The art of Touch and Feel (1)

I have lived quite a schizophrenic existence in my career. I am both orthodox and complementary (I hate the word 'alternative') and have spent many years pioneering integrative medicine. In my complementary medical career I have practised many different types of therapy including homoeopathy, radiesthesia, acupuncture, acupressure, reflexology, craniosacral therapy, chakra therapy, reiki and naturopathy. I am often asked which of these I liked doing the most. the answer is always anything that requires touch and feel i.e. all the bodywork modalities. When I qualified as an acupuncturist in 1978, having been a physiotherapist for 8 years, what I tried to do then, and what I have attempted to do since is to combine the two! What could be better I thought than combining Chinese medicine and physical therapy to give the best of both worlds. I soon learnt, though, that we are all made differently and my colleagues often saw things in  a completely different light to me. Only a small fraction of physiotherapists actually touch their patients (this seems to be getting worse year on year) so why should I pioneer 'touch'. Similarly not many acupuncturists actually want to combine touch with needling, even though, strictly speaking, traditional Chinese medicine means using needle, moxa, herbs, diet AND touch.

I have lost track of the times in lecturing or in print that I have shouted from the rooftops the importance of touch and feel and that acupressure is not a watered down version of acupuncture. Much of this may have fallen onto deaf ears, but also I know that hundreds of my students, pupils and readers have, like me, found that the correct use of acupressure - in all its forms - is infinitely superior to needling. I am certainly not decrying acupuncture - heaven forbid. But what I am saying is that there are thousands of acupuncturists out there who do not know what they are missing by not using touch and feel as extra strings to their bow. I shall expand on these thoughts over the next couple of blogs. Take care - JRC