Cupping, Gua Sha, and
Chinese Tui-Na Massage

What's the first thing you do when you bump your elbow? You rub it, and try to help it feel better, right? Rubbing it stimulates blood and healing energy flow to the area, allowing endorphins, your bodies pain killers, to soothe the area of pain. Massage therapy is instinctual, it's a foundation therapy that's been used as long as we've been bumping our elbows. A great therapeutic massage feels so good, and Chinese Tui-Na Massage incorporates finger pressure on the meridian points, percussion, and therapeutic massage to remedy specific areas of tension and energetic blockages. Cupping is gaining popularity in recent years with professional athletes and celebrities showing up with cupping marks on their backs. Cupping incorporates the use of either smooth glass or tempered plastic "cups" that suction to your skin, drawing the tissue below slightly into the cup. Static cupping is leaving the cups in place over an area of tension or "stagnation", relieving pain and toxins from the underlying tissue. Movement cupping uses a massage grade lotion or oil, so the cups can glide along the muscles and fascia of the body. This can feel so good to aching and tired muscles. Gua Sha, or "scraping", utilizes a smooth edge to remove adhesions and improve blood and Qi flow to a knotty and tense muscle. 

Whether you are having acute or chronic pain, tense and tight muscles, or just need to manage some stress, having massage either in conjunction with acupuncture treatment or as a stand-alone treatment can be a wonderfully necessary piece in your wellness plan.  Imagine it being coordinated with your acupuncture treatment plan!