Thai Yoga Therapy for Your Body Type: An Ayurvedic Tradition

"Kam Thye Chow and Emily Mood's THAI YOGA THERAPY FOR YOUR BODY TYPE: AN AYURVEDIC TRADITION provides a bodywork therapy which guides readers through a series of yoga postures, accompanied by palming and thumbing along the body's energy lines and pressure points. This combined therapy helps balance the body and boost the immune system and is a discipline receiving increased attention in the Western world. Kam Thye Chow is the founder and director of the Lotus Palm School in Montreal and joins with an Ayurvedic educator to fully cover not just the technique, but the accompanying diet and lifestyle tips that should be included."
~ Written on 2006-11-05

"For anyone who is familiar with the teachings of Kam Thye Chow and the Lotus Palm School and who believe in the evolution of Thai Yoga Massage as truly one of the best things you can do for both you the massage therapist, and the client you will love this book.

This book opens doors for Thai Yoga Massage to the yoga, ayurveda and general community because it grounds the practice in easy to understand yet deeply penetrating and time honored principles of Asian/Indian medicine. Simply put it inspires and teaches you how to give incredible Thai Yoga Massage and further shows your clients how they can take all the wonderful benefits and incorporate them into their everyday life.

It has made a very noticiable difference in my practice, because it gives me a strong foundation to understand why I choose to use certain postures with certain clients, and why I put some aside. It has helped me to channel my intention and energy in such a way that at the end of the massage my clients will relate to me how they have benefited from the experience, and it almost matches word for word the thoughts in my head for what I was hoping to accomplish with my session.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Thai Massage, and when you combine this with Kam Thye's first book that relates to Thai Massage in a more classical sense, you start to have a more complete picture of the vision that Thai Massage is a complete wellness system. "
~ Written on 2006-09-28

"I would like to take the time to write a little about Mr. Kam Thye Chow's new book entitled, Thai Yoga Therapy for Your Body Type: An Ayurvedic Tradition. In this book, the reader is introduced to "Thai Yoga Therapy" as a form of massage applied using the principles of Ayurveda. Though Mr. Chow attempts to justify his connection between Traditional Thai Massage and Ayurveda by citing that Traditional Thai Medicine has its roots in Ayurveda, he does nothing to prove it. Further more, he speaks very little about Traditional Thai Medicine. Out of 221 pages, only 3 pages make mention of any Traditional Thai medicine theory and/or terminology. For the most part, the entire theoretical discussion of the book is based on the practice of Ayurveda as taught by David Frawley. The terms used are entirely Sanskrit instead of Thai and Pali terms which are used in Traditional Thai Medicine. While it's true that Traditional Thai Medicine has its roots in Indian medicine, one cannot replace Thai medical theory and concepts with modern day Ayurvedic theory. The medicine of India which Thai medicine was influenced by is much different than the Ayurveda practiced today. In addition, Thai medicine has also been influenced by Chinese medicine and pre-existing indigenous practices. It would be more accurate to say that Ayurveda and Traditional Thai Medicine have similar roots or that they are "cousins."

This book is a description of Thai massage with Ayurvedic principles laid over it. It is not a meshing of the two systems and it is definitely not Traditional Thai Medicine. Even the most basic concepts and theories of Traditional Thai Massage have been left out of this book. Furthermore, many of the known theories have been changed so as to fit in with the author's idea to mix Thai Massage with Ayurvedic principles.

I feel that to be honest to himself, his students and to the Thai Massage community it would be more appropriate for this form of therapy to be called something other than "Thai Yoga Therapy." The truth of the matter is, there is very little about it that is Thai.

Please feel free to contact me with any responses or questions.

David Bliss
tevijjo@gmail.com "
~ Written on 2006-09-27

"Kam Thye Chow's book demystifies Ayurveda with a clear intro to it's practice of establishing ones constitution. The remainder of the book is well illustrated with a 1 1/2 hour Thai Massage form suited to easily help balance a Thai massage recipients dosha. Great read for those interested in both Ayurveda or Thai Yoga massage."
~ Written on 2006-09-12

"This is a terrific book and groundbreaking. To my knowledge, it's the first time Ayurveda and Thai Yoga have been connected and revealed to have the same roots. It is both a course in the principles of Ayurveda and a course in Thai yoga massage and it brings them together to create a wonderfully synergistic and flexible therapeutic modality, easily adaptable to various constitutional types. Anyone who learns this system is enriching herself and raising her healing potentiality immensely. As both a student and teacher of Ayurveda and Thai Yoga, I find this book easy to understand and, most importantly from a practioner's point-of- view, highly practical. Thanks, Kam Thye and Emily!"
~ Written on 2006-07-19