Good morning readers!

Today let’s talk about therapy with Gua Sha, known and practiced in the orient for thousands of years.

The words: gua sha mean respectively shave and pathological factor. Therefore, the technique consists in shaving through the skin and to out of the body, the things that are bad for health. How it’s a very ancient technique, in its beginning, even rocks or animal horns were used to shave the skin, until the polish jade stone became the main resource to realize it.

It’s believed that besides the healing power of shaving, the jade is a stone associated with health, prosperity, strengthening friendships, raising spirituality and thoughts in those who use it.

But, what are the objectives and benefits from this technique

• Remove dead skin from surface, promoting skin renewal
• Realize vasodilation, to improve blood circulation and nourish tissues
• Improve lymphatic circulation, diminishing the liquid accumulation (drainage)
• Movements Qi and Blood, improving inner organ functioning
• When done over the point line Shu Dorsais(Dorsal Shu) and Shen Shu it causes energetic rebalance
• Realiave pain on the spot it’s applied

How is it done?

The procedure may be done with or without oil for sliding. On the beginning it was done without oil, causing marks on the patient skin and described as a painful technique. Nowadays it’s done with a little bit of oil, for sliding, that may be chosen according to the patient’s needs, associating the aromatherapy technique to gua-sha.

The therapist must then spread a little bit of oil through the desired surface, and then slide the jade stone over the surface, starting with easy and slow movements, slowly going up according to the patient’s sensibility.

There isn’t an exact number of times that the jade stone must be slid, however the therapist must keep in mind that the more marks it leaves, the longer it will take to recover. It’s normal that some blood capillaries break during the procedure, creating then, redness and even hematoma. The technique may only be done with this vigor in more resistant areas, such as the back.

When there are marks, it’s normal that they remain there for 7 to 10 days. The patient must avoid sun exposition on the spot.

Gua Sha is frequently done in the face, in order to do lymphatic drainage and nourishing the tissues thus increasing skin beauty. The movements must be done always from the middle to the lateral, never the other way, to avoid skin “wrinkling”.

We may say then, that Gua Sha is nothing more than a technique that uses micro injuries through skin shaving that forces the body to renew the superficial layer and nourish tissues for cicatrization, bringing all already mentioned benefits.

Practice and see the results. 

My warmest regards.

Profa. Fernanda Mara