Cupping Techniques Massage CEU Course – Outline and Learning Outcomes

As a professional massage therapist, you have a wide range of massage techniques and modalities available to you. Different clients have different needs, and you’ll employ a particular approach to each client depending on their particular condition and current state.

A client might come in who’s in the midst of an extremely stressful experience. Their primary concern is with relaxation: they want to de-stress. For this client, you might employ a simple, gentle technique, such as a form of Swedish massage.

Another client approaches you for massage therapy who’s suffered an acute injury of some kind. For them, another technique might be more appropriate.

At the same time, some clients come into your practice with chronic, long-standing issues that have plagued them for years and years. After carrying around a condition for so long, they need deep, intentional massage therapy in order to make any progress. For these clients, you may need to implement deep tissue massage, hot stones, hydrotherapy, or another modality that’s capable of addressing their chronic issues and creating space for healing.

No matter how many techniques you have under your belt, though, there’s always room to grow as a massage professional. Certain techniques are excellent to have on hand for particular conditions, or when a client isn’t responding to other modalities. Cupping is an example of just such a treatment technique.

As a form of therapy that goes back thousands of years, cupping can be used for a wide variety of conditions. In fact, it’s even been utilized by Olympic athletes to reduce pain and speed recovery. In the 2016 Olympics, swimmer Michael Phelps made headlines for the tell-tale marks on his back.

Are you ready to learn more about our Cupping Massage CEU course? Read on to get started.

Learning Objectives for Our Cupping Techniques Massage CEU Course

At this point, you might be trying to decide whether this program is the right choice for you as a massage practitioner. How will it contribute to your practice? What exactly do you stand to gain from taking the course? After studying the material, what will have you have learned? We recognize that signing up for a class involves not just a monetary commitment, but also the dedication of your limited time and energy. That’s why we’ve included a comprehensive list of learning outcomes below.

After reviewing this class’s learning outcomes, you’ll know exactly what this course can contribute to your professional toolkit. Beyond that, taking the time to read over learning outcomes like these in advance can be incredibly helpful for you as an adult learner. While adult learners are generally quite highly motivated, and although they do benefit from professional experience, their learning habits are sometimes slightly out of practice as compared to younger students. This isn’t a problem, though: by preparing yourself in advance for a class like this one, you’ll get the most out of it.

In general, this course will cover a range of topics, including but not limited to: complementary and alternative therapy; scope of practice; Traditional Chinese Medicine, or TCM; western applications of the technique; how to integrate cupping into your sessions; the history of the technique; indications and contraindications; and more.

Let’s hone in on each of these topics, and examine this course’s learning outcomes in detail. After completing this program, you’ll be able to confidently:

Recall Complementary Therapy, Alternative Therapy, and Scope of Practice

With any massage modality or technique, it’s important to keep in mind your scope of practice: both for the technique itself in particular, as well as for yourself as a massage therapist in general. When it comes to an alternative or complementary therapy like cupping, this is especially important. In this class, you’ll learn about the scope of practice for this form of therapy, and when to use it with your clients.

Distinguish Current Traditional Chinese Medicine, TCM for Short, and Western Applications

Cupping is steeped in thousands of years of history, beginning in ancient China. Today, this modality comprises a vital part of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), and it utilized by Chinese medicine practitioners and acupuncturists to treat their clients according to traditional Chinese medicinal theory. In this course, you’ll learn about how cupping works according to the underlying theory of Chinese medicine, along with how the technique is used within the realm of traditional Western bodywork.

Formulate Integrative Massage Therapy Treatments

As a massage therapist, you probably don’t approach clients with a random assortment of treatment techniques. Instead, you craft a particular treatment plan for them, with each technique cohering with the others in order to produce a desired outcome. After completing this program, you’ll be able to create integrative massage therapy treatments that incorporate cupping, and use these treatments in your daily practice.

Identify Historical Applications

With a long and storied history, cupping is an incredibly intriguing subject to study. In this course, we’ll trace the history of this technique. After beginning with its origins in ancient China, we’ll progress through the centuries, ending with modern Western applications. After you’ve completed this course, you’ll be able to identify historical applications and how they relate to modern applications.

Analyze Therapeutic Benefits

This modality brings with it a number of unique therapeutic benefits. By understanding what these benefits are, you’ll be able to weave this technique into your treatments with clients where appropriate, helping them to access these benefits. In this class, you’ll learn about and be able to analyze the positive therapeutic outcomes associated with this technique.

Determine Indications and Contraindications

As with any treatment modality or technique, cupping comes with its particular list of both indications and contraindications. Understanding and familiarizing yourself with both is essential. After completing this program, you’ll be able to confidently understand, determine, and list the indications and contraindications of this methodology within the realm of massage therapy.

Course Outline

Now that you’ve familiarized yourself with this course’s learning outcomes, you should feel confident about what you can expect to take away from this class. Still, though, you may have some lingering questions floating around in your mind. Sure, you have a sense of what you’ll take away from the class; but, still: what exactly does it cover? What does it omit? Does it go into great detail, or just provide a survey of certain topics? What are the structure and layout of this course like? Is it really the right program for me?

We’re happy to answer these questions for you. Here, you’ll find a comprehensive outline of this program. In addition to helping you understand what to expect from the class itself, this outline will aid you in preparing to take the course. By familiarizing yourself with the content ahead of time, you can take note of areas where you’ll want to focus extra attention and energy.

History of Cupping Therapy

Whenever you take on the task of learning about a new treatment modality, one of the most interesting parts is often the history of the technique. Nowhere is this more true than with cupping. This technique goes back thousands of years, all the way to ancient China, and has an incredibly interesting past. In this course, we’ll begin with ancient China and cover the development of this modality throughout the centuries, all the way up to modernity in the West.

Glass Fire Cups

So, how exactly does this technique work? There are a couple of general approaches, one of which uses glass cups. With this method, heat is used (often in the form of an alcohol-soaked cotton ball) to create the vacuum effect associated with this method. In this class, we’ll discuss this so-called “glass fire cup” method, and how to use it in your practice.

Technique with Fire Cups

While this is an exciting technique to apply to your practice, it’s also easier said than done. Familiarizing yourself with the actual application method of fire cups is essential in order to utilize it effectively in your therapeutic sessions. As part of this program, we’ll discuss how to do just that.

Vacuum Method

In addition to fire cups, it’s possible to apply cups without a flame. The vacuum method utilizes plastic cups and a suction device of some kind to create the effect associated with this technique, and is often considered safer and easier than fire cups. In this course, we’ll discuss manual and suction vacuum cups, and how to apply to them to clients for maximum benefit with minimal risk.

Marks and Hyperemia

If you watched the 2016 Olympics, you may have noticed some unusual marks on the backs of Olympic athletes. In particular, Michael Phelps made headlines for the circular bruises covering his exposed upper back. These marks are the result of increased blood flow near the surface of the skin, and are normal. However, it’s imperative that clients are made aware of the reality of these marks before undergoing treatment. In this course, you’ll learn about marks and hyperemia, and how to articulate the aftereffects of this modality to your clients.

Therapeutic Benefits of Cupping

As with any therapeutic technique, cupping brings with it a host of unique benefits. Some of these are shared with other massage modalities; others are somewhat unique to it alone. In this class, we’ll discuss the wide range of benefits associated with this technique as part of your cupping training, including: decreased muscle congestion; decreased tension; increase tissue pliability; increased joint mobility; increased blood and lymph flow; and more.

Therapeutic Application: Parked vs. Moving Cups

When applying cups, there are a couple of therapeutic approaches available to a practitioner. The cups can be “parked,” or left in place on the client where they’re originally situated. Optionally, the cups can be moved around on the client’s body as part of the therapeutic session. In this course, we’ll discuss the difference between parked and moving cups, and when and how to make use of each.

Complementary and Alternative Therapy

It’s important to understand cupping as a complementary and alternative therapy, in order to appreciate how it can be integrated with other treatments and modalities. In this program, you’ll learn how to appreciate the complementary aspects of this method, and how to combine it with other techniques.

Moxibustion

Moxibustion is an ancient Chinese medicinal technique that involves the burning of mugwort (moxa), an herb, over the acupuncture channels and various acupoints. In this class, you’ll learn about what moxibustion is and how it relates to the use of cupping.

Meridians and Channels in Chinese Medicinal Theory

In Chinese medicine, cupping works in tandem with a wide variety of other treatment techniques under the umbrella of Chinese medicinal theory. In this course, we’ll discuss some of the basic aspects of Chinese medicine and how they interface with the use of cups on a client.

Indications

Just like any treatment modality, cupping is particularly indicated for certain conditions. As part of this program, we’ll discuss these indications in detail, including: high blood pressure; anxiety; insomnia; fatigue; headaches; fibromyalgia; digestive issues; and more.

Contraindications

There are certain conditions for which this modality is contraindicated. Understanding how to identify scenarios where it should be avoided is an important part of your education. In this course, we’ll identify and discuss various contraindications for cupping, including but not limited to: cardiovascular disease; clients taking blood thinners; dermatological conditions; varicose veins; high-risk pregnancy; acute injuries; and more.

What are CEUs, and Why are They Important?

Being a massage professional, you know that it’s vital to continue your education from year to year. This is, after all, how you grow on a professional and personal level. Continuing education takes a couple of forms. First of all, every client you see in your practice has something to teach you: clinical experience can be an amazing teacher. In addition to this, though, it’s absolutely essential to continue your education in a more traditional format, using didactic coursework. If you’ve been looking for a way to keep learning in this kind of way, we have the answer. Online massage CEUs, or Continuing Education Units, are the perfect learning approach for the busy massage professional.

And remember: while CEUs are important for your professional growth, they’re also legally mandated in most states. Indeed, all across the country, the vast majority of states require that massage therapists obtain a certain annual minimum number of CEU hours (sometimes this minimum is calculated biennially or triennially) in order to maintain they licensure in that state.

If you’re looking for an NCBTMB Approved CEU provider, you’ve found one! Panda Massage CEU™ is proud to be a premiere NCBTMB Approved Provider of CEUs. What does this mean for you? Not only will our CEU courses meet NCBTMB requirements for certification: they’ll also count towards your annual licensure requirements at the state level.

Why Choose Panda Massage CEU?

We realize that there are other providers of online CEUs out there, but we firmly believe that we offer the best CEU courses available anywhere. What makes Panda Massage CEU the clear choice?

Quality

Simply put, our courses are hands down the highest quality available online. As the premiere online massage CEU class resource, we’re 100% certain that you’ll be satisfied with our offerings.

Unique Topics

If you’ve browsed through the classes offered by other online providers, you’ve probably noticed one thing they have in common: boring topics! We’re excited to offer a wide range of highly engaging and unique course options, include deep tissue massage, hydrotherapy, kinesiology, and more.

Professional Narration

Have you ever taken an online class without adequate narration? It’s practically impossible to follow along with. At Panda Massage CEU, we ensure that all of our online courses are professionally narrated. That makes them easy to keep up with, which means you’ll retain more of the material presented.

Video Included

Believe it or not, a lot of other online massage courses don’t include video. We believe a video component is essential to communicating information in a massage program. That’s why we include video with every single one of our classes. Not only does this help communicate the material more accurately; it also gives the course a “real” classroom feel.

Self-Paced

If there’s one thing most massage therapists and professionals have in common, it’s their busy schedules. We understand this, and that’s why we’ve made all of our courses self-paced. This means that no matter how hectic your schedule is, you can fit our courses into your day-to-day routine.

Great Prices

We’ve already mentioned that our programs are high quality. But quality alone isn’t enough: when you’re looking for an online course, you want the right combination of both quality and value. We know that costs are an important factor in choosing a class, and that’s why we offer all of our online classes at great prices. And don’t forget: by taking a course online, you’ll save hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars that you would’ve otherwise spent on traveling to an in-person class in another state.

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