Tuina - indications, counter-indications and cautions

Tuina, as one of the therapeutic procedures in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), is used to treat diseases by manipulation of certain parts and acupuncture points of the body. It is one of the external treatments that are used by TCM practitioners. It is not a general treatment method which can be used by amateurs such as the so called “masseurs”.
In recent years in the UK, as TCM becomes popularised, some TCM shops covertly and overtly employ masseurs to carry out Tuina therapy. Although some TCM practitioners do Tuina themselves, most of them are not specialised in Tuin therapy in their TCM training. The employed masseurs, the vast majority of them being female, have had even less TCM training. In the meantime, there is no professional regulation of these “therapists”. This becomes a perfect situation to generate a chaotic market place, where frequent allegations of sleazy practice occur.
In this paper, the history of Tuina in TCM is to be reviewed. An attempt is to be made to clarify the indications for Tuina. It will also deal with the important counter-indications and the cautions that have to be taken in genuine Tuina practice. It is not the scope of this to deal with the Tuina methods in detail, as these are available in numerous textbooks and practice of them are available from many genuine TCM Tuina courses.