Chapter 13

- Understand the concepts of pressure point therapies

• free up energy and restore balance, thus enabling individuals to maintain or regain
their health.

• If not corrected, these blocks and imbalances in energy channels can result in
disease and eventually illness.

• The goal of care is to recognize and manage the disruption before illness or
disease occurs.

• Pressure point practitioners bring balance to the body’s energies, which promotes
optimal health and well-being and facilitates people’s own healing capacities.

- Be familiar with the contraindications of pressure point therapy

• It is not indicated for an acute or infectious illness or fever or if surgery is needed.

• Foot injuries need to heal before reflexology is used on the foot.

• If someone has a pace-maker, practitioners avoid stimulating the left chest zone.

• Recent myocardial infarction is a contraindication

• If someone has gallstones or kidney stones, the gallbladder and kidney points are
avoided

• If the person is pregnant, uterine points are avoided

• Needling is not done on scar tissues, open wounds, lipomas, cysts, or on persons
having psychotic tendencies.

- Understand the concept of meridians, microsystems, and mind-body connections

• Meridians: qi, or life energy, flows through the body along pathways

- the meridians connect all parts of the body

- As vital energy flows through the meridians, it forms tiny whirlpools close to the
skin’s surface at places called hsueh, which means “cave” or “hollow.”

- Acupuncture needles inserted into these points or pressure on these points

releases blocked energy and improves the circulation of qi in the body

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 - major meridians, the body has 360 to 365 classic points through which qi can be
accessed

- Most practitioners, however, focus on 150 points

- Meridians are associated with internal organs after which they are named:
stomach, spleen, heart, small intestine, bladder, kidneys, gallbladder, liver, lungs,
and large intestine.

• Microsystems: reflexes to distant parts of the body

- These microsystems are small, local representations of the whole body and are
located on the feet, hands, and ears

- The reflexes are symmetric in that the organs on

the right side of the body are reflected in the
right foot, and the left organs are reflected in the
left foot.

- The reflexes also correspond in descend-ing

order:

• Mind-Body Connections: pressure point tradition,

the mind, body, spirit, and emotions are never
separated

- Be able to identify reflexology points in the foot chart

(Identify both locations and the name of the organs in
the feet chart).

- Be familiar with the organs (five) that reflect the

emotions in the pressure point therapy.

• Heart: is not just a blood pump, but it also influences one’s capacity for joy, one’s
sense of purpose in life, and one’s connectedness with others.

• Kidneys: filter fluids, but they also manage one’s capacity for fear, one’s will and
motivation, and one’s faith in life.

• Lungs: breathe in air and breathe out waste products, but they also regulate one’s
capacity to grieve, as well as one’s acknowledgment of self and others.

• Liver: cleanses the body, and it also influences one’s feeling of anger as well as
that of vision and cre-ativity.

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 • Stomach: has a part in digestion of food and influences one’s ability to be
thoughtful, kind, and nurturing as well.

- Be familiar with each finger and its correlated psychological problems and physical
symptoms

• Thumb. Corresponds to worrying, depression, and anxiety. Physical symptoms

may include stomachaches, headaches, skin problems, and nervousness.

• Index finger. Corresponds to fear, mental confusion, and frustration. Physical

symptoms are digestive problems and muscle problems such as backaches.

• Middle finger. Corresponds to anger, irritability, and indecisiveness. Physical

symptoms are eye or vision problems, fatigue, and circulation problems.

• Ring finger. Corresponds to sadness, fear of rejection, grief, and negativity.

Physical symptoms are digestive, breathing, or serious skin problems.

• Little finger. Corresponds to insecurity, effort, overdoing it, and nervous-ness.

Physical symptoms are sore throat and bone or nerve problems.


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Chapter 23

- Describe the role of movement-oriented therapy in complementary/alternative

therapy

• Three Eastern movement-oriented therapies—qigong, t’ai chi, and seiki jutsu

• Three Western movement-oriented therapies—the Alexander Technique, the

Feldenkrais Method®, and the Trager Approach®.

- Identify the different types of movement-oriented therapies

• Tai Chi: discipline that combines physical fitness, meditation, and self-defense.

- “great ultimate fist” and is sometimes translated as “supreme box-ing” or “root

of all motion.”

- considered a martial art, t’ai chi is mainly practiced today as a health discipline

• Qigong: Chinese discipline consisting of breathing and mental exercises that may
be combined with modest arm movements

- four pillars of Traditional Chinese Medicine

- Qi is the term for “vital energy” or “life force,”

- Gong means “work” or “discipline.”

- Qigong can be translated as “mastery of qi,” “cultivation of energy,” “air energy,”

“breath work,” and “energy work.”

- People discover how to generate more energy and conserve what they have to
maintain health or treat illness

• Alexander Technique: improving postural and movement dysfunction that can lead
to pain and disease.

- designed to reduce and eliminate body misuse in daily activities, especially with
respect to the head, neck, and shoulders.

• Feldenkrais: gentle movement and directed attention to improve movement and

enhance functioning

- physics of body movement is combined with an awareness of the way people

learn to move, behave, and interact

• Trager Approach

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 - light, rhythmic rocking and shaking movements that loosen joints, ease
movement, and release chronic patterns of tension.

- Explain the characteristics and benefits of movement-oriented therapy

• Tai Chi form

- involves reversed breathing, which is contracting the stomach with the in-breath
and expanding the stomach with the out-breath.

- The benefits of t’ai chi are seen in conditions such as hypertension,

osteoporosis, and arthritis. T’ai chi can decrease stress and fatigue, improve
mood, and increase energy. It is beneficial to cardiorespiratory function, balance,
and flexibility

• Water Tai chi

- combination of the principles of water exercise and t’ai chi movements.

- It is performed upright in chest-deep water, which allows the arms to be totally

submerged and the body to be adequately stabilize

- The exercises improve strength, flexibility, balance, coordination, and posture.

• Alexander Technique

- simple movements that improve bal-ance, posture, and coordination and relieve
pain.

- series of standing and seated exercises while the practitioner applies light
pressure to points of contraction in the body.

- help people learn how to use their body with less tension and more aware-ness.

• Feldenkrais Method

- awareness through movement and functional integration.

- Awareness through move-ment is more like conventional exercises in format,

with the teacher guid-ing a group class verbally rather than using personal
manipulation.

• lessons consist of comfortable, easy movements that gradually increase in

range and complexity designed for all levels of movement ability.

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 - Func-tional integration is a hands-on lesson that usually lasts 45 minutes to an
hour and is performed with the client fully clothed and standing, sitting, or lying
on a table.

- The practitioner touches and moves the client in gentle, noninvasive ways.
The intent of this touch is to explore the person’s responses to touch and
movement and then to suggest alternative ways of moving.

• exercises are small, gentle movements, such as pelvic tilts—slowly and

deliberately lifting the spine from the coccyx to the waist, one ver-tebra at a
time.

• To be effective, the movements must be effortless. Not painful at all.

- Feldenkrais exercises are said to improve flexibility, posture, range of motion,

relaxation, ease of movement, physical performance, vitality, and well-being.
They are also said to relieve joint pain, stress, muscle tension, low back pain,
neck and shoulder pain, jaw pain, and headaches

• Trager Approach

- using motion in muscles and joints to produce particular sensory feelings

- These feelings are relayed to the central nervous system, and then, through the
process of feedback loops, the feelings trigger changes in the tissues

- 60 to 90 minutes

- client wearing a swimming suit and lying on a well-padded table.

- The practitioner touches in such a gentle rhythmic way that the person actually
experiences the possibility of being able to move each part of the body freely
and effortlessly.

- The Trager Approach® is said to decrease various types of chronic pain, head-
aches, and temporomandibular joint pain, improve muscle spasms, and aid in
recovery from stroke and spinal cord injuries.

- Identify the most popular form and longest history form of Tai Chi

• Yang is the most popular form of tai chi and was developed in the early 20th
century

- It comprises 108 separate motions that can take 6 to 12 months to learn.

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 - When the movements are strung together, the result is a cross between slow-
motion shadow boxing and dancing

- Each movement has a name, such as “repulse the monkey,” “the snake creeps
down,” “the white crane spreads its wings,” or “parting the wild horse’s mane,”
which describes what it looks like or what purpose it serves.

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