THE A TO Z OF THERAPIES AT LIGHT CENTRE
PHYSICAL THERAPIES
Acupuncture
Acupuncturists use very fine needles to un-block energetic pathways that run throughout the body. By activating the pathways that travel into the muscles, joints, sense organs, organs and metabolic systems, they can free up internal flow.
Acupuncturists typically seek to improve function of organs, the immune system, the digestive system, metabolism and hormones. They also tend to treat physical ailments and aid women in pregnancy.
Body Based Stress Solutions
Stress is part of our lives and at times, we might enjoy it. We usually stop enjoying it when it starts to take its toll on our body, affecting our performance at work and our ability to recover in our free time. Most of us understand how stress and physical symptoms can be connected, but the knowledge alone does not necessarily give us the tools to stop stress affecting our physical and mental abilities in an unwanted way.
Body Based Stress Solutions has been developed for people working in the corporate world and struggling with the challenge of pain (typically back pain) and poor health related to or aggravated by stress at work.
Body Based Stress Solutions offers a holistic approach: a personalised description of your stress-related experience and a bespoke physical practice to learn how to stop the negative effects of stress from happening. The sessions support this learning through touch and the practice includes exercises that will enable you to go through stressful situations without having to suffer from them. Clients experience relief from aches and pains, an increased level of vitality and overall wellbeing. Considerably reducing their stress levels, they feel more in control of their life and at the same time being able to go with the flow. Getting back their mental serenity and confidence, clients find that they can be more focused, relaxed and joyful.
Bowen Technique
The Bowen technique is a system of gentle yet powerful soft tissue manipulation by the practitioner’s use of their hands (thumb & fingers) on the following structures of the body
– muscle & fascia
– tendons, ligaments & joints
– nerves & lymphatic areas
This prompts the body to reset, repair & rebalance itself. Bowen also restores the body’s self healing mechanism. It is pain free & deeply relaxing.
Bowen treatments can help with most musculo-skeletal injuries, emotional stress, traumas, digestive issues, immune system and hormonal imbalance related conditions.
Chair Massage
Also called on-site massage, Chair is usually based on the traditional Japanese acupressure technique called Anma. With the client seated in a specially designed chair this treatment stimulates the acupressure points in the head, neck, shoulders, spine and lower back. The treatment is done over clothing and no oil is used.
Unlike acupuncture, no needles are used. Instead, the therapist uses his or her hands to stimulate the energy points of the body. The therapist may use a specific sequence of movements, which aim to improve the flow of energy throughout the body and balance and strengthen the body’s muscular, circulatory and nervous systems.
Craniosacral Therapy
Craniosacral Therapists provide a safe and gentle hands-on therapy using light touch to effect a deep healing within the body via the craniosacral system. They seek to enhance health by integrating body, mind and emotions, utilising the person’s own natural healing potential.
Craniosacral Therapists typically treat a range of physical ailments and stresses.
Deep Tissue Massage
Deep Tissue Massage is a massage technique that focuses on the deeper layers of muscle tissue. It aims to release the chronic patterns of tension in the body through slow strokes and deep pressure on the targeted areas, either following or going across the grain of the muscle fibres, tendons and fascia. The therapist may use their thumbs, forearms and elbows to apply this deeper pressure.
This technique may help to release chronic muscle tensions and also help break up and eliminate scar tissue. It normally focuses on more specific areas where the issue is located.
Many Massage Therapists will incorporate Deep Tissue techniques in their practice and during most sessions depending what is needed during a treatment.
Indian Head Massage
Indian head massage is based on the ayurvedic system of healing which has been practiced in India for over a thousand years (see Ayurvedic Medicine). The aim of Indian head massage is to release stress that has accumulated in the tissues, muscles and joints of the head, face, neck and shoulders.
The client sits fully clothed in a chair for the treatment. The therapist uses a range of different movements including deep kneading and compression movements over the neck, shoulder and scalp areas. In addition, the therapist will also gently stimulate and stroke pressure points on the face. The session will usually last from twenty to forty-five minutes.
Indian head massage is often used for stress, tension, fatigue, insomnia, headaches, migraine and sinusitis. Clients report that the experience is deeply calming and relaxing, leaving them feeling energised and revitalised and better able to concentrate.
Kinesiology
Kinesiology is the study of muscle movement, when combining that with Chinese medicine you get a wonderful complementary therapy that treats the root cause of “dis” ease in the body. The body runs efficiently in three plains; Mental, Emotional and Physical. If you like to think of these three running harmoniously in a triangle, when one side is out of alignment the other two sides have to compensate to keep the equilibrium and that is where you find the symptoms. So if you have an emotional upset you may have a physical symptom, for instance; you can get sick with worry, anxiety can cause sweating and a trembling.
Kinesiology uses muscle monitoring to find out where these imbalances have occurred and what it needs to correct them in a non-invasive manner. The most common and effective treatments are food intolerances and allergies. Consider it a translator for what your body is trying to tell you through your symptoms.
Lymphatic Drainage
Manual lymphatic drainage is a type of gentle massage which is intended to help stimulate the lymphatic system and encourages the flow of lymph fluid, which carries waste products away from the tissues back toward the heart. The lymphatic system depends on intrinsic contractions of the smooth muscle cells in the walls of lymph vessels and the movement of skeletal muscles to propel lymph through the vessels to lymph nodes and then to the lymph ducts which return lymph to the cardiovascular system. Manual lymph drainage uses a specific light pressure and rhythmic circular movements to stimulate lymph flow.
Muscle Activation
The Muscle Activation technique makes simple changes to incorrectly functioning muscles. Changing quickly from a state of tension and pain, to a state of ease of movement, facilitating the body to make immediate shifts towards resilience, strength and speed.
The system uses simple muscle resistance, strength and flexibility tests so changes are clearly measured. Next the body is activated to breathe correctly, then muscle firing patterns and activation is carried out restoring muscles and structures to their correct patterns. Then the body and brain can integrate.
Pregnancy Massage
Pregnancy massage aims to release tensions that may be specific to pregnancy and differs from general massage as there are pressure points that should be avoided during pregnancy. All fully qualified Pregnancy Massage therapists have a deep knowledge of specific techniques that not only avoid these points but target specific areas that are affected during pregnancy.
Some therapists will either use a special table to accommodate the pregnant client or use pillows and cushions to create a secure and comfortable cradle for the treatment.
A study at the University of Miami School of Medicine found that massage therapy might have multiple positive effects, including lowered anxiety levels, decreased back and leg pain, improved sleep and decreased levels of the stress hormone norepinephrine.
Reflexology
Reflexologists offer a deeply relaxing therapy, based on the theory that every organ, structure and part of the body is mirrored in the feet and that any problem or tension in the body is reflected in the related part of the foot. Stimulation of these reflex points thus has a re-balancing effect on the body and promotes healing.
Reflexologists typically treat a full range of physical and internal ailments.
Remedial Massage
Remedial massage is designed to balance the muscles, soft tissue length, tension and tone which will in turn aid in normal joint and bone position. It also aims to increase the flow of blood and lymph, particularly in the injured areas, thereby removing blockages, damaged cells, scar tissue and adhesions resulting from injury. Remedial massage consisted of a detailed assessment followed by treatment of the muscles, tendons, ligaments and connective tissues of the body to assist in rehabilitation, pain and injury management. It’s aim to create conditions for the body to return to a healthy state after injury.
Osteopathy
Osteopaths use manipulation, soft tissue techniques and other associated skills to create realignment of the body and thus balance, symmetry and free movement.
Cranial Osteopaths use gentle encouragement of the cranial alignment to affect total body function.
Osteopaths typically treat ailments such as back pain, neck and shoulder pain, knee pain, sports injuries, arthritis etc, which often arise when the body is malaligned or under unremitting physical stresses.
Physiotherapy
The Light Centre’s Physiotherapists treat the full spectrum of physical ailments such as back pain, neck ache, sports injuries, arthritis etc.
Rolfing
Practitioners of The Rolf Method of Structural Integration align and balance the body by lengthening and repositioning the fascia, allowing the muscles to move more efficiently.
What is Rolfing?
Rolfing® is a form of hands-on bodywork and movement training that re-organises the connective tissue of the body (fascia) so that it can function more effectively. Over time, events in our life, such as injury or trauma can lead to our natural alignment in gravity to be lost. This causes internal stresses resulting in physical and emotional discomfort. Rolfing® aims to correct these imbalances and reduce the compensations and stresses that cause pain. Rolfing® is named after American biochemist Dr Ida Rolf who developed the method in the 1950’s.
What is Fascia?
Fascia is a layer of fibrous tissue that forms a continuous web throughout the whole body. Also known as connective tissue it provides a responsive structure that adapts to demands placed upon it, creating a flexible and mobile system. It surrounds, supports, and penetrates all muscles, bones, nerves and organs of the body. Through the Rolfing® touch, the elasticity and sliding capacity of fascia can be restored and the body structure aligned to function with greater ease.
Shiatsu
Shiatsu is a form of Japanese massage which aims to correct energy imbalances within the body. Shiatsu is the Japanese word for ‘finger pressure’, and in this type of massage the practitioner applies pressure to the main energy pathways (meridians) within the client’s body. The aim of the therapy is to release energy where there are any blockages, and to move energy into those areas of the body that are depleted.
Scientific research suggests that the pressure applied by the practitioner during the treatment may encourage the release of endorphins, which are the body’s natural painkillers.
The treatment is performed with the client fully clothed on a mat on the floor. The therapist will then use his or her fingers, palms, knuckles, elbows, knees and feet, to apply pressure to the client’s meridians throughout the body. Shiatsu may be used on clients with a range of conditions including back, neck and shoulder pain, circulatory problems, digestive disorders, sinusitis, catarrh, asthma and bronchitis, migraine, headaches, chronic fatigue and stress related problems such as anxiety and depression.
Sports Massage
Sports massage is based on Swedish massage, a technique that uses the application of pressure to manipulate soft tissue, with additional intensive techniques that are specifically designed to prevent and treat sports injuries or chronic, on-going issues.
Sports massage aims to improve the suppleness and flexibility of muscles and joints, improve blood circulation, speed up the healing of damaged or stressed muscles, tissues and joints, and prevent future muscle and tendon injuries.
A sports massage can be carried out prior to a sports event, when it will stimulate circulation, calm nervous tension and prepare the individual for optimal performance whilst at the same time reducing the risk of injury. It can also be carried out after a sports event, when it will relieve soreness and assist with the removal of lactic acid and other waste products. It is often used during training, when the practitioner will focus on speeding up the healing of existing injuries and preventing the development of future injuries.
Stone Massage (hot and cold)
During Stone therapy the practitioner may use hot and/or cold stones to help relieve muscle tension and specific aches and pains. It has been used for common issues such as muscular aches, pains, and strains, rheumatic and arthritic conditions, back pain, and insomnia. It also helps to improve circulation and may help reduce stress, anxiety, tension and depression.
In certain cases cold stones can also be used to help muscular injury and inflammation. Warm stones expand the blood vessels, helping to move blood faster round the body, sedating the nervous system. The application of cold stones stimulates the nervous system by causing the blood vessels to contract and increasing the lymph flow of waste materials round the body.
During a treatment the client lies on a couch or a series of flat hot and cool stones, covered by a towel, that trace the spine. The therapist applies oil to the skin and glides the stones across the body’s meridian lines. In some treatments large stones are placed on the body, in the palms of the hands, and smaller stones are lightly wedged between the toes.
Thai Yoga Massage
Thai Yoga Massage – also known as Thai Massage, lazy person’s yoga or applied Hatha yoga – is an ancient traditional Thai healing therapy. It combines acupressure, reflexology, assisted progressive stretching and yoga. Thai massage is based on the principles of loving kindness and compassion given through the healing power of touch.
The Thai Yoga practitioner uses feet, elbows, palms, thumbs and knees to skillfully apply pressure and yoga-like stretches to the body. The sequences of stretching and pressure work are given in a smooth, unhurried and harmonious way with one move dissolving into the next; this generates a feeling of deep relaxation and balance within the receiver’s body.
TALKING THERAPIES
Counselling
Counsellors offer the space for a person to make sense of their own psychological and emotional issues and through support and guidance seek to help people work towards solutions to their life problems.
Hypnotherapy
Hypnotherapists help you enter an altered state of awareness, one you naturally experience many times a day and also when you drift down to sleep or drift up in the morning. This state is similar to meditation except that you have an experienced therapist to guide you.
Hypnotherapists typically treat stress, addictions, compulsions and depression. They also seek to improve confidence and levels of professional performance.
Life Coaching
Stress is part of our lives and at times, we might enjoy it. We usually stop enjoying it when it starts to take its toll on our body, affecting our performance at work and our ability to recover in our free time. Most of us understand how stress and physical symptoms can be connected, but the knowledge alone does not necessarily give us the tools to stop stress affecting our physical and mental abilities in an unwanted way.
Body Based Stress Solutions has been developed for people working in the corporate world and struggling with the challenge of pain (typically back pain) and poor health related to or aggravated by stress at work.
Body Based Stress Solutions offers a holistic approach: a personalised description of your stress-related experience and a bespoke physical practice to learn how to stop the negative effects of stress from happening. The sessions support this learning through touch and the practice includes exercises that will enable you to go through stressful situations without having to suffer from them. Clients experience relief from aches and pains, an increased level of vitality and overall wellbeing. Considerably reducing their stress levels, they feel more in control of their life and at the same time being able to go with the flow. Getting back their mental serenity and confidence, clients find that they can be more focused, relaxed and joyful.
Neuro-Linguistic Programming
The term Neuro-Linguistic Programming was coined by Dr Richard Bandler in the 1970s and is described as a system of therapy which seeks to educate people in self-awareness and effective communication, and to change their patterns of mental and emotional behaviour. Is a method of influencing brain behaviour through the use of language and other types of communication to enable a person to ‘recode’ the way the brain responds to stimuli and manifest new and better behaviours. Neuro-Linguistic Programming often incorporates hypnosis and self-hypnosis to help achieve the change wanted.
ENERGY THERAPIES
Access Bars®
Access Bars® is a set of 32 points on the head which, when lightly touched, stimulate positive change in the brain dissipating the electro-magnetic charge of stress, thought and emotions. It acts like a delete button on a computer! This gentle, non-invasive technique works by releasing both physical and mental blocks stored in the body and helps facilitate greater ease in many different areas of life. The treatment is received fully clothed.
Acupunture
Acupuncturists use very fine needles to un-block energetic pathways that run throughout the body. By activating the pathways that travel into the muscles, joints, sense organs, organs and metabolic systems, they can free up internal flow.
Acupuncturists typically seek to improve function of organs, the immune system, the digestive system, metabolism and hormones. They also tend to treat physical ailments and aid women in pregnancy.
Colour Energy Therapy
Colour therapy is a natural, non-intrusive, holistic healing therapy which works subtly within the Aura (the electromagnetic field/subtle energy bodies that surround us) and the Chakras (the etheric energy vortexes that connect us to the subtle energy bodies) enabling the body to heal itself. This works holistically through the mind, body and soul by vibrational transmissions of colour and light frequencies in order to rebalance the whole.
Craniosacral Therapy
Craniosacral Therapists provide a safe and gentle hands-on therapy using light touch to effect a deep healing within the body via the craniosacral system. They seek to enhance health by integrating body, mind and emotions, utilising the person’s own natural healing potential.
Craniosacral Therapists typically treat a range of physical ailments and stresses.
Essenian Healing
Recently rediscovered by the therapists and writers Anne Givaudan and Daniel Meurois, these ancient therapies are effective in bringing balance to the whole human system. They work on many levels by harmonising the aura and the subtle bodies with accurate movements and techniques and by equilibrating the chakras and the internal organs with the use of “Prana” energy and healing sounds, promoting a deeper understanding of the root causes of our present problems.
Kinesiology
Kinesiology is the study of muscle movement, when combining that with Chinese medicine you get a wonderful complementary therapy that treats the root cause of “dis” ease in the body. The body runs efficiently in three plains; Mental, Emotional and Physical. If you like to think of these three running harmoniously in a triangle, when one side is out of alignment the other two sides have to compensate to keep the equilibrium and that is where you find the symptoms. So if you have an emotional upset you may have a physical symptom, for instance; you can get sick with worry, anxiety can cause sweating and a trembling.
Kinesiology uses muscle monitoring to find out where these imbalances have occurred and what it needs to correct them in a non-invasive manner. The most common and effective treatments are food intolerances and allergies. Consider it a translator for what your body is trying to tell you through your symptoms.
Reiki
Reiki is a Japanese healing system that channels Universal Energy into the body, in order to break down any blockages in the energy system that may be contributing to, or manifesting as, physical illnesses or emotional issues. Reiki is an incredibly relaxing and calming treatment, and promotes the body’s ability to heal itself.
GENERAL THERAPIES
General Health Practitioner
Just as the orthodox medical world revolves around GPs so the world of health creation revolves around GHPs.
Our Moorgate Centre’s General Health Practitioners are your gateway to better health. They will spend time understanding your wider health needs, guiding you towards a self-development plan and then helping you to achieve it.
Imagine having a medically trained confidant who not only keeps an eye on your vital signs, but also on the factors that could ‘lead’ you to ill health, such as your posture, tensions and physical stresses, your body shape, digestion, energy levels, sleep quality and emotional health.
One hundred years ago, Thomas Edison had a vision of this kind of doctor. He said:
“The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his or her patients in the care of the human frame, in a proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease.”
At the Light Centre our General Health Practitioners are ready to become your doctor of the future.
Because the Light Centre already has the largest range of health-creation classes, courses and therapies in London, our General Health Practitioners are also best-placed to help you find the right therapists, teachers and background reading for your needs and they will also be able to enrol you on courses that will be most effective in helping you meet your goals, e.g.:
– Postural correction
– Overcoming aches and pains
– Dealing with digestive problems
– Nutritious food programmes
– Coping with mental stresses
– Permanent weight loss
– Natural ideas for looking and feeling good
We firmly believe that having your own General Health Practitioner will make a significant difference to your life.
Women’s Health
A level of support for women, which is designed to help educate and get to the root of their female related health issues. It maybe the case that you have a received a diagnosis such as fibroids from a gynaecologist and have been advised to have a hysterectomy or to take medication. You may not feel comfortable with what has been suggested and feel you would like to explore options.
This approach to treating and supporting women is to not only get to the root of your health concern but also to educate and empower you in order to avoid the same issues reoccurring. A vital part of female health is taking control and understanding what is happening with your body and in order to do that questions need to be asked and answered to achieve the right outcome for an individual and to avoid any pressured and reactive decisions being made.