Keeping In Touch
Sun Herald
Sunday July 30, 2000
Kinesiology, an obscure alternative therapy from America, is gaining mainstream acceptance in Australia. KATHRYN SHINE reports.
KHRISTINA Totos doesn't pretend to understand kinesiology but she's sure it works.
The Warriewood actress, who plays beauty therapist Polly on the SBS series, Going Home, said kinesiology has improved her appearance and well-being.
She discovered kinesiology about three months ago when research for her SBS role led her to Victoria Beauty in the Queen Victoria Building.
There she met Karen Sarina, one of Sydney's growing band of kinesiologists.
The open-minded Totos decided to give the alternative treatment a try. After just one kinesiology facial she was hooked.
"The day after the facial I went into work and they all said, 'You look so different'," she said.
"The right side of my face had been drooping. After the facial, my face balanced out."
Totos has since had about six kinesiology treatments.
She said the technique had improved her hair loss problem and reduced a red mark on her face. "That has profoundly changed," she said. "It's one-third of what it was. It's no longer red, it no longer stings."
Kinesiology has been used to treat indigestion, food allergies, skin conditions, anxiety, depression, backache, acne, dyslexia, asthma, joint pain and migraine.
Even those who have experienced it, like Totos, find it difficult to explain.
Kinesiology was developed by American chiropractor George Goodheart in the early 1960s.
It aims to identify imbalances in the body and correct them.
To find them, kinesiologists do what is called muscle-testing. They touch a muscle, usually on your arm or hand, and then test how it responds to certain words.
For example, if a kinesiologist was doing a food allergy test, they would test the muscle while saying words like, wheat, dairy, chocolate.
If the muscle gives way involuntarily in response to a word, that suggests the person is allergic to that food.
In that case, treatment might be simply to avoid that food.
But if another problem is detected, say, an imbalance in the neck or back, the action taken to rebalance the body can be more complex.
The kinesiologist may massage lymphatic areas, hold neurovascular or acupuncture points, redirect energy channels or address emotional issues.
Sydney Kinesiology Assoc-iation president Geraldine Gallagher described muscle-testing as a tool to identify what was happening in the brain.
She said kinesiology was based on the premise that physical, emotional and mental factors all influenced a person's health.
"We believe that we are whole people and that we have a mental, emotional and physical reaction to everything," she said. "You cannot concentrate on the physical and ignore the mental and emotional.
"It is very important for the patient or client to know we are working with their energy and the problems they created and they are the only one who can heal them."
Kinesiology treatments cost between $65 and $100 and vary in time from one to two hours. A two-day training workshop costs about $275.
© 2000 Sun Herald