Gua sha: A Traditional Technique for Modern Practice

by Arya Nielsen BA MA DAc LAc FNAAOM

This is the first English language book on the ancient therapeutic technique 'Gua Sha'. It is a technique commonly used in Asia and Southeast Asia by TCM practitioners, Chinese families and individuals who know and use it as part of their 'health culture'.In Gua Sha, the skin is pressured in strokes i.e. scraped (but not broken) by a blunt edge (Chinese families used a spoon). This, in Western terms, raises extravasated blood and metabolic waste which collects in muscle tissue, and encourages its departure. Gua Sha is often used to counteract muscle strain through athletic injury, back pain, and conditions beyond muscle injury alone. The result, visually, is livid discolouration of the skin which subsides in a few days, considerably faster than a bruise. For this reason practitioners in the West have been afraid of using it. However it can be a very useful technique to know how to use, and will enhance the skills of any practitioner using it while giving them another treatment method to help increase theirclinical skills.This book brings the technique alive for Western practitioners, with clear discussion of how to do it - including correct technique, appropriate application, and difficulties to bear in mind - and when to use it, and superb colour illustrations and specially commissioned line drawings to demonstrate the technique. The author is an expert practitioner of 'Gua Sha'.

Genres: Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nonfiction, Health

188 pages, Paperback

First published September 18, 1995

Reviews

[Finbar · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great resource for understanding and improving your gua sha techniques. I enjoyed Nielsen's clear and direct style of writing. She also includes many case studies to illustrate the subject matter. I thought the case studies were useful and the showed the correlation between the techniques and pathological representations with the body.

[Stefanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh lordy do I love gua sha!

[Foxthyme · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book, and while I'd love to bring the techniques into practice, I just can't bring myself to discolour the skin of clients with a bruise-like hue. Not good.