Acu-Yoga is a system of exercises integrating the knowledge of two holistic methods of health maintenance—acupressure and yoga. Both relax muscular tension and balance the vital life forces of the body. Yoga does this through controlling the breath while holding the body in certain postures. Acupressure does this by directly manipulating body energy through a system of points and meridians. Each Acu-Yoga posture naturally presses and stretches certain nerves, muscles, and acupressure points, awakening the meridians and releasing the tension in the points so that energy (chi) can circulate freely. This energy is the source of all life, and its flow is the key to radiant health. The process balances the body and stimulates it to heal itself.

Acupuncture is an ancient Asian healing technique based on the Taoist philosophy of balancing energy meridians within the body, thus allowing the body to heal itself. Fine needles are painlessly inserted at key points corresponding to body organs to relieve pain and cure disease and dysfunction. Related techniques include the use of low-voltage electric current (electro acupuncture) or massage at key points (acupressure).

This noncompetitive Japanese martial art aims to harmonize energy with that of a partner or opponent in order to achieve both physical and emotional mastery through peaceful resolution. Aikido literally means the path to the coordination of body, mind, and spirit. Aikido is a defensive system of continuous, circular motions, combining many of the fluid, dance-like movements of t’ai chi along with more subtle, stylized techniques. When practiced properly, successful defense is achieved through minimal action. Originally seen as a combination of religion and martial arts, aikido was created by Morehei Ueshiba in the early twentieth century.

The Alexander Technique is movement education in which the student is taught to sit, stand, and move in ways that reduce physical stress on the body. Alexander Technique teachers use gentle manual guidance and verbal cues to improve students’ posture and movement patterns. A lesson or group class typically involves basic movements such as sitting, standing, walking, bending, reaching, carrying, and lying down. It may also involve more specialized activities such as playing a musical instrument, working at a computer, etc.

The teacher’s manual guidance stresses the adjustment of the head, neck, and torso relationship. In beginning lessons, the teacher closely monitors the student. Later, the student learns to monitor herself, ultimately learning a unique self-management process, an understanding of balance and dynamic postural control.

F. M. Alexander, an Australian actor, developed the technique in the late 1800s as a result of attempting to solve his own physical problem of losing his voice on stage. He discovered that misuse of the neuromuscular activity of the head, neck, and spine caused maladaptive functioning and that this movement could be corrected. As he began to teach his technique, he found that his students’ overall health improved and that the technique could be used to address a wide array of problems.

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Amma (sometimes spelled anma) is the traditional word for massage in the Japanese language. It comes from the Chinese tradition of massage, anmo, a form of bodywork that is based on the principles of Chinese medicine and is more than 5,000 years old. When anmo was brought to Japan, the technique was further refined into its own therapeutic art form, amma.

The amma techniques encompass a myriad of pressing, stroking, stretching, and percussive manipulations with the thumbs, fingers, arms, elbows, knees, and feet on acupressure points along the body’s 14 major meridians. Amma brings to Western culture the ancient art and wisdom of traditional Japanese massage. Through the structure of kata (choreographed movement), amma teaches the importance of rhythm, pacing, precision, and form in massage.

Unlike Western massage, amma utilizes no oils and can be done through clothing with the client either sitting or lying. This makes amma an extremely flexible style of massage suitable to a wide variety of client needs and environments. Shiatsu—a style of bodywork popularized after World War II—was developed from the amma tradition.

Both pets and performance animals experience soft-tissue damage in their daily lives just as humans do. Therapeutic massage provides significant relief, stimulates healing, and promotes stress reduction and relaxation. Other benefits include enhancing performance by increasing range of motion, maintaining muscle tone and joint flexibility, increasing blood and lymph circulation, increasing oxygen to reduce muscle spasms, flushing toxins from muscles and joints, improving disposition, preventing injuries, stimulating areas affected postoperatively, recovering from skeletal and muscular surgery or injury, relieving muscle pain by releasing endorphins, and relieving discomfort from arthritis, lameness, and hip dysplasia. Animals also can receive pre- and post-event massage for competition. See equine massage.

Applied Kinesiology is a healing system that evaluates and treats an individual’s structural, chemical, and mental aspects. It employs muscle testing and other standard methods of diagnosis. Applied Kinesiology therapeutically utilizes nutrition, manipulation, diet, acupressure, exercise, and education to help restore balance and harmony in the body and maintain well-being throughout life. (From Alternative Healing, by Hugh Burroughs and Mark Kastner, Halcyon, 1993.)

Dr. George Goodheart, a chiropractor in Detroit, Michigan, discovered the technique in 1964 during a patient treatment. After applying a few seconds of deep pressure on the man’s severe muscular dysfunction, he found the problem was eliminated. Dr. John Thie developed a simplified version of Applied Kinesiology called Touch for Health in 1970.

The use of essential oils (extracted from herbs, flowers, resin, woods, and roots) in body and skin care treatments is known as aromatherapy. Used as a healing technique for thousands of years by the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, essential oils aid in relaxation, improve circulation, and help the healing of wounds.

Specific essential oils are blended by the aromatherapist and added to a carrier oil, such as almond oil, to be used during the massage. Each oil has its own unique characteristics and benefits. Aromatherapy diffusers are utilized to fill the massage room with the scent of the oils.

Use of this technique declined as the modern pharmaceutical industry developed. However, the French chemist Gattefossé revived the art by coining the term aromatherapy and by publishing a book on the subject in 1928. Click here to find an Aromatherapy practitioner.

This barefoot massage technique was developed by massage therapist Ruthie Piper Hardee in 1995 as a result of her own scoliosis and disk pain, associated with bending over the table to deliver deep-tissue massage. Bars are used above the head for leverage, and lubricant is essential for its application. The technique uses deep compression effleurage strokes that glide over the body.

The resulting movement may help relieve pain resulting from chronic soft-tissue damage. Correct application will provide deep relaxation while stretching chronic shortened muscles of the body.

Correct application of two-footed strokes near the spine creates a “push, pull, pumping” effect on the intervertebral disc space and can relieve irritation on the spinal nerve. No anxiety should result from this application, and client range of comfort is maintained at all times. Additional information is available at www.deepfeet.com.

Aston Patterning is an educational process, developed by Judith Aston in 1977, combining movement coaching, bodywork, ergonomics, and fitness training. It can be helpful to individuals seeking relief from acute or chronic pain or for those wishing to improve their posture and increase the efficiency of their movement patterns, either in activities of daily living or complex activities, such as athletics or the performing arts.

• The movement work, neurokinetics, has two divisions. The first part involves instruction in the most efficient way to perform the simple activities of daily living, and then progresses to complex activities. The second part teaches the client how to use movement to decrease accumulated tension in the body.
• The bodywork includes Aston massage, myokinetics, and arthrokinetics. The massage is a specialized form based on Swedish massage, utilizing a three-dimensional touch that helps to release functional holding patterns from surface to bone. The bodywork is used to make new movement options available, and the sessions are followed with a movement lesson to assist the client in understanding how the tension had been created and how to maintain the changes achieved.
• The ergonomic training shows the client how environment affects the body’s alignment, dimensional integrity, and degree of effort required to perform activities, and identifies the role the environment plays in the current complaint. The client is trained to modify or negotiate with less-than-optimal ergonomic situations.
• The fitness training includes vertical and horizontal loosening, toning, stretching, and cardiovascular fitness. The loosening moves address specific areas of tension that, when released, assist the client in achieving the best alignment and dimensional integrity before working out. Toning teaches the client how to address specific areas that are less toned in comparison to the rest of the body, resulting in an even distribution of muscle tone throughout the body. Stretching is taught in a way that doesn’t borrow dimension from an adjacent body segment while working a specific area.

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Attunement is a non-touch (or light touch) approach to healing, employing spiritual techniques (prayer and meditation) to restore one’s naturally vibrant energetic and physical well-being. Attunement balances the flow of energy through the endocrine glands, organs, bones, and other tissues of the body—establishing alignment between the body, mind, and emotions and harmonizing these elements with the “spirit,” described as the radiant source of life and healing.

Sharing attunement with clients invites them to occupy a sacred energetic or vibrational space characterized by stillness and peace, where healing at all levels can occur. This life-giving process is the doorway through which an individual may enhance or recover health of body, mind, and spirit.