I always wonder what healing really looks like—in body, in spirit. I’m attracted to the idea that the mind, the soul, can heal as neatly as bones. That if they are properly set for a given period of time, they will regain their original strength. Healing is not that simple. It never is.
Roxane Gay, Hunger
When we accept that…we are frequently in error but rarely in doubt, I think that all sorts of possibilities open up to us.
I am in the business of healing but I do not claim the mantle of “healer.” I know I am not responsible for another person’s healing—only my own. If I were the one doing the healing, I would hang out a shingle advertising “one and done” and end every client’s pain with a single treatment. And, because there is so much suffering in the world, I would remain busy for the rest of my life. But healing, like Roxane Gay says, is not that simple.
I like how she imagines healing might work, though, especially the kind of healing that affects the mind and the soul. Daoist medicine links psychological pain with physical pain. It is a mind-body medicine. Sometimes it’s easy to see the connections. More often it takes time to find out what is underneath physical presentations of pain and if you have ever been in therapy, then you know that exploring psychological pain also takes time.
I do believe that given enough time, and making important changes, a person can heal. Deep and lasting healing is not something that can be rushed. It requires change and going through the process can be very uncomfortable. Humans are hard-wired to avoid discomfort and tend to want something different without changing anything.
In my last blog post of 2025, I wrote about what it means to “engage creatively” with illness. Daverick Leggett characterizes the healing journey this way and it can feel confronting if you are in the middle of a health crisis. I broke my leg soon after writing the post in September. My traumatic injury required surgery, rest, and months of immobility. I was challenged by the idea to creatively engage.
There is a definite endpoint in healing a broken bone, once it has been set and repaired. My strength and flexibility are still very much in process. Aside from the physical aspects, this experience provided me with numerous opportunities to face some deeper psychological wounds that I had been unaware of. It has not been easy and I am still integrating many of these spirit lessons.
As a practitioner of Classical Chinese Medicine (CCM), my intention is to create an environment where you can access what you need to heal. It is important to me that you feel safe when we work together. Illness or injury of any kind leaves us feeling vulnerable. In this state, there can be a lot of fear and a natural tendency to defend ourselves. It takes courage to begin a deep healing process. It is never linear, rarely quick, and always interesting.
In a recent article in Acupuncture Today, Aiden Jakob Seraphim, writes about empowering patients for “true healing” to occur. He says it “begins when the patient steps into the role of agent in their own transformation” (8). Too often people are “passive recipients” of treatments wanting the body worker “to fix” them. It is hubris to take on that role. While my surgeon repaired my tibial plateau with a plate and screws, complete healing and recovery required my active participation of resting and elevating the leg, then gradually moving into other levels of restoration and recovery. It wasn’t simply up to him—I had and have to do my part.
Seraphim has found that people do better when they take an active role in their own healing and I agree. The real work happens between the acupuncture sessions, as people begin to alter what has stopped working for them. Small consistent changes add up over time.
Many times patients have asked me if they needed to “believe” in the medicine for it work. I think if you are consenting to any kind of treatment, whether it’s chemotherapy or Advil, having a clear intention the medicine will do what you need it to do is helpful. For the deep skeptics I have treated, I often relayed the fact that animals tend to do very well with acupuncture and belief in it appears irrelevant. The energies that animate healing can override human doubt.
Recently, I have discovered Dr. Ellen Langer’s work on the mind-body connection. She argues that what we perceive is based on habituated responses from our operating in a state of mindlessness nearly all the time. Her stance embraces uncertainty and not knowing. Living in this space allows us to radically improve our lives and our health by becoming curious about our lives and our habits of mind. Her claim is backed by numerous innovative studies she designed that show over and over, changing the context of how we think can literally change us physically.
As an acupuncturist, I place needles in appropriate areas to enliven the channels that are “blocked” so that the body (mind is understood as part of this mechanism) can restore the resources it needs to handle the chief complaint. What determines which channels depends on a patient’s participation in what they share, not only through our conversation but also in the tongue and pulse—and especially in their willingness to change. Buddhist teacher, Thich Nhat Hanh, describes it this way, “When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don’t blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce.” This lovely idea removes blame but retains agency. It weaves together the approach we take collaborating on your health: engage creatively, examine habits (both physical and mental) and make changes in the spirit of not knowing but in the commitment to remain curious. There may be a lot of uncertainty along the way but that ensures we stay mindful as we explore what you need to enhance the garden of your life.
Ready to begin the journey? Contact me to schedule an appointment. Call or text 562-477-5045. Email: cmwayacupuncture@gmail.com