According to the CDC, mental health disorders are among the most common health conditions in the United States. Complimentary therapies can offer significant relief from depression, anxiety, trauma, and stress, and we have practitioners at MHS who specialize in their treatment.

It’s safe to say that just about everyone at some point has struggled with their emotional well-being. The standard/only treatment from Wester medicine tends to be antidepressant medications. While some people are helped by these meds, many, if not most, find only partial relief. Traditional East Asian Medicine (TEAM) is a worthwhile option for people who would like to avoid medication or want to augment the therapies they already employ to treat their emotional health.

Because TEAM seeks to address the individual as a whole, we have many approaches to treating mental health conditions. Rather than isolating symptoms as “physical,” “mental,” or “emotional,” we look at the whole person, making the connection between all body systems.

According to Chinese medical theory, when emotions are out of balance, they are deemed to be a cause of disease, not unlike how a virus or bacteria causes disease. Emotions can come from outside us, as in the case of traumatic events or stressful situations, or they can be internally generated and perpetuated by feelings like worry or fear that are disproportionate to their cause.

Since one person’s anxiety or depression manifests very differently than another’s, TEAM practitioners are trained to recognize these differences as keys to the individual’s treatment. For instance, there aren’t acupuncture points specific for depression because treatment for depression involves treating the individual with depression and all the ways it manifests for them. Viewing each person this way allows us to also treat concurrent symptoms like irritable bowel disorders, problems with sleep and fatigue, and even cognitive issues like inability to focus or concentrate.

Treatment Strategies at MHS

Acupuncture is an important part of restoring emotional balance. It modulates the body’s stress response, balances the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, supports healthy adrenal function, and calms the spirit. The acupuncture treatment itself is extremely relaxing, and helps give the body a calm place to “resource” in times of stress or anxiety. Currently, acupuncture is being used across the world to help soldiers with PTSD and is being studied for its effects on depression and anxiety and their concurrent symptoms.

Chinese herbal medicine and nutritional supplements are safe and effective tools to use on a daily basis for addressing the roots of anxiety, depression and stress. There are many products on the market that tout the ability to reduce symptoms, but a good Chinese Medicine practitioner will always tailor herbal formulas to an individual’s specific case, which makes for more successful and lasting results.

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