Customer Reviews

Gua Sha: A Traditional Technique for Modern Practice, 1e

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Gua Sha is a technique that uses a skin lubricant, such as massage oil and a simple chinese ceramic soup spoon (no sharp edges now!). It's a life saver for the tired figers of those who have to give massages to those with tight, fibrous, ropy or crunchy muscles. I first came across this book at an acupuncture conference in 1996. It was one of my best purchases of the year. The book covers in depth, a topic only glanced upon in most acupuncture schools. It's technique is not just for acupuncturists. I believe it's a must read for massage professionals, especially if your hands are starting to wear out from years of giving massage.

The beauty of the book is the pictures of the skin discoloration that may occur if you are very vigorous in your technique. They can be shown to clients as a form of informed consent. If you are more moderate in your technique, this extreme reaction will rarely occur past the first hour. However, a forewarned patient is one that will not sue you. Worth the price of the book right there!

Secondly, in most acupuncture schools, gua sha is largely taught as a technique for wind-cold invasion or stiff necks. My practice has included alot of chronic musculo-skeletal pain due to old sport injuries and the such. Before reading this book, I limited the technique to scapular and upper back pain, but after reading it, have confidentally expanded gua sha to every sort of muscular injury with great results. I have saved a number of people from exploratory surgery by removing pains of unknown etiology, thru the use of this technique and proper muscle knowledge. This is why I recommend it for massage therapists, physical therapists as well as Oriental and TCM practitioners.

This book includes a resource area that gives you ideas for what areas of the body to address for various ailments, if you are afraid to experiment on your own, or on yourself. I believe, if you add a recently published companion book by the same publishers concerning cupping (Cupping Therapy by Chirall), you will have a compementary set of low cost therapies for muscular aches (not to mention some other internal medicine applications), that are a very effective addition for any TCM or massage practice.

Dear Readers,

I have had Gua Sha performed on my body and I know its benefits. I wanted to take this one step further by learning more after my remedial masseur retired. My goal was to learn more and to be able to perform Gua Sha myself as I know it was a common technique in the family homes of many Chinese and other nations.

The mission is successful! I've not only learnt how to apply Gua Sha and in what circumstances, the book also details a historical journey through health to give some background as to where Gua Sha came from. It is very practical show positions that a patient should be in and the direction of stroking that needs to take place. I was impressed with the colour and black & white version of the same images. If anything, I wish there were more pictorial examples.

I am not a health professional and am just keen on health and wealth in general. I found the book generally easy to read (beyond some Chinese translations) and understand. Any health professional in Western or Eastern (Traditional Chinese Medicine) practice will be able to make use of this book at its recommendations. Gua Sha is easy and its benefits are numerous.

Thanks go to the author in documenting this ancient practice for use in today's modern society and practices.

I hope this was helpful to you.
Chucky!

Gua Sha is a very important part of my bodywork pracice. I have had this book since 2003 and it is a great tool.

This technique and method is ultimately about clearing up the Lymphatic System; and is hands down THE best way for doing so, for those whom it would not be contraindicated.

I got this to make my collection on Gua Sha materials complete. I also have Matt Lott's manuscript (he's the creator of Gua Sha Orthopedic (aside, Matt's booklet goes into more depth on the physiology of what's happening in Western terms) In case you're wondering, that bizarre picture on the front cover is a thermography photo of a child. The main point is to show how ischemia can lower temperatures in the body where such a condition is present (due to the congestion of fluids in the tissue).

What I love about the book is the completeness. It's not perfect, but the completeness is quite impressive, considering that most written material published on the subject is only a pamphlet.

The only thing that I felt was missing was a little deeper explanation of using points (many people call them needles, but they're points) with this technique. Arya's main focus was on using points to congest (tonation, I'm assuming) a given area before scraping. This, apparently, was to help focus the congealed fluid to the target area. I wondered about other possibilities (e.g. what happens if an area is sedated instead).....but no book can cover everything.

Anyhoo......if you've been thinking about trying this out, but have had reservations, and want to fully explore the academics and research behind it, this woman has been doing scraping since about 1972, which is quite impressive, considering that there weren't even pamplets or the internet (as we know it today) back then.

An interesting note about me: I discovered this in 1999, quite by accident. Having taken a blotter of LSD25 (about 100 micrograms) from a psychiatrist associate in the Los Angeles area. Long story short, I stumbled upon a Doctor of Oriental Medicine doing this on the street outside his Clinic in Santa Monica. Long story short, I thought the elevated congealed fluid (Petechia) was a hallucination I was experiencing because I wiped my hand down the patient's back, but was startled when there was no blood on my hand.

To this day, it fascinates me that something that looks so bad can be so good for you......THE ULTIMATE PARADOX!

This is an excellent text written by a master of the healing art of gua sha. I highly recommend it to any acupuncture practitioner or student.

Very easy to read and understand. A true guide in the eastern method of Gua Sha.