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Acupressure

What Special Equipment is Used?

The beauty of acupressure is that the only equipment needed is the hands of the practitioner (your own, if self administered), and a massage table, therapy bed or similar furniture for the comfort of the client. Clothing is normally worn and should be loose and comfortable.

Some practitioners may use fire cupping, electric stimulation, or laser light, although these techniiques are less common:

Fire Cupping
In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), fire cupping is a method of applying Acupressure by creating a vacuum on the client’s skin. This is done by placing a glass, plastic or bamboo cup on specific areas of the body after a burning paper has been inserted into it and removed.

Cupping acts by increasing the flow of blood to the area being treated. A slight pull is exerted on the skin, created by the light vacuum of the cup (similar to the feeling of suction). After a few minutes, the cup slips off the skin, leaving faint red marks. Hand operated vacuum pumps are also now available for cupping. This technique is used to relieve diseases called by cold and damp, such as respiratory diseases which include the common cold, pneumonia, and bronchitis. Cupping is also used to treat back, neck, shoulder, and other musculoskeletal pain.

Fire cupping, in varying forms, has also been found in the folk medicine of Vietnam, the Balkans and modern Greece.

Electrical Stimulation
Conducting pads are placed over the skin and a low frequency electric current is passed through them.

Gua Sha
Gua Sha is a method used in TCM which provides relief to tight and painful muscles (e.g. a stiff neck). The skin is first lubricated and then scraped with a blunt edge such as a spoon.

Acupoints may also be stimulated with pressure, lasers, and ultrasound.

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