Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)

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The Traditional Chinese Medicine approach makes a diagnosis based on a multitude of factors so that each individual is treated uniquely.  The root cause of one disease, say, ADD, may have 8 unique diagnosis based on different systems. Then for each person, a unique treatment.  And there is constant change so that one diagnosis may not be the same, say, a month later.  

Traditional Chinese medicine provides many ways to help one heal and get better, or, simply, to stay well. It is a preventative medicine and a healing one.  For you, it might be acupuncture and body work (stress or sluggishness, for example). Or acupuncture and e-stimulation (chronic pain or injured muscle or bone, for example). Or acupuncture and cupping AND body manipulation (a common cold/flu, injury, chronic back or neck pain, for example). 

If you prefer a non-needle approach I offer an acupoint stimulation with a warming touch of moxibustion, or Vaccaria seeds placed on the ear, or acupressure stimulation by hand or using a micro-currents tool. A Chinese herbal prescription may be advised.  Healing in San Francisco might mean an early morning swim in the bay, but it might also mean a regular visit to get acupuncture and TCM. 

Traditional Chinese medicine is based on the conceptualization of a continuous looping movement of energy (relatable to our nervous system impulses) and blood (relatable to our blood and body fluids). It is a medicine that historians understand to have been in existence for at least 5,000 years. The philosophy behind TCM differs from Western medicine in its core thinking. The TCM practitioner looks for patterns which come from multiple phenomena being related in non-causal ways. It is not that A brings about B which with C makes D happen. But intertwining patterns which are understood in specific context. Dis-ease or imbalance is understood as a “too little” of this or “too much” of that, with infinite individual variation.  Ultimately TCM works to balance out the infinite levels of Yin and Yang in our bodies. 

Our body-mind seeks homeostasis and TCM can help that to come about.