News & Articles
ARTICLE: Chi Nei Tsang - The Art of Abdominal Massage
Mark Bauman
Editor's note: Mark has consented to do a little interview with us on Chi Nei Tsang (CNT). He has been teaching this class at BTC for some time now.
Q. What are Chi Nei Tsang's origins?
MB. Chi Nei Tsang is an approach to massage therapy that is said to have originated perhaps two thousand years ago in the mountain monasteries of Taoist China; and was used by monks to help detoxify, strengthen, and refine their bodies in order to carry the energy needed for their practices. Chi Nei Tsang has been translated as "working the energy of the internal organs", or "internal organs chi transformation".
Q. Describe CNT for us.
MB. The massage can be quite powerful, and often intense especially at first. In the end, it usually feels wonderful. There is a great feeling of openness and energy flow that can result. Practitioner and client both carry on some Chi Kung practices to assist the efficacy of the massage (and there is self-massage as well as practitioner/client massage). More lengthy CNT classes incorporate extensive practice of Chi Kung, so that it can be applied to the massage. In this beginning level class, I will give an introduction to Chi Kung and do some of the practices. The great majority of time will be spent working on our own and other people's bellies. On the most basic level, I want people to become more comfortable working in the abdomen ...and more aware of what we are actually affecting by doing so. Practitioners may feel comfortable enough from the class to experiment using CNT as a stand-alone practice (you will undoubtedly want further training if you wish to pursue this in more depth). Even at this basic level, practitioners will learn skills that they can begin to use right away in combination with the other types of bodywork.
Q. How would the practitioner address draping issues and introduce CNT to their clients?
MB. CNT can be done fully clothed, with only the belly exposed. It also works to integrate CNT into a regular massage, or other types of bodywork so the draping is generally the same. In the class, we will explore ways to talk with people to prepare them to receive and use the work.
Q. What kind of techniques does the practitioner use?
MB. The touch required to work the abdomen must be soft, gentle, and sensitive. We can go quite deep with the work from that starting point. Practitioners and clients will learn techniques to improve breathing as well as essential self-help techniques. Individual diet and life style are also addressed in individual CNT sessions; however, this class will focus on the other aspects of CNT.
Q. What kind of health problems does Chi Nei Tsang address?
MB. All of the body's systems can be affected through working the abdomen: digestion, respiration, lymph, nervous, endocrine, urinary, reproductive, skeletal-muscular, immune, circulatory and the acupuncture energy system (chi). CNT can help detoxify by relieving excess stagnation. It can strengthen the immune system and improve the functioning of all internal organs. The work also helps restructure and strengthen through working the visceral tissues. It will also help correct postural problems resulting from structural imbalances. In the view of CNT, our unprocessed emotional charges are stored in our digestive system waiting to be addressed. Assisting these charges and blocks to release may help the emotional processes to unfold and clarify (sometimes CNT clients also see
psychotherapists or work on their emotional lives through workshops, writing, etc).
Q. What led you to this form of bodywork?
MB. CNT was a natural for me, having spent many years dealing with a serious digestive syndrome that sometimes required hospitalization and limited my ability to work. CNT has been one of the things that has helped me the most. In my practice, I see people for a range of digestive problems and also use it to assist treating many other situations, from back pain to postural change, to freeing up of energy for athletic performance. It is a powerful system and I feel everyone can benefit individually and in their practices through exposure to it.
