Acupuncture & Herbal Medicine

Everybody wants to be happy and healthy.  This is a truth that transcends religion, race and creed, and directly points to our shared humanity.  What differs is how we try and achieve this goal, though we can say that our health and happiness are dependant on the degree of harmony and balance that we experience in our body, mind and spirit.  Furthermore, it is when we are most harmonious and balanced within ourselves that we can most contribute to these same qualities of peace and happiness in the people and the world around us.  The vital question then becomes very simple – what can we do, how can we most contribute both to our own and other’s balance and harmony?

We live in exceptionally challenging times.  We are inundated with information and choices.  We are invited on a moment to moment basis to spend our time, energy and money on any number of things that promise us satisfaction and happiness.  In spite of this richness and abundance, many of us find ourselves struggling with dissatisfaction, depression, addictions, as well as physical and psychological pain and discomfort.  In order to deal with the unavoidable tribulations of life, many of us are looking for tools and techniques that will allow us to connect with our own inner wisdom.  It is by connecting to this inner source of sustenance, strength and healing that we can live connected, healthful, productive lives.

The primary aim of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), as I conceive it, is to support people as they discover this inner voice on their own path to balance and harmony.  Chinese medicine is an art and a science that represents the distilled wisdom of millions of practitioners working with billions of patients over thousands of years, and as such has developed potent and effective tools for doing exactly this.  It recognizes that body, mind and spirit are intimately connected, and neglects no aspect of our being.  A healthy body, mind and spirit forms the basis of strong relationships and a happy life, and encourage healthful and peaceful connection to ourselves, the people around us, as well as the planet on which we live.

Acupuncture and TCM is an enigma, and this becomes truer for myself the more I practice this wonderful medicine.  Why sticking a few needles at various places in a person’s body should often effect such remarkable relief of pain and other symptoms is a question I can’t answer.  Nor do I fully understand what it is about the combination of herbs in a formula that makes its effects so much more than what any single herb’s actions can account for.   Whatever the mechanism, what is undeniable is that this truly is a medicine of transformation.  One very obvious expression of this is the emphasis on root or causal, rather than symptomatic, treatments.  While relieving symptoms is undeniably important – who wants to live with pain, after all – a truly complete treatment addresses the reason the symptom has manifested in the first place.  For example, we will work together to relieve indigestion, of course, but more important for lasting and deep healing, we will look for the reason why it is there to begin with.  Is it related to stress derived from a challenging relationship, is it connected to the food you eat, or perhaps to the way you prepare and eat your food?  Armed with this knowledge and supported by myself and the medicine, you, the client, are then free to make changes as you see fit.

There are various ways in which I strive to support your process of healing.   The first is to provide as safe and non-judgmental space as I possibly can.  The second is to use the tools and techniques of Chinese medicine – acupuncture, herbs, moxibustion, among others– to help remove the blockages and imbalances in your body and mind that manifest as physical or psychological symptoms.  The third is to examine various aspects of your lifestyle, including diet, exercise, and look at how these contribute, or don’t contribute, to your health and wellbeing.  Working together, we will work to identify and adjust that which is serving your health and growth, and that which is not.  Finally, I strongly encourage participation in mind-body techniques tailored to the individual, such as meditation and breathing techniques, which are integral in reducing stress and encouraging insight.

Every moment of every day offers us the chance for discovery, insight and growth.  This, for me, is the purpose of living, as well as the purpose of medicine.  This is the area in which Chinese medicine, as a truly holistic system, excels.  As a practitioner, my purpose and guiding principle is to be of whatever small help I can be in aiding you, the client, to discover your own expression of a wise and skilful life.