Thanks, Eric, for a very thoughtful and inspiring article. I, too, was drawn to Asian medicine from a brief course in Shiatsu, which hooked me on Qi. I am very ignorant about Thai massage, and only wanted to share my early experience with learning Tui Na from Jim Blair (and I am not sure of his teachers' names at this point, 25 years later), in Seattle. He taught us the femoral artery stoppage and release, which always felt terrific, and I'd forgotten it. Since I live around and sometimes treat so many older adults (including myself), I am glad to be reminded of this very beneficial technique. I am gravitating more to massage and teaching Qi Gong now, rather than private practice. So, again, I thank you for the inspiration.

Hi Diane,

Thanks for sharing! Glad to hear that you were exposed to stoppage of the femoral artery from your Tui Na teacher. I don't have a strong enough background in Tui Na to know its full range of techniques, so I didn't know if this technique existed or not. Tui Na is an amazing field; doctors of Tui Na in Taiwan study for a minimum of seven years, whereas our schools in the West often have only a single semester or two.

I wish that we had more exposure to techniques like bone manipulation in the West. Sometimes I dream about going back to Asia just to spend time in the Shang Ke (traumatology) department. It is the most diverse department in terms of treatment modalities, and they use lots of techniques like massage, bone-setting, and plasters that really aren't covered by most schools in the West.

Eric