Full Diagnosis & Treatment

Individual full sessions include full assessment and diagnosis based on Traditional Chinese Medicine and special diagnosis by observing the Qi field and blockages. This is followed by the actual treatment. Book this long session if you are coming for the first time, if your main complaint has changed, or if you feel the need of re-aligning with your body and soul once all over again.

This full 1.5 hour session is the deep assessment of your being and how your complaint has come about. First of all, you tell us what your main complaint is, how did it establish itself, how long ago, and how it has evolved to the point of consultation. You also tell us what else would you like us to address since the treatment is holistic and is likely to improve other related complaints. From here then we proceed with the diagnosis followed by the treatment itself.

Assessment and Diagnosis

The diagnosis includes a traditional TCM assessment protocol, as well as some extra assessment steps that are only possible through the holistic perception acquired with Qigong training.

Looking

Visual assessment includes all or some of the following:

Observing your body type, your posture, your behaviour and personality. This may indicate what kind of imbalances your are constitutionally leaning towards, and whether it is of excess or depletion type.
Assessing your “emotional feel” - e.g. whether you walk briskly or slowly; you feel sad, worn down or tired, or maybe angry or frustrated. In TCM view, your emotions can tell a lot about the state of your internal organs.
Looking at the color of your skin and complexion, including spots or freckles over certain acupuncture points; assessing your lips, hair and nails for color and abundance of blood and internal nourishment. For instance, pale face may indicate deficiency or a Cold condition, red face - heat in the Stomach or Liver-fire.
Observing your tongue and assessing the state of the body based on the traditional assessment methods in TCM with each area of the tongue representing the state of a particular internal organ.
Perceiving the field of Chi (Qi) to understand where exactly and what kind of blockages persist in the channels.

Asking

We then ask you a lot of questions about your main complaint and all other signs and symptoms that may be connected to it, loosly following the traditional Chinese Medicine protocol that includes the 10 Traditional Questions. Depending on your main complaint only some questions may be asked. Click each item below to see the reasoning behind these questions:

Medical History - we will try to source all information about all major illnesses, injuries and treatments procedures your had in the past. This may go beyond your own health and include those family or ancestral illnesses or patterns existing in your family. We would like to know the prescription- and recreational drug use that may affect you and our treatments (i.e. blood thinners, insulin, marijuana etc.), and also interact with our herbal prescriptions.
Heat, Cold, Fever and Chills - questions about temperature perception and aversions (e.g. to heat, wind or cold) are common ways of finding both the energetic layer and channels where a particular pathogen may be lodged in the body, as well as whether your complaint is of an internal or external origin.
Sweating - sweating patterns can provide valuable information regarding excess and deficiencies that may exist in the body. Night sweats, for example, are an important indicator of Yin deficiency - a serious depletion of primary resources. On the other hand, sponteneous sweating may indicate for example a weakness of the Lung/immunity and predisposition to seasonal colds ad flu’s.
Head & Face - questions about the head and face help to accumulate a broad range of information. For example, there are many types of headache and the location of it helps to attribute each type to a particular channel and/or organ. The location of pimples or freckles may tell how the heat and dampless surface to these channels.
Pain - finding the nature, aggravating and relieving factors involved in pain conditions is important to understand what is going on. For example, a pain that is fixed, severe and gets better with application of heat (e.g. a radiculitis pain) indicates a Stagnant Cold condition. Pain that is sharp and/or stabbing is indicative of a Blood Stagnation. All of these require a completely different course of treatment. Feeling of heat in the face (including hot flushes) is another valuable source of information about the inflammation in the body.
Urine and Stool - these questions are usually the ones considered most unrelated by patients. While it may be difficult to understand how the quality of one’s stools can relate to their knee pain, questions about the elimination system provide indications about the functioning of the Kidneys and the digestive system. Knee and lower back pain for example, are often related to the condition of the Kidney. A poorly functioning digestive system can lead to accumulation of Phlegm/Dampness that can lodge in the joints and cause Arthritis. Too dark or foamy urine may indicate inflammation (Heat) and Dampness in the genito-urination system. e.g. cystitis or prostatitis. Cock’s crow diarrhea at the dawn indicates a gall-bladder weakness.
Eating and drinking - thirst, appetite, taste sensations and preferences questions are helpful in understanding the quality of the digestive system as well as whether a person has another underlying condition. For instance, lack of appetite may indicate Spleen Qi Deficiency, while fullness, bloating and/or distention after eating may refer to a Food Stagnation. Preference for a bitter taste may mean the Heart is weak and needs nourishment. Excessive thurst may mean there is an inflammation in the body.
Sleep - the patterns of one’s sleeping and wakening may tell a lot about the overall health, and especially the emotional and mental state because in Chinese medicine the Heart is the lodge of the Spirit (Mind). Difficulty falling asleep however a patient sleeping well after may mean there is a Heart Blood Deficiency. If he or she wakes up at night often - may relate to Heart or Kidney Yin Deficiency. Nightmares or violent dreams indicate Liver-Fire.
Thorax and Abdomen - pain may be present in the thorax and abdominal areas in physical conditions involving the heart, lungs or digestive system, however it may also indicate some psycho-emotional issues that should be managed. Pain in the hypochondriac region for example, may be related to a physical Liver problem, however may also refer to a prolonged stress. Liver Qi Stagnation may present with hypochondriac pain and symptoms of depression but does not indicate any physical problems with the Liver. Heavy feeling in the thorax may indicate conditions of the Heart or Lung - e.g. due to unhappiness, unrelieved grief or prolonged sadness.
Gynecological and Sexual - the flow of a women’s menstrual cycle is an important lithmus paper gauge of her overall health. Whether it is gynecological condition such as irregular menstruation, or a one related to natural fertility, the information from such questions is extremely valuable in forming an appropriate diagnosis. Pregnancies (successul and abandoned), level of libido and sexual desire - tell a lot about the female organ status. Sometimes we would even ask you to take your Basal Body Temperature daily and build a graph to analyse how the phasesof your cycle flow.

Palpation

A physical touch may provide a lot of valuable information to the practitioner:

Pressure points and channels - feeling for the blocked (painful or itchy) acupuncture points is the most precise way of diagnosing the condition and its origin. Some points are direct representation of the internal organs connected to them. Others show the state of the fundamental substances, or blockages in particular channels
Muscles and bones - muscular tensions in parts of the body, alignment of bones or the vertebrae indicate a particular state of physical and emotional being, and are often connected to other parts of the body being an integral organism. For example, tension in the muscles of the upper back or the neck is often caused by the postural misalignment that starts at the lower back level, or even further in the legs. This is how the body compensates to allow the person to stay upright. Accumulated tensions lead to pain conditions, which are sometimes easy to reverse.
Pulse diagnosis - palpation of the pulse is another traditional way of diagnosis. Each of the three sections of the pulse indicates the state of the group of internal organs located in the respective regions of the body - i.e. lower, middle and upper sections. Left hand pulse indicates the state of the Yin (e.g. blood, bodily fluids) while the Right hand pulse shows the Yang qualities of the organs - i.e. how energetic they are.

Treatment

During the treatment we may use all or some treatment modalities, depending on what your body and soul need right at the moment. This may include a few of the following;

Homework

At the end of the treatment we prescribe herbs, provide a diet advice, show and mark a few acupuncture points you can press and self-massage to continue your treatment at home. We may give you some Qigong exercise, breathing techniques or other physical exercices. All of these in order for you to understand the process and help it continue while you are on your own.