acupuncture for emotional health

Treatment with Chinese Medicine

You may be considering alternative therapy for any one of a multitude of health problems. Acupuncture and Tuina (Chinese therapeutic massage) can provide effective treatment for many problems.

This page looks at how Traditional Chinese Medicine can help mental or emotional health problems, these may vary in severity but all prevent you from having a happy, contented life.

Find out

What diagnosis might there be in Western medicine?

There may or may not be a Western diagnosis of depression, anxiety, OCD, insomnia, panic attacks, stress, anorexia, bulimia etc. Acupuncturists will see many patients who have such problems and many who have had not had a diagnosis but find it hard to cope with life. Patients can include those who use, or have used, medication such as tranquillisers or anti-depressants; patients can also be people who do not want to use these drugs and want an alternative means of support.

How does Chinese medicine explain the diagnosis?

Chinese medicine stresses the potential damaging effect of excess or long-term emotional states on the health of the body. This means that the acupuncturist will look for a diagnosis that embraces physical symptoms such as tiredness or loose bowels and an altered emotional state. Where there are physical symptoms, treatment of the physical and mental symptoms will go hand-in-hand. Patients can be surprised to realise how much their mental state is altering as their physical symptoms improve.

The quotations come from an article in Acupuncture Today :

Chapter 39 of the Su Wen details the specific types of damage each emotion can cause in its target organ. The specific organ targeted by each emotion is listed in chapter five of the Su Wen, which states, "Excess anger damages the Liver; excess joy damages the Heart; excessive pensiveness damages the Spleen; excess sorrow damages the Lung; excess fear damages the Kidneys." The Nei Jing does not specify target organs for anxiety (you) and fright (jing), but these emotions are generally believed to affect the Lungs and Kidneys, respectively.

BUT the article stresses that

"... while different emotions can gravitate to different organs and damage them, all emotions originate in the Heart and ultimately cause some damage to it. According to this theory, the Heart not only gives rise to anger, but will be injured by anger; it can give rise to sadness and be injured by sadness. The same can be said about fear, pensiveness and the rest of the Seven Emotions. Because they all originate with the Heart, the Heart is ultimately damaged by them. For this reason, treatment of emotional problems must always include the Heart."

Capitalisation of organ names is my own to show that they are considered differently in Chinese Medicine, see Chinese terms

Have clients been pleased with treatment?

  • The patients that I have treated for difficult emotional states have had much relief from their symptoms.
  • I am always careful to listen with empathy and good attention to gain the best possible understanding of their emotions. I do not provide the guidance that a counsellor would give.
  • It is my strong belief that acupuncture can reach in where other treatments do not and will help patients to help themselves.

I think that this quotation from the TCAMBC web site describes the helplessness of someone in the grip of difficult emotions exceptionally well:

To completely heal a person, acupuncture, herbs, and these other modalities are only one aspect of the treatment. You must also come into synchrony with the patient in many other ways. For example, when patients lack the confidence to conquer illness, they allow their spirits to scatter and wither away. They let their emotions take control of their lives. They spend their days drowned in desires and worries, exhausting their jing/essence and qi and shen/spirit. Of course, then, even with all these other modalities, the disease will not be cured." -- Huang Di Neijing

What evidence is there that Chinese medicine works?

There is much interest in using acupuncture to treat emotional problems, see for example:

  • Bob Flaws(2004) on Chinese Medicine and Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) in Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, available here
  • A review by the British Acupuncture Council on effectiveness of treatment of anxiety and depression, available here

You will find that acupuncture and Tuina can be used for far more problems than is commonly realised


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