Case Study

• Male
• 28 years old
• Biologist
• Very active
• Eats  healthy 

I did 7 massages with my case study. He said that his chief complaint was pain under his right occipital bone that radiates down right side of neck and down into the traps. Client said that he hurt it while he was lifting rocks at his cabin in June 2012.

Our first massage was a general relaxation massage. During this massage I noticed that he could barely turn his neck to the right. The pain would shot all the way to his traps. By the end of the massage the client was able to move his neck and said his pain level had decreased.

I spent a lot of time working his neck and traps. Client likes deep work on his traps and along neck. After our first massage I started to design a treatment plan that consists of Range of Motion, yoga stretches, Cupping, Gua Sha and Acupressure points.

I believe that his pain is coming from his SCM and Inferior Oblique Capitis. I thought of these two muscles because of where the client showed me where his pain was. SCM muscle is often tight at the start of each massage but by the end it is lose and client says it stays that way for a few days.

Client responded very well to the Bladder meridian opening pattern [modified Tui Na massage]. Client said that every time we did the BL opener his pain was almost gone half way through the massage. 

The first few times I did Gua Sha on client  it showed up almost black which means the stagnation of the blood has been there for quite some time. Cupping brought up heat and odd marks every time but the last massage.

The first few sessions that we did stretching client couldn’t keep legs straight to do a forward bend. With daily stretching and ROM client is able to do a full forward bend.

On the last massage there was no discoloration or heat coming from clients’ back shu points. By the end of our case study client said that he no longer had any pain at the time of interview. Client also said that he will get regular massage to obtain the feeling of being pain free and will continue to stretch.

acu-therapy

After five months of massage therapy school, our class got to the part we had all been waiting for : Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Points and meridians was one of our TCM classes. What are points and meridians? Meridians are invisible pathways on our bodies that connect acupoints to each other, as well as internal organs. The qi (energy) flows through these meridians. The meridians are like highways, when you experience a strong emotion, such as grief or anxiety, your qi gets blocked, similar to a traffic jam. Acupressure restores the smooth flow of qi. Acupoints are specific body points through which qi of organs and meridians can reach the body surface.


You can use acu-therapy to treat:
- headaches
- ortho issues
- weight loss
- addiction
- fertility
- colds
- insomnia
- the list goes on and on.

Basically, any disease you can think of, can benefit from acu-therapy. As a massage therapist, I would not be able to perform acupuncture, but can use non-needling techniques on points. Acupressure is a technique that we have frequently used. Our class has learned acupoint patterns to combat nausea, fatigue, frozen shoulder, sciatica and knee pain.


Now for the fun stuff. Moxa, cupping and gua sha, oh my. Moxa is quite possibly the most delightful herb in existence. It is a variety of mugwort, that is compressed and then burned. You can use it on specific points and meridians that are deficient. By the end of a session, I feel warm and tingling, it is an amazing feeling. Cupping and gua sha are two methods that help remove stagnation, and when I say stagnation, I pretty much mean pain. We have all had those "knots" the size of a golf ball that won't go away. After 15 minutes of having a suction cup placed on the knot and two more cups along the meridian, my pain was 90% gone. Gau sha brings stagnation to the surface, by using a tool to scrape the area. I am sure this might sound painful to some of you, but these treatments are WONDERFUL! I am excited to use them in my practices.