Although there are many branches of Traditional Thai medicine these are the five primary roots.
Internal or Herbal medicine
This is the study of what you put into your body, be it food / fluid / drugs / medicine, it all has an impact on your health and wellbeing and can affect how you are able to perform in day to day situations.
External therapies or orthopaedic medicine
This is the study of the body itself, how it moves – the skin / muscles / ligaments & tendons / bones and does it move effectively. Is the body pain free or are there limitations to how movement happens? Are joints swollen? Is range of movement reduced? These are what is considered when looking externally.
Divination Sciences
Looking at when / where / what time you were born, as this could hold a key to why you suffer from a particular illness or feel a certain way, it is very different to Western astrology.
Spirit medicine
The study of your internal spirit, which is often overlooked in the Western world. How your mental energy levels are, how your mood is, what is on your mind – all things in the West we look on as secondary to the physical aspects of health. However we are learning as a Western society with the growth of mindfulness and meditation.
Buddhism
The study of the Buddha and how you live your life towards his ideals. The four noble truths and basic ideals are held in the five precepts – monks have many more they adhere too however for most the five are a good guide to living a peaceful life.
However these five roots of traditional Thai medicine are often intertwined. For example the food you consume can have an effect on how effectively you move, you may take a drug to relieve pain felt in a joint of muscle. A herbal compress may be used during Thai massage to improve the effectiveness of the treatment. Some drugs both prescribed and non-prescribed are known to heighten and lower your mood levels.
Some Thai Bodywork practitioners will only look at one aspect – for example the divination sciences – but most will have a basic rudimental knowledge of all five before specialising in the root that they feel calls to them the loudest.
For myself as a Traditional Bodyworker I work intuitively on the external body and how it moves, however whilst doing so I often feel drawn to spend more time on a specific area during the treatment, which is linked to the Spirit medicine root within Traditional Thai medicine often as if someone is guiding my hands generating heat as they travel.
It really feels a privilege to practice this type of medicine, for more details please contact us.
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