Five Element Applications to Manage Challenging People and Circumstances

Dao Dan Pai qigong exercises are a series of standing exercises that harmonize and balance the major energy channels of the body. First taught in the West by Taoist Master Share K. Lew, a Taoist monk from the Yellow Dragon Temple in the Lo Fo Shan mountains of Guangzhou, China, these exercises integrate movement with breath and posture to activate and balance qi.

Skin disorders in their various forms are among the most common diseases, accounting for close to 25% of all visits to a medical practitioner. Despite their prevalence and the resources put into this field, many patients remain dissatisfied with the conventional treatments available to them and look elsewhere for solutions. Chinese herbal medicine has a very real and enduring answer for an enormous number of sufferers of most of the common diseases of the skin. It can induce spectacular and lasting change in a range of intractable conditions such as acne, eczema, rosacea, and psoriasis. Yet, due to lack of specialist training and clinical experience, numerous practitioners of Chinese medicine fail to achieve optimal results that are well within their grasp. This short presentation will outline the fundamentals of dermatology in Chinese medicine.

To introduce the concepts of sexology, this session will look at the larger cycles of life. We will examine how Chinese philosophy views the broad transitions we make according to the Five Elements. What drives puberty? Why do we experience midlife crises? How does Earth affect our goals?

We will follow the Five Elements of Chinese medicine through their expression in the self-protective responses found in animal predator-prey relationships as described in Western neuroscience and polyvagal theory.   As healers, we have two tasks in working with trauma survivors. The first is to attend to their acute and essential balance and regulation that has been so disturbed by traumatic stress. It is wreaking havoc in multiple body systems and functions. The Tao of Trauma approach includes interaction, observation, touch, and needles to attend to the resonant tissues, functions and spirit of the element that is mirrored in the missing step of their self-protective response. Our medicine is powerful in its capacity to restore the smooth flow of qi.   Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, we help our patients reinforce their capacity to more successfully respond to life as it presents itself in the future. There will always be danger—we can’t eliminate that—but we can soften the triggers that cause us to replay old and ineffective patterns. We can make a difference in the imprint trauma has left in our social discourse, replacing concepts of “other” with a capacity to experience an embodied sense of kinship with humanity.   The greater the capacity we have to respond to life, the more curiosity, ease, effective protection, equanimity, and life-enhancing lessons we can harvest. Our future is served, as is our ever-expanding circle of friends and relations.

Dao Dan Pai qigong exercises are a series of standing exercises that harmonize and balance the major energy channels of the body. First taught in the West by Taoist Master Share K. Lew, a Taoist monk from the Yellow Dragon Temple in the Lo Fo Shan mountains of Guangzhou, China, these exercises integrate movement with breath and posture to activate and balance qi.

The art and science of pulse-taking is clearly full of potential that is well within reach. Insight into the story the pulse tells comes in many ways beyond hearing explanations. Simple steps in pulse evaluation will explore how to keep the broad picture in focus, while details provide a fully understandable and satisfying experience in pulse-taking. Open to beginners and experts, as we are all a bit of both.

Stress is part of life, but not all stress is the same. Positive stress is short term – like walking quickly to work after oversleeping. Tolerable stress – such as a major illness, or even a significant loss, can have varying impacts. With support, it doesn’t overwhelm us in the long term. Positive and tolerable stressors promote resilience, teach us coping skills, and can expand our consciousness and sense of confidence.   An exploration of the concept of allostasis, or the distribution of the impact of stress across body-systems illuminates why and how toxic stress gives rise to chronic, multi-symptom illness—and increased rates of morbidity and mortality in long-term trauma survivors.   When we experience an injury, multiple body systems respond and work together to support learning and healing. Adrenalin helps us remember and harvest lessons from injuries; immune cells, fluids, blood, and qi all flood the area to restore tissues and support our recovery. This multi-system response distributes the burden of our injury broadly, helping us cope.   Toxic stress results from pervasive, overwhelming life-threatening experiences in the absence of supportive relationships. It creates a devastating burden on the body-mind-spirit. The principle of allostasis helps us understand how traumatic stress can give rise to complex multi-system illness, affecting so many of our body systems. Toxic stress overwhelms our allostatic capacity.   Long-term trauma survivors carry a high allostatic load, meaning that what may be tolerable stress for someone else is experienced as toxic stress. Sustained high allostatic loads cause system-wide changes in physiology that impact both morbidity and mortality. This “straw that broke the camel’s back” framework may be one explanation for the disproportionate experience and impact of COVID-19, both acute and long-haul, in marginalized communities as well as in trauma survivors.  

In this course, we will look at human sexology/sexuality, and how to approach related disorders in the clinic. Where does libido come from, and how do we diagnose complaints? How does sexuality differ between men and women according to Chinese medicine? This course will be highly practical, looking at a wide range of typical complaints in this important specialty.

Dermatitis (eczema) is by far the most frequently seen skin disease in the clinic. Of the dozen or so forms that exist, atopic dermatitis (allergic eczema) is easily the most common, having reached epidemic proportions in the US & Europe over the past few decades. Chinese medicine has proven so effective at treating this distressing disease (as demonstrated by numerous clinical trials) that no practitioner should be unaware of the basic concepts required for treating it. Not only is it excellent at controlling the acute phases of this disease, but it is also, crucially, able to restore an equilibrium to the body that ensures long term stability of the skin in most cases. In this workshop, we will be examining several real clinical cases to illustrate the fundamental theoretical concepts of pattern diagnosis and formula construction and evolution that you will need to achieve success in the clinic.