C H A R L O T T E WAT T S L . A C .

, M S T C M

WHAT IS FIVE ELEMENT AC UPUNCTURE?

There is no psychiatry in Oriental Medicine. Their belief is, as well as with other ancient
societies, that the body is the manifestation of the mind. It is well known, even in the
Western world, that negative thoughts can create an unhealthy body. Balancing the Body,
Mind, and Spirit with Nature is the key to creating a healthy person in entirety. Five
Element Acupuncture is not about matching a point to a symptom, it's about helping
someone balance with nature so they can go forward and live their life in harmony.

When we are healthy, our Qi is in balance with our environment and nature. When there is
imbalance we are out of harmony with nature, and we become ill. Symptoms are the
body’s way of telling us something is wrong and needs our attention. Traditional Five
Element Acupuncture looks at the person as a whole physical, emotional, mental and
spiritual being, to restore the balance of Qi. Unlike Medical Acupuncture, which treats
patients according to their symptoms only, Five Element Acupuncture goes beyond the
symptoms to the root of the imbalance to help restore the natural flow necessary for good
health and longevity. 

Restoring this balance is an art so delicately detailed by weaving patterns much like a
beautifully knitted sweater. Each string represents a different channel of different color,
texture, and energy; but when the whole thing is put together it makes a perfectly
balanced creation. This is why many people call it 'The Art of Oriental Medicine'. 

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WH ERE DID FIV E E LE MENT AC UPUNCT URE COME FROM?
Today’s traditional Chinese medicine was systematized in the 1950s under Mao Zedong to prove
that China had no need to rely on Western technology. Mao didn’t believe in Chinese medicine,
he only used Western cures. He forced Chinese medical practitioners to integrate into the new
Communist society. Mao advocated that such a change would be possible through the use of
‘science’, free from superstition and the heavy links to a feudal past. He stated that ‘this type of
new democratic culture is scientific . . . it stands for seeking truth from facts, it stands for
objective truth and for unity between theory and practice’. This is how most Traditional Chinese
Medicine is viewed and practiced in the United States today.!

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Prior to Mao’s rule, Doctors of Chinese Medicine explained the physiological and pathological
conditions of the human body through the theory of Yin and Yang and The Five Elements. It is
very difficult and takes years of education and mentoring to understand. But has continued to be
passed down through generations by oral tradition. Five Elements acupuncture is based on this
ancient tradition. Views of health and disease were also based on meteorology (’wind’, ‘dampness’,
‘heat’, ‘cold’). Ancient acupuncture treatises even included correspondences between the number
of days in a year and the number of acupuncture ‘points’ on the body, and the relation of these to
the four seasons. People were viewed as an extension of nature, and were diagnosed according to
The Five Elements (Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal), The Twelve Officials (organs), and color,
sound, odor, and emotion, not just as a body, but also as having Emotions, Mental Intellect, and
Spirit. This is how Chinese Medicine was practiced thousands of years ago.