The Complement Channels

As a classical acupuncturist, my training emphasized the Complement Channels.  If the Primary Channels are the main highways of our ideal lives, then the Complement Channels are the safe havens and escape routes that our bodies create in order to hold fast and move forward. Putting one's best foot forward is always the body’s strategy. So working with the Complement Channels is about getting you back on your primary highway.

The goal is to live free of the past, fully present on one's heart-centered path.  The Heart is associated with Fire, which represents our deepest desires for ourselves while the Kidneys are of the Water element and represent our inherent willpower.  So much of Chinese medicine is about aligning our willpower with our Heart’s desires.

In a non-judgemental, but discerning way, Chinese Medicine can help anyone heal wherever they may be in life.  If you are concerned about an inherited condition, this is the realm of the Ancestral Channels.  If you want to address the stress of everyday living, the Primary and Sinew Channels are ready at hand.  Our bodies have a mostly unrecognized ability to roll with the punches of our life choices.  For example, we can literally create storage space for overwhelming emotions by building new blood vessels (spider veins and varicosities).  For more on this, check out the Luo Channels. 

If you get sick and can’t seem to bounce back fully, the Divergent Channels can be directed to provide some breathing room while you rebuild your vitality.  Our bodies are literally walking shock absorbers built to stand up to, and grow with, gravity.