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Also called Shamanic healing, practitioners see themselves as conduits of healing energy from a spiritual source such as a powerful animal, or spirit guide. Before attempting a cure, the spiritual cause of the illness is first addressed. While healing techniques are unique to each tribe, all subscribe to the ancient belief that illness results when the body's harmony with nature is disrupted. Herbs are commonly used to guide and assist healing for a wide range of emotional and physical illnesses.
ART provides a way to diagnose and treat the underlying causes of cumulative trauma disorders that result in symptoms of numbness, tingling, burning and aching. ART is a type of manual hands-on therapy that corrects muscular and soft tissue problems caused by adhesion formation as a result of injury, overuse of cumulative trauma.
A non-intrusive precursor of acupuncture, acupressure stimulates the flow of vital energy, of chi, circulating along the body's meridians and influencing the functioning of certain internal organs. By applying thumb and fingertip pressure, specific symptoms are relieved and balance is restored to the entire body.
The art of inserting fine needles at specific points along the body's meridians to stimulate, disperse and regulate the flow of chi'. To determine acupuncture points, a pulse and tongue diagnosis is required along with observation and questioning of the patient. Acupuncture is used to relieve symptoms, especially pain relief, as well as to promote general health and well being.
An educational approach for identifying and developing discipline over negative physical habits related to posture and movement, breathing, stress, tension and negative thinking.
Evaluation through skin testing to determine if the client has specific allergies to various substances from foods to inhaled allergens.
A therapy delivered in a warm pool combining Watsu, a technique using shiatsu stretches and Jahara technique, a bio-mechanically correct series of joint mobilizations. The combination of warm water, low gravity and slow movements facilitate continuous range of motion and traction of the joints.
A 'muscle testing' form of chiropractic introduced in 1964, practitioners also examine structural factors such as posture and gait and make suggestions about lifestyle changes. It is also a non-invasive therapy, wherein applied kinesiologists apply light finger-tip massage to pressure points on the body or head in order to stimulate or relax key muscles. Neuromuscular Therapy also includes a muscle test for diagnosis, and then emphasizes the role of the brain, spine, and nerves to assess and restore balance of the body's skeletal structure. Used to improve digestion, energy and sports performance and to ease back joint pain, allergies, asthma depression and headaches.
A treatment using a range of essential oils of which the odour or fragrance plays an important part to therapeutically treat emotional disorders such as stress and anxiety, as well as to enhance health and appearance.
This is the taping of any major joint of the body in the case of injury.
Ayurveda means the 'science of life'. It does not focus on the disease, but rather on keeping a person healthy. Ayurveda views a human being as a microcosm of the universe. If the 'life force', of 'prana' is unbalanced, disease follows. Three forces, or 'doshas', determine the proper balance of prana. They include Pitta, the force of heat and energy; Kapha, the role of water and tides; and Vata, linked to the wind. Their subtle alignment to mind, body and spirit produce health. To maintain the body's equilibrium, dietary changes, yoga, meditation, herbs, massage and possibly chanting will be recommended. These lifestyle suggestions are always unique to the individual.
Flower essences are recognized for their ability to improve one's state of well-being by eliminating negative emotions. The British doctor Edward Bach believed in the homeopathic use of flower remedies to resist illness and enhance personal growth. After choosing the remedy that best addresses the users' complaint, a few drops of the flower remedy are given to correct the imbalance.
Procedures and treatments using electronic instrumentation to convey information to patients about their autonomic nervous systems and their muscles in the form of audio and/or visual signals that patients can understand.
Chakra balancing and energy therapies are based on the belief that the body has seven main energy centers along the spine, which absorb and emit life force. Each chakra governs an area of the body together with specific emotional issues. Poor health results when blockages occur due to bad nutrition, drugs, injury or mental and emotional problems. A variety of therapies may be suggested including acupuncture, biodynamic massage, yoga, colour and light therapy, cranio-sacral therapy, crystal healing, homeopathy, kinesiology, polarity therapy, qugong, shiatsu, sound therapy and spiritual/psychic healing.
Bruce Kumar Frantzis states in The Power of Internal Martial Arts: Combat Secrets of Ba Gua, Tai Chi and Hsing-I. Berkley: North Atlantic Books, 1998, pg 332.
(qi gong, chi kung) Energy work/power. The ancient Chinese art and science of developing and cultivating chi by one's own effort. Chi gung techniques may be done standing, moving, sitting, lying down, and during sex. These exercises balance, regulate, and strengthen energy channels, centers, and points of the body.
Acknowledging that colours have both a positive and negative effect, this therapy uses colour to rebalance cells and stimulate the healing process. Colour therapists apply coloured lights or apply colour mentally through suggestion to restore both the body's physical and 'psychic' levels. It is used to treat various physical and mental disorders.
This specialized treatment approach focuses on the cranio-sacral system comprised of the brain, spinal cord, meninges, cranial bones and sacrum. This cranio-sacral system contains fluid that moves with slight but perceptible rhythmic fluctuation. By using gentle pressure, tension in the body is reduced and balance is restored to the central nervous system.
Crystal therapy has been used to aid the healing of injuries or wounds, improve stress and stress-related disorders, arthritis and pain. In recent years, more than 200 gem and mineral essences have been introduced. They are taken orally or applied externally to promote mental and emotional health.
This technique is a dynamic approach to bodywork that releases myofascial restrictions. It relieves chronic tension, increases ease of movement, improves posture, and enhances self-awareness. Connective tissue massage restores length and flexibility to the fascia, normalizing the tissue and bringing greater health through the fascial network.
This massage technique is directed specifically to individual muscle fibers. Its purpose is to unstick the fibers of a muscle while releasing deeply held patterns of tension, removing toxins, relaxing, soothing and thereby re-educating, as well as encouraging the muscle to operate at full capacity. It is both corrective and therapeutic.
Doulas are women experienced in childbirth who offer continuous labour support for women and their partners. They give physical, emotional, and informational support as well as advocating for the woman's desires during her birth. Doulas do not speak for the woman, nor do they perform clinical tasks such as blood pressure checks or vaginal exams. They are there to help the woman have a more satisfying birth expereince. Studies have shown the presence of a doula helps reduce the need for medical interventions such as induction of labour, use of pain medications, forceps, and cesarean birth. Most doulas include one or two prenatal visists, one or two postpartum visits, as well as continuous support throughout your entire labour. Doulas are hired by the family.
A style of therapy that is a marriage between classical Swedish massage, with its precise manner of working with muscles and circulatory system, and the deeply personal sensing work brought from Germany by Charlotte Selver. Long, lengthening strokes with gentle rocking and stretching, passive joint movement, sculpting of deep musculature, delicate cranial balancing, subtle neural re-education and the precision of Chinese point work are all part of the somatic offer.
Any form of physical activity performed as a treatment for an illness or injury is termed exercise therapy. Exercise therapy is only one of the modalities available to treat various musculoskeletal, neurological and psychological conditions. It is aimed at increasing function but has the additional benefits of improving self-confidence and sleep quality, increasing activity levels and social contacts and providing a sense of achievement.
An educational process involving awareness through movement, a sensoimotor balancing technique and functional integration, in which a teacher guides a patient through a series of manipulative sequences consisting of information, action and response to re-establish proper neuromotor patterning and balance.
Used to promote physical, mental and emotional health by imagining positive images and desired outcomes to specific situations.
Remedies are given in tinctures, decoctions, infusions, compresses, poultices, capsules, lozenges or ointments. Herbalists tend to believe in 'synerigism' and prefer to prescribe whole plant remedies, rather than trying to isolate a plant's healing ingredients. Herbs may be used to treat illness or enhance the body's ability to function efficiently.
Homeopathy uses a minute dose of the substance causing an illness to cure the same illness. The theory is the 'remedies', including herbs and plants, minerals or other substances, stimulate a person's immune and defense systems and help the body heal itself. Remedies are usually prescribed one at a time and may change as symptoms clear.
This is used as an effective treatment for a variety of conditions using a vaporizer or humidifier in treating upper respiratory conditions. Vapor therapy is used for relief from upper respiratory illnesses and croup. Even in its most basic form - inhaling steam from a pot of boiling water - vapor therapy provides relief to many congestion-related conditions. When warm moist air is applied to the nose and throat, it begins to this the mucus and drains the sinuses. It is a fast-acting process, without the bothersome side effects of drowsiness or rebound congestion. For optimal effectiveness, the user should remain in a warm environment for at least one half hour after the treatment.
The combination of structural and functional rehabilitation, integrative manual therapy is a specialty that finds it roots in osteopathic medicine. Its basic concept is that structure determines function where no part functions independently. Manual therapy addresses the entire body, locating the source of pain and disability, not just the symptoms. Gentle, non-invasive hands on methods are used to support the body's inherent ability to heal itself, normalize its structural integrity, physiologic function and promote optimal health.
Interferential current is essentially a deeper form of TENS. In essence, IFC modulates a high frequency (4000 Hz) carrier waveform with the same signal produced by a TENS unit. The high frequency carrier waveform penetrates the skin more deeply than a regular TENS unit, with less user discomfort for a given level of stimulation. Deep in the tissues, the carrier waveform is cancelled out, resulting in a TENS-like signal deep under the skin.
Iridologists believe a person's state of health or presence of disease can be observed by examining the eye for spots, flecks and white or dark streaks. This diagnostic tool has also been used to identify tendencies toward inherited disease and future health problems. By observing the iris as a kind of map, iridologists are able to identify dietary deficiencies as well as the accumulation of toxic chemicals in the body.
Joint mobilization (basic, advanced, thrust, as well as traction and gliding) is a passive movement technique, that when applied to joints, increases mobility and may be localized or regional. Traction, vibrations and oscillations are used as techniques relieving symptoms.
La Stone Therapy is the use of heated basalt stones in massage therapy to transmit the retained heat into the joints and muscles. When cold is required, chilled marble stones are used. The therapy has particular application for the care of sports injuries but is beneficial for anyone with joint pain and muscle spasticity.
This is a very deep style of massage with the emphasis on soothing, rather than more pointed techniques such as acupressure, the massage is like a rhythmical dance with gently rocking to release tension.
Light pressure applied to the skin or superficial fascia in the direction of the heart to increase the venous and lymphatic drainage of the involved structures.
Focusing of the mind for a period of time to reduce stress and increase relaxation.
This is the use of energy techniques to promote healing.
(See Rolfing)
The burning of the dried and powdered leaves of artemesia vulgair (ai ye) either on or in proximity to the skin to affect the movement of qi in the channel, locally or at a distance.
A technique that when applied directly, is based on the principle of reciprocal inhibition and when applied indirectly is based on post-contraction relaxation. The goal is the relax a muscle in spasm.
This is the use of light or deep pressure to palpate motion restriction, which either moves toward or away from the restriction. The position is held until a release or softening of the tissues is felt.
The therapy is applied with a combination of effleurage or gliding, petrissage or grasping, friction, muscle energy, and strain-counter-strain techniques.
A technique developed from SOMA bodywork, a soft version of Rolfing. NISA consists of twelve sessions ans approaches the body somewhat more gently to accomplish the same goal of structural alignment. The NISA technique is designed to affect the fascia by separating and stretching it.
This is a therapeutic prescription of specific dietary nutrients to improve health. These will be either macronutrients or micronutrients. Since food is essential to life, therapies involving plants, foods and nutritional elements naturally seem fundamental to a person's health and well-being. Diet, then, becomes a tool for living', not a secondary thought to daily life.
Ortho-Bionomy is a gentle, non-invasive form of body therapy focusing on the positioning of the body on the table with gentle compression-and-release techniques and simple movement patterns that assist in neuromuscular re-education. By working with the flow of patterns in the body, natural balance and alignment result.
Fitting and providing orthotics which are support devices made from impressions of feet aimed at reducing excessive foot Pronation thereby relieving and/or preventing an array of foot, leg and back symptoms.
A comprehensive medical system using osteopathic manipulations, osteopathy is based on the belief that any upset of the structural framework can manifest itself as illness in a variety of forms. The system is based on the understanding that tension in the muscles and misaligned bones, whether caused by injury, stress or destructive emotions, muscular weight gain and overall health and fitness.
The provision of services including one-on-one personal fitness training, custom designed programs for body-fat reduction, muscular weight gain and overall health and fitness.
The Pilates Method is an exercise system focused on improving flexibility and strength for the total body without building bulk. It is a series of controlled movements engaging the body and mind, performed on specifically designed exercise apparatus and supervised by extensively trained teachers.
Polarity is a holistic therapy that combines therapeutic bodywork, dietary adjustments, counseling aimed at awareness and yoga-style exercises. Practitioners believe that illness or pain in the body is cured more readily when awareness and relaxation are included in treatments. The term 'polarity' describes the basic nature of the electromagnetic force field of the body.
PNF is an exercise system designed to re-educate the neuromuscular response, thereby creating a reduction in muscle spasm, an increase in ROM and flexibility, as well as developing strength, endurance and coordination. An active contraction is performed against resistance. This contraction causes a reflex relaxation of the muscle that the individual is trying to stretch. A passive assist facilitates the subsequent stretching of the muscle.
Psychotherapy is the treatment of mental illness through psychological rather than medical means.
(See therapeutic ultrasound)
Raindrop Technique uses a sequence of highly anti-microbial essential oils designed to simultaneously reduce inflammation and kill the viral agents responsible for it. The oils are dispensed like bottle drops of rain from a height of about 6 inches above the back and massaged along the vertebrae.
A massage technique performed on the feet, and less commonly on the hands, reflexology works on the premise that our energy zones correspond to reflex points at the body surface.
Reiki practitioners transmit energy by a light touch, placing their hands gently in specific positions on the body to restore internal harmony of the body. (See metaphysical healing)
This is healing through religious or spiritual means.
Rolfing is a holistic system of soft tissue manipulation and movement education that organizes the whole body in gravity; eventually named Rolfing Structural Integration. The practitioner can achieve remarkable changes in posture and structure by manipulating the body's myofascial system.
An acupressure therapy using of the thumb, elbow or knee of the therapist to treat the meridians/channels of the body.
When the body's healthy resonant frequency is out of balance, our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health is negatively affected. This therapy most commonly employs the direct application of the voice, music and other sounds.
A passive technique where the muscle in spasm is palpated and the client is brought into a position, for 9-20 seconds. This shortens the muscle (counter strain), thereby exaggerating the motion restriction and then slowly returned to the original position.
Structural Integration is a body therapy that focuses not on the muscles but on their protective layer called fascia. Structural Integration aligns and balances the body by lengthening and repositioning the fascia. The practitioner applies pressure to the body, working the entire fascial system in a systematic way. When restricted fascia is released and lengthened, the body can return to its structurally optimal position. (See Rolfing)
The use of a variety of manipulative techniques designed to re-establish proper fluid dynamics, directed at the skin muscles and fascia.
This uses an electrical current to manage chronic or acute pain. The equipment stimulates the body to enhance its own natural pain control mechanisms giving relief and control of pain in the body. It can also be used in acute conditions such as postoperative pain, sports injuries and in the treatment of ischemic ulcers. TENS is non-invasive, safe and easy to use with no lasting effects.
Direction of energy from the therapist to the client through the hands of the giver held off the surface of the body to activate the healing process of the client.
Therapeutic Ultrasound is a non-invasive treatment using ultrasound equipment that can be administered directly to an affected area, penetrating deeply into the tissues. The rise in temperature increases blood flow, relaxes muscle spasms, helps repair damaged tissue, and speeds healing dramatically.
Touch for Health is a system of muscle testing and balancing that uses principles of Chinese medicine, massage, energy work and postural alignment to enhance strength, improve energy and release physical and mental stress and pain.
Bruce Kumar Frantzis states in The Power of Internal Martial Arts: Combat Secrets of Ba Gua, Tai Chi and Hsing-I. Berkley: North Atlantic Books, 1998, pg 341.
(tai ji quan, taijiquan, tai chi ch'uan) Supreme ultimate martial arts fist. One of the three internal martial arts of China, most known for its emphasis on softness, slow-motion movement, and its sophisticated chi gung methodology based on whole-body physical coordination. Done by the majority of its practitioners primarily for health, not combat. As a martial art, tai chi emphasizes softness, yielding techniques and counterattack strategies, and a blending of soft and hard internal power.
The use of herbs under the traditional Chinese medicine system treats a variety of health problems.
This technique is a combination of yoga-stretches, muscle massage, stimulation of meridians by the use of acupressure points and manipulation of the joints. Thai Massage is performed in gentle, rhythmic movements, and gives an energizing, balanced and dynamic experience for the body and soul.
A technique of psycho-physical integration using a gentle rocking motion to locate areas of tissue tension and motion restriction. Treatment is focused on the psyche of the client.
Direct pressure is applied to areas of tenderness within muscles that radiate to defined zones when the pressure is applied.
This is a pushing or grasping technique applied to the musculo-skeletal system and viscera with specific attention paid to the meridians and flow of qi.
(See cranio-sacral therapy)
Visceral Manipulation is a gentle hands-on therapy that works through the body's visceral system (the hear, liver, intestines and other internal organs) to locate and alleviate these abnormal points of tension throughout the body. It employs specifically placed manual forces that work to encourage the normal mobility, tone and motion of the viscera and their connective tissues. Practitioners use the rhythmic motions of the visceral system to evaluate how abnormal forces interplay, overlap and affect the normal body forces at work.
The word means WATer ShiatSU. Through gentle movement, stretches and acupressure, Watsu brings a deep sense of relaxation to all parts of the body while floating in 96o water, while the body is stretched, glided and gracefully turned and floated by the practitioner.
A hands-on method of balancing body energy with body structure that integrates a Western anatomical view of structure with Eastern concepts into a Zero Balancing protocol.