Trauma Training Tip The Lunar New Year, this year on February 5th, marks the arrival of spring and the Wood Element — the time when the sapent p in trees begins to soften and move in early February. Like all visions, dreams, and aspirations, Spring’s vibration begins long before it manifests in tangible form as sprouting plants. What has been held deeply within during the Winter now takes shape and form. All of creation comes out of hibernation with a full tank of qi and dynamic vitality. We may feel a spring in our step and see signs of life …

Trauma Training Tip Each of our five primary organs stores a precious substance. Jing is the substance stored in the Kidney. Jing is essentially our genetic potential. We get a set amount of Jing at our conception. We protect it with adequate rest, good food, modest exercise and moderate sexual activity. When our Jing is depleted, we die. Fear is corrosive to our Jing. When our Jing is compromised, our morbidity and mortality is impacted. Survivors of childhood trauma have a reduced life expectancy of up to 20 years and are overwhelmingly more likely to end up in jail or …

Trauma Training Tip Peter Levine developed the Somatic Experiencing® model of trauma resolution out of his study of predator-prey relationships. He established four foundational principles that interface with Acupuncture and Asian Medicine in insightful ways: Two-legged and four-legged animals go through the same 5 steps in their Self Protective Response when danger threatens. Successful completion of all 5 steps mitigates trauma’s imprint. Symptoms arise when a step is thwarted or remains incomplete. The particular step that remains incomplete influences how trauma’s imprint affects a survivor’s tissues, psychological constructs, functional challenges, and spiritual longings. Here’s the fascinating thing – Dr. Levine’s five …

Trauma Training Tip Autumn’s crisp, dry and clear air has a particular impact on the skin. I always know that the energy of the Metal Element has arrived when the skin on my hands becomes parched, dry and ashy. Skin has richly sensate and strong opinions about the nature, location, quality, and kind of touch it wants. Acupuncturists penetrate the skin with needles; physical care and other medical providers touch their patients’ skin in every session. This organ is our largest one and wants to be respected and heard! Being mindful about how we relate to our clients’ skin is …

Trauma Training Tip Every Element stores an aspect of spirit. The Metal’s spirit is called the po, or animal soul. Our po gives us a sense of being animated. It inspires our most primal and instinctive nature and gives us the capacity for embodied awareness. It resides in our Lungs and travels with our breath. It brings a sensate experience of animation to every dimension of our body. It supports instinctive, reactive, physical responses, like raising a hand to protect us from an object flying at us. Spiritual practices that focus on the breath cultivate our po. Understanding the nature …

The Earth Element has a special relationship with our muscles and flesh. The Spleen’s function to create qi is visible in the tone and capacity of our muscles. Our muscles carry body memories of our inner experiences. Thwarted mobilization responses, failures of self-protection, and untransformed traumatic experiences may be stored in them. What we believe and how we feel about these experiences may be found in our muscle memory and be reflected in our posture and stance toward life. Our muscles tend to be loud and distracting in our interoceptive, body-awareness. They contain and convey strong sensations we are meant …

Trauma Training Tip Each time our Sympathetic Nervous System is activated in the face of threat, our fight or flight response delivers a message across the control cycle from our Wood to our Earth to shut down peristalsis in our guts. In this moment we need all our Qiand blood to focus on our muscles and joints to mobilize a response to this immediate life threat.  Early life trauma, or overwhelming and recurrent adult traumas can create a habituated state of “freeze” in our viscera with profound impact on our vitality and the many functions of our “belly brain”. This …

Trauma Training Tip The summer is a great time to think about the Fire Element, the ventral vagus nerve and the critical role that acupuncturists can play in this piece of East-meets-West physiology. Western neurophysiology looks to the ventral vagus for many of the functions that an acupuncturist looks to in the Fire Element.  Both East and West name our capacity to look at each other with soft eyes, understand the subtleties of meaning in speech, communicate emotional nuance with facial expression and voice tone, and light up our face when we feel loved as functions of the Fire Element …

Trauma Training Tip Understanding the nature and function of the Fire Element in the self-protective response is central to working with trauma survivors.   When we experience danger or life threat, the vibration of fear in our Kidney reaches across the control cycle to our Heart Protector.  As humans, our first instinct, unless it has been previously extinguished, is a relational one.  Our Heart Protector is the vehicle that helps us be in relationship with and seek help from the people around us. We are social animals, and in health, our ability to engage with our “tribe” can make a …