Fiona Swinburne Acupuncture

29/12/2025

As the Year of the Wood Snake comes to a close, take time to honor its quiet lessons. I booked this week off work to reflect on the lessons and earned wisdom from 2025, and to take time to prepare for the Chinese Lunar New Year.

This new year favours wisdom, patience, and steady growth. Patience and steadiness are not concepts I find easy - so I’m expecting it will be hard for me to not race off with the energy of the Fire Horse. Know thyself!

Reflect on what you’ve learned through observation rather than action: insights gained, habits refined, and plans thoughtfully shaped.

One of my biggest learnings this year was expanding my capacity through challenge while finally accepting my need for rest. I learned I need far more quiet, alone time than I ever realised - especially in nature. It’s not optional; it’s essential. A non-negotiable for 2026 - it’s how I reenergise.

This period is a time to clear away what no longer serves you - unfinished grudges, cluttered spaces, or goals that no longer feel true. Like the Snake shedding its skin, let go with intention, not regret.

The snake guided me deep into the shadows and into profound healing I wouldn’t have had the courage to face without Chinese Metaphysics and Western Astrology. Some of that journey is sacred and will stay private. This year also taught me that not everyone deserves to hear the full story of me - what matters is the wisdom earned. That’s worth sharing. This healing was what I needed to finally allow myself to land in my body as a safe place, to hold myself with love and respect.

The year of the Fire Horse, needs you to shift your energy outward. The Horse symbolises movement, courage, and independence, while Fire brings passion, visibility, and momentum. Begin by strengthening your body and routine, clarifying your priorities, and identifying one or two bold directions you’re ready to pursue. Where the Snake planned, the Horse acts!

Balance is key: carry the Snake’s wisdom into the Horse’s speed. Move forward with confidence, but not recklessness. Let your actions be guided by what you’ve already learned, and step into the new year with honesty, and purpose.

11/12/2025

What Your Acupuncturist / Gut Health Practitioner Eats in Winter

A TCM-approved winter dinner you can make in 20 minutes - and a medicinal meal your children will always say yes to.

Be sure to like and save this for cosy evenings.

When the cold sets in, I reach for meals that feel like medicine and comfort. In TCM, winter is the season of the Kidneys - a time to slow down, nourish deeply, and build the foundations of energy for the year ahead.

That means: warm, cooked foods, rich broths, easy digestion, Qi and Blood nourishment, and Jing support.

So in my own kitchen you won’t see many raw salads. I lean into soups, stews, porridges, congees and broths - meals that warm from the inside, calm the nervous system, strengthen immunity, and keep hormones steadier through the darker months.

And on nights when I’m cold, tired, hungry, and the kids are circling asking “What’s for dinner?” - I make my winter staple. My version of ramen: fast, nourishing, endlessly adaptable, and fully aligned with TCM winter wisdom.

Here’s how to make it:

Chicken Long Rice (Winter Ramen)

Serves 4 | Prep 10 mins | Cook 20 mins

Ingredients
• 1L chicken broth
• 900g chopped chicken thighs/breast
• 1 tsp coconut aminos or tamari
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 1 tsp maple syrup or honey
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/2 tsp white pepper
• 250g noodles of choice
• 4 sliced spring onions
• Black sesame seeds

Instructions

Bring broth to a boil.
Add chicken, aminos, fish sauce, sweetener, salt + pepper. Simmer 10 mins.
Add noodles and cook 3–10 mins depending on type.
Top with spring onion + sesame.

Optional extras

Shiitake, bok choy, spinach, cabbage, sugar snap peas, sweetcorn, red onion, bean sprouts, broccoli.

Extra toppings

Pickled ginger, pickled onions/radishes, fried onions, chilli oil, coriander, basil, mint.

Enjoy wild hearts
Fiona
X

05/12/2025

Are you tired just from hearing yourself say the same thing over and over?

When we’re exhausted, it’s natural to look outside ourselves for answers or remedies.

But have you taken a moment to look in at your life, at yourself? To consider what might need to change, what you might need to leave behind, or simply say no to first?

Do you suspect that the life you’re living isn’t the life you truly want? Maybe it’s become what society, your partner, or your family expected. And maybe now you realise you want something different… something for you.

Give yourself time to ask the hard questions, and perhaps plan the hard conversations.

Do that first. Then think about what you can bring in.

Till the soil of your own garden before planting anything new.

Clear out the old furniture so there’s space for the new… I think you know what I mean.

Winter is a call to the deep and in in Chinese medicine- it’s not a time to be up and out.

It’s usually the clearing that makes the biggest impact.

Hit some love or share if this resonates 🫶🏻✨

The reel that hits the nail on the head by 👌🏼

28/11/2025

“..I had toyed with acupuncture for a while but it was chance that led me to contact Fiona, and what luck that turned out to be.

At the time I felt overcome with a malaise that was blighting my life. The only word I could find to describe the feeling was ‘blocked’. Having had some bad experiences in clinical settings in the past, both physical and psychiatric, I was both sceptical and scared. Not wanting to re-visit aspects and illnesses of the past, I just felt I needed to improve my physical wellbeing as a peri-menopausal woman. Of course, it was more than that but Fiona spoke spoke to me so sensitively I knew I wanted one more throw of the dice and decided to give acupuncture a go. I distinctly recall her telling me healing could be beautiful. I didn’t believe it.

Thus began the most transformational experience. With years of failed medical interventions and more prescribed drugs than I could list, I had given up on finding a way to mend myself, to find wholeness. Acupuncture with Fiona has been the first and only treatment in over 30 years to gift physical and emotional healing. It has not always been easy and I have had psychotherapeutic suppport alongside acupuncture, something Fiona recommended early on. She worked in tandem with my psychotherapist, tailoring the acunpuncture treatement together. Acupuncture has kept me grounded in moments of real difficulty and provided incredible relief for both physical and emotional symptons, along with a gradual release of the ‘stuckness’ I was experiencing. The feeling I have, some time on (Fiona has been incredbly patient) is that I can feel movement flowing through my body again.

Acupuncture really works and Fiona is a truly intuitive acupuncturist (and so much more). Alongside the needles, there is poetry, music, coaching, questioning, nutritional guidance, meditation, laughter and a deep knowing of the healing power of nature and the outdoors.

I love hearing the names of some of the acupuncture points during my treatment. ‘Mound of Ruins’ describes how I felt when I first walked in to the Garden Clinic.“ Nov 25

Continued in comments

11/11/2025

Wild hearts 🖤 If you awake in the morning to ALL of the thoughts, especially the doom inducing kind, give yourself a chance to rise, make some tea and begin again. Don’t let the doom pin you down.

If you work with me, you know this is top tier advice 👌🏼

BUT FIRST MAKE TEA by .godden from With Love, Grief and Fury.

Please like, save or share with anyone who may need a little restart for their day. And definitely buy this book. Wow!

Thank you to C for such a thoughtful gift. ✨🫶🏻

23/10/2025

Wild hearts - stay open to Joy ✨

I was just sitting waiting for my last client of the day to show up and as you all know, it’s been a bit of a time lately.

I noticed Nick Mulvey was going live to play a track from Dark Harvest Part 2 and then he only went and gave my work a little shout-out on Instagram.

Celebrate with me! A lovely little reminder that joy can find its way in, even through the cracks.

Celebrating those moments makes the joyful ones even more joyful - a lovely ripple effect of joy.

Stay open to joy

23/10/2025