What is a Chi Nei Tsang Treatment?
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​Chi Nei Tsang (CNT) is perhaps one of the most profound forms of bodywork.  Virtually all of our energy lines and physical communication systems (blood, lymph, nerves) pass through our abdomen, and most of our vital organs live there.  Thus, by its very nature, the abdomen is intended to hold and be a conduit for vast amounts of chi.  Our internal organs are directly connected to the elements of the universe and contain the spiritual force of a human being.  The abdomen is the most likely “dumping ground” for negative thoughts and emotions, stress, and energies that no longer serve us. Chronic physical restrictions caused by accidents, poor posture, repetitive motion, dysfunctional breathing patterns, or old habits are most likely to stem from the core of our bodies.  When obstructions occur at the center of the body’s vital functions, the flow of Chi is obstructed throughout the entire body.  The energetic center of our body becomes congested and cut off from the rest of the body.

A treatment begins with a dialogue between you and your practitioner - discussing your health history and any current health issues you wish to address via treatment. You should include all information you think might be relevant, even if you don’t fully understand how each part connects to the whole. Chi Nei Tsang practitioners are trained in a truly holistic approach, considering all aspects of your physical and emotional state of being together as one manifestation of the whole.

Plan to wear comfortable clothing and eat and drink normally before your appointment - do not fast but eat lightly within 2 hours of your treatment. Your practitioner will help you to be comfortable on a heated comfortable cotton mat, using pillows and bolsters to support you, most often lying on your back with the area from your ribcage to the top of your pelvic area exposed by opening your clothing. Feel free to ask for the temperature in the room to be adjusted to your comfort, or for a blanket or more pillows.

I will begin the treatment with gentle and precise touches to your abdomen to discern the best way to help you feel better, as I guide you in breathing mindfully into the areas I am working with. You may experience a deep sense of relaxation and re-connection with yourself on a physical and emotional level during the treatment. The treatment will last approximately one and a half hours; you may even fall asleep, and this too is part of the therapeutic experience. I may conclude the treatment by giving you advice and simple self-care exercises that you can do at home to support and maintain your well-being.

What has happened during the treatment will vary depending on your needs and circumstances; your experience of change or healing may occur during the treatment or it may occur in the days and even weeks following the treatment. In healing, we cannot separate the mind from the body. Each symptom - mental or physical - has a meaning and that meaning is emotionally charged. Emotions are carried in the body as energetic charges which need to be processed physically. They manifest in significant locations in bodily structures, such as joints and muscle groups, to be expressed by bodily attitudes. These energetic charges require digestion and their level of processing can be traced throughout the length of the digestive system.
The Implications of the Power of Chi Nei Tsang
Chi Nei Tsang complements many forms of bodywork, but is unique in the way it directly massages the internal organs.  It is perhaps the most comprehensive method for energizing, strengthening, and detoxifying the internal system - both physically and energetically. 

Because it activates the deepest, oldest, and perhaps most vulnerable parts of us, Chi Nei Tsang is a practice not to be taken lightly.

The Chi Nei Tsang practitioner uses the healing energy of Chi, together with precise therapeutic manipulations, to bring awareness of these stored charges so digestion can happen.

The healing process takes place when there is an opportunity to recover and when awareness is present. The key to the healing process is awareness. Healing is ruled by spirit; spirit means guidance and being connected with our reason for being alive. 
Benefits
Chi Nei Tsang is used for many different reasons:
  • Detoxifies: CNT manipulations help relieve the body of excess stagnation, improving elimination and stimulating the lymphatic and the circulatory systems. CNT also strengthens the immune system and resistance to disease. In doing so, it augments other health care modalities with optimal results. For example, clients using CNT before and after surgery recover better and faster.
  • Restructure and strengthen the body: Because it addresses the visceral structures and positioning of internal organs, CNT stimulates them to work better and also helps correct the postural problems resulting from visceral imbalances. It releases deep-seated tensions and restores vitality.
  • Helpful with chronic pains such as back, neck and shoulder pains and problems related to misalignment of the feet, legs and pelvis.
  • Helps people become more aware of their emotional life:  All of our unprocessed emotional life is stored in our digestive system waiting to be addressed. Poor emotional digestion is also one of the main reasons for ill health. CNT facilitates the unfolding of emotions and the clarification of our emotional life. This makes it possible for us to evolve and grow in the direction of our better self. CNT has also been successfully used in combination with psychotherapy.
  • Teaches us to know ourselves better: The CNT philosophy is that we are all responsible for our own health and that true healing can only come from within. Both practitioner and clients learn how to improve breathing, because breath is the bridge between all levels of awareness. Not many people realize that we breathe according to how we don’t want to feel. By becoming aware of our breath we make a connection to those parts of ourselves that we have been hiding from, integrating them so that we move towards wholeness.
What Conditions Can It Help?
​Before answering this question, it is important to note that Chi Nei Tsang addresses first and foremost the person in the body, rather any condition they may be manifesting. This is because you are everywhere in our body: If your liver is hurting, it is you in your liver that is hurting.  Thus it can be said that CNT can help any condition if a person is willing to make a connection with whatever they have been disconnected from in their body. It is important to emphasize that the Chi Nei Tsang practitioner does not treat symptoms, nor does Chi Nei Tsang attempt an allopathic cure for illness. Chi Nei Tsang addresses the whole person, regarding no difference between the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of healing or well-being. 

That being said, CNT has been found to be particularly useful in relieving many physical symptoms such as:
  • Digestive disorders involving the liver, gallbladder, kidneys, pancreas, etc.
  • Intestinal blockages
  • Chron's Disease
  • IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome)
  • Diarrhea
  • Constipation
  • Sleep Disorders
  • Fibroids
  • Cysts
  • Lumps
  • Headaches
  • Menstrual Cramps
  • Poor Blood Circulation
  • Nervous Disorders such as anxiety and depression
  • Musculoskeletal Problems of undetermined origin
  • Can help to speed healing from injury or trauma, including obstetrical and surgical trauma 
  • Back Pain
  • Frozen Shoulder
  • Knots
  • Scar Tissue
  • Challenges to Fertility
  • Impotence
  • Auto-immune Disorders such as Lupus and Chronic Fatigue
  • Switching body from a sympathetic (stress) to parasympathetic (relaxed) response.  Not only does this feel good to the client, it is important to remember that in order for the body to heal, it needs to be in parasympathetic mode.
  • One of the most beneficial aspects of Chi Nei Tsang treatment is to bring the client into a place of deep relaxation so that their body's own wisdom can send Chi to where it is needed for healing.

 Again, Chi Nei Tsang does not attempt to treat symptoms or cure an illness; rather it is a system designed to precipitate change by bringing awareness to the internal organs of the body, thus inducing the body to heal. In that way, Chi Nei Tsang addresses every condition of a person, whether manifested physically, emotionally, or spiritually.
What specific techniques make CNT different from other massage techniques?
​Unlike some massage which uses indirect methods to contact the internal organs, CNT massages the vital organs directly. There are a number of techniques which address specific organs, such as the stomach, spleen, pancreas, duodenum, small intestine, large intestine, kidneys, liver & gallbladder.
In addition, CNT works on what are known as ‘sick winds’ in the body. Remembering that all the elemental forces of nature are contained within our body as well as without, there is a tendency for energy to become stuck. According to Master Chia “Trapped wind is heavy, gray and sick, like a damp room with no ventilation. Using Chi Nei Tsang is akin to opening the right windows to let the stagnant wind go out and assist in re-establishing a healthy flow of vital energy”.
About Chi and Disease Prevention
The circulation of Chi (life force) is a fundamental concept in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Chi Nei Tsang.  Physical disease is recognized as a symptomatic manifestation of an underlying disruption in the natural flow or circulation of chi or energy.  Healing results from a free flow of energy.
Man is in chi and chi is within
each human being.
       Heaven and earth and the 
            ten thousand things
            require chi to stay alive.
       A person that knows how to
             allow chi to circulate will
            preserve himself 
          and banish illnesses
       that might cause him harm.
                          
                            -- Ko Hung
Phra Mae Thoranee
Sacred Mother Earth