Clair Hamilton, ND, LAc, Minneapolis, MN (2025)

I am a holistic practitioner trained in both Chinese and naturopathic medicine. My treatment approach is body-based, meaning, together, we will interpret the body's symptoms to develop the appropriate therapies. Office visits often involve multiple forms of bodywork as well as acupuncture.

06/17/2025

From the perspective of East Asian medicine, our digestive center is also where we process life. It’s our Earth—our ability to absorb, metabolize, and integrate. When that Earth is taxed by stress, urgency, or overload, it can show up as bloating, changes in appetite, fatigue, and irregularities.

New post [link in bio] exploring underlying causes of bloating—both biochemical and energetic—and offers practical roadmaps for rebuilding your center.

06/10/2025

Fire season has arrived.

According to East Asian medicine, summer corresponds with the element of Fire [火] and the organ of the Heart [心]—a season of joy, purpose, connection, and luminous self-expression.

When people talk about living a Heart-centered life, it sounds beautiful in theory. In practice, it’s not always so easeful. Returning to the be in touch with the tenderest parts of yourself, can feel feel scary, raw, risky, and vulnerable. I don’t know, sort of like lying naked across something powerfully alive, unsure whether you’ll be held safely or thrown. Kind of like that.

In school, one of our Classical Chinese medicine professors reminded us ‘all disease comes from the heart’ and the pivotal role of emotions in healing and health. In this system of medicine, the Heart is the sovereign—guiding all the other organs. It flourishes when we live in integrity, in relationship, and in awe. The Heart is a sensitive, discerning instrument. It longs for truth and alignment—and it lets us know when we’ve veered away.

And, unlike other organ meridians, the Chinese characters for the Heart [心] contain no pictographic element for the flesh or the body acknowledging that the Heart is named for its immaterial, etheric, and energetic nature. And that it responds best to medicines that have no physical mass: truth, beauty, resonance, frequency, precise witness, dilute energetic remedies, to name a few.

So, let this exploration of the energetics of the Heart be an invitation. This is a good season for healing.

Acupuncture and bodywork in the Fire season can help soften what’s armored, reawaken the Heart, and re-open the channels of joy and meaning.

05/21/2025

In quieter moments, I’ve heard many of you share about how you deeply long to slow down. How the pace you’ve been moving at hasn’t felt sustainable for a very long time now. How that desire for more spaciousness lives not just in your thoughts—but in your bodies, your bones, your nervous systems, and in the tender spaces of your relationships.

And how easy it is to say you want to slow down—but how hard it is to do. Especially if you're caring for a family or community and managing multiple schedules. Or if you keep bumping up against ingrained conditioning or expectations to keep doing more and more. Or if you find yourself navigating the frenetic rhythm of city.

I suppose this is an “I hear you” post. But maybe it’s also a gentle nudge—to bring this conversation to those you're close to. To name the ache for slowness aloud. A reminder that your time is precious, and that you’re allowed to shape it to meet the moment you’re in.

Small shifts can ripple.

05/14/2025

Gripped tightness in the upper back + shoulders. A low hum of tightness around the spine. Rigid pain in the head + neck. A stuck hollowed space in the chest. Breathing that stops short.

I like to talk about the concept of resting tension with patients in the treatment room. In osteopathic traditions, some patterns of body tension are described as a kind of "protective armoring" that the body maintains, even when we’re not actively stressed.

Protective armoring is how our tissues respond to our experience of insecurity, past trauma, or emotional overwhelm. Sometimes the armor is physical: bracing, clenching, tension that never quite lets go. Other times it shows up as numbness or a difficulty accessing the felt-sense in the body.

But here’s what often gets missed: our armor may be wise. It may be an elegant, unconscious strategy to dull difficult sensations in order to stay functional. That tightness might be a boundary. A silent, gripping companion that’s helped us survive.

In some cases, the work isn’t always about muscling through held tension or cracking things open. It can be about honoring why those protective shields the body puts in place arose in the first place. The process of letting the body acknowledge it's own protective mechanisms—a careful spacious witnessing in a safe environment—can be the first step towards softening and relief.

Lately I've been noticing how much accumulated stress and tension we all seem to be carrying -- coming in from many directions. Sometimes we meet the hardness of the world with more hardness in ourselves. But what seems to start to shift things isn’t more force—it’s awareness and gentleness.

Address

Minneapolis, MN
55419

Website

http://drclairhamilton.com/

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