I PRACTISE CLASSICAL ACUPUNCTURE

Most acupuncture practised today, in both the East and the West, follows a simplified, standardised, approach that was developed and exported during the 20th century. During China's Cultural Revolution, acupuncture techniques from across East and Southeast Asia were combined into a single system known as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). TCM and Five Element Acupuncture use only the twelve main "organ" channels, leaving out the full range of channels and their techniques. This is because in TCM, acupuncture was adapted primarily as an extension of herbal medicine where the organ channels are most effectively treated.

Classical Acupuncture treats using the full 68 channels of 12 Primaries and 56 Divergents that are responsible for taking pathology to and from the organs. They also allow for the release of disease that has been stored and kept at the deepest level of our being, waiting for a time when we are ready to let it go.

ACUPUNCTURE IS NOT WESTERN MEDICINE

Western bio-medicine has developed from a worldview that sees health as something confined to the structure to the body. The peak efficacy of this physical medicine is in the emergency room. It's critical care, life saving intervention right now, and it's the best medicine that has ever emerged based on the science to do that. However it ignores two key components of medicine: prevention (not to be confused with detecting something early on) and the long term care of chronic conditions that involve the whole human being. Not just body, but mind and spirit. I have heard too many cases of people going to see the doctor because of their pain, only to be told that their scans and blood tests are completely fine. When conditions of the psyche and soul are treated with physical medications that often cause negative side-effects to the body, then it's time for us to accept that we are not being met at the level we need by main-stream medicine.

What acupuncture is best for is not really understood or often experienced by Western people. It is an invitation to see our disease and discomfort as a window into accepting ourselves as we are. Whether it's due to not having enough resources to fight an external pathogen, or because we are not being able to express our internal experience as we would wish to, the message that the body is trying to communicate is longing to be heard. This is what makes the invitation of acupuncture so special, and clients would greatly benefit from approaching treatment if they were ready to be open to this message.