In Part 1 of a 3-Part series on Emotional Healing & Chinese Medicine Brodie talks with a long-time patient, "Marcia" - not her real name, per her request. Brodie and Marcia talk about how acupuncture helped her let go of emotions related to post-traumatic stress that she developed after a camping trip with her husband that led to an ER visit and emergency quadruple-bypass surgery. Marcia's story is a powerful example of how acupuncture can help us let go of stuck energy in the form of emotions.

Marcia also describes how understanding herself from a Chinese Medicine perspective helped her to develop self-compassion, self-love, and appreciation. In particular, we get into the notion of Constitutional Type. Kind of like the Myers-Briggs Personality test, your astrological sign, your Enneagram number, or your Ayurvedic Dosha, Chinese Medicine likens different aspects of our physiology, psychology, and mental tendencies to the elements of nature: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. Knowing your constitutional type can help you maintain balance in your life by illuminating natural strengths and identifying challenges.

In this episode, we explore:

• Issues that Marcia has used Acupuncture to help treat
• What part of the acupuncture process is most helpful in treating these issues?
• How the pre-treatment interview process helps patients tune in to deeper issues
• Emotional release during treatment and emotions as qi
• How slowing down our lives can help us feel more in control
• Having compassion for yourself
• How identifying your constitutional type can help you keep yourself and your life in balance
• Similarities and differences between emotional healing in acupuncture and talk therapy

Resources:

• If you are interested in discovering your particular constitutional type, you can take a little quiz at http://brodiewelch.com/chinese-element-quiz/
• If you're wanting a deep-dive into this stuff, my Basics of Chinese Medicine course starting this October was designed just for you. When we can act with greater self-awareness, we open ourselves up to new possibilities. Recognizing that we don't have to be bound by our go-to tendencies and habits, we are free to stretch into the fullness of our potential on all levels. We may even discover new latent superpowers — inner strengths we have yet to tap. If that's strikes you as interesting, please head over to brodiewelch.com and you can read more about it under the "Learn from Home" tab. We start Oct. 3rd.