Qi Gung Therapy
By Dr. John Brazier
Everything in the universe has energy, energy pre-empts movement, it bonds form, fuels activity & processes. It also drives human expression and invention. It is the most potent universal force and yet modern man still has difficulty understanding and proving its existence. It can be readily felt with the right skills, and then utilised in treatment and diagnosis. Easily guiding the practitioner in the correct process to gain the appropriate release for recovery.
All we need to do is just learn to listen carefully, with our fingers and gut instincts. My new Qi gung medical students are always amazed that they can feel energy & movement in areas of the body that they touch on a regular basis, and yet they have never felt anything there before. This is usually because they have not been looking with their eyes closed or listening close enough with their hands.
The body is in a constant state of flux or movement, trying to hold or achieve balance. Qi is pumped around the meridians to each cell to enable it to carry out its specific task. Qi is used to process food, produce blood, protect and attack viruses, and repair injuries. All just to keep a healthy state of balance, when we are too far out of balance we suffer from pain and illness.
A good medical Qi gung practitioner is one who can feel the body's internal torsions and tensions, the heat or cold, and also the excess or deficiencies and blockages of the Qi flow, and thus make the necessary changes to help the bodies innate immune system naturally recovery. I explained to one of my clients that in her case her depression was literally caused by an energy imbalance.
Every depressive has slumping energy, they tend to look and talk downward with dropped shoulders, and their tone is deep, slow and negative. This means that the raising energy flow (in the conception meridian) is restricted. That then affects the structure (bones and muscles) in the chest cavity causing extra pressure on the lungs and especially the heart, if the heart can't breath fully it then affects the emotional centre of the brain by poor blood supply (Traditional Chinese Medicine dictates that the heart dominates our spirit).
Of course she didn't believe a word I said as she had been fed a concoction of drugs for the last 5 years, with conventional doctors explaining it could be a virus or her age or just one of those things we go through. To help her understanding I showed her one of the techniques I use to clear depression.
I get the clients to ground themselves using visualisation techniques (depression often makes people feel unconnected with everyone else's world) basically they send roots down into the ground like a tree. It’s actually an old martial arts demonstration technique, where once you are grounded people try to lift you up, a near impossible task if conducted correctly. My client tried it and couldn't believe the difference!
She was locked to the ground, impossible to move and yet she was actually no heavier. From that point on she understood that Qi exists. She couldn't see it or touch it, but she could feel it. It’s amazing how quickly people can smile once they get realisation.
For our body's to be continually healthy we must absorb, store and used Qi in the best and most efficient way. The two main forms of Qi (yin & yang) are absorbed in two ways: · Earth Qi or yin is absorbed up from mother earth through acupoint K1 in the sole of the feet · Heaven yang or universal Qi is absorbed through the top of the head at acupoint Du 20 However we also absorb Qi through good nutrition, breathing clean air & pure water. In traditional Chinese medicine Qi or energy has many actions, it protects the body from invasion (viruses & colds), it’s used to make and move blood around the body. It keeps the digestive system flowing in the correct direction and it accommodates all of the actions in the diagram below. Battery picture here!
As you can see from the diagram it is no surprise that most of our clients talk of fatigue, depression, infertility, constipation etc. As they are all working with deficient Qi (burnt out) to some degree. Corporate business talks of poor performance and productivity, what a surprise!
Do any of these clients or corporate actively follow Qi (or energy) building regimes, like breathing, good nutrition, and simple brain function or energy building exercises? Usually not!
Unless they have been shown the dramatic effect of a few simple daily exercises When we become ill it is the job of the medical Qi gung therapist to diagnose where and in what way the energy flow is imbalance and what needs to be changed to correct it.
The therapist gently holds a part of the body (like an arm in shoulder problems), after a short period the arm can be felt to be moving and unwinding, this is the body’s natural immune system trying to repair and correct the tissue. The therapist follows this movement and adds to it so greatly enhancing a person’s own natural recovery.
This usually ends with the client amazed that they can now move their arm in all directions without the pain. I had a client who had just received a mastectomy due to breast cancer. The hospital told her she had 1 week to get her arm from a 20 degree position (due to the pain & scar tissue) to an 80 degree position, so they could apply the radio-therapy, or she would have to wait much longer for treatment. It took just 2 Qi gung treatments! The hospital was amazed. At Chiva som spa a therapist asked me to treat her, as my skills cover modern & traditional muscular/skeletal work, herbs, psychology, Qi Gung, acupuncture etc she just asked for anything.
Before touching her I was immediately drawn to her kidneys, they felt tight and tense and unable to breath. Using Qi I rested my hands on her back and floated them free, after ten minutes the blood and body fluid started to flow relaxing the whole area. They now started to pump and breath with the diaphragm. After she then reported she had been suffering from a kidney infection and had been in pain for days. Now, surprisingly it had gone, "amazing!"
So what makes a good Qi gung therapist? Education! The best word to use to describe Qi is INTENTION. Qi is the energy of intention. With intention everything is possible. Nearly all inventions come from a person having an intension to achieve it. With education the client can be diagnosed.
With the diagnosis the therapist knows exactly where to go and what to do. It is essential that the Qi gung therapist have an excellent knowledge of anatomy & physiology, so when the clients body pulls the therapist into the pelvis and twists them in a direction, they not only feel it but sees it (in the minds eye) as well. Once the problem can be seen, a clear intention of what is needed can be made.
There you have your Qi Gung therapy In the case above I was drawn to her lower back and kidney system just from experience, however once I felt the tension in the skin, muscle, bones, ligaments, organs, blood flow and Qi, I knew I just needed to encourage the free flow again. I visualised that free flow, along with seeing the kidneys pump up and down with the diaphragm, and the flexibility of each vertebrae.
You can diagnose from the traditional methods of pulse & tongue, questions, palpation, feeling temperature differences etc or from the more modern muscle testing system. With muscle testing you get an even better view of the problem by challenging ligaments, bones, flows, torsions.
I believe everybody is potentially a great Qi gung therapist. It just takes Qi (intension) and a good trainer to bring the best out of the therapist. Every therapist already uses Qi gung in their treatments, whether they realise it or not. A good trainer will help the therapist to connect gut feeling with fact, and then create the confidence to listen to what's needed and give them the appropriate techniques to act.
The difference between a person who massages feet and a reflexologist is education and understanding of the holistic nature of the body.When a reflexologist finds a problem around the Liver area of the foot they naturally start to wonder of the state of the Liver organ itself, they see the Liver in their minds eye, and think of what dysfunction is occurring, this naturally takes their intention (Qi) up to the Liver. The more they work the point on the foot to clear it, the more Qi is being focused on flushing and clearing the Liver itself. By recognising and feeling these internal connections (both energetic & physical) we can treat any part of the body, through any other part.
As your training advances, and your clarity becomes clearer, you can then start to treat the body without any contact, given your own Qi is strong and you do not deplete yourself by becoming part of the clients problem.
Dr John Brazier (TCM) has trained with masters around the world, including China, Japan, and Thailand. His unique medical system Oriental Body Balance integrates both modern Western complementary and traditional Oriental medicine. By mixing the two systems you can you can gain clear factual diagnostics and have the choice of therapy that most suits the clients needs. John offers courses around the world on many aspects of medicine. Please contact tcmdoctor@o2.co.uk for further details
Dr. John Brazier (TCM) MSc. MBRCP. CCATCM
Complementary Medicine Consultant
Corporate health & wellness advisor
Performance Enhancement Specialist
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