n. The medical theory and practices of Chinese culture, especially herbal medicine, acupuncture and osteopathy, for preventing or treating illness, or promoting health and well-being; abbreviated as TCM.
TCM is an ancient medical system that takes a deep understanding of the laws and patterns of nature and applies them to the human body. TCM is not new nor is it a patchwork of different healing modalities; rather it is a complete medical system that has been practiced for more than five thousand years.
At the heart of TCM is the tenet that the root cause of illnesses must be treated, not their symptoms. In modern-day terms, TCM is holistic in its approach; it views every aspect of a person’s body, mind, spirit, and emotions as part of one complete circle rather than loosely connected pieces to be treated individually, as in Western medicine.
The major TCM modalities include Chinese Herbology, Acupuncture (dry needling and Acupoint Injection), TuiNa (Chinese massage/structural osteopathic alignments) and QiGong (Chinese energy exercises). You will find additional information on these practices in the corresponding categories below.