Classical Five-Element Acupuncture

Classical Five-Element Acupuncture is a system of acupuncture based on a 2,500 year old understanding of the laws of nature, and how these laws affect you and your health as a unique individual.

We each have a particular way of adapting to physical, mental, and emotional stress that is unique to us. Unlike generalized medicine that treats conditions, illnesses, or symptoms, Five-Element Acupuncture treats the individual and their particular predisposition, and source of imbalance.

Unlike standardized treatment approaches, Five-Element treatments are customized to the individual and change over time with your unique situation. By addressing the individual imbalance, Five-Element Acupuncture triggers your innate healing response by clearing away blockages that prevent natural spontaneous healing. By restoring this balance, various symptoms, regardless of what they are called resolve naturally and spontanously. Acute symptoms clear quickly, while chronic conditions resolve according to timing dictated by these natural laws and your unique situation. 

Why We Get Sick:

Ancient cultures long believed that our health results from living in harmony with the cycles of nature. When we fall out of balance with these cycles we lose our ability to adapt to change gracefully. We have to capacty to naturally relax when stressful things have ended, but often we can get stuck in a place of stress long after the events have subsided or have passed. Whether the condition is physical, mental, or emotional your body has an inner wisdom to restore wellbeing with proper treatment and lifestyle changes.  

We are designed to naturally cycle through our emotions, but excessive anxiety, worry, sadness, anger or grief can easily cause us to get sick. With stress, we can go through emotional upheavals, or get stuck in one particular emotional pattern or mood for a prolongued period of time.

When we get stuck in this way, it fundamentally changes our blood chemistry and blood circulation. Our emotions and predispositions cause us hold our body and perform certain mental and physical activities in a certain way. Over time, this preferential activity causes only parts of us to be active, while other parts of us stagnate. This causes an imbalance in blood flow, nutrition, rest, and rejuvenation to overworked and overutilized functions of our physiology. 

Often our emotions can cause changes in our digestion, quality of sleep, tissue healing, memory, concentration, elimination function, and often result in a weakened physical and emotional immune system. Physically we become more susceptible to bacteria, viruses, toxins, allergens and pollution. Emotionally we become disproprotionally reactive to emotional, social, existential, or relationship stress at work and with our friends and families. When this happens over time, we often start having symptoms of physical distress, and we develop chronic health conditions and lack of resiliency to meet life's many challenges. 

Trauma and Spiritual Exhaustion:

Sometimes when traumatic life events happen, we can become emotionally exhausted from constant stress and striving, and can even lose access to our spirit – the natural spark, vitality, and zest for life, which makes us feel fully alive and vibrant. Sometimes, when this spirit is lost, may lose our sense of direction, meaning, and motivation to pursue what was once important to us.

Chinese Medicine understands that emotions are not just a mental activity, but reside and occur inside of our body as a felt physical experience. When you feel angry, sad, elated, energized or joyful, these emotions occur inside of your physical body. All feelings, moods and emotions have certain usual locations in which they are felt. When things in life are harmoneous, we often cycle through our feelings, moods, and emotions in a flexible way. When trauma or stress happen, however, we can often cut off certain parts of ourselves in order to not feel certain uncomfortable emotions as a self-protection mechanism. From a Chinese Medicine perspective, this means that we cut off circulation and sensation to certain portions of our body, so that we cannot physically feel the emotion itself. 

While emotional numbness can protect us in the short term, very often we lose the ability to open up those portions of our body at will in order to experience to the full range of emotional self-expression, including our joy. This numbness very often persists even after the events have gone, and we lose touch with the fact that it is possible to feel those parts of ourselves which have been lost.

Often we can experience many physical symptoms of distress known by many western medical diagnoses. However, when circulation and feeling to those parts of our body that have become numb is restored, we regain access to the full range of our emotions, including the vital spark of life that gives us a feeling of being in good spirits, and of feeling more at ease with our emotional landscape and with our world. 

Five-Element Acupuncture is unique in its ability to restore the access to our full range of self-expression, a felt sense of freedom, joy, vitality, and natural peace of mind. When our spark is restored, many of our symptoms, regardless of what they are called tend to resolve naturally and spontaneously.

For this reason, Five-Element Acupuncture can be very effective for those who are working through physical, mental or mental health challenges, or are wanting to restore a sense of wellbeing by working with the mind-body connection in conjunction with other therapuetic work they are doing. 

How We Heal:

With Classical Five-Element Acupuncture, areas in your life that have felt difficult or stuck start coming back to life. You feel more at ease, and emotionally balanced, emotionally stronger, and more emotionally flexible. Circumstances that seemed tough or impossible begin to feel workable and feel a bit easier. Important life changes which you may need to make starts to feel easier and much more natural. While your felt quality of life improves, your body naturally heals and becomes more balanced and healthy. This leads to a more fulfilling and enjoyable life. As your health and your life start to change, you experience a renewed sense of power, freedom, self-expression and peace of mind.