Manipulative and body-based alternative medicine practices focus on the structures and systems of the body, including the bones, joints, soft tissues, and circulatory and lymphatic systems, as opposed to the more ethereal, such as life energy.
Practices include craniosacral therapy, therapeutic massage, reflexology, osteopathy, and other bodywork therapies, such as rolfing, the Bowen technique, Trager bodywork, the Alexander technique, and the Feldenkrais method. Chiropractic care is often included here, although it has become mainstream recently, covered by most insurance policies and offered in medical clinics.
Some manipulative and body-based methods are based on traditional systems of medicine, such as those from China, India, or Egypt, while others were developed in the last couple of centuries.
Given that these are alternative or complementary therapies, there is a good deal of variation in the training and approaches used by practitioners both across and within modalities. Nevertheless, common characteristics include the presumption that the human body is self-regulating, that parts of the body are interdependent, and the body has the ability to heal itself. In each of these modalities, practitioners generally tailor their treatments to the specific needs of individual patients.
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@ChiropractorsCraniosacral TherapyMassage Therapy | OsteopathyReflexology |
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