The Five Element Tradition

Traditional Five-Element Acupuncture provides a holistic, integrated approach to treating the person, not the disease. Symptoms are understood and treated in relation to the whole. This shift in orientation can be challenging for practitioners, as our Western mind is trained to see the parts or the symptoms rather than place them in the context of the whole.

Our health is intertwined with Nature. Nature's daily and seasonal cycles create a foundation for all our bodily rhythms, health, and well-being. Just as Nature is governed by natural law, we are governed by natural law. The clinical reality of these principles, while the bedrock of this system of medicine, is often misunderstood or overlooked in their application.

As an oral tradition passed from teacher to student, the art of transmission differs from teaching a subject matter or methodology. Transmission is a passing or movement of something from one to another, a physical encounter... “to lead by the wrist or grab hold of.” With transmission, one knows core values and principles through one’s own embodied experience and has the ability to deliver that experience to others. When we are in accordance with this philosophy, it brings a taste of what is possible in the treatment room and our lives.  It is an awakening to the true nature of this medicine.

The Chinese character for “transmission” — “to lead by the wrist or grab hold of.”