Treating Emotional Trauma with Chinese Medicine

Integrated Diagnostic and Treatment Strategies

CT Holman

• Publisher: Singing Dragon
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781848193185
• eBook ISBN: 9780857012715
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Alternative & Complementary Medicine

Emotional trauma can upset the harmony of the body and reduce the body's ability to heal and regulate itself. Once the traumas are identified and treated, the body will function at an optimum level and will respond to treatments for other conditions present. This book integrates the multi-diagnostic and treatment methods existing in Chinese medicine, and contains diagnostics such as facial, pulse, tongue, and channel palpation diagnosis. Treatments include acupuncture, Chinese herbal formulas, qigong, shamanic drumming, and lifestyle and nutritional recommendations. Many types of emotional traumas and their manifestations are presented, including fear, anxiety, panic attacks, PTSD, depression, mood swings, insomnia and sensory organ impairment. How to prevent future emotional trauma will be discussed, and case studies are included to show the application of theory in practice.

CHAPTER 1

Introduction to
Emotional Trauma

A woman grabs her son and dives under a table. She huddles with him waiting for the enemy fire to cease. Seconds later, she realizes she is no longer in Iraq on active duty, but in her house and the neighbor’s kids are setting off firecrackers.

Tires screech across the pavement. A man at a stoplight feels his neck tighten as a wave of fear sweeps over him. He prepares to be rear-ended yet again, but then sees it is just teenagers “hot rodding” down the street.

A husband and wife have a heated argument. The husband slams the door and storms out of the bedroom. The wife suddenly feels seven years old and experiences intense abdominal pains, just as she had when her dad left her when she was a child.

Across the globe, people seek medical care for health conditions caused by emotional trauma. The trauma and its memory create disruption of the natural body rhythms resulting in physical pains, organ diseases, and emotional imbalances. Resolving the trauma restores the body’s natural ability to regulate and heal itself.

Causes of Emotional Trauma

Chinese medicine recognizes the seven emotions as a major cause of disease when they upset the physiological regulatory functions of the body (Gongwang, Hyodo, and Quing 1994, p.123). An emotional trauma activates the emotions and, if unprocessed, lodges in the body, causing imbalances. Each time the person relives the trauma memory, the disharmony in the organs and acupuncture channels worsens. Digestive disorders, respiratory distress, cardiological conditions, chronic pain, and so on can all result directly from emotional trauma. Until the trauma clears, a person remains held back from accessing their full potential.

Everyone experiences emotional trauma at some point in their life, whether in utero, at birth, in childhood, in adolescence, or in adulthood. Trauma can be caused by a car accident, emotional upheaval (e.g., divorce, major move, job loss), a natural disaster, medical complications, childbirth, physical or emotional assault, a negative health diagnosis, losing a loved one, and many others. Trauma can be inherited as well. Chinese medicine unties the deep-seated knot of trauma and restores harmony in the body’s systems.

The adage “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” applies to emotional trauma. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines trauma as “a: an injury (as a wound) to living tissue caused by an extrinsic agent; b: a disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from severe mental or emotional stress or physical injury; c: an emotional upset.” The origin of the word trauma comes from the Greek word traumat-, meaning wound. Each person experiences and interprets events differently—what is traumatic for one person may not be for another. For those who are traumatized, the event needs to be processed and released from their consciousness. If the emotions relating to the event are not cleared, its memory continues to be triggered and patients develop what is known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

PTSD, a diagnosis first established in 1980 (Van der Kolk 2014, p.19), was initially associated with combat trauma, but current research and development in Western medicine correlates PTSD to a variety of stressful events. Car accidents, assault, natural disasters, a mother experiencing a difficult delivery, and a major health event such as a heart attack are some of the events to possibly cause PTSD. A person exposed to (experiencing or hearing about) trauma may suffer from emotional distress, but not everyone will develop clinical PTSD. Risk factors of developing PTSD include: intensity and number of traumas, trauma experienced early in life, certain professions (military, first responders, etc.), a lack of a good support system, and genetic predisposition for mental illness (Mayo Clinic 2017). Emotional trauma and PTSD cause physiological imbalances, both emotionally and physically. Trauma has a common global effect on the body as well as a unique impact on each person based on their constitution.

The Physiology, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Trauma

Emotional trauma—whether experienced, witnessed, passed down genetically, or even heard about second-hand—is a pathogen that creates disharmony (Figure 1.1). If left untreated, it leads to chaos in the body and affects the three treasures, Jing, Qi, and Shen (see the table below).

Figure 1.1 Scattering of the Qi

Source: Kirsteen Wright

THE EFFECT OF EMOTIONAL TRAUMA ON THE THREE TREASURES
Jing	The material basis of the body and the fluid essence of the body’s life force.	Disrupted, frozen, and/or depleted.
Qi	The energy animating the body.	Disordered, blocked, and exhausted.
Shen	The consciousness, emotional body, and thoughts.	Disturbed and unrooted.

Figure 1.2 Blockages in the Channel Pathways

Source: Corin Holman

Organ systems and channel pathways are hindered or blocked (akin to a road block—Figure 1.2), resulting in various disruptions. These can be due to heat/fire, rebellious qi, qi/blood stagnation, and/or phlegm/damp accumulation. Until they are re-ordered, the channels and organs become depleted. Emotional trauma affects the body in three stages (see the table below).

Figure 1.3 Reliving the Trauma Memory causing Heat and Wind

Source: Kirsteen Wright

THE PHYSIOLOGICAL STAGES OF TRAUMA
Stage One: The Traumatic Event	The initial trauma scatters the qi (Figure 1.1), distresses the earth element, and disturbs the Shen. The pericardium tightens to protect the heart and the trauma becomes trapped, leaving the body unable to process the event. Emotions enter the body like wind, typically involving fear along with their constitutional emotional temperament. Blockages of Jing, qi, and blood occur throughout the body, leading to heat and/or cold and eventually an accumulation of phlegm/damp.
Stage Two: Reliving the Trauma Memory (PTSD)	The reliving of the trauma memory generates heat and wind (Figure 1.3). Emotions intensify and blockages increase. These blockages disrupt the flow of qi and cause rebellious qi.
Stage Three: Unresolved Trauma in the Body	The unresolved trauma exacerbates the blockages, heat, wind, cold, and phlegm/damp accumulation and depletes qi, blood, yin, and/or yang. A mixed excess and deficiency pattern is inevitable. If a patient is predisposed to heat, then the fluids are depleted, giving rise to yin deficiency. If cold was initially trapped in the body, then the yang eventually declines. The blockages in the channels and organ systems exhaust qi and blood.

Diagnosing the Various Disharmonies

Until these traumas are addressed, they continue to upset the harmony of the body’s physiology, scatter the qi (the body’s life-force), and reduce the body’s innate ability to heal and regulate itself. Chinese medicine diagnostics provide insight into the various disharmonies involved.

Multiple diagnostics significantly increase the accuracy of understanding the root of the emotional trauma, ultimately allowing for swifter and more complete treatment. From Chapter 13 in the Classic of Difficulties (Nan Jing): “The inferior doctor knows one [diagnostic approach], the mediocre two, while the superior doctor can utilize all three. The superior ones can [cure] nine out of ten [illnesses], the mediocre ones [help] eight out of ten while the inferior doctor only [cures] six out of ten.” (The three approaches are radial pulse diagnosis, diagnosis of the color of the s...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Foreword by Lillian Bridges
• Preface
• Chapter 1 Introduction to Emotional Trauma
• Chapter 2 Diagnostic Methods
• Chapter 3 Treatment Methods (Primary and Secondary)
• Chapter 4 Differentiation of Symptoms
• Chapter 5 Prevention of Emotional Trauma
• Chapter 6 Western Medicine and Chinese Medicine Joining Hands
• Chapter 7 Case Studies
• Appendix 1 Eight Limbs of Chinese Medicine
• Appendix 2 Clear Broth Soups
• Appendix 3 Suggested Resources
• Subject Index
• Author Index
• About the Author
• Plates
• Join our mailing list
• Acknowledgments
• Dedication
• Copyright
• Of Related Interest
• Endorsement