Traditional Chinese Medicine (or TCM for short) is one of the oldest systems of healthcare in the world, one that continues to be practiced to this day by practitioners of all backgrounds despite its ancient and culturally-specific roots. Its staying power can be attributed to its effective and holistic protocols, which are built on a foundation of knowledge and wisdom accumulated from thousands of years of observing the interactions between man and nature. TCM heals from core to surface, aiming to treat ailments from their root cause and restore balance in all aspects of one’s being, from the intangible qi to the tangible body and beyond.

There are four main philosophies that guide the practice of TCM:

1. You are an integrated whole. From the TCM perspective, your health is affected by the well-being of not just your body, but also your mind and spirit. Your practitioner’s treatment plan for you will be developed with the intention of restoring balance to this all-important trinity.
2. You are connected to your environment. Whether we like it or not, our bodies are constantly changing, and much of this change is affected by all the different aspects of the environments we find ourselves in, including climate, geographical location, social factors, and countless others. Since TCM is holistic in nature, your practitioner will take all of these things into consideration and create treatment plans that are tailored to your unique situation.
3. Your body tells all. As soon as your body starts to deviate from its natural balance, it begins to put out signs, which can range from the most obvious of externalized symptoms to the subtlest difference in your pulse. Your trained TCM professional can read these signs and understand what your body is asking for, and why; they will then use this knowledge to not only treat what’s ailing you now, but also prevent other current imbalances from getting worse and causing future ailments.
4. You are born with the ability to self-heal. The body, like nature itself, institutionally seeks to restore its own balance. This ability can sometimes be slowed or blocked by various factors, which TCM strives to remove in order to allow your body to do what it does best and bring itself back into alignment.

Within the scope of TCM, there are a wide variety of treatment modalities that practitioners can choose from to best help you. Here at Tzu Chi Clinic, we primarily focus on three of these modalities, detailed below.