Health Traditions with Bruce Bentley, Traditional Cupping

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Traditional Cupping

Eastern and Western Traditions

Move to the next Level with Health Traditions

Cupping has become one of the most sought after therapies for both clients and therapists because it achieves excellent results and is very enjoyable to receive.  For the practitioner it is time efficient, has many interesting methods and applications, allows the therapist to concentrate on more than one part of the body when the cups are stationary, and also importantly, eliminates the hard work and strain often felt with massage practice.

Cupping is a specialised method of treatment that requires expert instruction, backed by the kind of deep interest and decades of research and practice that inspired us to present the first cupping workshops anywhere in the world.

In our three different cupping workshops – our Eastern Tradition, our Western Tradition and in our new Remedial Cupping Workshops, you will discover a whole world of cupping. From the wonderful Russian cupping massage to the diverse ways the Chinese use cups to promote health and alleviate many forms of discomfort – these are only a part of what you will learn in our Traditional cupping workshops. In our new Remedial Cupping Workshop, we have developed superb treatments for myofascial release and deep chronic muscular pain, and even methods for cosmetic facial rejuvenation - made possible by a new generation of cupping instruments. We cover all these all applications of cupping, and much more, in our unique and comprehensive classes.

When you have completed all three of our cupping workshops we will present you with an additional award – an Advanced Certificate in Integrated Cupping Therapy, in recognition of the depth and knowledge you have attained.

Cupping is a traditional therapy that remains favoured by millions of people throughout the world because it is a time-honoured, safe, comfortable and effective treatment for many health disorders. For practitioners, cupping requires only simple and inexpensive instruments, is relatively easy to learn, is time and energy efficient and achieves excellent results. Cupping is usually performed by introducing heat into a glass cup or similar object and placing it immediately on the skin. The vacuum created produces a suction effect that increases blood circulation to the local area, relaxes muscle tissue and releases the factors causing pain. Another popular method is to withdraw the air from inside the cup with a suction pump.

Traditional practice and experience recognises the ability of cupping to move vital energy and correct internal imbalances, as well as to clear the effects of external injury and climatic influences such as wind and cold. This therapeutic method has been practised by both medically trained and household practitioners in most parts of the world for thousands of years.

In ancient Greece, Hippocrates recommended cupping for a variety of ailments, while early in the 20th century the eminent British physician Sir Arthur Keith wrote how he witnessed cupping performed with excellent success.

North American natives and Africans use buffalo horns as cupping vessels and women healers in villages throughout Europe and Russie continue the practice of cupping on relatives and neighbours and pass down their knowledge as a family tradition. In present day Vietnam, cupping is commonly seen in clinics, in homes and at roadside stops, while in China much research has been carried out on cupping and the practice is a mainstay of government-sponsored hospitals of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

'There is no doubt that Bruce Bentley is the foremost international expert on the history and practice of cupping in different cultures around the world.' Introduction to an interview with Bruce for The Lantern, an international journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine, 2007, and translated into French for the Journal De Medicine Traditionnelle Chinoise. read this interview

Therapists at all levels will gain skills that are effective, time and energy efficient, interesting to practice and allow the practitioner to focus less on their hands when appropriate.

'The first class I did with Bruce was the Western Tradition Cupping Workshop and had such outstanding results in conjunction with massage on the elite athletes I treat, that I then did the Eastern Tradition and the Gua Sha Day. Bruce’s vast knowledge on these subjects is second to none and I highly recommend his courses. Cupping and Gua Sha have both been fantastic on the athletes. They are completely sold on both!! It saves my hands as well.' Heather Deller, official massage therapist for the Great Britain Olympic Cycling Team, US, T- Mobile, the Women’s Professional Cycling Team and Chinese, Giant Bicycles, Women’s Professional Cycling Team.

Dear Bruce - just a short note to let you know how much I enjoyed your Western cupping workshop. I've had wonderful results with my clients. One person, an ex-rugby player who's come back four weeks in a row said he feels like a new person. Another is a farmer whose body was locked -up with years of injuries. He said 'I feel great with the cupping treatments'. Instead of me working really hard, I'm getting even better results and with the cups I can get so much done in a treatment session. I reckon the cupping therapy is just great. Please put me down for the upcoming Eastern tradition. Many thanks!' - correspondence from Carol Lyons, remedial massage therapist.

BACKGROUND: KEEPING TRADITION ALIVE AND GROWING. . . Bruce Bentley first learnt traditional Chinese cupping as part of his internships at hospitals and clinics in Taiwan from 1976 -1981. This was followed by his thesis for a Masters Degree in Health Studies titled ‘Cupping as Therapeutic Technology’ and his first research trip to Vietnam. In 1996, he was invited to China, where a special course on cupping was presented to him by chief physicians at the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine. To investigate other cupping practices in China, Bruce also studied at the Tibetan Medicine Hospital in Lhasa, Tibet, and at the Uighur Traditional Medicine Hospital in Urumqi, Xinjiang Province. The following year he visited the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra to observe how the massage therapists there employ cupping to treat sports injuries and enhance performance. Midway through 1998, Bruce spent three months in Europe and North Africa. The first month was devoted to archival research at the Welcome Institute for the History of Medicine (the world’s premier library and research centre for medical history), London, and the Department for the History of Medicine at Rome University. For the remaining two months he travelled to Sicily, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Morocco and Tunisia learning local cupping traditions. Bruce has also returned to study cupping in Vietnam and for the month of July 2008 he researched cupping practices in Cambodia. Following invitations from University departments of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the USA, together with requests from enthusiastic practitioners, Bruce began teaching his cupping workshops in the USA in 2008. While teaching in the USA for two months in 2010, Bruce also researched cupping at the New York Academy of Medicine and at the National Museum of the American indian (Washington DC) and interviewed Navajo people in Arizona about their cupping practices.

The marks left by the cups

What do they represent?

A common and unfortunate misconception concerning cupping is the misinterpretation of the marks - those round circles you can see in the above photo taken at a temple in Vietnam - that often appear during and after a cupping treatment. These are not satiisfactorily explained as bruises, and therefore should not be refered to as 'cupping bruises'.

Rather they are 'marks' or 'discolourations' which only occur when the therapeutic cupping process has successfully drawn pathogenic factors to the skin surface. From there these marks rapidly fade away. Usually after 24 hours, there is a very noticeable change and they are typically resolved in a few days. 'Bruising' is incorrect because it gives the impression that they result from a traumatic procedure. A handful of good explanations why they are not bruises include:

1. When we have a bruise (due to trauma), experience tells us that it is tender to touch. After proper cupping there is no such accompanying tenderness.
2. Many times cupping does not produce a show of marks.
3. Let us imagine a case where a cup has been placed on a part of the body and has produced a strong discolouration (maybe even a deep dark circle - inevitably when there is a long term problem). After that has resolved and another cup is reapplied at the same spot, the marking is typically only a half as 'ferocious' as the former time. Then again another treatment at that same location brings on a faint and barely coloured showing. By the fourth treatment, for example, no skin colour change is likely - even though each time the cup has been focussed on the same spot for the the same duration and with the same force. Clearly a case where the internal unwanted toxins have systematically been resolved.
4. In those parts of the world where cupping is a part of the national culture, and in those traditional medical systems and folk medical practices in which cupping is valued, the marks or discolourations have never been interpreted in a negative way. The same can be said for the practice of gua sha - another method that can produce colouration to the skin surface - though the kind of pathologic factor that gua sha releases to the surface is a different kind of disturbance known as sha.

Enrolment requirements for the traditional cupping workshops:

Accredited health professionals such as massage therapists, acupuncturists, doctors, nurses, naturopaths, osteopaths and physiotherapists. Students from an accredited course of study, who have completed a minimum of 50 hours in anatomy and physiology.

Note: Women who are pregnant should contact Bruce.

ADVANCED CERTIFICATE OF INTEGRATED CUPPING THERAPY: Upon satisfactory completion of any of the Cupping Workshops, an atractive certificate of attendance is given. I addition, upon satisfactory completion of the three cupping workshops ie. the Eastern Traditional Cupping Workshop, the Western Traditional Cupping Workshop and the Remedial Cupping Workshop, an ADVANCED CERTIFICATE OF INTEGRATED CUPPING THERAPY will be awarded.

Cupping workshops: Eastern Tradition | Western Tradition | Contemporary Cupping

Dates and locations

A history of cupping

Read an interview with Bruce on cupping published in The Lantern - A Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine