Chinese Tuina Therapy
Chinese Tuina, or Chinese medical massage, is an important healing modality within Chinese Medicine. It is a branch of Chinese Medicine we hold in high regard at Balanced Being Acupuncture. We utilize tuina in some form in most of our treatments for orthopedic conditions or sports injuries. This approach is rare among acupuncturists in America. However, we believe our patients deserve the very best care. Combining compatible modalities like tuina and acupuncture are how we get the best results possible.
Chinese Medicine is a comprehensive health care system which can be thought of as consisting of multiple interconnected modalities. A few examples of these include:
- Acupuncture
- Internal herbal formulas
- Dietary therapy
- External herbal applications
- Tuina
- Qigong
Each of these modalities have their own relative strengths and weaknesses. As such they are most powerful, and provide the most complete therapeutic outcomes when multiple modalities are combined. At the core of each of these modalities are compatible interlocking models for how the body, mind, and environment interact. This enables a practitioner to shift seamlessly from one to the other and to blend them in a powerful comprehensive treatment plan.
Why Tuina Is Uncommon
In China, for cultural reasons more related to Confucian ideals than to effectiveness, herbology is often held in the highest respect. Unfortunately the legacy of this bias has produced a disproportionate amount of skilled herbalists at the expense of the other modalities in America.
The Transformative Power of Tuina
At Balanced Being Acupuncture we pride ourselves in providing expert level care with an emphasis on acupuncture and tuina. We support or patients with qigong and external herbal applications when appropriate. We feel like this emphasis is the right match for the modern world.
Tuina is a form of medical massage. It relies on a model of the body as a living system of tissues and organs that circulate, move, and process blood, energy, air, food, lymph, information, and interstitial fluids. Skilled classically educated tuina practitioners use this model and their observations of their patient to diagnose and treat dysfunction and injury. Tuina bodywork can deeply affect change in the body from regulating the bones and joints of the spine and limbs, to addressing injury in the muscles, fascia, and connective tissue, to harmonizing the relationship and function of the internal organs. It’s domain encompasses the very deepest levels of the body through the most superficial and ephemeral.
Jon-Erik Lido studied Zheng Gu Tui Na under Jen Resnick in post-graduate training at Jung Tao School of Classical Chinese Medicine. This particular system of tuina is particularly sophisticated and adaptable to treat a wide range of conditions. However, as this tuina system is rooted and entwined in internal Chinese martial arts it has a special emphasis and depth in the realm of sports medicine and injury rehabilitation. From acute conditions like a sprained ankle to chronic conditions like frozen shoulder Zheng Gu Tui Na provides a powerful approach to transforming dysfunction into health.
Your health shows up in your self-esteem, your relationships with other people, the things you dare to go for in life, or even see as possible. Whether or not it is something you notice every day, illness, pain, imbalance and/or sub-par health profoundly affect your experience of life and the experiences of life of all of those around you. These effects ripple out. This is exactly why I chose to become an acupuncturist- so that together our ripple-effect can be the kind caused by health.
“I came to Jon-Erik with a sports related rotator cuff issue. The problem was compounded with a looming competition the following weekend that I just could not miss. Having never tried acupuncture before I didn’t know what to expect, and was admittedly skeptical. He listened to me, and was incredibly gentle, and caring. The treatment was a bit scary for me, but he calmed my fears, and got me through it. On the drive home, I realized I had regained some movement in my shoulder, and by the next morning, I felt even better. I’m 100% convinced that Jon is very talented, and practically performed a miracle in the office. Thank-you!”
“I have gotten my daughter back. Today was her 7th treatment and her improvement from debilitating migraines has been evident for 3 weeks now. I completely recommend him. He has done what traditional medicine couldn’t do.”