Gua Sha Massage and Therapy
What Is Gua Sha?
– Break up painful myofascial trigger points and relieve pain
Zing True Health Therapists are trained in Gua Sha therapy which is a very effective manual Gua Sha treatment to help the body heal itself. The meaning of Gua (gwa) is to scrap, rub or extract. While Sha (shaw) means sand or sediment, which is signifying congestion in the blood. The Gua Sha massage is used to promote circulation to the local area in order to reduce pain and promote healing and for preventative measures.
What Does Gua Sha Do?
Gua Sha treatment is all about the skin.
– What happens on it
– What happens under it.
Gua Sha massage consist of scraping the skin with a tool in order to make a change to the connective tissue. This allows increased blood circulation and the removal of local guest pathologies embedded in tissue. This then permits the tissue to expand and contract without restriction and freely move.
How Does It Work?
Qi And Blood
When you apply Gua Sha massage near the area of pain it will release the local area of stagnation and improve the flow of blood and Qi(energy). When the flow improves, the discomfort is then decreased. Traditional Chinese medicine understands the presence of meridian channels that move Qi, think of these as rivers of Qi running along distinct band channels up and down the body. When you make a change anywhere in the body to these Qi channels it influences the entire channel, this is how Gua Sha therapy can influence the entire body by rubbing a specific area it will open up and move the flow of that entire channel and blood vessels.
Gua Sha Clears Qi And Blood Stagnation
Gua Sha works by “dredging the channels”. Dredging is a wonderful description of what is going on. Dredging is the excavation of material from a liquid environment to improve the existing liquid feature, reshape the mass or for drainage. Traditional Chinese Medicine keeps the theory very simple: if there is a blockage causing a problem, you need to unblock it. Encourage the body by using therapeutic treatment and allow the body to do the rest. Doing Gua Sha massage (dredging or strong clearing) will improve the flow and prevent stagnation.
Pain is thought to be essentially a blood or qi obstruction. The smooth flow of blood and qi has been blocked, which causes pressure to build up from behind and then leads to symptomatic messages to draw your attention to it. Blockage occurs due to weakness in qi or blood, in that it is not plentiful or strong enough to flow smoothly. Localized clearing of stagnation will benefit the whole body by improving the blood flow but also in helping any underlying weakness by encouraging the body to produce blood.
Gua Sha Expels Environmental Factors
Traditional Chinese Medicine developed ideas thousands of years ago that still stand the test of time. They explain the complex processes of how the body becomes ill through environmental phenomena. Rather than viewing humans as distinct from nature, Chinese Medicine theory views human as intrinsically linked to nature, and in a constant daily interaction with the natural environment around us, no matter where we are.
Who Is Gua Sha Therapy For?
There is a mistaken belief that Gua Sha is only for something. If you have sore shoulders, you can use Gua Sha, if you have bad back you can use Gua Sha, if you have a cold you can use Gua Sha. But Gua Sha is much more than treating an ailment, regular Gua Sha use has a preventative and balancing quality which means that you can actually help prevent the ailment from appearing in the first place.
The underlying idea in Gua Sha is one of moving stagnation and improving circulation, which means that indications of Gua Sha are wide and varied. Any situation in which there may be stagnation, especially over a period of time as in the case of chronic health conditions, means that Gua Sha may help.
Gua Sha is part of a view of the body that sees everything connected, from the smallest molecule to the largest body part. It looks at the body holistically and sees cosmetic change as inseparable from internal change. Although Gua Sha therefore has wide application by itself, however, when used at Zing True Health Clinic in conjunction with Acupuncture, Hyperbaric Oxygen, Tuina, Nutrition, and Herbal Medicine its greatest potential as a preventative and curative procedure can be realised.