My wife is really into Tui-Na (tuina), studying and practicing all the time. She is doing yet another course on it.
Is anyone else interested in this discipline? I’d like to learn to do it myself one day when I have a bit more free time (yeah, like that’s gonna happen), although it’s going to be twice as hard for me with all the difficult Chinese words for the various meridians that even my wife has trouble memorizing.
Anyway, I’d like to hear from any Tui-Na fans out there.
No.
I answered because after 11 views and no replies I didn’t want to see Spack with one of those unanswered posts thingies. So, no, I have never even heard of it.
What is it? What is the Chinese for it? I can’t work out the pinyin.
Er, thanks, I guess!
Tui-Na is 推拿
Acupressure. Think: “Reflexology for the whole body”.
In truth I didn’t really think I’d get any responses as so few locals post here and very few foreigners have even heard of tui-na.
Long shot really…
Isnt it just chinese for chiropractor? Moving bones
I used to see a tui na technician(They are not doctors) about 2 times a week a few years ago when my back was hurting. Some of them are very good at giving pain relief while others are quacks. I thought about studying it at the time but the classes were in Chinese and terminology was not easy for a non native speaker.
Yes and no. There are some similarities to chiropractice and some of the techniques involve manipulation but mostly tuina involves pressing certain channels - acupressure.
Having said that, the English version of one of my wife’s tui-na certificates uses the word ‘chiropractic’ on it.
I get it done, along with a facial, every month. Feels great. No real pain. The therapist usually says something about moving the blood through different parts of the body and pressure points. I’m usually half asleep, so I don’t listen very carefully.
I had a shoulder problem treated this way, it worked well enough for me. You can talk about meridians etc… all you want but the bottom line is that it did do the job.
But I think studying it would be very difficult unless you could find a teacher who was enthusiastic about teaching wei-guo-ren and wanted to get some of the literature translated. Otherwise I think it would be an exercise in frustration - you’ll be hindered by language and by culture.
Sorry Spack, I would have answered earlier but I missed it.
I studied tui na as part if my Chinese medicine course. I always thought of it as massage, albeit a partcularly heavy massage with some adjustment thrown in for good measure. There are diagnostic elements to it such as feeling the shu points on the back but mostly it requires only a fairly basic level of understanding of Chinese medical patholgy (though that’s hard for me to judge because you become quite tuned in to the theory when you study it).
The basic assumptions are the same as for Chinese medicine, ie, meridians and qi etc. However I think the best way to learn is to practice. I’m sure your wife has given you more than the odd bruising massage, you can take from that what worked. I tend to use my hands to feel out tension and try and dissipate the “stagnat qi” or knots if you prefer. Adjustment comes after you build up intuition which I would ascribe to experience.
HG
Woah! Don’t ever tell a tui na practitioner that it’s ‘only massage’. To quote my wife: “It’s not massage; it’s tui na! It’s different!” Steady on girl!
I guess massage has connotations. And she’s right; it’s more than simply massaging someone.
That’s very true. It takes a long, long time to get really good at it.
I will be visistng Taipei for ten days from the 14.03-25.03.04 , and during that time I would be interested in getting an introduction to Tui Na. So, if that is possible please contact me directly. Thanks, Julia
If you live in Taichung and would like to have tui-na (Chinese acupressure therapy) please contact Mr. Hong at (04) 2472-0415. Call in the morning if you don’t speak Chinese.
The Taichung Tuina Society office is located at No. 528, Jing-Chung Rd., Nan Tun District, Taichung City.
You can also PM me if you have any questions.
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(from http://tui-na.blogspot.com/. I’ll get round to setting up a proper website one of these days!)
Introduction to Tui-na
What is Tui-na?
Tui-na [pronounced