Acupressure is a massage therapy treatment that is similar to acupuncture, but without the needles. Manual pressure is used with the fingertips on specific areas of the body. This is derived from traditional Chinese medicine which employs energy from the body called “chi”. This energy connect with invisible parts of energy flow. This is called meridians. There are supposedly at least 14 of them that have connections with some of our other organs. Acupressure points are situated on those meridians. The belief is that health ailments and diseases run rampant when chi flow is blocked on any of the meridian points. To alleviate that, the therapist will apply pressure to an acupressure point in one area of your body to heal another area. That may sound strange, but that’s how acupressure works. Some people thinks that pressure in one area can release endorphins, which are chemicals in a person’s body that relieve the affected area of natural pain. The purpose of acupressure is to relieve people of certain ailments. Some of them are: Headaches Menstrual cramps Nausea from pregnancy, surgery or chemotherapy Muscle tension Muscle pain Using acupressure has been found to get rid of nausea symptoms. There is a certain meridian point in the wrist area where you can apply pressure to get rid of nausea. Acupressure is conducted with the client lying on a massage table. Pressure is applied with the finger, knuckle or thumb. The pressure should be firm, but gentle in touch. Every half minute the pressure increases. When doing it with the wrist, the palm should be facing upwards. The thumb should be where the hand meets the wrist. Using the measurements of two fingers, the thumb should be placed there.
You may feel pressure during the treatment, but you should never feel pain. If you do, let your therapist know immediately. There are some people with certain ailments that shouldn’t have this treatment or they should proceed with caution: Pregnant women - consult your doctor No acupressure treatment should be done on bruises or open wounds Anyone that has thin blood should not do this unless advised to do so Bone ailments, injuries, diabetes – if a person is suffering from any of these, they should not do it unless advised to do so After the treatment, the client may feel sore at those particular points and may also experience lightheadedness. Both of these are temporary side effects.
