Diagnostics in TCM

Unlike Western clinicians, a TCM clinician spends a significant amount of time at each visit with the client both to identify and to resolve health issues.

This is because we believe that the individual is a microcosmic dynamic system that is changing and adapting to its physical and social environment all the time.  To us, pathologies begin to manifest when this flow/adaptive behavior is disturbed or blocked.  Detailed interviews, palpation or touch, and Tongue/Pulse signs are used to arrive at a diagnosis.

In addition, an individual’s response to an external disturbance or event in their physical or social environment can push their constitution to either the heat (increased metabolism) or the cool (decreased metabolism) side of what would be considered normal.  This tendency is predictable, according to TCM theory, based on the yin-yang balance in the underlying constitutional pattern.

The TCM clinician then uses the least aggressive therapy, individualized to the patient’s constitutional needs, to treat the condition that are the basis of the chief complaint.  The aim is to restore balance and the normal physiological adaptive dynamics within the system.

TCM Therapeutics

TCM therapies- Acupuncture, TuiNa (acupressure/orthopedic massage), Internal Medicine (diet and nutrition, Chinese herbs), and Qigong (Qi cultivation, exercises)- are four interconnected parts of a unique Whole Medical System that have been in use for over 3000 years in China.

Treatments are based on integrating the various aspects of an individual’s health and environment.  All successful TCM therapies, like other aspects of Integrative Medicine, are dependent on the patient’s commitment to participate in the transition from illness to well being.

For conditions treated, visit the Clinic Profile page.