I use acupressure in my clinic as an adjunct to other treatments--it is not
my major therapeutic intervention. When someone has an area of palpable
"tight" area, I will use acupressure on the area. At one time, I studied
acupuncture and acupressure and electroacupuncture and after using the
"formulas" for different ailments, I found that for musculoskeletal
problems, treating the local acupressure/acupuncture points with pressure
worked as well as the formulas--I think the formulas work well if your
palpations skills are not good enough to locate the areas. I also use to
use auricular (ear) acupuncture points and treat them with estim--again, I
found that treating the local areas worked well. At this point, I may
supplement a treatment with about 5-15 minutes of acupressure treatment
when joint mobilization and active stretching by the patient don't seem to
be quite enough. I also may supplement the treatment with PNF contract
relax as well.
For gynocological problems, menstral cramps in particular, the prescribed
formulas work well but I never have the opportunity to use that in my
clinic but it was a big hit when I was in PT school. I also used
acupressure during my wife's child labor (she started yelling "I lied, give
me drugs, give me drugs" but her labor ended successfully before she got
any drugs so who knows how well that worked--she did make it through labor
without drugs). I have tried acupressure for cancer pain, for central
nervous system disorders--without results. It does work for nausea.
Anyway, that is how I have used it and how I use acupressure currently.
What I have found though is that the major components of any of the "soft
tissue interventions" that are currently sold in continuing education
courses, if you look at acupressure massage techniques, the "effective
ingredients" in all of these interventions seems to me to be pretty well
found by acupressue techniques without a lot of the more mysterious
explainations given in some of these courses. As far as "mysterious"
explainations of acupressure, if you just use pressure on palpable areas of
tenderness, which correspond to acupuncture points, you will get good
results--with some instruction from someone who has used these techniques
and gets results. I don't know if just looking in a book you would get
results. I think that all orthopedic PTs should at least experience
acupressure for at least some minor aches and pains and see what kind of
results you can get.
, you wrote:
>Greetings Members,
>
>To ward off any potential flaming that might be aimed at me:)
>
>This isn't our only source of information. We have looked at various
acupressure books, contacted various acupressurists and we've done a
medline search and came up with articles on how Acupressure is used for
TMJ, headaches and gynecological ailments to name a few things. However
acupressure is indicated for many diffrent ailments. So, we were interested
in it's context to physical therapy and we were curious how any practicing
PTs use it in their clinical practice. Through a lot of networking we've
located one therapist in the bay area that uses it. We were hoping to
reach out to any other therapist Physio/Physical out there on the World
Wide Web and curious to learn of their experiences with Acupressure. We'd
like to include your comments and opinions in our presentation.
>
>Thanks again,
>
>Peter Wibisono SPT.
>
>
>
>
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