Intro to Daoist Concepts Overview
When you first step into the Daoist healing arts, the language can feel strange. Words like qi, yin and yang, five elements, jing, shen—they’re not part of everyday English, and they don’t line up neatly with Western science. At first they can sound mystical or abstract. But Daoist concepts weren’t created to be mysterious. They […]
The ACEs Checklist: A First Tool for Understanding Trauma
When you grow up in a difficult environment, it can be hard to see just how much those early experiences shaped you. Many of us minimize, dismiss, or explain away what happened. We tell ourselves it wasn’t “that bad,” or that others had it worse. But the body and mind carry those memories whether we […]
The Invisible Water of Childhood Trauma
There’s a saying: the fish doesn’t notice the water it swims in. That’s what it’s like growing up in trauma. You don’t notice the water because it surrounds you. It’s the only world you know. You adapt. You breathe it in. You think it’s normal. For many of us, trauma wasn’t a single dramatic event. […]
East–West Trauma Perspectives Overview
When it comes to understanding trauma, the language you use matters. Western psychology and neuroscience talk about trauma in terms of nervous system responses, attachment styles, and brain pathways. Daoist medicine and healing arts describe it in terms of qi, yin and yang, organ systems, and cycles of nature. At first glance, these worlds couldn’t […]
Self-Assessment in Daoist Healing Overview
One of the core ideas in Daoist healing is that no one else can live inside your body, your mind, or your spirit. A practitioner can guide, teach, and support you, but at the end of the day, you’re the one who has to learn how to read your own patterns. That’s what self-assessment is […]
Why Simple Practices Work
Some days I want the shiny, complicated version. New sequence, new hack, new theory. And then I remember: the only things that ever changed me were the basics I actually did—over and over—on ordinary days. Simple isn’t boring; it’s repeatable. Repeatable is how things shift. Why simple wins (the short list) 1) Lower friction → […]
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 […]