use various massage techniques and she also uses them herself on the patients.  In this way she also learns treatment protocols: what to look out for, what to ask, what to do. In this way, we as teachers, also get to observe and assess the progress she is making with her massage techniques.

If there is any acupuncture being carried out, the student observes what is done and where and how the needles are placed.  Unless she is a level 3 student, in which case she will also learn how to carry out acupuncture too.

Throughout every consultation with every patient throughout the day, she takes notes.  As each patient leaves the teacher asks her about what she has noticed and observed when clients come in with various ailments and injuries.  This way she learns how to make effective diagnoses of conditions and also what treatments to offer to cure these conditions.

At the end of every day there is a question and answer session about topics and cases we have covered that day, as well as treatment protocols and techniques.

Whew!  That's a long day!  And that's a typical, normal, hands-on, learning on the job day with me.  Of course, not all days are like that - sometimes we have lectures too!

You see, I take tuina seriously and I want all practitioners of it to take it seriously too.  This isn't just any old massage; this is healing massage that really works.  And if you want to make it work for other people, then I want to make sure you're as good at tuina as I am.

Acupuncture is slowly becoming more accepted by the Western
world.  And it's about time too.  Acupuncture're-sets' the body's energy flow, or Qi (pronounced chee) and thus helps the body to heal
itself of many problems. 



I've been using acupuncture along with Tuina (pronounced twee nah) healing massages, for many years now and have seen it cure many problems that many traditional, western doctors had thought of as untreatable.  With acupuncture
I've helped many infertile couples become proud and happy parents.  I've cured insomnia, eczema and migraines as well as many other ailments too.


Acupuncture is a safe and extremely effective alternative health  therapy and as my happy clients will tell you; it works.


But how do you go about learning acupuncture?  Do you do a long-distance course?  I guess you could. 
Do you study via books? Maybe you could.  But how about learning hands-on with an experienced practitioner to guide you? 
How about working with real-live patients and learning how to use acupuncture and tuina together to heal people?


That's the opportunity I'm offering you.  My students learn the traditional Chinese way, via an
apprenticeship.  From day one you'll be learning to work hands-on. But don't worry; there'll be plenty of academic work too. 
But I believe the best way to learn is to watch, ask and do.  I know every student is different, just as everybody is different and I will work with you to bring out the best in you, to help you to discover the
healer inside you.  
With my help you'll learn all the skills of acupuncture and tuina and become an
accredited member of the Complimentary Medical Association. 



People in the west are already benefitting from the health
  benefits of acupuncture and the need for acupuncture continues to grow.  Why don't you join me and learn how to
meet this growing need?

In my previous blog posts I was a bit formal.  I was trying for an impartial, third
person reporting style but you know what? It didn't work. 
I shouldn't be surprised really. 
Talking in the third person never really impresses and what's more, it makes it harder to convey just how passionately I feel about Tuina and how it can make a REAL difference to people's lives.


So, no more third person, just me to you, telling you why I'm such a big fan of Tuina and why I think it could change your life too.


I first came across Tuina in China, where it is regularly practised in mainstream hospitals. 
Tuina is an ancient form of medicine. It's been around for over 2,500 years, but as everyone who has experienced it knows, Tuina is very relevant today. 



Tuina simply means to push and grasp. 
Tuina  involves using a variety of hand movements and techniques to stimulate the organs, muscles,
tendons, ligaments, and the energy flow around the body which is called 'Qi' or 'Chee' in Chinese.  In this
way, Tuina helps the body to heal itself. 
It really is simple, non-invasive and effective.


Over the twelve years that I have been using Tuina I have seen it cure many diseases and ailments such as: 
migraines, anxiety, insomnia, neck pain and whiplash injuries, cervical spondylosis and lumbar disc prolapses to name just a few. 
In China it is regularly used for paediatric care, for physical therapy and rehabilitation as well as treating a wide variety of ailments. 
It is the most tried and tested alternative health therapy in the world.  In short, Tuina works.


It works very, very well as all my clients will tell you.  In fact, the only problem we
have here in Ireland is that we need more Tuina practitioners to meet demand.  If you would like to help
these patients to a healthier, happier life through Tuina, then I can help you.


I believe in learning Tuina the way the Chinese learn Tuina; through intensive apprenticeships. 
As a student of Tuina with me you will learn hands on how to use Tuina.  I use a combination of in house learning, classroom discussions and lectures to help you develop your natural skills and talents to become a talented Tuina healer. 
I even arrange trips to China to study with the masters there too.



I honestly believe Tuina can make a real difference to people's lives; if you want to do that too, then why not contact me and ask about becoming a Tuina practitioner. 
Let me share my passion for Tuina with you.