News & Views on Integrative Healing: August 2016

Trauma Training Tips Did you know you have a brain in your guts?This visceral brain informs us about our comfort in relationships and helps us make nourishing attachments. You actually do “know it in your guts” when you meet people. In life-threatening conditions, all our Qi goes to mobilizing a flight or fight response; we shut down our digestion temporarily. Repeated early traumatic stress may result in chronic shut-down of digestion – or a freeze response in our viscera. As adults it will be hard for our Spleen qi to transform food into qi; we may have trouble assimilating trace …

News & Views on Integrative Healing: July 2016

Trauma Training Tip Both Eastern and Western medicine appreciate the critical importance of connective tissue in wrapping around, penetrating in, and connecting with all organs, muscles, bones, and cells. The impact of high velocity injuries on the connective tissue is global.  Adhesions, scars, and loss of flexibility in the connective tissue can give rise to localized pain and restricted movement; and brace and/or collapse in the connective tissue may contribute to the debilitating pain of fibromyalgia. Chinese medicine brings an additional dimension to this exploration.  It says that our Yuan Qi – the Qi that we each received at our conception — …

News & Views on Integrative Healing June 2016

Trauma Training Tip The physiology of the Heart Protector is even more amazing than you ever knew! The kidney/adrenal system signals threat. Its first resource is connection along the K’o cycle to the Pericardium. We are pack animals and are safer when we can make eye contact and relationship with our tribe. If our capacity for connection has been undermined by abuse or trauma, we will be less able to seek help when threatened. We may not ask for help when caught in the ocean’s undertow. We may mis-read facial cues and assume threat rather than curiosity from a co-worker. …

Webinar for the Office of Patient Centered Care of the Veterans Administration

I gave 2 webinars at the VA recently, one for the War Related Illness & Injury Study Center and another for the Office of Patient Centered Care and Cultural Transformation. My subject: Restoration & Balance: Chinese Medicine’s Gift to Survivors of Trauma. I spoke to about 300 people and am meeting an extraordinary network of soulful, heartfelt, skilled VA providers. The VA is such a rich paradox. Who ever would have thought 25 years ago when I graduated from acupuncture school that this is where I would be? Listen here, if you like. https://va-eerc-ees.adobeconnect.com/_a1089657440/p9h24wnsk8v/?launcher=false&fcsContent=true&pbMode=normal

Presentation for Acupuncture Students at Maryland University of Integrative Healing

Acupuncture theory can readily be applied to the “strange, rare and peculiar” symptoms that arise out of dysregulation in the autonomic nervous system in people who have been unable to complete a self protective response.  Here’s a presentation I made for Acupuncture Students.  MUIH-1-15coregroup

A Veteran’s Story of Letting Go and Finding A Fresh Start

I had the opportunity to tell A Veteran’s Story on a National Conference Call with VA Medical Center Directors and Chiefs of Staff.  This portion of the call was sponsored by the VA Office of Patient Centered Care and Cultural Transformation.  Here’s the text of the call: Laura Krejci, Associate Director, Office of Patient Centered Care and Cultural Transformation:   Today we have a poignant story to share that illustrates how we can support Veterans in their journey to recovery through a personalized, whole health approach.   The Washington DC VA Medical Center is one of our Patient Centered Care Centers …

The Traumatic Stress Response In Chinese Medicine: Five Constitutional Types

Over 100’s and 100’s of years, Chinese medicine explored patterns and associations in health and illness. They identified 5 constitutional predispositions or types. These types are based on a system of correspondences. These correspondences, which include certain organs, emotions, senses, body tissues, psychological challenges and gifts associate with one another at the interface of body, mind and spirit. They are unique to Chinese medicine. The dramatic disorganization of energy or qi caused by traumatic stress will primarily manifest in one of these 5 distinct constitutional or personality types, each one named for their associated pair of meridians. This diagnostic framework …