5 Alternative Alternative Therapies

Massage therapy, acupuncture, hypnosis — these are the usual alternative health contenders, but what about the therapies that don't make the news?


Sometimes rolfing is mistakenly classified under massage therapy, but this is not like any massage that you have experienced. Unlike Swedish massage, which aims to relieve tension in the surface muscles, rolfing "works on the web-like complex of connective tissue (fascia) to release, realign and balance the whole body" (or so says the Rolf Institute of Structural Integration). Practitioners often use their knees, elbows and gravity to facilitate this release. The experience, I can attest, swings actively between great opening and relief to deep, somewhat tortuous pain (all for the good of the work).

Do In

The Japanese art of Do In or "self-stimulation" is a unique combination of shiatsu and acupressure with meridian stretching, breathing techniques, chi exercises and self massage. Do In helps to strengthen qi ("chi") in the meridian systems of the body, eliminate toxins and increase spirituality.


Dr Fritz Smith developed Zero-balancing in 1973 as a "hands-on body/mind system designed to align body energy with the body's physical structure." Zero-balancing aims to integrate body energy with body structure, which leads to clearer, stronger fields of energy in the body/mind and balances energy in the densest tissues of the body, as well as the bone and skeletal system. ZB is said to help alleviate physical pain as well as stress and anxiety.


Radionics is not your average therapy. The treatment involves the use of extrasensory perception and specially designed instruments to determine the underlying causes of illness. Radionics is based on the theory that the body has a subtle energy field which sustains and vitalizes it. When the field is weakened by stress or pollution, the physical body can also become weak and, therefore, susceptible to illness. Radionics aims to identify the weaknesses in this field and correct them.

Holographic repatterning

Holographic repatterning equates a human being to a hologram — if you change the angle of the light, you'll see a different image. Too vague of an explanation? HR founder Chloe Faith offers a bit more: HR is a "method to identify and transform non-coherent frequencies that cause us to resonate with life depleting patterns that are preventing us from resonating with life-enhancing patterns."

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