Therapies

Complementary & alternative therapies
DAA promotes the use of complementary healing methods in ‘complement only’ with medical treatment. The following is a list compiled for your information of the range of therapies available.  DAA does not wish to promote any particular service but recommends that you check the quality and relevant qualifications of the practitioner prior to availing of the service.

Acupuncture
Acupuncture is a technique which uses stimulation by fine needles on specific points of the body to relieve symptoms and improve energy levels. It is used frequently by people with HIV for its reported ability to improve well-being, relieve some symptoms and reduce stress levels. DAA clients have found acupuncture to be particularly useful in the alleviation of the adverse side effects associated with combination therapy.

Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy involves the use of essential oils, which are usually extracted from plants through distillation. Each oil is reputed to have a different healing effect on the mind or body and the oils are used in a variety of ways: for massage, inhalation and in baths and compresses.

Bach Flower Remedies
Bach flower remedies are prepared from the flowers of wild plants and are primarily used to treat emotional conditions.

Dietary Therapies
Virtually all forms of complementary and alternative medicine emphasise the role of diet in health. Some, such as naturopathy, make dietary adjustment a central part of the therapy.

Exercise and Movement
Moderate amounts of regular exercise have been reported to be beneficial to immunity. Exercise can also improve mood and offer an important way of maintaining a healthy self-image for HIV positive people. Activities which maintain or even build muscle mass are an important way of minimising the effects of weight loss in AIDS.

Healing and Therapeutic Touch
Healing, sometimes known as spiritual healing, therapeutic touch or the laying on of hands, is a process in which the healer acts as a channel to direct healing energy to the client in order to stimulate and balance his or her own healing powers. The external energy with which the healer connects is often described as a higher spiritual force.

Herbalist
Herbalists’ uses plants and herbs to maintain health and to treat illness and promote healing. It may provide both symptom relief and an improved level of health and vitality.

Homoeopathy
Homeopathy is a form of medicine which uses like to cure like. That is to say, the homeopathic doctor prescribes for sick person minute doses of a substance which in a crude, undiluted form would produce in a healthy person effects similar to those occurring in the disease.

Massage
Massage is one of the oldest and simplest forms of treatment, and one of the therapies most widely offered to HIV positive people, and its benefits are now widely recognised. It is an excellent way of reducing stress and increasing a generalised sense of well-being.

Naturopathy
Naturopathy is a drug-free healing system based on the principle that the body has an innate ability to heal itself.

Osteopathy
Osteopathy is a manipulative therapy which seeks to correct structural dysfunctions in the body, and resulting health problems, through working on the body’s musculoskeletal system.

Reflexology
Reflexology, or reflex zone therapy as it is sometimes known, is a system of manipulation of pressure points in the feet. It is believed that by stimulating these points, the body’s own healing mechanisms can be mobilised.

Shiatsu
Shiatsu is a form of manipulation which developed in Japan and which combines many of the benefits of massage with those of acupuncture.

Traditional Chinese Medicine
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) includes acupuncture, herbal medicine and Chi Gong. It is a medical tradition which first began to be written down more than two and a half thousand years ago. It is still the main form of the medical care used by nearly one and a half billion people in the world.

Visualisation
Visualisation is a technique which uses mental imagery to fight illness. In HIV-positive people for instance, visualisation therapy may take the form of conjuring mental images of HIV infected cells being eliminated from the body, or imagining the whole body as healthy and active once more.