What is Chinese Medicine?

Golden ginkgo leaves glow in the warm sunlight, signaling the vibrant transition of autumn.

Chinese Medicine is rooted in the Daoist view that humans are microcosms of the universe, influenced by the same order that moves the stars, the tides, and the turning of the seasons. What happens in nature happens within us; the forces in the world around us find resonance in the body.

The ancient Chinese observed how water finds its path, how wind moves through trees, and how warmth rises and cold settles. They recognized similar patterns in the human body. From this point of view, health isn’t a fixed state but an ever evolving dynamic between self and the world around us; our experiences, food, movement, sleep, thoughts, beliefs and the climate we live in.

In this medicine, we learn to look at the whole picture rather than the single symptom. We gather information through observation and by asking questions to better understand how the influence of someone's lifestyle and environment may be showing up in their body. We zoom out, noticing patterns instead of isolated problems. A headache might trace back to stress and feeling overwhelmed, a skin condition to digestion and diet, or fatigue to the body’s inability to truly rest. Everything is connected, and each sign offers a clue about how the system as a whole is showing up.

Yin and Yang theory forms the foundation of this medicine. Yin is the cooling, nourishing, and stabilizing force, it governs rest, fluids, and the body’s ability to recover and repair. Yang is warming, active, and transformative, fuelling movement, metabolism, and vitality. These two dynamics are in constant motion, seeking to maintain balance and equilibrium.

When Yin is depleted, we might see signs of dryness, (mouth, throat, skin, hair, nails, eyes, etc), insomnia, anxiety, or heat rising in the body. When Yang is weakened, there may be fatigue, cold hands and feet, poor digestion, or a sense of heaviness. Practitioners are trained to recognize how these forces interact and where and how they fall out of sync.

Chinese Medicine also places great importance on prevention. Health is cultivated, not chased. Practices like meditation, Qi Gong and dietary guidance are encouraged before illness arrives, with acupuncture, and herbal medicine, ideally being the last interventions. However, modern life is stressful, continually compelling people to push beyond their limits and ignore signs and symptoms of illness. Like planting trees, the best time to tend to your health was 20 years ago, but the second best time is now.

Bridging East and West

Chinese and Western medicine grew from different ways of understanding the world.The early Chinese viewed the body as a landscape; rivers of blood and qi (pronounce "chi") flowing through terrain that’s shaped by weather, nourishment, and the rhythm of daily life. Health depended on how well this inner landscape adapted to the changes around it. Western Medicine, influenced by the philosophies of the Greeks and Romans, sought to understand the body by studying its parts, analyzing, naming, and categorizing what they could see and measure.

Both perspectives hold truth. Western medicine zooms in to understand structure and mechanism; Chinese Medicine zooms out to see relationship and pattern. One asks “What is happening?” The other asks “Why is it happening in this way, and what is connected to it?”

In practice, these views can beautifully complement one another. The precision of modern science offers clarity and lifesaving interventions; the breadth of Chinese Medicine looks at the whole person and reads subtle signals that reveal imbalance before they become illness.

To work at this intersection is to hold both logic and possibility. To know that the nervous system and Shen (spirit) may describe the same experience in different languages, and that fascia and meridians may simply be two maps of the same landscape. Like Yin and Yang, Eastern and Western medicine support one another, each offering strengths where the other finds its limitations. Both traditions understand that to heal another, we must first listen, stay curious, and to treat each encounter with reverence.