Over the past few weeks, we've been covering the history of acupuncture in America. In the first installment of this series, we covered the early history of acupuncture in the West and discussed the first Europeans to come into contact with acupuncture. In the second installment, we discussed how acupuncture was introduced to the early American medical community. In the third installment, we discussed how acupuncture first entered the American mainstream during the 1970s and covered the early years of acupuncture as a profession. … Read More

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the human body is a collective of interrelated yin-yang systems. When these different yin-yang systems are in harmony, the body is healthy, but when there is disharmony, illness arises. There are three major yin-yang systems that are crucial to health known as the Functional Entities: … Read More

Yin-Yang in Traditional Chinese Medicine | Acupuncture School Blog Just like rationalism forms the basis for Western medicine, the Taoist philosophy of yin-yang forms the basis for Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). While many people have heard the term yin-yang or know it's famous symbol, few understand what yin-yang truly is, and even fewer people outside of our Florida acupuncture school know how it relates to Traditional Chinese Medicine. The typical yin-yang sign shows the interconnected duality of opposite forces. In Chinese philosophy, Yin-yang, which translates into “dark-bright,” describes the notion that everything in nature consists of two paradoxical phases or energies. … Read More

After a yearlong journey, you have finally graduated from a massage therapy school in Miami, passed the MBLEx (Massage and Bodywork Licensing Examination), and received your massage therapy license from the State of Florida Massage Therapy Board... … Read More

In the last article, we discussed how long it takes to graduate from massage therapy school in Florida. We learned that most massage therapy programs are a minimum of 500 hours long. This requirement means that most massage programs are at least 6 months long. Since most massage schools in Miami include additional courses in their curriculums, many programs end up being closer to 750 hours long, so you can expect to be in massage school for approximately 8 to 9 months. However, longer programs often have many advantages over shorter programs. For example, many longer massage therapy programs offer specialization certificates, which demonstrates competency in a specific massage modality, and gives those graduates a professional advantage. In this article, we discuss what the massage therapy curriculum is like. Hopefully, this will give you an idea of what massage classes are like. … Read More

Acupuncture has been around for over 2,000 years. As such, acupuncture schools will often teach the mechanisms behind acupuncture's effectiveness from a Traditional Chinese Medical point of view. According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), health is determined by the proper flow of qi or non-physical life force in the body. Illness arises when the body’s qi is stopped from performing its cardinal functions, which includes the nutrient conversion, temperature regulation, and defense against foreign pathogens. … Read More

What is Tuina? What can it treat? | AMC Acupuncture School Blog | Miami, FL In the last article, we discussed that tuina was a form of Asian Bodywork Therapy (ABT) that originated in China several thousand years ago and is the oldest codified system of medicine in the world. Like the other Traditional Chinese Medicine modalities, it utilizes a TCM view of the body and uses an acupoint model to locate the points of healing. However, unlike acupuncture and Shiatsu, Tuina includes a variety of techniques that are similar to the ones found in Swedish Massage, including rolling, kneading, and pinching. Tuina plays an important role as part of our acupuncture school program and while tuina sounds great in theory, is there any evidence that it is an effective treatment? In this article, we will evaluate tuina as medical treatment in a clinical setting. … Read More

What are the benefits of Acupressure? | AMC Massage School Blog | Miami, FL Recently, we discussed the meridian system in Traditional Chinese Medicine and how Asian Bodywork Therapy (ABT) utilizes these principles for healing. Like acupuncture, acupressure stimulates the flow of qi by applying manual stimulation at the acupoints. However, rather than inserting needles, acupressure uses pressure to massage the acupoints. Because it is non-invasive, acupressure can potentially be used as a low-risk complementary treatment for medical issues where traditional acupuncture has already proven to be effective. … Read More

Asian Bodywork Therapy (ABT) is the official term used by the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM) to designate the different touch and manual therapy modalities that incorporate the medical theories and principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). Currently, there are 17 recognized forms or styles of ABT. Before we go onto discuss these different forms, we need to briefly cover a small matter of technical jargon. … Read More

Massage Therapy is a holistic health practice that involves the manual manipulation of the body’s musculoskeletal tissues. While massage treatments have long been a part of medical history, some of the most popular modalities or styles were not invented until fairly recently. For example, the most popular modality, Swedish Massage, was invented around 1870 by Johann George Mezger, who codified the modality into the five techniques that are still used today. The five techniques of Swedish Massage, are: … Read More

Massage Therapy as a Career | AMC-Miami Massage Therapy and Shiatsu School If you’re considering becoming a massage therapist, then you’ve probably also looked into related health and medical occupations. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) lists four related occupations with similar job duty descriptions to massage therapy. They are: … Read More

In a previous article, we discussed the history and origins of Swedish Massage. In it, we explained that the name Swedish was misnomer that arose due to translation mix-ups. Per Henrik Ling, a Swedish medical pioneer and founder of the Swedish Gymnastics system, often gets credited with inventing the modality. However, the actual inventor of Swedish Massage is Johann Georg Mezger, a Dutch physician who was noted for studying French massage techniques and their effects on physical healing. It was Mezger, not Ling, who codified the five massage techniques that form the foundation for Swedish Massage. In this article, we will discuss the five techniques of Swedish Massage. … Read More

Going Dutch: The Story behind Swedish Massage's Confusing Name | AMC Miami Massage Therapy School Recently, we did an extensive post on the History of Massage Therapy. In it, we covered many of the significant massage modalities that have contributed to our modern understanding of Massage Therapy as a holistic medical practice. These massage modalities can be roughly be divided into two major categories: Eastern and Western. … Read More

Massage: The Oldest Medical Practice | AMC-Miami Massage Therapy School Massage Therapy is one of the most commonly practiced forms of holistic medicine. Massage Therapists heal patients by using their touch to manipulate the muscles and other soft tissues of the body. This therapeutic touch is used to relieve pain, help heal injuries, improve circulation, relieve stress, increase relaxation, and aid with general health and wellness. According to the most recent data published by the National Center for Health Statistics (CDC-NCHS), approximately 7% of the US adult population received a massage treatment in 2012. That’s approximately 15.4 million people! And it only appears to be growing in popularity. As a profession (in the US), Massage Therapy jobs are predicted to increase by 24 percent between 2016 and 2026. While the numbers are impressive, it should not be particularly surprising that massage therapy is a popular practice. Massage Therapy has many health benefits, including improved sleep quality, enhanced relaxation, pain relief, decreased stress and inflammation, decreased blood pressure, improvements in injuries and sports injuries, as well as improved mental health. … Read More

What is Electroacupuncture? In previous articles, I have cited studies that utilized electroacupuncture, but I have not explained this modern version of acupuncture. Electroacupuncture is a modern variation of acupuncture that adds electricity to its needles. At an initial glance, it seems that modern technology and a 2,500-year-old system of traditional Oriental medicine would little in common. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) by its very name is, well, traditional. Tradition and change are mutual opposites, yet inseparable, like … Read More