Wondering if acupuncture is right for you?
Chinese medicine is a whole lot more than its name.
Through thousands of years (starting around 2000BC) and from every part of Asia, what we know of as Traditional Chinese Medicine was born, grew, changed, assimilated, became regionally distinct, developed specialized techniques, and continues to be tested and new therapies developed today.
There is no one version for Chinese Medicine’s development to what is today.
To try to explain any of the variations currently practiced based on this history in under 500 words would be like defining a 1,000 year old tree by one of its leaves. So we’re not going to do that here.
But it is okay not to know the complete story.
What we know it is: a multitude of related methods based on dispersed regional schools of thought, all of which have therapeutic effectiveness.
All forms of chinese medicine integrate the founding principles: meridians, yin/yang, 5 elements, microsystems, pathogenic evils, herbal medicine, and the idea that the food we eat is our most important medicine.
What has changed over the thousands of years since these methods were created are materials, our understanding of infection and blood borne illness transmission, methods, theory, and the new epidemic of conditions in the modern world.
Those include cancer, lung disease, heart disease, over-stress, over-working, infertility, malnutrition, environmental toxin exposure, unresolved trauma exposure and emotional repression, and the huge but important category of ‘trying to do too much’.
What has not changed is that TCM is still an effective health system that can help prevent disease, help heal from disease, and work alongside western medicine in dealing with the side effects of life saving therapies. There are very few situations in which we can’t treat a client, but many more in which we can help profoundly with what they are experiencing.
In the modern context, when you get an acupuncture treatment in north america, it involves
- Some talking or an intake form, and needles. The needles can be as few as 3-4 but not usually more than 16 total.
- Other treatment options may include cupping, moxa, body work, lifestyle recommendations.
- You would usually receive a treatment plan during or after your first treatment, allowing you to see the best recommended course of action you can take for what you would like to see change within your body.
This being said, some practitioners do only acupuncture needles. Coming to us for acupuncture treatments, you would get all of this, as long as appointment time allows.
It’s a small leap of faith to try anything new, but TCM has a multi thousand year history,
so it’s safe to say it's already been tried and tested for you.
