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Body based approaches have been linked with better physical and mental health, easier relationships, and in some settings lower use of painkillers and psychiatric medication.
That last one tends to interest the people holding the budget, so it is worth knowing if you are trying to get this kind of work taken seriously where you are. For yourself, the more useful framing is smaller: fewer things needed to get through the week. Do not expect any of it to be dramatic, and do keep whatever medication you are on unless a prescriber changes it.
Qur’an and Sunnah
Of the drink produced by bees the Qur'an says 'there is healing for people' (Quran 16:69). Healing turning up through something as ordinary as a body doing its work is a familiar idea here.
ثُمَّ كُلِي مِن كُلِّ ٱلثَّمَرَٰتِ فَٱسۡلُكِي سُبُلَ رَبِّكِ ذُلُلࣰ اۚ يَخۡرُجُ مِنۢ بُطُونِهَا شَرَابࣱ مُّخۡتَلِفٌ أَلۡوَٰنُهُۥ فِيهِ شِفَآءࣱ لِّلنَّاسِۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَأٓيَةࣰ لِّقَوۡمࣲ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ
Then feed on all kinds of fruit and follow the ways made easy for you by your Lord.’ From their bellies comes a drink of different colours in which there is healing for people. There truly is a sign in this for those who think
Qur’an 16:69read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
What the research says
A review written to support an American Pain Society and American College of Physicians guideline found good evidence for massage in long standing low back pain, alongside exercise and behavioural approaches. Non drug options earning a place in a clinical guideline is a meaningful bar to clear. It concerns back pain rather than trauma, and it does not show that anyone came off medication.
Chou R, Huffman LH, American Pain Society, American College of Physicians. (2007). Nonpharmacologic therapies for acute and chronic low back pain: a review of the evidence for an American Pain Society/American College of Physicians clinical practice guideline.. Annals of internal medicine doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Why it works
Approaches that change how the body is running tend to reduce what has to be managed by other means.
This one is still a draft. It is waiting on a scholar and a clinician to read it before it is published.
Near this one
Reviews do not support acupuncture as a treatment for attention difficulties. Some studies of acupuncture alongside counselling have done better than dummy needling alongside counselling, which is a more modest claim than it first sounds.
When the person in front of you starts yawning during body work, it is usually not boredom. Bodies yawn as they let go of what they were holding.
If tapping feels too jumpy, use the same face points differently. Feel for a tender spot inside the eyebrow, under the eye, or just below the cheekbone towards the nose, then make slow small circles there.