Acupuncture and TCM Books
Getting to Know You: A Physician Explains How Acupuncture Helps You Be the Best YOU
Getting to Know You: A Physician Explains How Acupuncture Helps You Be the Best YOU
Medical acupuncture stands out among the alternative health modalities for ease of use, cost-effectiveness, and applicability to a wide range of conditions. In Getting to Know You, Dr. Joe Helms uses down-to-earth language to help readers make the best use of this treatment. He clearly identifies what sorts of problems respond best to medical acupuncture and distinguishes between constitutional characteristics and early indicators of health conditions.
Getting to Know You features real-world patient cases in medical acupuncture and promotes applied learning throughout, inviting readers to identify traits and symptoms they see in themselves. To this end, Dr. Helms provides a list of questions to clarify the reader’s dominant type. For each type, guidelines are presented with common-sense changes to promote optimal health. The book conveys a wealth of complex medical information in simple terms, including elusive classical acupuncture models such as the circulation of energy and the five phases of treatment. A useful appendix further highlights acupuncture’s benefits, while a reference list makes it easy to find practitioners in the U.S.
ABOUT BIOPSYCHOTYPES
The concept of biopsychotypes is a modern European interpretation of traditional acupuncture's understanding of people. In the acupuncture tradition, each organ in the body has a more comprehensive sphere of influence than that recognized by western medicine. The 'bio' part of the biopsychotype includes our physical form and the physiological functions of our organs, such as the heart pumping blood through the arteries. The 'psycho' part of the term is the innate psychological quality that an organ contributes to our personality (as expressed in the classical acupuncture texts), such as the heart endowing us with direction and enthusiasm.
Each biopsychotype manifests biological functions and psychological qualities from four organs, which are connected to each other through the flow of energy through acupuncture channels. The twelve internal organs thus create three biopsychotypes (Vision/Action; Nurture/Duty; Will/Spirit). Each of us has qualities from all three biopsychotypes in our constitutional makeup. But one of the types will be most prominent. The purpose of the biopsychotype questionnaire is to lead you to an appreciation of the balance of these three types within you.
Our constitutional makeup not only embodies our strengths of body and personality, it also creates the likely pattern of breakdown as we encounter the physical and emotional stresses and strains of life. As we are made up, so do we break down. Our strongest qualities often mirror our weakest links. A feeling that something is amiss often reflects early disturbances in an organ's sphere of influence, as defined in the acupuncture texts. The purpose of Getting To Know You is to help you understand your qualities and thus to experience and protect the greatest value in who you are.