The Touch for Health Kinesiology System is a practical guide to natural health that utilizes acupressure and massage to improve postural balance, and reduce physical and mental pain and tension. It is an approach to restoring natural energies that combines ancient Chinese energy therapies with recent Western developments in kinesiology. It is a very practical tool for the massage therapist; it can be used along with other massage techniques or as a Stand-alone methodology for improving and enhancing health that uses acupressure and massage to improve biological recovery. Dr. John Thie, D.C.

East Meets West: energy balance

When Western chiropractic ideas regarding posture and muscle testing procedures are combined with Eastern energy-flow ideas of chi, or life energy, a new tool for the body worker or massage therapist becomes available.

The Touch for Health System encompasses the vitalistic world view that humans' natural birthright is to be able to use touch to activate their own bodies' natural recuperative powers, or energy. These natural recuperative powers are enhanced or inhibited by daily activities. In response to those activities, changes occur within muscles and skin-- and the way we feel and function is affected as we become more, or less, vulnerable to injury and disease according to the balance of our energy. This energy may be called chi, as in the Chinese world view; ki, from the Japanese; prana, from India; and innate intelligence in the Western chiropractic tradition. In each case we refer to the power of the intelligently designed human body to come into harmonious balance as a whole person.

Maintaining clients' posture and flexibility through the Touch for Health System will give them better health - and getting them to stay in balance will help them to minimize the natural wear and tear of everyday life. Regular Touch for Health maintains an energy balance that relieves chronic muscular tension and/or spinal curvatures due to muscular imbalances, thus the body is allowed to relax and expand.

Touch for Health leads clients to relax at least some of the inappropriately contracted muscles that we all develop in daily life. They then feel the exhilaratingly greater range of motion that increases their sense of grace, presence and spontaneity. They literally become taller.

Massage therapists can teach clients the Touch for Health System during their sessions while the therapist balances the client's energy. This balance is achieved by using specific muscle testing procedures to determine if chi energy is in balance. By using this system, therapists can help clients have peak performances more often. Clients who are in a rehabilitation program, are post-surgery, or receive treatments along with a chiropractic adjustment will recover more quickly.

What is Kinesiology?

Kinesiology is a method of communicating with another person's nervous system by testing the tension in the muscles. The kinesiologist uses the muscle tests to find the imbalances, tensions and blockages in the body. He then makes corrections and re- balances the nervous system, then finally tests the muscles again to verify that a change has taken place and to lock in that change within the muscle.

The basic thought of Kinesiology is that all stress, imbalances and blockages in the nervous system can be detected by assessing the tension in specific muscle. It has also been found that all muscles in the body are connected to different internal organs, endocrine glands, specific nutrition, thoughts and feelings, acupuncture meridians and other parts of the body's electrical system.

A manual muscle test, as used by kinesiologists, does not measure the raw physical strength that a muscle can produce, but rather how the nervous system controls the muscle functions. Manual muscle testing is the 'Nervous System In Action".

Muscle testing, or "specialized kinesiology," (kinesiology is the study of movement), identifies precise energy blocks in the mind/body/spirit system. People who practice muscle testing say that, given the opportunity, the body can communicate the origin and location of a block, and what solution will release the block and strengthen the entire system. Any muscle can be used. Some muscle testing practitioners use only the arm, others use additional muscle systems, and scan energy fields and energy lines in the body.

The conscious mind knows only a small fraction of our life experience. To protect from pain, it can edit and withhold information. Muscle testing bypasses the conscious and subconscious. So by asking the body directly, it is possible to go to the deepest level of awareness, accessing a clear and unbiased memory of every waking moment of our lives.

Touch for Health - foundation for other Kinesiologies

Over the years, numbers of new observations have been made and several systems of muscle testing have been developed throughout the world. The Touch for Health System remains a method for the general public to enhance their own performances and give them the ability to have more peak performances. In addition, the muscle testing and reflex procedures taught in the Touch for Health book form the foundation of many of the other types of kinesiology used by many health care professionals as adjunctive methods in their practices.

Quotes

Robert Calvert, the Editor and Publisher of Massage Magazine says:
"Your resource bag is better, not just bigger, when you add the value and ease of Touch for Health methods to your massage therapy practice."

"Touch for Health, it does what it says."

Virginia Anthony - Past National President, AMT A:
"Touch for Health is how I got my start in massage. I use it with virtually every client."