Gua Sha is a technique very similar to cupping, in as much as it creates a deliberate hyperthermia in order to bring the Heat and Wind pathogens to the surface. In Chinese saying that ‘Gua means to scrape or scratch’, and Sha is ‘cholera, heat, skin rash’. ‘The technique of Gua Sha intentionally brings the Sha rash to the surface. By expressing the rash that marks the crisis of the Sha syndrome, Sha-evil is eliminated and the Sha syndrome resolved.’

Gua Sha is used where pain, Heat and stagnation are present. The treatment itself is very simple and pain free in practised hands. However, in untrained hands it can be rather uncomfortable and some- times painful, especially when used on the bony parts of the body and on rather thinly built patients.