Helpful Tips for Professionals from Austin Massage School
If you’re a product of a massage school in Austin, TXand you are just getting into the massage therapy as an industry, you might be familiar with just the basic spa treatments available. This includes the different foundational massage techniques, aromatherapy, body wraps, and facial treatments. But what if the owner of the establishment or you yourself would like to add other types of treatments to broaden the variety of services that you’re offering to customers? Maybe you would like to consider cupping therapy. Add this to your menu of spa services and watch your profits grow in no time at all.
A Quick Look at the Origins of Cupping
Before enumerating the benefits of cupping therapy, let us take a quick look at its origins first. Recently, Hollywood celebs and even Olympic athletes were noticed with red spots on their backs, a result of a “mysterious” Asian treatment that involves glasses. Called cupping therapy, it may have just recently captured the imagination of the Western world but the treatment has long been part of ancient Chinese medicine.
If you had a preview of cupping therapy from one of your classes in a massage school in Austin, TX, you would learn that it was practiced as early as the fourth century. In ancient medicinal books, a treatment called ‘fire jar qi’ was described in great detail and has been known to cure abdominal pains, dizziness, and headaches. From animal horns which were hollowed out, cups made from bamboo, clay, and iron were later on used. Today, glass cups are involved in modern cupping therapy treatments. Read more about it in the next section.
What are the Benefits of Cupping?
The goal of cupping therapy is to use local suction to draw the skin into the cup. Vacuum is created in the cup which is placed over the skin, and it is created by using heated or cooled air. The cup is typically placed in the affected area – usually the back – for up to fifteen minutes. The general types of cupping treatment or therapy are wet and dry, and their different materials used for the cups, although glass is the most common.
In wet cupping, a small scalpel is used to make tiny cuts on the skin. After the second suction, a small amount of blood is drawn out and this is believed to eliminate the toxins from the body. There may not be too many studies released about the benefits of cupping, but some reports show that it could help with pain management, facial paralysis, acne, rheumatic diseases, and even high blood pressure.
How to Add Cupping Therapy to Your Menu of Spa Services
There are many clients out there who might want to try and experience the benefits of cupping therapy, so you will definitely benefit by adding it to your menu of spa services. Unlike a few centuries back, cupping therapy is now considered to be a perfectly safe treatment. However, make sure that the massage therapist is highly trained in the cupping technique that you are offering – be it wet or dry. It also pays to make a client aware of the risks associated with the cupping treatment.
When used as part of an overall alternative medicinal treatment, cupping therapy is a definite must-try. Whether you’ve just gotten out of a massage school in Austin, TX or if you’re already a professional massage therapist, this is one alternative medicine technique that you should definitely be skilled at.
If you are interested in learning massage therapy, then consider attending our massage school in Austin, TX! Check out our Massage Therapy Program today!