Hands on Healing - Chi Nei Tsang massage therapy - Brief Article

Better Nutrition, April, 2001 by Jill Ruttenberg

Ease your indigestion with this traditional Chinese technique

At least 80 percent of Americans are "digestively challenged." Despite all that we do to eat well and manage stress, we remain a nation which supports hundreds of brands of chalky-tasting antacids and laxatives. Could it be that we're masking the symptoms of poor digestion and not dealing with the underlying causes?

MOVING CHI

Gilles Marin, author of Healing From Within with Chi Nei Tsang (North Atlantic Books 1999), believes that our bodies are constantly digesting emotional charges that we feel at the visceral level. "We process emotions the same way we process food, and poor emotional digestion is one of the main reasons for ill health," Marin says.

What the esoteric massage technique, called Chi Nei Tsang (CNT, for short), does is help a person become more aware of deep-seated tensions and remove the blocks to free-flowing digestion. Loosely translated as "inner organ chi transformation," CNT is based on Taoist practices and Traditional Chinese Medicine. The therapy coaches a person through "applied chi kung" which raises both awareness and Chi, or vital energy. In Asian healing systems, it is believed that the smooth movement of Chi and body fluids is paramount in keeping a person healthy.

While CNT aids conditions such as constipation, indigestion, ulcers, menstrual cramps and irritable bowel syndrome, Marin emphasizes that CNT is a holistic therapy that doesn't work with labels or symptoms, but rather with the reason why people have symptoms. "We work at the level of information, of emotional content, to digest emotional charges. By bringing to the surface more awareness, true healing, which is synonymous with growing, can begin, and a person can outgrow the reason for having to manifest symptoms," he says.

THE SEA OF CHI

What does a CNT session feel like? Unlike other massages where the client lies passively at rest, CNT requires breathing deeply into various areas of the torso while the practitioner's hands gently knead and press on soft tissues. Much time is spent working around the navel, using specific techniques to detoxify the body and to release the client's unique patterns of tension.

It was the deep breathing work of CNT that attracted Shiatsu massage therapist Allison Post of San Francisco, Calif., to making the therapy her specialty.

"When I was learning Chi Nei Tsang, and I focused my breath in my center, the place Taoists call the 'Sea of Chi,' I became grounded and strong. If you watch a baby breathe, you'll see this Buddha belly going in and out, but as we grow up and are told to suck it in, we start breathing up into the chest. We forget how to get back to our center, which is why all these knots and tangles start forming," Post said.

BENEFITS AND RESEARCH POSSIBILITIES

When these blockages are unraveled, the client, who is called the "student," experiences a softer abdomen and greater ease in movement. Subtler effects are felt as CNT is believed to detoxify the body and re-energize the circulation of blood and lymphatic fluids. In turn, digestion is improved and nutrients stored in the skin are utilized.

"What this leads to is better bile flow to cleanse the liver, a stronger immune system, better processing of body fat and an overall increase in kidney and liver function," Marin says. He adds that back pain, commonly the result of accumulated abdominal pressure on the nerves coming out of the spine, is often alleviated by CNT, as the massage relieves abdominal pressure. All these benefits are what have made CNT the most requested type of bodywork at one of the country's leading health spas, Miraval Resort in Tucson, Ariz.

Could CNT some day be recommended as a standard treatment for such ailments as irritable bowel syndrome? Dr. Steve Goldschmid, chief of gastroenterology at the University of Arizona Medical Center thinks it could. "Irritable bowel syndrome [I.B.S..] is a very difficult condition to treat with conventional medicine. I think people with I.B.S. would respond very well to a therapy which involves intimate touch. This sounds like a potentially promising technique that ought to be studied further," he says.

Do-it-yourself Chi transformation in 7 easy steps

Try this self-help abdominal massage. Gilles Marin recommends practicing steps 1-4 each day, and taking a whole hour once per week for the full routine.

1. Lie down on your back with feet flat, knees raised, supported by pillows.

2. Breathe long and deep toward your sacrum (the triangular bone at the end of your spinal cord), first filling your abdomen, then your chest. Exhale, dropping your chest first, then your abdomen. Breathe gently this way throughout the session.

3. Using the fingertips of both hands, gently massage the skin around your navel. Do this for 5-10 minutes every day to improve digestion and elimination and relieve nerve, back or neck pain, water retention and excess body weight.

4. Detox: Move away from the navel, massage by pumping the belly, alternating with both hands (5-10 minutes daily).