The Gua sha Show

The second part of Season 2 of the Gua sha Show kicks of with the story of how Clive and his team introduced Gua sha to Sri Lanka. He talks about the history behind the Gua sha project, his experiences in Africa and Japan and his multi-layered approach of the Gua sha project with training doctors and nurses in a hospital, professional practitioners in workshops, and parents, teachers, children and community members in the community workshops. He explains how his long-held dream became reality and, as always, brings his unique perspectives to how we understand Gua sha, life and everything in-between!

Gua sha is a very special technique and is far more complicated than many people realize. In this episode of the Gua sha show, Clive explains just how revolutionary an ecological approach can be in helping people to understand our connections not only within our bodies but with our external natural environment.

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It's important to think about safety when you do Gua sha, and in this episode of the Gua sha show, Clive gives you 9 tips on how you can incorporate safety into your Health & Wellness or Facial Gua sha treatments. He draws on his 20 year-experience in Gua sha and talks about the use of tools, lubrication, disinfection, technique, misinterpretations, treatment limits and much more! 

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Facial Gua sha can be seen in many ways. In this episode of the Gua sha show Clive gives you the basis of his way. To bring the beauty of the natural world of Chinese medicine into every treatment. He stresses the need for a foundation in what you do and that this can be found to the realm of natural science and a revision of how Chinese medicine is normally viewed. And how if you do this, you can treat with confidence.  

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Gua sha has the potential to eliminate the need for medical attention and reduce the reliance on pharmaceutical medication for some common ailments. In this episode, Clive explains how this is the basis for the Gua sha Project, a community driven program for disadvantaged areas of the world. He goes through some of the history of Gua sha which lie behind the project as well as his personal hopes and dreams, and also a little about the Sri Lanka project.

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Gua sha can be very effective in a clinical situation and this is something I know because I've used it in my clinic for decades. One condition it has proved useful with is with controlling the symptoms of perimenopause. In this episode, I look at a study which explores how to use Gua sha for this condition and also how to see the body through the lens of nature - in this case, the movement of a sunflower. I give detailed descriptions of the Gua sha treatment used in the protocol so that you can follow it and add a few tips of my own.

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Anyone can scrape around the eyes with a tool but it takes special skill to really understand the body-wide context of facial features like eye bags and dark rings. In this episode, Clive looks at what these features mean both in the local context of your face and also how they stem from circulatory and muscular relationships within the body. Chinese medicine is all about patterns and motions and Facial Gua sha is no different. He shows you how eye bags are closely related to your stomach and digestion, and how dark rings are connected to the kidneys. He also explains how these are treated and the cautions of applying temperature to the face.

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Season 2 of the Gua sha show starts with a fascinating episode on the reasons why you should use Gua sha on the head area. In episode 1, Clive looks at how structural changes, circulation changes, holographic changes and temperature changes can be made on the body and the face by treating the head area with Gua sha. He explains the tools you need and the technique and, as always, brings his unique perspective to Gua sha that you can't miss!

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In East Asia, traditional scraping health techniques like Gua sha (China), Kerokan (Indonesia), Cao Gio (Vietnam) and Kos Kyal (Cambodia) show similarities in how they are learned through ancestral lines in village communities. In this episode of the Gua sha show, we look at Kerokan in Indonesia and we explore how one villager has learned how to scrape her family and how she then passes this down to a new generation. 

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In this episode of the Gua sha Show, Clive shares with you why after 20 years he's still using Gua sha, how he came to focus on it professionally, some of the common misunderstandings around it and how best to understand Gua sha.

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Few people are aware that Gua sha has been used to treat some of the symptoms of the effects of Covid-19 in China. In this episode, Clive explains how it is being used in hospitals in China and details the protocol used and also gives you a plan of treatment to use at home from one of China's experts in Gua sha.

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Gua sha isn't for everyone and in this episode Clive breaks down exactly why some people either don't like, can't have or need special care with Gua sha. He uses his personal experience to show you what can happen and recounts some of this via the treatment experiences of his life, including the years he treated in a brothel! If you do Gua sha, you need to know what Clive has to say.   

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Facial Gua sha has wonderful benefits for the face and body but maybe not what you think! In this episode of the Gua sha Show, Clive delves into the effects on connective tissue and blood circulation and what this means in understanding Facial Gua sha. He looks at modern Chinese ideas about the benefits and then gives his version based on ancient Chinese ecological principles.

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Gua sha is a great solution to puffiness in your face and if you use it right you can really help both the local problem and the cause of the problem too! In this episode Clive throws light on what causes swelling in the body and how we can use simple farming analogies to understand and apply the basic principles of how to apply Gua sha.  

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If you've ever done Gua sha and seen the distinctive red marks appear on the skin afterwards, you may have wondered what they are. Well in this episode Clive looks at exactly that and explains what happens under your skin when you do Gua sha! He explains how you deal with reactions to people seeing the sha marks and how they are not something bad but actually something very positive for your health!

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In this episode of the Gua sha Show, Clive takes you on a journey to look at the world in which Facial Gua sha comes from. He looks at different eras in Chinese history and at the beauty treatments available at the time to give the context in which Facial Gua sha was developed. He also looks at how Gua sha became an important treatment for serious febrile diseases like cholera and how, if we really want to do Gua sha right, we have to incorporate the knowledge of the ancient Chinese in any facial treatments we do. 

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In this episode of the Gua sha Show, Clive explains how Gua sha can have a great effect on acne vulgaris. It does this through its anti-inflammatory effect on the body and he shows how treatments on your back can make changes on your face and upper body. He takes excerpts from his first book on Oriental medicine and explains them so you can get a fuller understanding of the approach of Chinese medicine to acne and how it is usually seen more as an internal problem than a surface skin problem.

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How do you hold a Gua sha tool?

What's the best angle of the Gua sha tool?

In which direction do you stroke? 

In this episode of the Gua sha Show, Clive answers these questions and more as he explains in his own unique way how to use a Gua sha tool. He tells you about his vision of Gua sha and what he did with his patients and their family members in his clinic in North Africa and also gives you the benefit of his long experience of how to get the best out of treating with a Gua sha tool.

Would you love it if someone explained Gua sha to you? Here's the host of the Gua sha Show, Clive Witham, doing just that! This week he brings his expert knowledge to the benefits of Gua sha and looks at the two main effects which underlie all the others - the increased circulatory and the anti-inflammatory effects. He gives you tips about how to think about Gua sha when thinking about health and illness and he looks at recent research in China about exactly what conditions Gua sha is used for. If you want to stay up-to-date with what's happening in the world of Gua sha, then subscribe and listen!

Gua sha studies include 185 diseases and disorders in the body and include pain or discomfort, respiratory infections, feverish conditions, gastrointestinal problems, backache, sciatica, headaches, migraines, stiff neck, frozen shoulder, tennis elbow, digestive problems, constipation, insomnia, trigeminal neuralgia, dizziness, neuralgia, diarrea, ulcerative colitis, acne, hemorrhoids and hepatitis B.

So how can it be studied in the treatment of so many conditions? 

In this packed episode on the face, Clive Witham presents the techniques you need to know in Facial Gua sha. He starts with the traditional techniques used on the body in China and then shows you how facial treatments differ. He introduces the sweep, press and circle techniques and you get to follow him as he shows you two treatment points on your face to push with a Gua sha tool. He then goes through the depth of knowledge anyone serious about face treatments should know, including points, channels and musculo-tendino connections throughout the body. This is not to be missed by anyone interested in Facial Gua sha!

Most people suffer from back pain at some time in their lives and in this episode of the Gua sha Show, Clive Witham explores how Gua sha can help to relieve back pain. He looks at 2 recent reports on the treatment of lower back pain, one from Hongkong and one from Germany and then combines these with his own experience to show you how both to look at back pain and help to treat it. 

"Gua Sha appears to be an acceptable, safe, and effective treatment for patients with chronic low back pain."

"...shown to improve flexion, extension and bending movements of the lower back."

"What's missing, and what would be of great help, is a more nuanced understanding of back pain."

In this episode of the Gua sha Show, Clive Witham explains some of the key requirements for doing Gua sha. He presents them in the form of a recipe and looks at how you need the practitioner, Gua sha tools, skin lubrication, techniques and results all to be mixed together to the right degree in order to create the perfect Gua sha treatment.

"...you've got to have the special sauce which will bind all the ingredients together and that's the natural principles of the ancient Chinese."