Find out about our Five-Element Acupuncture in Brighton & Hove
Acupuncture Practitioner in Brighton & Hove
We offer Five-Element Acupuncture at The Natural Medicine Practice in Brighton & Hove, delivered by a licenced acupuncturist (Lic.Ac. accredited with The Association of Acupuncture Clinicians). We see patients from all over Sussex and the South East, so contact us today to find out more.
What is Five-Element Acupuncture?
Not all Acupuncture is the same. Known as Five-Element Acupuncture, this method was honed by Professor J.R. Worsley (1923-2003). Fellow acupuncturist and co-author J.B. Worsley, his wife, has been entrusted with its legacy and has worked tirelessly to maintain and keep intact the clarity and spoken teachings of this distinct style within the context of the worldwide practice of Acupuncture.
Five-Element Acupuncture is a unique complete system of medicine that revolves around an intimate understanding of natural laws that are found within nature and internally within mankind. Five-Element Acupuncture aims to promote the overall balance that is a prerequisite for sound physical, emotional and mental health. A core aim of this style of Acupuncture treatment is to facilitate this greater balance and resilience within the patient, together with enhanced well-being and the attainment of longevity.
Five-Element Acupuncture aims to prevent dis-ease from taking control of the life of a person, thereby liberating the individual to fulfill their life’s purpose by treating the causes that if left unsuitably treated, would otherwise generate more serious expressions of illness.
A trained Five-Element Acupuncturist’s central role is to identify which of the five elements; Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, is in distress and is hence disrupting the flow cycle of energy that permeates and connects these elements together in a harmonious animated whole (see above diagram). Identification of the single element takes considerable training, skill and experience on the part of the practitioner. When the patient’s Causative Factor (C.F.) is treated, this results in the root disturbance being re-balanced. A better quality of life is permitted to return as the individual naturally flows into greater alignment within themselves.
What are the Benefits of Five-Element Acupuncture?
Five-element Acupuncture can have a range of reported benefits for patients, and these may include:
- Improvements in chronic conditions
- Improved mental & physical health
- Greater spiritual and hormonal balance
- Reduced stress and anxiety
Acupuncture is considered one of the safest medical treatments in both conventional and complementary medicines available in the UK. In its various forms, it has been around for some 5000 recorded years and was in practice long before modern ‘orthodox’ medicine, which has appeared comparatively recently on the mainstream medical scene.
Unlike many other forms of medical intervention which present inherent risks and side effects, when treatment is administered by a qualified Five-Element Acupuncture practitioner, it is safe and acts following the laws that govern both nature and mankind.
A single ‘Causative Factor’ or C.F. of the patient is ascertained and this C.F. is linked to one of the five elements; Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal. It is from this C.F. that all the patient’s symptoms in body-mind-spirit originate. Therefore, treatment using Five-Element Acupuncture is addressed at a causative level. In contrast, other Acupuncture styles frequently offer symptomatic and therefore therapeutic benefits only.
How does Five-Element Acupuncture work?
Five-Element Acupuncture works very precisely in alignment with a defined direction of cure, which makes it distinct from other approaches. As the spirit-mind-body returns to balance, symptoms often reappear in reverse chronological order, leaving in a specifically delineated direction as imbalances travel from inside to outside and from more vital organs to less vital organs, for example, the skin. If there is a brief recurrence of symptoms, a sense of feeling better or more yourself on a deeper level is often then frequently experienced.
Five-Element Acupuncture is a superlative form of preventative medicine which works closely both with nature and with the natural cycles within clients that change throughout the year. These rhythms are affected by various pressures such as; accidents; lack of sleep; physical, emotional or chemical stress; age; trauma and other lifestyle factors.
What are the steps of Five-Element Acupuncture treatment and what can you expect?
- One and a half to two hours are required for the initial assessment and physical diagnosis protocols. A patient-led confidential case history and current issues are recorded. This permits a balanced perception of the C.F. of the patient.
- Ultra-fine needles are applied along channels in the body called meridians. Unblocking and balancing the flows along these meridians allows the body to re-establish its equilibrium. The intention is to treat each unique individual as a whole by addressing precisely and directly the underlying root cause of ill-health.
- Pre-sterilised single-use needles are used, which are safely disposed of after the treatment.
- Improvements may well be immediate, although allowance needs to be made for the level and depth of disturbance in the patient – how long has the patient lived with the imbalance and is the individual’s situation a chronic or acute case? Appointments are scheduled as per the findings of the assessment directly in the Brighton acupuncture clinic. This may mean there is a necessity to return within a couple of days or weeks for further treatment depending on individualised requirements.
- When meridian points are needled with an ultra-fine needle, the experience ranges from no sensation, to a mild ‘electrical-like’ impulse, to a dull heavy sensation, although each point has a distinct feel and energetic quality.
- Vital to the Five-Element Acupuncture method is the use of a dried form of the herb Mugwort known as Moxa. This is applied to points before needling, to make the patient’s experience both more profound and more comfortable. It has a long history of medicinal use and may even predate the use of needles. It can stimulate the Chi to flow and works with infrared radiations, having a myriad of beneficial energetic effects.
- Patients often respond with a feeling of deep calm during and after the treatment, or feeling refreshed and ‘recharged’ and can even enter into a healing or re-balancing sleep.
Contact us today to find out more about my acupuncture services in Brighton & Hove.
How is Five-Element Acupuncture used?
Five-Element Acupuncture has attracted a resurgence of interest and popularity amongst many, including celebrities, who are searching for optimum wellness, specifically those seeking help with all aspects of fertility. It has achieved remarkable success rates, most notably for individuals attempting to conceive and who are also using IVF.
If IVF has not proved successful and patients wish to benefit from a safe, natural and efficacious style of Acupuncture, it can easily run alongside other approaches, as well as be used as a stand-alone system in its own right. Its effectiveness can be explained by the simple fact that this style remains true to Acupuncture’s source teachings and intention.
More background about Five-Element Acupuncture
Certain principles of the basic laws of physics can assist in explaining the changes experienced from receiving Five-Element Acupuncture. A significant change in the functioning energetic state on a causal level generates beneficial ripple effects, simultaneously fortifying on deep levels. In other words, as the internal energy state changes in the patient on the inside, so the outer life changes in response.
There are many styles of Acupuncture, all differing in their approach to the patient and in their effects. As Acupuncture was migrated to the West, it was to an extent packaged to fit alongside and therefore appeal to, the existing medical models already in place. In effect, the ‘spirit’ of Acupuncture was relegated in favour of conformity with rather narrowly defined rational scientific explanations. This interpretation of Acupuncture became what is referred to as TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine, or Traditional Asian medicine) or syndrome/symptom-based Acupuncture. Even within these TCM parameters, there are observable measurable results – where Acupuncture points are treated on the basis of symptoms, for example, headache point stimulation to relieve headaches and first aid point applications.
For the safest and best results, and so as to work with a natural direction of cure that involves non suppression of presenting symptoms, the whole person should be factored into treatment, together with an accurate perception of their C.F. This is the fundamental difference with the Five-Element Acupuncture approach and philosophy. To use an analogy, Five-Element Acupuncture specifically focuses and addresses the ‘roots’ of a patient’s imbalances rather than the ‘branches’; ‘roots’ being the causes and ‘branches’ and ‘leaves’ the symptoms.
Successful treatment is not reliant upon treating symptoms, so this is not the basis upon which assessment is made. Symptoms can stem from any of the functionaries within any of the five elements. For example, a Fire element Official is the Heart, as ‘The Supreme Controller’ which functions in a way that no other Official can. Imagine for one moment, what might happen to the kingdom (the body-mind-spirit) if this Official decided to take a long leave from their obligations to the state. The Officials are rather like Ministers in an Imperial court and should be understood in terms of what they do and not for what they actually are, i.e. a physical organ. There are twelve Officials, who ceaselessly work with one another in harmonious balance to maintain the health of the whole kingdom i.e. body-mind-spirit.
About the author
John M Rawlings BA (Hons) DIHom PgDSHom HMD MHMA Lic Ac AAC
Already with 25 years’ experience in natural medicine, John’s practice has reached new heights with his qualification to deliver Five-Element Acupuncture in Brighton, UK, having trained with the London Institute of Five-Element Acupuncture LIFEA. After experiencing the benefits of CFEA directly for himself and seeing the often-immediate transformation in patients undergoing this treatment, he was certain that this was a life-changing approach that would enable him to treat the root causes of illness.
John became fascinated with non-suppressive routes to healing after his childhood experience of having eczema treatment that induced life-threatening asthma. He has honed his ability to examine the health events in a patient’s life, however complex, and to offer a direct route back to better health. He sees this as the natural direction of the cure, working in harmony with the healing power of the natural world.
As well as being a licenced acupuncturist Lic.Ac and accredited with the Association of Acupuncture Clinicians AAC, John is a registered Homoeopath, incorporates Naturopathic and Nutritional Medicine approaches into his practice, and is certified in Ashtanga vinyasa yoga. He has had a deep respect and love of nature all through his life and continues to expand his knowledge of its healing potential, both for self-healing and for the benefit of his patients.