DICTIONARY OF HEALING MODALITIES

Massage Therapy--This is a general term for a range of therapeutic approaches with roots in both Eastern and Western cultures. Involves the practice of kneading or otherwise manipulating a person's muscles and soft tissue.

Medicine Wheel--Native American sacred circle representing the Universe and the balance of all creation. It is cast to contain, project and raise energy to transform, balance and heal.

Meditation--A technique of mind control that leads to inner feelings of calm and peacefulness and may result in experiences of transcendental awareness and self-realization. The two main types of meditation are: (1) the focusing type, similar to selfhypnosis, in which the meditator focuses on a repetitive sound or chant, an image, or pattern of breathing; (2) the "openingup" type which emphasizes the detached observation of mental events as they occur.

Midwifery--Midwives provide education and support during pregnancy, assist the mother during labor and delivery and provide followup care. Practitioners of childbirth support include childbirth educators, childbirth assistants and women labor coaches who also provide postpartum home care.

MindBody Connection--Currently taken to refer to psychoneuroimmunology (PNI), the study of the connections between the brain, endocrine and immune neural pathway connections.

Myofascial Release--Trauma, posture, or inflammation can create a binding down of fascia resulting in excessive pressure on nerves, muscles, blood vessels, osseous structures and/or organs. This hands on technique seeks to free the body from the grip of tight fascia, or connective tissue, thus restoring normal alignment and function and reducing pain. Therapists apply mild, sustained hand pressure
in order to gently stretch and soften fascia. Treatment is used to treat neck and back pain, headaches, recurring sports injuries, and scoliosis, and other conditions.

Natural Hygiene--A way of life that maintains that perfect health is an optimum state of body function, not the absence of disease. It maintains that healing is a biological process of the body, not something done to individuals and that by eating only raw, unprocessed foods as found in nature will they achieve the highest state of wellbeing.

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