Natural Medicine for Body, Mind, Spirit
Proper nutrition has the potential to create extraordinary health throughout our lives. By using traditional wisdom, modern science, and awareness of the body’s unique nutritional and intuitive needs, we may overcome health challenges and habits and nurture our authentic self with ease.
By bringing awareness to how foods affect the emotional, mental, and physical health of the body we can begin to make adjustments in food and lifestyle choices. This will bring balance to how we feel and allow us to enjoy the abundance and variety of healthy foods.
A plant based whole-foods approach to nutrition incorporating traditional Chinese medicine dietary principles will help guide us toward discovering what nutritional plan is most indicated for your unique body. Learning to listento the body’s wisdom with acceptance and care for what it needs will offer a supportive space to work through possible habits and challenges that come up when moving toward a healthier way of living. Together we will incorporate changes that bring simplicity to meal planning and ignite your passion for eating well.
“The basic difference is that in Naturopathy it is the patient that does the healing, not the doctor.”
Dr. John Bastyr
Naturopathic medicine, also called “naturopathy” is a system of health care – an art, science, philosophy and practice of medicine that follows principles found in nature. These principles are based upon the observation and experience of the natural environment, the human organism, and the relationship between the two. Therapies to support good health and prevent illness are continually reexamined in the light of scientific advances. In addition, traditional, folk and indigenous healing knowledge passed down over time is greatly respected and used with enthusiasm.
Botanical medicines, one such therapy used in Dr. Flynn’s practice, contain hundreds to thousands of interrelated compounds such as aromatic oils, minerals, enzymes, nutrients, etc. as well as energetic properties which work together to produce a whole therapeutic medicine with minimal risk of side effects. Botanical medicines that address the body on levels are used in the form of capsules, tinctures, and flower essences.
For more information about Naturopathic Medicine visit here.
“Without (or despite) deciding in which direction one wants to change, the body has it’s own direction of health.”
Eugene Gendlin PhD
Focusing is a powerful process for growth and transformation. It is a body-centered self-awareness skill that includes an open and accepting inner space for change to occur. It is a natural, innate way of listening to ourselves.
Focusing involves having a non-judgemental relationship with your emotions and feelings. This process gives you a tool for doing inner work, helping you be more present, connected and compassionate with yourself and others.
Focusing offers a gentle way to
- be with feelings like shame, anger, fear, and sadness
- soften harsh and critical inner voices
- experience healing in the midst of illness
- find places of comfort in a painful body
- let go of addictions and habits with more ease
Instead of using the mind to try to analyze why you are feeling a certain way or how you got to the place where you are, Focusing helps you drop down to a deeper understanding by sensing how the issue resides in your body, freshly, in this moment. With this process, you access the wisdom of your bodily felt sense.
To learn more about Focusing and the work of Eugene Gendlin please see The International Focusing Institute.
For more resources and information on upcoming courses visit the Seattle Focusing Institute.
“When I get acupuncture and all the pins are in, I feel them all connecting and then everything inside feels connected.”
Sheila
“It’s like being at a theme park, but instead of being on a ride with energy swirling around me the energy is swirling inside of me.”
Kristine
“It feels like a symphony happening with several different individual instruments all playing together in harmony.”
Steve
Acupuncture is the most well-known modality in the ancient tradition of Chinese medicine. Having been used all over the eastern part of the world in one form or another for thousands of years, Chinese medicine has been the primary form of health care for much of the population throughout history.
Acupuncture is based on the understanding that all living things have an integrated force that maintains and directs life. This is true whether that living thing is human, plant, or animal. This force is a form of energy that underlies all biophysical and biochemical processes, and separates living from non-living matter. In Chinese medicine this force is called “Qi” but it is also known in other systems of medicine as life force, vital force, innate intelligence, and prana.
Disturbance to this vital force can come from emotional sources such as shock, trauma, betrayal, prolonged grief, long lasting anxiety, fear, disappointment or from physical sources such as viruses and bacteria, exposure to extreme temperatures, injuries, and malnutrition. Symptoms that manifest as a result of this disruption such as pain, fatigue, digestive upset, etc. are clues to the underlying imbalance. Acupuncture removes obstacles and strengthens the life force of the body, bringing it back to optimal functioning and harmonious health.
Very fine needles are inserted into specific points along meridians in the body and assist in redirecting qi, much like water is directed through an irrigation system, bringing life force to the cells, tissues, and organs where it is needed most. The needles are disposed of once used.
Constitutional Hydrotherapy
This therapy involves alternating applications of hot and cold compresses to the front and back of the torso which increases circulation to the internal organs. A gentle sine wave electrical current is added to influence the stomach, pancreas, gallbladder, kidney, and liver through the spinal nerves along the back.
The effect is enhanced immunity, improved digestion, increased lymphatic circulation, increased oxygenation of blood, and balanced tone of the autonomic nervous system.
Constitutional Hydrotherapy can be included as part of a regular self care routine or used to to help with specific health issues such as fatigue, depression, PMS/PMDD, digestive disorders, drug and alcohol recovery, chronic pain, and more.
For more information, go here.
Cupping
Cupping is procedure that is performed by creating a vacuum in a cup and applying it to the skin to create suction. Cupping has the function of warming and promoting the free flow of Qi and Blood in the meridians and is used in the treatment of pain and to assist in detoxification.
Gua Sha
Gua Sha is a common technique practiced in homes as well as clinics and hospitals throughout Asian countries. A round edged instrument is stroked along the skin removing congestion and promoting normal circulation and metabolic processes. It is used often to treat pain, upper respiratory disorders and chronic disorders related to toxicity. It is also called “coining” as it was traditionally performed with a coin.