Hold onto your hats, this is going to be interesting.
October is Anxiety and Depression awareness month. One in four people experience depression at some point in their lives. Anxiety can be crippling and affect every aspect of our lives.
How can Natural Therapies help?
First, lets look at Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) where mental health is not a separate disorder. TCM encompasses the whole of your body's health. Actually in TCM, there is no brain. What?!? Crazy Right...
Instead, our organs are allocated roles and their independent responsibility corroborates towards homeostasis and health. They also have their own spirit... Yep, things just got weird.
Not to worry we have it sorted. As a TCM practitioner, striking the balance of multiple spirits and emotional centres is a bit like a juggling act, keeping an eye on all the balls in the air at once.
The central spirit is that of the Heart, called the Shen
Shen is the powerful essence of who we are and in TCM the Heart energy is referred to as the Emperor. It is supported by the other energies in the body but it is the centre of where we focus our treatment when anxiety or depression are present.
Acupuncture treatment comes in the form of balancing all energies. When you are deficient in energy we aim to move qi and energy to the heart centre to nourish the Shen. When you are in excess our aim is to move energy and heat away from the heart centre to allow for restfulness, peacefulness and calmness.
The Herbal Medicine we use at Healthwise is individually formulated to specifically address your immediate signs and symptoms whilst taking your 'whole' into account and allowing both the immediate and underlying causes of anxiety and depression to be considered. Some herbs have been shown to be as effective as some pharmaceutical intervention.
Healthwise Clinic provides Counselling for treatment of depression and anxiety. Zam Martin uses Transactional Analysis, Gestalt therapy and re-parenting regression therapy with voice dialogue.
Important Note: Healthwise Clinic recognises there are times when pharmaceutical intervention is required for severe depression and anxiety. We practice responsibly and have a trusted referral base for severe mood disorders or for those unresponsive to current treatment.
