Why Mind-Only or Body-Only Work Stalls
Thought work alone can’t untie knots that live in the body. Body work alone can’t resolve old emotional wounds. Integration is the unlock. You’ve probably run into the same two dead-ends along the way—one in the mind, one in the body: Neither path is “wrong.” They’re incomplete. Trauma is a whole-system pattern. It asks for […]
Barriers to Healing Overview
Recovery from childhood complex trauma isn’t just about learning new tools or understanding your past. It’s also about facing the things that get in the way. Healing asks for honesty, courage, and steady practice—but there are forces inside us and around us that resist that process. That’s what this section is about: the barriers that […]
Impacts of CCT Overview
When most people think about trauma, they picture the event itself—abuse, violence, disaster. But with childhood complex trauma, the injury isn’t only in the events. It’s in the way those experiences ripple forward, shaping how a child grows, how the nervous system develops, and how a person learns to survive. The real story of trauma […]
The Challenges of Integration
Bringing Western trauma science and Daoist healing arts together sounds good on paper. Two powerful systems, both with deep insights. Why not combine them and offer people the best of both worlds? But the reality is harder than that. Integration is messy. The two systems weren’t built to fit together. They don’t speak the same […]
Integrating Daoist & Western Approaches Overview
Western trauma science and Daoist healing arts come from different worlds. One speaks in terms of nervous systems, attachment, stress responses, and brain wiring. The other speaks in terms of qi, yin and yang, organ systems, and natural cycles. At first glance, they might look unrelated—like two completely different languages. But here’s the truth: they’re […]
Treatment Principles Overview
Healing isn’t random. It doesn’t happen just because we collect enough practices or throw every technique at the wall to see what sticks. In Daoist medicine, healing follows principles—ways of thinking about imbalance, patterns, and how to guide change. These principles aren’t rigid formulas. They’re more like lenses you can look through, perspectives that help […]
In Practice: Grounding When Anxious
Anxiety has a way of pulling you out of yourself. Your mind runs ahead. Your breath shortens. Your body feels like it’s floating two inches above the ground — or buzzing so hard you can’t find stillness. Survivors of childhood trauma often live here, in this constant hum of unease, as if something might collapse […]
Addressing Trauma Impacts Overview
It’s one thing to name childhood complex trauma. It’s another thing to start working with how it shows up in your life today. Naming is important—you need to know the wound. But naming alone doesn’t change the fact that your nervous system still spikes at small triggers, that you still pull away when someone gets […]
Healing Arts Foundations Overview
When most people think of healing, they think of fixing symptoms. Headache? Take a pill. Anxiety? Learn a coping trick. Digestion off? Adjust the diet. That approach can help in the moment, but it doesn’t touch the deeper patterns that keep repeating underneath. The Daoist healing arts offer another way. They aren’t just about “fixing” […]
Trauma Assessment Overview
How do you know if childhood trauma is shaping your life right now? That’s not an easy question to answer. Trauma isn’t always obvious. It’s not just the dramatic stories of abuse or disasters. More often it’s the subtle, ongoing experiences that quietly shape your nervous system, the way you think, the way you relate, […]