Acupressure (TCM) training in St. Louis.

Acupressure is the application of focused pressure — typically with the practitioner's thumbs, fingers, or hands — to specific points along the meridians of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Where acupuncture uses fine needles to access these points, acupressure uses sustained, calibrated pressure. The same theoretical framework applies (meridians, qi, yin and yang, the eight principles, the five elements); the access mode is different.

A typical acupressure session lasts 60 to 90 minutes. The client lies clothed on a treatment table while the practitioner moves through a sequence of points: some held with sustained pressure for one to three minutes, others worked with rotation or rocking, others connected in pairs along meridian pathways. The work can be deeply relaxing, sometimes intense (some points are tender), and often produces shifts in stress, sleep, and energy patterns over a series of sessions.