The Health Education We Needed in High School
Teaching Philosophy
When I first came to Chinese medicine, I was in my early 20s and looking for help with my menstrual cycles, which were irregular since menarche.
I had looked for solutions in the usual places– the gynecologist’s office, WebMD, Christiane Northup’s seminal book Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom– and in some of the unusual places– yoga therapy, herbal tinctures, Mayan abdominal massage, Ayurvedic protocols and cleanses.
I came away with information about hormones, a newfound physical flexibility, and some nice tools (hello, breath work!), but really, was no closer to understanding or resolving what was happening within.
When I began studying Chinese medicine (quite casually in a weekend class with a practitioner), I felt my brain crack open. It became apparent that the worldview I had taken on as a student of chemistry and Western medicine was incomplete, and what I learned in this class made way for something deeper and wider.
Chinese medicine is rooted in Daoist philosophy, a singular perspective on the nature of what is.
More than any other tradition, it is a framework that honors complexity, ecology, and curiosity—in our physical, emotional, and psychological spheres of health, and between us and the natural world around us.
This is the health education we needed in high school–- holistic, complex, systems-based, trauma-informed— a map to functionality and resilience at every season and age.