Indigo Chinese Medicine

27/05/2025

GIVEAWAY ✨

In partnership with .health we’re each giving away a weeks supply of amazing gut health to support you through winter.

Prize includes a 3 pack of and week’s supply of Turkey Tail mushroom honey pills which are well known to support gut wellbeing. The prize also includes a bonus sample of another mushroom honey pill selected at random.

Both products have deep roots in Chinese medicine and are the creation of bona fide Chinese medicine practitioners.

To enter, tag a friend. The more tags the more entries. Winners are selected at random on Sunday 1 June and can be posted anywhere in Australia. Two prizes to be won!

18/05/2025

𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗸𝗶'𝘀 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗸𝗸𝘆 𝗗𝗮𝗵𝗹

Ok, so you’re really going to want to make this one. It’s perrrrrrfect for the cooler months and has all the good elements from Chinese med and SBM perspective:

✅ Protien - plant based for helpful variety of sources (not just meat!)
✅ Lots of fibre - we seem to have forgotten how important this is of recent years
✅ Sweet flavours that tonifies Spleen Qi - an important factor especially for breakfast
✅ Aromatics that prevent damp and help eliminate it from the body

Lentils are a lot easier to digest than other legumes and are a good start to including more beneficial legumes in the diet. If prepared properly, legumes can be well tolerated. If you haven’t had beans in a while there might be a transition period with a bit of bloat and gas due to the heavy exercise your gut is getting. Much like going to the gym, the body adapts and you will no longer get the B + G.

Unless severe reactions, avoiding certain foods increases intolerance and you’ll spend your life having to narrow down the diet more and more.

Onto the recipe! ➡️➡️➡️

Sauté until fragrant spring onions carrot and celery in olive oil ground star anise, cinnamon and a good pinch of salt and grind of black pepper.

Add rinsed red lentils and coat.

Add plenty of filtered water and bring to gentle boil.

Turn down heat and add chopped pumpkin, zucchini and 1/2 chopped tomato.

Simmer gently stirring to prevent sticking.

Check for seasoning and serve with yoghurt and corriander. Gorgeous 🤌

🔖 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿

12/04/2025

Not all dreams are subconscious rehashing or processing or prophetic. Did you know that certain themes relate to the state of health of the organs?

According to classical Chinese medicine texts like the Simple Questions (compiled 475-221 BCE) and Spiritual Axis (c. 100 BCE), different dream themes reflect imbalances in specific organs.

All dreams are in a way connected to the Heart Blood and Qi, but especially the state of Heart Blood. Dreams are also related to Liver Blood. So we see a role with Blood deficiency and connection to dreaming and quality of sleep.

Some common dream themes are flying and falling. Flying indicates an Emptiness int he Lower Jiao - the lower third of the torso. Falling indicates a fullness in the Lower Jiao.

Here’s what Simple Questions and the Spiritual Axis have to say about certain themes:
💭 Dreaming of Fires: Weak Heart Qi,
💭 Volcanic eruptions: Weak Heart Qi in the Summertime
💭 Laughing: Heart in excess causing imbalance
💭 Mountains, fire and smoke: Heart deficinecy
💭 Being angry: Liver in excess causing imbalance
💭 Very fragrant Mushrooms: Liver deficiency
💭 Dreaming in Spring about laying under a tree without being able to get up: Liver deficiency
💭 Forrests in mountainous regions: Liver deficiency
💭 Weeping: Lungs in excess causing imbalance
💭 White objects or about bloody killings: Lung deficiency
💭 Dreaming in Autumn of Battles and war: Lung deficiency
💭 Worry and fear, or crying and flying: Lungs in excess causing imbalance
💭 Flying and seeing strange objects made of Gold or Iron: Lung deficiency
💭 Being hungry: Spleen deficinecy
💭 Dreaming of building a house in Late Summer: Spleen deficiency
💭 Singing and being very heavy: Spleen in excess causing imbalance
💭 Abysses in mountains and of marshes: Spleen is deficiency
💭 Swimming after a shipwreck: Kidney deficiency
💭 Dreaming in winter of plunging in water and being scared: Kidney deficiency

Continued in captions...

10/04/2025

Change of Seasons Tune Up ⚖️​​​​​​​​
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In Chinese Medicine, seasonal shifts are seen as powerful opportunities to support our health and prevent illness. Just like nature, our bodies are constantly in motion—health isn’t a fixed state, but something we cultivate and adjust with the rhythm of the seasons.​​​​​​​​
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As the external world changes, we’re meant to shift with it. Aligning ourselves with these natural transitions helps create balance, build resilience, and maintain a deeper sense of wellbeing throughout the year. In Chinese Medicine, we take seasonal changes as opportunities to better our health and prevent disease.​​​​​​​​
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✨Acupuncture and cupping helps us adjust with the seasonal changes.​​​​​​​​
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📣 If you’re in need of a seasonal tune up I’m now offering shorter express acupuncture and cupping treatments. These focused sessions are designed for singular health concerns or a quick maintenance session I’ve got you covered Noosa. Express treatments can be booked online, link in bio.​​​​​​​​
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08/04/2025

About Autumn (and some dietary tips) 🍂

“The forces of Autumn create dryness in Heaven and metal on Earth; they create the Lung organ and the skin upon the body…and the nose, and the white colour, and the pungent flavour…the emotion grief, and the ability to make a weeping sound.” - Inner Classic

Autumn is the season for harvesting, a literal pulling in and gathering on all levels - gathering food and Qi to fuel us for winter. It’s a delightful time of year where this lovely stillness descends, a break from the Yang activity of summer.

I love this time of year, especially back in the North East Victoria, my hometown area. The pulling on of socks and an extra layer or two. This is the first year I’ve ‘felt’ Autumn up here on the Sunny Coast. The shift of energy is more subtle as the earth tilts on it’s axis, but it’s definitely still there - if you are attuned to it.

As we move from Late Summer to Autumn the energy is shifting from a stabilised uplifting to a downward direction, before turning inward for Winter where Qi will protect the organs from cold damage. In Autumn it’s helpful to be aware of this abundant yet contracting energies.

In autumn we are more vulnerable to dry skin hair and lips, itchy skin and eyes, constipation, dry coughs and eczema flare ups, reduced immunity and emotional flare ups of grief, sadness or sense of melancholy. We might have trouble letting go of emotions.

Continued in comments…

02/04/2025

This is me.

Forty-six years young (FORTY SIX!!) and a career practitioner.
This means I take my job very very seriously. It means I am in it for the long haul.
See, in this culture of hyper Wellness everyone wants to be the guru but no one wants to break a sweat. And to be a practitioner, a true facilitator of health, at times can be gruelling work. The balancing of people's emotions, expectations, wellbeing, commerce, the system, solving the curve balls, the worry wondering if I got it right, honouring the trust people place in me. The enormity of it can be so heavy at times.

But, oh to practice Chinese medicine! 🌟

I got into healthcare long before the boom and I'll be here long into it (with any luck and a bit of Yang Shen for good measure). I've moved locations for sure, but I am always here. Always ready with a "I've got herbs for that", a point to needle or some advice.

To date I've had no long disruptions to my practice although I did try to take a sabbatical which didn't last long. The need to take clients again came all to soon during the pandemic. This has taught me how to hone keeping my centre while giving to those who needed my help.

I ride the highs and work through the lows of this humbling profession. It's an honour to play a this role in someone's life. I've been doing this long enough to know that my role is as a facilitator and that only you can do the healing. When you're ready.

I've always been a "mother hen" but I never went on to have children of my own. I am not sad about this, I have all my clients and all their babies to make up for that for.
Thank you for being my clients. Thank you for trusting me with your wellbeing. It truly is an honour.

📷

01/04/2025

Some beautiful shots in Noosaville clinic by

10/03/2025

Mental Health in Chinese Medicine is treated the same as any other medical condition, only we tweak it to work on the insubstantial body. In clinic I will use small doses of light herbs that "float" up to and work on the mind. I will often use this alongside working on the imbalance present leading to the mental-emotional imbalance.

Working with Chinese medicine and mental health can vary from eating disorders to bi-polar presentations.

Of course working with qualified and experienced mental health practitioners is always a great compliment (see previous post for Albury and Noosa recommendations).

An immediate self help tool to implement is the Health Mind Platter by - see link in bio. I love this tool for mental health but also Yang Shen / physical health too! The daily practices keep the mind and body humming for a balanced organism. It's simple, it's free and most of all it's tried and true effective.

👉If you're wanting more to supercharge your progress, tailored advice and treatments can be found in person or online via telehealth.

10/03/2025

Psychotherapy in Chinese Medicine

Sometimes traumas, behaviour change and mental emotional conditions are just too severe to deal with the conscious mind. In my practice I have witnessed the shifts and transformations that result naturally from acupuncture and herbal medicine treatment without the interference of ego in the room.

Often I find there is always Phlegm present in diagnosed mental health conditions. Phlegm is an extension of Damp and is created by a) weak digestive organs generating damp and b) too much exogenous damp from food or environment that the body can’t adequately deal with. When we have a trauma fear comes into play and weakens the Kidneys which then become too weak to fire up the Spleen and Lungs, they can’t support the Liver like a nourishing mother, leading to a storm cloud of Damp-Phlegm, Qi stagnation, Wind, Blood deficiency and Spleen Qi and/or Lung Qi deficiency.

Interesting, .holistic.psychologist recently posted about the link between insulin resistance and mental health issues referencing the book "Brain Energy” by Harvard Psychiatrist Chris Palmer. This is allopathic medicines answer to our Damp/Phlegm, Spleen Qi conundrum and explains the branch presentation leading to mental health, but not the root cause.

In both adults and children I've worked with addiction, trauma, bi-polar, depression, anxiety, eating disorders, ADHD, ADD, Asperges and your classic menstrual cycle ups and downs. Some emotional conditions are less complicated to treat than others, and all are heavily hinged on compliance with treatment (continuity!) and self care advice, including concurrent treatment with an experienced and caring mental health professional that you trust and feel comfortable with.

💡 I’ve worked with and highly recommend in Albury and .counselling in Noosa.

👉 Click the link in bio if you want to book in for some acupuncture or herbal medicine psychotherapy.

25/02/2025

Important read about HRT and Menopause

The treatment of symptoms arising from the menopausal transition and the prevention of future health problems with menopausal hormone replacement (MHT) are exploding areas of interest these days, which is no bad thing. Women's health has long been neglected by Industrial medicine. For example, it's....

23/02/2025

Arthritis is one of those conditions we often accept as inevitable—just part of aging. But after traveling to China last year, I saw firsthand what I’ve always believed through Chinese medicine: aging doesn’t have to mean losing mobility.

Everywhere we went, I saw elderly people moving with ease—walking, stretching, practicing Tai Chi. One morning, I watched a man in his 70s (maybe 80s!) doing jump squats as part of his routine. It was a powerful reminder that “mobile joints are longevity.”

So what are they doing differently? It all comes down to Yang Sheng, the Chinese medicine practice of “Nourishing Life.” Gentle, daily movements like Qi Gong, Tai Chi, and yoga keep joints fluid and Qi flowing—without strain, burnout, or pain which can in effect age the body faster. But movement is only part of the picture. Protecting the body from Wind, Damp, Cold, Heat, and Blood dryness is just as important, as these can afflict or settle into the joints and lead to arthritis.

Lately, I’ve been treating a lot of arthritis cases-- hips, knees, fingers, toes-- with acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine as people seek to address the root cause rather than rely on painkillers or surgery, knowing that these are only band-aid fixes. Because the thing about surgery is it may help one joint, but if the underlying pattern isn’t treated, other joints can follow.

By the time arthritis is diagnosed, it’s often well-established. That’s why prevention and early intervention are key.

👉 If you’re dealing with joint pain or inflammation, let’s talk. Book a session via the link in bio and keep your joints fluid for years to come.