Healing Haven Acupuncture Clinic

Much of Traditional Chinese Medicine is a three way conversation that is continually taking place between this patient here now, whose body has its own wisdom, this practitioner here now, who has acquired some training, some skills and some experience, and the classics, the writings that have endured, of previous practitioners who reflected on their experiences and shared them through their writings.  Continue reading →

In the tradition of acupuncture, one of the most common algorithms used in practice, can be stated as follows:

[If there is] flow, no pain

[If there is] pain, no flow

That is to say, if acupuncture is a way of treating, exploring, understanding and regulating flows in the body, and there is pain, then it serves as an important signal that some essential flow has slowed or stopped.  Continue reading →

Hello, all.  It has been a long while since I’ve posted here, but Healing Haven Acupuncture Clinic is now entering its 15th year.  14 years ago, in January 2005, I had just returned from a trip with my family that included a clinical experience month in Nanjing, and I launched straight into opening and advertising the clinic.

And the word spread and more people came to me, growing the practice year on year, until, around 2010, when people around here were feeling a considerable pinch in their pockets.  In 2012 I knew I had to go back to the world of “proper” work (employment), so Continue reading →

The subject of diet in Traditional Chinese Medicine is vast.  It is considered the sign of a superior medical practitioner if the patient’s ills can be mended by adjustments to their diet, without resorting to actual medicine or acupuncture, as a less skilled practitioner must do.

For myself, I am not as skilled as all that in giving individually tailored dietary advice in the clinic, but diet is a subject that comes up often in the clinic.  And I am coming to believe that the standard “healthy eating” advice currently dispensed both in magazine supplements and doctor’s offices may be contributing as much to people’s ill-health as the plethora of junk foods tempting us from every aisle in the supermarket. Continue reading →

Several women experiencing post-pill amenorrhea have presented in this clinic in the past few months.   Generally, it is considered to be amenorrhea if no natural menstrual cycle has occurred within six months of stopping the contraceptive pill.  The medical literature considers this to be a small but significant risk, with an incidence of around 1% or so, however, when it does happen, Continue reading →