The caller sounded frantic. “Last week I was doing chair massage at the gym and one of my customers passed out,” he said. “I caught her as she was collapsing to the floor, but I couldn't revive her right away."
Among the panoply of alternative approaches to wellness, Jin Shin Jyutsu(R) is emerging as a complementary therapy offered to patients in conventional medical practices. As part of a multi-disciplinary group practice in which I participate at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, Jin Shin Jyutsu (pronounced “Jit-su”) has provided significant relief to patients suffering from a variety of complaints, while easily supporting whatever treatment regime their medical doctors may have prescribed.
In August 1977, Angelina Hekking was living on a kibbutz in Israel, exploring new horizons and possibilities for her life. She had been experiencing problems with headaches and strange sensations in her body before leaving her native Holland. During her 2 1/2 years in the kibbutz, the symptoms gradually worsened.
The human body is an intelligent living organism constantly re-creating itself in response to stimuli. Some of these stimuli are physical trauma and injury, some are emotional, and others are new and desirable learnings acquired through training or education. In this realm of new and desirable learnings, NeuroMuscular Reprogramming(R) (NMR) can contribute a great deal.
Ease and harmony — that’s what the body seeks to rediscover with Ortho-Bionomy, a gentle osteopathically-based system for working with the body’s self-corrective reflexes. According to Ortho-Bionomy founder Arthur Lincoln Pauls, D.O., ease and harmony are things we already know, and Ortho-Bionomy is one way of remembering. It is an educational tool “of a high order.
Last time we discussed various types of injuries which can plague swimmers. Here, the specific Russian Sports Massage treatment for those injuries will be discussed.
The injuries were grouped into overuse, trauma-related and environmental. We also alluded to the fact that even though these injuries occur in swimming, the same injuries can happen in other sports and everyday activities. Therefore, the treatments presented here would also be appropriate for the same conditions found in the general population and other sports.
T’ai chi and qigong remind us that we are energy by immersing our mind and body in the experience of it each day. This constant immersion reminds us how closely we are linked to all things. This isn’t an illusion. The illusion is that we think we are separate from the world. The rainforest and ocean are the earth’s lungs and thermostats. Without them we perish. So, to feel ‘connected’ to the world is to become real. T’ai chi and qigong help us to become more and more real.
Taking the Waters. It’s a phrase that holds mysterious connotations from a simpler, ancient time. Just as with water therapies today, Taking the Waters was, and is, a physical venture into healing, cleansing and rejuvenation. What has been significantly lost from the Taking the Waters experience of old is the integration of domains. Art, socialization, nutrition, honest leisure, discussion, music — these interdisciplinary elements were all part of the spa culture of which Taking the Waters has historically been a part.
Bangkok, Thailand, a city famous for its exotic offerings, is also the site of Wat Pho’s Traditional Medical and Massage School — a center for the teaching, research and practice of the Thai healing tradition. It is a school unlike those seen in North America. At Wat Pho, massage and medicine are taught in a Buddhist temple — the “wat” — adorned with filigreed designs and garden statues of figures in various postures dating back to the 16th century. It is here, in these forms and in this temple, that we find both an ancient art and an age-old philosophy.
While working in critical care I realized that communication with my patients was a major problem. Most of them could not express their needs to me because they were intubated (a breathing tube placed down their throat) and therefore could not speak. Almost all of these patients were attached to heart monitors and had many intravenous lines. Sometimes there were so many machines monitoring essential body function it was hard to remember that underneath it all was a person — someone’s loved one.
Please note: We have recently updated our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. Learn more...