Managing Emotional Stress with Acupuncture
A 53-year-old man comes to me with low back pain. A 35-year-old woman presents with painful menstrual cramps and blinding headaches. And a 17-year-old boy comes in with stomach cramps and anxiety. What do they all have in common? Their symptoms were brought on by emotional stress.
Always in Chinese Medicine we are getting to the root of the problem and formulating a treatment plan from there. In cases like the ones above, I start the patient talking. There is great therapy in "getting it off one's chest." Almost immediately I can see the shoulders relax and the patient will resume a normal pattern of breathing. The tension begins to melt out of the face. His/her throat relaxes and the voice becomes more clear and pleasant.
We can now talk about the physical manifestations of pain in the body caused by emotional stress and devise a treatment plan that will look something like this:
1. Acupuncture sessions that will focus on eliminating emotional stress as well as its unpleasant physical manifestations;
2. Dietary changes...just a few changes, I promise;
3. Breathing exercises, or pranayama as it is called in yoga;
and
4. Emotional support.
I am here for you. Come in and let me restore the smooth flow of qi and blood in your body so that you may move with ease and enjoy your days.
Thank you for reading.
Tamara ZumMallen
I love this entry so much. iI's amazing how we (as patients) never think about the emotional pain underneath our physical pain. I am really going to start rededicating myself to going to acupuncture more. I have had so much stress lately and it is amazing how it manifests into body pain and headaches.
Thanks again.
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Hi Kayla!
I will take great care of you. Call or email in the meantime if you have questions.
Until then,
Tamara
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Thank you for your comment Tamara - and I love you blog as well, especially this post on physical manifestations of emotions - so true it is. I wish more people would understand how their thoughts and emotions affect them - body and mind. That's why there are people like us in the world - to help them in their healing journey!
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