Rediscovering an Ancient Superpower: Traditional Chinese Medicine
By Dr. Sofía Swatt, DNM, PhD
Growing up, one of the rituals my mother and I shared was throwing the I Ching. We’d sit on the floor with a small notebook, three coins, and a deep sense of curiosity. She had learned it from her aunt, and I always felt like we were carrying forward something ancient—something that wasn’t just about “predicting” but about listening. We’d toss the coins six times to form a hexagram, which we’d look up in the I Ching’s pages—each hexagram representing a pattern of potential.
So when someone throws the I Ching, they’re not asking “What will happen?” so much as “What is the energy of this moment, and how should I align with it?” It’s a mirror of the current energetic pattern, and guidance for returning to balance. At the time, I didn’t think too much about the deeper mechanics of it.
It wasn’t until university, while studying Taoist medicine and classical Chinese texts, that I realized those hexagrams are built from the eight fundamental symbols known as kua (or gua/卦). These eight kua are more than just philosophical ideas—they’re energetic archetypes. In Taoism and in Chinese medicine, they describe the core forces of nature: Heaven, Earth, Thunder, Water, Mountain, Wind, Fire, and Lake. When combined in pairs, they create the 64 hexagrams of the I Ching—but they also form the basis of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, sometimes called the Marvelous Vessels in Chinese medicine. These vessels govern deep-level regulation of our hormones, DNA expression, and ancestral energy—functions that, in modern language, we might associate with epigenetics or quantum regulation.
What struck me was this: the same binary-based system used to explore change and synchronicity in life (through the I Ching) is also used to understand energetic anatomy and healing in Chinese medicine. These aren’t separate systems—they're two expressions of the same natural order. In a way, throwing the I Ching as a child was my first introduction to how pattern governs biology—something that now deeply influences my work as a holistic health practitioner.
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) offers a perspective on health that ties together mind, body, emotions, and organs in a way modern medicine often overlooks. In Western medicine, we might see a psychotherapist for our emotional distresses, and a gastroenterologist for digestive issues. TCM, by contrast, views these aspects as inseparable – an insight that makes it a uniquely powerful healing system. For example, in TCM emotions and physical health are intimately connected, each influencing the other in a dynamic loop. This means a bout of anxiety might disturb your digestion, or unresolved grief could weaken your lungs. By treating you as a whole, TCM can often uncover root imbalances behind what seem like isolated issues.
What Is TCM, and How Is It Different?
What makes TCM unique is that it doesn't just ask "What disease do you have?" Instead, it asks:
"What is your pattern of imbalance?"
This pattern-based approach looks at how your symptoms, energy, emotions, and organ function all relate. It's called pattern differentiation—and it’s what allows us to treat the root cause, not just manage surface symptoms
One reason TCM is so effective is its truly holistic approach. Rather than zooming in on one symptom or one body part, a TCM practitioner looks at the entire landscape of your health – physical complaints, emotional state, lifestyle, and more – to find patterns. In TCM theory, the body’s organs aren’t just individual machines; they’re part of an interconnected web that includes mental and emotional dimensions. An illness is rarely just “in your head” or just “in your body” – it’s usually both. In fact, each major organ in TCM is linked to specific emotions, and imbalance in one can affect the other. For example, an upset Liver system might trigger irritability or anger, while prolonged worry can weaken your Spleen (digestive system). This integrated view helps TCM practitioners untangle mind-body knots that a purely physical approach might miss.
Pattern vs. Symptom: Instead of diagnosing diseases by name alone, TCM identifies patterns of imbalance. Two people with the same Western diagnosis (say, migraines) might have very different TCM patterns. One person’s headaches could stem from Liver-related stress, while another’s might be due to Kidney energy depletion – the treatment for each would differ accordingly. This pattern-based diagnosis is deeply personal and comprehensive, addressing why the imbalance is happening in the context of the whole person. The result is a tailored treatment that can simultaneously ease physical symptoms and restore emotional equilibrium. It’s an approach that treats causes, not just effects, which is especially empowering in chronic or stress-related conditions.
Key TCM Diagnosis Frameworks
Behind TCM’s therapies are several key principles or concepts that practitioners use to understand and diagnose what’s happening in your body.
Yin and Yang: Yin and Yang are perhaps the most widely recognized TCM concept. They describe how opposite forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world – and in our bodies. Yin is associated with qualities like coolness, rest, darkness, and substance; Yang with warmth, activity, light, and energy. Rather than enemies, these two are partners that continuously transform into each other – think of day (yang) turning into night (yin), then back again. Good health in TCM is all about Yin-Yang balance. If Yin and Yang in the body become unbalanced (for example, someone running on “too much Yang” might have high stress, heat symptoms, and insomnia, whereas “too much Yin” might manifest as coldness, fatigue, and depression), illness can result. A practitioner will assess signs to see if an ailment leans towards a Yin or Yang nature and then help rebalance it. The goal is to restore harmony, because when Yin and Yang are in equilibrium, the body’s self-healing capacity kicks in. A relatable example: think of the right balance between work and rest. Work (Yang) gives life excitement and productivity, but without enough rest (Yin) to complement it, you burn out. TCM would view burnout as Yang exhaustion (and often Yin deficiency too), treatable by cooling, calming therapies to rebuild substance and calm the overactive energy.
Qi – The Body’s Vital Energy: Qi (pronounced “chee”) is the life force or energy that flows through meridians, the channels connecting all parts of the body. If you’ve never heard of meridians, you can think of them like an invisible network akin to blood vessels or nerves, but for energy. Qi is what animates us – in TCM theory, it powers circulation, warms the body, defends against illness, and links mind and body together. We derive Qi from the air we breathe and the food we eat, and we also have inherited Qi (our innate vitality). When Qi is abundant and moving freely, we feel healthy and alert. When it’s blocked, deficient, or chaotic, problems arise. Have you ever described yourself as feeling “stuck” or “drained”? That’s essentially Qi talk. TCM states that this vital energy circulates through the meridians and connects to every organ and function. So if there’s a blockage (say, due to stress, injury, or poor diet), it’s like a traffic jam in your system – pain or dysfunction might occur in that area or even elsewhere along the path. A common example is “Liver Qi stagnation,” where stress or repressed emotion causes the Liver’s energy to get stuck; a person with this pattern might experience tension headaches, irritability, or digestive issues. The job of treatments like acupuncture and herbs is often to “move Qi” and restore its normal circulation. Many first-time acupuncture patients are surprised that treating points on, say, the foot can relieve a headache – that’s the meridian network at work, ensuring that when Qi flow is smoothed out, distant parts of the body benefit.
The Five Elements: TCM also uses the model of the Five Elements (Five Phases) – Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water – to understand how different organs and systems relate to each other. Each element corresponds to particular organs, emotions, seasons, colors, and other attributes, creating a rich symbolic map of the body. For instance, the Liver is associated with the Wood element (think growth and flexibility), the Heart with Fire (warmth and joy), the Spleen with Earth (nourishment and stability), the Lungs with Metal (structure and grief), and the Kidneys with Water (depth and fear). This might sound abstract, but it leads to very practical diagnostic insights. If someone has asthma with lingering sadness, a TCM practitioner notes a Metal/Lung theme. Or if a patient has stress-related neck tension and frustration, that points to a Wood/Liver imbalance. Five Element theory is essentially about relationships: how one organ system can affect another, either positively (in a generating cycle) or negatively (in a controlling cycle). It teaches that our internal organs keep each other in check like a well-rehearsed orchestra – when one instrument is out of tune, others eventually feel it. Practitioners use this framework to piece together a patient’s story: maybe a Kidney (Water) weakness is leading to Heart (Fire) symptoms like insomnia, because Water isn’t balancing Fire – a classic pattern in menopausal women, for example. By understanding these relationships, TCM can treat the root element imbalance and rebalance the whole system. The Five Elements also reinforce the notion that we are deeply connected to nature. Seasonal changes affect our health (e.g., winter’s Water energy urges rest, summer’s Fire energy is more active) and our emotions are natural but must remain in balance. This elegant system ensures TCM diagnosis and treatment consider the whole context of a person’s life and environment. As one overview explains, Five Elements theory looks at how the elements support and regulate each other to keep Qi flowing harmoniously throughout the body – when applied by a skilled practitioner, it’s like reading the body’s ecosystem to find where there is imbalance.
Other TCM Frameworks: There are additional concepts (like the Eight Principles of Yin/Yang, Hot/Cold, Internal/External, Deficiency/Excess, and the theory of Zang-Fu organ functions) as well as diagnostic tools such as pulse and tongue diagnosis. But these all tie back to the big ideas above. As a TCM practitioner, I feel your pulse at several positions to sense the quality of Qi in different organs, look at your tongue’s color and coating for clues of heat, moisture, and stagnation, and ask detailed questions about everything from sleep to your emotional state. By filtering all this information through the lenses of Qi, Yin-Yang, and Five Elements, I can form a coherent picture of your health. It’s a bit like detective work – connecting the dots among seemingly unrelated symptoms. The outcome is a diagnosis like “Kidney Yin deficiency with Heart fire rising,” which might sound poetic, but in actuality, it succinctly captures an imbalance affecting multiple systems. And thus it points to a clear plan for treatment to restore balance across those systems.
Why TCM Feels So Powerful for Today’s Chronic Conditions
Most of the clients I see aren’t dealing with emergency situations—they’re dealing with things like:
Hormonal imbalances
Lack of Deep Sleep
Digestive issues
Burnout or adrenal fatigue
Histamine intolerance or chronic inflammation
Recurring infections or low immunity
Anxiety or emotional overwhelm
These are complex, whole-body issues. And honestly, modern medicine doesn’t always offer satisfying answers—especially when your labs look “normal,” but you know you don’t feel well.
That’s where TCM shines. It allows us to see patterns and connections that Western medicine often misses—especially between:
Emotions and organ health (like grief affecting the lungs, or fear impacting the kidneys)
Digestion and immunity (your gut health is key in TCM, often seen as your "Earth element")
Energy levels and hormonal balance (we’d look at Kidney Yang or Yin deficiency for fatigue or low libido)
The Connection to Quantum Biology
Here’s the exciting part: modern science is beginning to validate many of TCM’s core principles.
In quantum biology, researchers are exploring how the body communicates through energy fields, light (biophotons), water structures, and vibrational resonance.
These concepts align almost perfectly with what TCM has described for centuries:
Meridians may reflect electrical pathways through connective tissue and fascia
The “Qi” we talk about in Chinese medicine may correlate with electromagnetic or photonic signaling
Emotions influencing organ health may be explained by vibrational coherence and nervous system regulation
In other words, TCM is already operating in the realm of quantum coherence, long before science had language for it. That’s why I believe Chinese medicine is not just ancient—it’s cutting-edge.
Why I Practice This Way
I’ve seen firsthand how people begin to heal when they feel seen, heard, and treated as a whole person—not a collection of symptoms or disconnected systems.
Traditional Chinese Medicine gives me the tools to work deeply with each patient, one-on-one. It allows me to understand the story behind the symptoms and help guide the body back into balance.
Over the years, I’ve come to see symptoms not as problems to silence, but as messages—the body’s way of asking for change. Whether it’s fatigue, skin issues, anxiety, or digestive distress, your body is always speaking. My work is about helping you learn that language—deciphering the patterns and signals so you can understand what your body truly needs to restore equilibrium.
If you’ve been told everything is “normal” but you still don’t feel well… this may be the approach you’ve been looking for.
References
Vanbuskirk, S. (2024). How Emotions and Organs Are Connected in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Verywell Mind.
Encircle Acupuncture. (2020). The Emotions and Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Gaia Herbs. (n.d.). An Overview of Traditional Chinese Medicine – Yin-Yang and Five Elements.
Verywell Mind. (2023). TCM Approach to PMS and Liver Qi.
Jinxiang, Z., Shuo, Y., & Yu, T. (2011). Quantum: A new-found messenger in biological systems. Bioscience Trends, 5(4), 183–187.
Abacus Chinese Medicine (Russell, J.). (2016). Quantum Qi – We Are the Same as Everything.
Buzanowski, J. G. (2012). Acupuncture for Pain Relief. U.S. Air Force Public Affairs.
