Mind Body Medicine

At its heart, Naturopathic Medicine is about foundations and nothing is more foundational than the connection between the Mind and the Body. At Rebel Med NW it becomes even more of a focus. First of all, nutrition and digestion play a major role when it comes to providing the building blocks that the body needs to create the neurotransmitters and hormones important to maintaining psychological as well as physical. Already you have your first mind and body relationship.

However, it goes even deeper than that. Utilizing counseling and motivational interviewing principles coupled with tools like Biofeedback and skills such as Mindfulness Training, Autogenics, and Therapeutic Breathing and Posture work, you can learn to affect your nervous system to improve function and support resiliency during stressful situations.

Autogenics training is a type of self-hypnosis to help address symptoms like migraines, Raynaud’s syndrome, and IBS or irritable bowel syndrome. A series of autogenics training can help reduce overall stress-related symptoms like decreased blood supply to the digestive organs and even improve one’s ability to fall asleep at night.

Posture is key to how we see the world.  How often do we find ourselves looking downward at the ground or on our phones? It has a significant impact on mental and emotional well-being. Posture can be improved with in-office spinal manipulation, Kinesio taping, and exercise training.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction is a systematic approach to meditation and focuses without judgment. Exploring ways to incorporate mindfulness into the day is a way to help support a more balanced nervous system, and increased focus and attention in work, life, and social situations. Can be helpful for the treatment of ADD/ADHD, general stress, improving overall motivation, and fostering improved interpersonal relationships.

Your breath reflects your personal narrative: the stories and attitudes you hold about yourself and others. It becomes your habitual physical patterns and fixations and how you engage with the world around you. Are you in a state of contraction and tension, or are you engaged and comfortable? With breath work you can immediately begin feeling the results of using a mind body medicine technique to calm the nervous system, lower blood pressure, and encourage improved relaxation.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) currently recognizes acupuncture as a safe and effective form of Mind-Body medicine. Based on physiology alone, acupuncture can help reduce feelings of anxiety and dysregulation in the nervous system while also addressing physical inflammation, which is a prominent mechanism of many conditions. But there are several other methods from this ancient Asian medicine system that addresses the Mind and Body relationship.

The 5 Needle Protocol from the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association is utilized in many treatment and rehabilitation facilities as a way to calm the nervous system and regulate the physical responses when someone is undergoing drug withdrawals. It has an amazing history originating with Lincoln Hospital and the Black Panthers movement. The 5 Needle Protocol is also utilized in treating veterans for PTSD. You don’t have to be detoxing from drug use or suffering from PTSD for this treatment to be helpful for both your MindBody

A very specific philosophy in acupuncture medicine, 5-Elements acupuncture is a school of thought developed in the United States to specifically address psychological needs utilizing the acupuncture and meridians system.

However, the 5 Elements or 5 Spirits themselves are an ancient organization of psychological understanding that describes different aspects of human nature and how those dynamics play out in the individual to create harmony or dis-ease in life.

According to the Meridian systems of acupuncture and ancient Chinese medicine, the Eight Extraordinary Vessels (8EVs) are the deepest vessels and parents of the 12 regular meridians. The 8EVs developed in utero as our cells were dividing into a fetus.

Points associated with the Extraordinary Vessels can be utilized to help break old patterns and support movement into new phases of life and growth.

There are several styles of “balance methods” and all acupuncture seeks to balance in some way. The main focus of Balance Method systems is to use pulse assessment, channel palpation, and/or constitutional assessment to determine the best points to place acupuncture needles in order to affect the blockages most contributing to disharmony in the body. The beauty of this method is that it checks in regularly with the pulse or other body systems to ensure that it is creating change. Change in the physical body leads to mental ease.

Our experiences get encoded into our bodies. Emotions activate our muscles. It is a deep response stemming back to the fight or flight response – emotions, especially fear, tighten up our muscles to ready them for movement. When not processed or processed incompletely, the muscles stay activated or are prone to over-activation leading to chronic and recurring pain, injury, and even fatigue because chronic muscle contraction wastes energy.

When it’s time to go deeper.

Some thoughts and feelings are locked so deeply within our bodies that working with a specialist to guide your way back to them is the best way to access them. Working with a trained specialist who has the experience to help you through the pain and confusion once these deep thoughts and feelings are unlocked can be a comforting and empowering experience.