Acupressure

This includes channel and point palpation. I generally use this as a diagnostic tool and for stimulating your own body’s healing process. Most patients also find it incredibly relaxing.

I will also be holding workshops soon for parents, where they can learn to apply some basic knowledge of acupressure and point location to help provide support for their babies/children between treatments for a range of different symptoms.

Cupping

Cupping is an age-old technique used in traditional Chinese medicine to stimulate acupuncture points or larger areas of the body. Generally if I use Cupping, it would be to compliment an Acupuncture treatment, but it can also be used as a treatment in its own right, or in combination with other treatments.

Cups are rounded and can be made of rubber, glass or very occasionally, bamboo. Mine are glass ones. A vacuum is created inside the cup using heat, and quickly placed onto the skin where treatment is needed. The cup is left in place for anything up to 20 minutes. There may be more than one cup used in a treatment.

If large areas of the body need treating, a technique known as ‘sliding cups’ is used. A thin layer of massage oil is spread over the skin, the cups are then placed onto the body in the usual way and slid along the muscles being treated. This sliding method helps the blood and ‘Qi’to flow more easily in areas of stagnation.

Cupping is not painful; however it can leave reddish patches on the skin, like circular bruises. Although these marks resemble bruises, the muscles have not been traumatised in any way. The redness on the skin indicates that there has been movement in the circulation of blood under and around the cups. Not all cupping will result in redness as this depends on the complaint being treated.

Moxibustion

Moxibustion involves the burning of a  Chinese Herb, Artemisia Vulgaris (Mugwort), which produces heat that is hovered above the acupuncture points.

Sometimes I will warm the needle on certain points for added benefit and sometimes I will use a smokeless Moxa stick to warm certain points or areas of the body. This is often used in conjunction with an acupuncture treatment to increase energy, vitality and strengthen the body’s systems, and help warm and move Qi/Energy and Blood. Patients can also receive the benefits of Moxibustion without having acupuncture.