TRANSCRIPT
Erica Carroll [00:00:01 - 00:00:52]:
Welcome to the Alchemy of Healing podcast. I'm your host Erica Carroll. For over 20 years I worked as an actress in film and TV until my health forced its way to center stage and demanded I focus on the alchemical process that is healing. Along the way I had to examine preconceived beliefs around how to optimize my body and how to empower myself to find solutions.
I know how lonely, isolating and hopeless chronic illness can feel and the Alchemy of Healing sessions aim to enlighten and inspire new ideas to help you find your unique path back to wellness.
So, join me while I speak with experts in diverse fields of self-care. Practitioners, biohackers, healers and folks like you who are the true experts of their own bodies sharing their personal stories of how they transmuted from surviving to thriving.
Erica Carroll [00:01:00 - 00:02:56]:
Welcome my friends, to the Alchemy of Healing podcast. Now, for all you keeners out there, rest assured there's no need to scribble down tidbits of the conversation as we will be putting any reference links discussed in the show notes as well as a transcript of the episode on our website, www.alchemyofhealing.ca. And of course, before we get started, please consider subscribing to our podcast. We would be delighted to have you as a follower.
So today we have the privilege of speaking with Chris Parsons, who has been practicing Acupuncture, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Craniosacral Therapy in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada since 2006. Along with acupuncture and the hands-on aspect of his healing practice, Chris teaches his clients how to balance their own health and prevent injury and disease with classes and seminars in Tai Chi and Qigong. As one of Chris's clients, I can attest to his passion for helping others find their highest potential in their health and life. He doesn't just treat the body, he provides tools that inspire me and likely his other clients to expand and trust in the wisdom and natural healing potential of the body, which I find to be the mark of a true healer. So let's get started and learn more about acupuncture and how it can be an effective path to recovery and part of a health maintenance routine. Hello Chris.
Chris Parsons:
Hello.
Erica Carroll:
Thank you so much for joining me and I appreciate you carving out this time because I know you're busy and as I've stated in our appointments, you have a breadth of knowledge that needs to be captured and recorded. Cause I know that this is gonna be really helpful for people who are listening. So thank you so much for doing this. From what I've gathered about Traditional Chinese Medicine, it's evolved over thousands of years and practitioners use various approaches like Acupuncture and Tai Chi and herbal product. That sound about right?
Chris Parsons [00:02:56 - 00:02:57]:
Yes. Yeah. Okay.
Erica Carroll [00:02:57 - 00:03:18]:
So in the chat today, I just want to focus on mainly the acupuncture approach. And then I would love it in the future, maybe we can talk about Tai Chi and the Qi Gong because I know that will probably take seven episodes to get into that. But first of all, can you just tell me who you are, where you're from, and where you practice?
Chris Parsons [00:03:18 - 00:03:32]:
My name is Chris Parsons and I'm from Vancouver, BC. Grew up in North Delta, just outside of Vancouver. And I practice out of my clinic called Whistler Wellness in Whistler, BC, the local ski resort here.
Erica Carroll [00:03:32 - 00:03:39]:
Can you give us a brief breakdown on what acupuncture entails and how it works?
Chris Parsons [00:03:39 - 00:04:41]:
I mean, yeah, it's, ah, basically using acupuncture needles to stimulate the body's natural healing response, releasing muscles, encouraging blood flow. Following the traditions of that were outlined a couple thousand years ago on where these different acupoints are on the body. They have different therapeutic purposes for increasing circulation or calming the nervous system. And so we combine those to achieve the therapeutic goal, whatever the client is dealing with, which generally includes a combination of those things. We are living in a society of dysregulated nervous systems. one is under a huge amount of stress, internal or external. And so acupuncture is really good at calming that nervous system down and giving people a deep reset so that their body can self regulate again. And so it's tapping into the natural healing potential of the body using these different tools.
Erica Carroll [00:04:41 - 00:04:48]:
So there are some words that people have probably heard, like chi, life force, energy, meridians. This is all part of Chinese Medicine.
Chris Parsons [00:04:48 - 00:04:58]:
That's right, yeah.
Erica Carroll:
Is it the meridians that you're putting the needles into? How does that …
Chris Parsons [00:04:58 - 00:07:39]:
Yeah, typically the needles are going into acupuncture points along the meridian pathways, which are, you know … nowadays we can look at the electrical, conductivity of the skin surface and find that actual acupuncture point that was intuitively or experientially discovered, thousands of years ago. A collection of different doctors and therapists and people, even folk medicine, people discovering these points that had therapeutic value, that gave them pain relief or relaxed the muscles. Everyone was a laborer, so everyone had tension, and pain in their muscles at any given day. So everyone was doing self massage and figuring out how to relieve this. The idea of qi has been a little bit mistranslated, I feel, because it's really ...
We only talk about energy, but qi is really about the interaction of the structure and the function, the mind and the body. It's this interrelationship between these elements that acupuncture helps to influence so that they can be more harmonious and function properly. A tight muscle is not … or an overly tight muscle is an imbalance of sorts. And so we might put the needle into the muscle to release that muscle so that it can return to its even balanced level of tension, you know, and inflammation. And then we're going to get blood flow. And so that's the whole interaction of this qi is this um, that interrelationship. A tight muscle is no longer in a state of normalcy, and it needs to be returned to that normal state so that circulation can be, can flow because qi and blood flow together, they're both, one and the same. If the blood doesn't go there, there is no chi, there is no delivery to the body tissues, and therefore those organ systems or wherever that tissue is flowing, it can't be nourished and regulated. So they're one and the same. But the idea of Qi just being energy is a little bit of a misnomer, and …
Erica Carroll:
Right, because sometimes. Sometimes people will say, oh, my qi is really low today.
Chris Parsons:
Yeah.
Erica Carroll:
Which is that correct, or?
Chris Parsons:
Yeah, I mean, it still is. You still have experience in your body of, you know, you can be low energy, and it's usually there's an obstruction of that circulatory regulation, which is the foundation of everything. It's all about blood flow and, to nourish these tissues and to just m allow the body to regulate itself.
Erica Carroll [00:07:39 - 00:08:01]:
I remember one of our first appointments, we were just chatting at the beginning, and I just was like, I just feel like a swamp. Like, I just feel stagnant.
Chris Parsons:
Yes.
Erica Carroll:
And I guess that that could be the chi just not moving or circulation. Things are just not flowing.
Chris Parsons [00:08:02 - 00:09:30]:
Exactly. And that's kind of the experience that we describe as a damp feeling. Right. Which is exactly the thing, a swamp. Right. That's a lack of fluid circulation, water retention, usually from a level of digestive imbalance and, what we would describe as, related to the spleen, its ability to digest and separate food, fluids and deliver them properly into the tissues and so that they don't accumulate and end up with an overabundance of fluid retention, basically. And so, as we open up those circulatory pathways, the body can absorb and clear that dampness, and then your body can again … you have the lack of that over fluid retention, and then things can turn to normal.
Dampness is very obstructive. And people who have arthritis, the senior citizens, tend to go to the hot, dry climate. Arthritis disappears because there is no dampness. That dampness comes from internal or external, from our environment, or from our diet. If we eat a lot of inflammatory foods and sugars, then we produce a lot of the amatory components. And that, water retention is an aspect of that.
Erica Carroll [00:09:30 - 00:09:43]:
Yeah, that makes sense. And some people are pretty intuitive when it comes to those sensations. Some people aren't. When you first have a patient come in, what kind of information do you take in to know where to go?
Chris Parsons [00:09:43 - 00:11:08]:
There's the classic questions on our energy, our sleep, our bowel and bladder function, appetite, thirst, body temperature, sweat, and pain, where that may or may not be. And so with those kinds of … around the classic ten questions, then we can figure out what kind of a pattern, or what kind of an organ dysfunction pattern may exist. And then by opening up that circulation, helping the body to self regulate again, it can return back to the state of balance.
We can kind of … usually people come in with a specific problem of ache or a pain somewhere, and then it'll be related to the bigger picture of those different symptoms. We call it a symptom complex. It's not one single symptom on its own. It's a symptom with other coexisting symptoms, which help point us to, is this a problem of purely blood circulation issue, or is it blood circulation issue plus this dampness type thing? Or is it an exhaustion in one of the organ systems? You know, for example, your kidneys or your liver, there's, you know, toxic burden building up somewhere, and they're all relating to affecting and hindering circulation in some way. And we can kind of zero in on that with that symptom complex.
Erica Carroll [00:11:08 - 00:11:51]:
Growing up in Canada, seeing general practitioners, quite often, the only thing asked is, where does it hurt? And here's something that can make that acute pain stop, right? But everything is connected. It's holistic, there's so much more to it. And by looking at that bigger picture, I mean, even when learning about homeopathy too. Right. The picture of the patient and all the different things that are contributing to - what this response in the body, is much more thorough.
Chris Parsons:
Right.
Erica Carroll:
I actually just wanted to circle back what made you interested in Chinese Medicine? Did you know that you wanted to be an acupuncturist?
Chris Parsons [00:11:51 - 00:15:16]:
No, I wanted to be more, to have an athletic career. And I was really interested in racing motorcycles and snow car racing and martial arts. Just very active. I had a lot of injuries and things that led me to have chronic lower back pain in my late teens, early twenties. And then that set me on a path of having a lot of treatments to relieve that pain. And over a couple year period I became more and more intrigued by what healers and therapists did as a living. I thought that was a kind of an interesting career, working with people, being self employed, which then you'd be able to live where you want and chase a lifestyle, that you are not nailed down to a desk job somewhere. So on my path of moving in that direction, I took a Bachelor degree of Science of Natural Health. And that was a really all encompassing program which introduced all the alternative healing therapies around the world, from ayurvedic medicine to Chinese Medicine, Shamanism and Folk Medicine, Herbal Medicine, Homeopathy, Bach Flower Remedies.
This was a distant education course. It was through a school called College of Natural Health that was in Alabama. And so I did that education degree, which was a path for me to explore my interest in the healing arts and get a bigger idea of what options were out there of what was really interesting to me, and at the same time achieve a bachelor degree so I could go to Japan, study martial arts and get a job as an english teacher working full time to support myself there. So it was kind of a … from misadventure and my own aches and pains and being young and dumb and overly aggressive on my body, that led me to discovering things. And then Chinese Medicine just resonated with me because it's the most complete, unbroken information and system from so long ago that has every method in it from massage, from acupuncture, cupping, diet therapy, herbal medicine. Bone setting traditionally is a part of it, you know, so almost every aspect of healthcare is addressed in it. And as well as the physical arts of Tai Chi and Qigong, they were a big piece of it as I've studied martial arts for a long time, that was a big interest for me. And those, the self healing arts, which is what really drew me to learning these things, was to heal myself. And then also I just felt it was interesting. And, it's a unique way to be of service in the world. You know, I think that there was a piece of me that wanted to give back, that I had this inner calling that you can't just pursue a life of pure selfishness. It just felt like a unique way to combine my interests and some of that inner guidance. And so that system is what I chose.
Erica Carroll [00:15:07 - 00:16:22]:
Yeah, it's interesting how so many people who become healers were injured. Once they managed to get through it. You feel compelled. I mean, part of the reason why I'm doing this, you know, with my skill set from being an actor and everything, maybe not necessarily becoming a doctor, but I can get all you guys together and share this information and what I've been through with my health. I've learned so much, and to be able to just help, I mean, so many people need to take their health into their own hands at this point, and so, educating and learning as much as possible is definitely the way to go. And, yeah, it's just interesting how you, as you said, you're living this, like you're off doing your own thing, you get injured, and then that brings this whole path of being a healer into your life, which is, you know, when you're in the thick of injury or disease or anything like that, it feels like it's the worst, but usually gold comes out of it, you know, like it distills into something powerful. And thankfully, you do this because when I get to work with you, I have much relief, and that is thanks to you. So how long does it take to become a TCM practitioner?
Chris Parsons [00:16:22 - 00:18:26]:
Yeah, so I did a four year program of Doctor of Chinese Medicine Program and then in my final semester I went to Beijing and did my internship in a hospital there, which was an amazing experience to see the level of dedication and belief in their own system of what works and how they combine. They seamlessly combine in that hospital, the Western Medicine and Chinese Medicine. So they have modern technology, they can do MRIs and different body scans, and they can also use Chinese Medicine products so they can diagnose people with both systems. Most doctors are trained as dual doctors. They have a Western Medical degree and a Chinese Medicine degree, so they make the choice as to what is the best course of action. They can send someone for an MRI and then say, okay, you need surgery or you don't, just go get acupuncture or go to the herbal medicine or go to the massage department and they would just send people to whatever they needed and then they would combine as well. If people had surgery and they couldn't leave their bed afterwards, the acupuncture department people would go to the hospital, to the rooms where the patients were recovering and do acupuncture on them in their bed. So they were speeding their recovery time. And this is a very cheap and efficient system to facilitate healing because it costs next to nothing.
You know, in China, they reuse their needles as well, so not even just throwing them away. We only use single-use needles here, in Canada and typically most countries do, but there they have bigger needles because people are more comfortable with them. It was a really incredible experience to have that time there. I would take part in 100 case studies in a day, you know, 100 to 200 factories of people coming and going. And, you just see the efficiency of it. It's amazing what can be healed with such simple, seemingly, simple medicine.
Erica Carroll [00:18:26 - 00:18:45]:
Yeah. And I mean, I would imagine that when you came back to North America and had to go see a doctor, once you're used to that system and using the traditional medicine and the Western medicine, I'm imagining it probably felt rather inefficient when you got back here.
Chris Parsons [00:18:45 - 00:19:34]:
Yeah. Definitely some gaps that need to be filled. And, you know, it would be nice as time goes on, we're integrating these different things more and more. Doctors are becoming more likely to refer people for acupuncture or even massage for stress relief or pain conditions. So it's happening slowly, but they just have … they're way ahead of us in that aspect. So it is frustrating to see a little bit of the lag time. You know, that they could be leaning into this, the integration of all therapies, but it is happening more and more. And I've seen a dramatic change in the last 18 years I've been practicing. So in that time period, it's really increased a lot. So, yeah, there's hope.
Erica Carroll [00:19:34 - 00:20:29]:
Yeah, I mean, I remember the very first time I went to acupuncture was probably in like 2004 or 2005. And to me, it was just the most bizarre. I just had no idea. I come from an Irish family. It was not that that's not something, it was just you go to see the doctor. You listen to the doctor. You do what they say. So it was very, you know, outside of the box. I think that's also where I started to go, Oh, wait, you know, there's more there. There's more to it. And let's circle back. This is interesting. You brought up they use larger needles over there. Part of the block that people have towards acupuncture. Can you explain a little bit about the needle? Because it's not a needle. It's more like a pin. Can you explain a little bit about the needle? And like, what difference does the size make?
Chris Parsons [00:20:30 - 00:22:31]:
Yeah, so they're generally very, you know, they're like a hair thickness or like 0.16, 0.18. And so it's so, so small that when you look at it under a high, powered microscope, the tip of an acupuncture needle is actually round. And so when you put the needle in, you're not causing any tissue damage. The skin cells are being pushed out of the way, and so it's just penetrating in a really non traumatic way. As opposed to a hypodermic needle, which is a cookie cutter, it is circular. It's like doing a core plug. So that's causing, that's cutting tissue. But the acupuncture is so small and so fine that they just slide in. And that's the toughest selling point of acupuncture, is everyone has some level of fear of needles. Unless people have a lot of tattoo work, they tend to kind of laugh it off and. And they're not fazed by it. They know how to just dissociate from their body a bit. But, you know, only about one in a thousand people are actually that sensitive to it when they try it. It's so it blows their mind as to how minimal the sensation is. For the most part, in North America, most of us typically use quite thin needles so that they are very non-invasive. And, yeah, we can, you know, you can use bigger needles. Typically you use a larger needle for a deeper penetration so that the shaft of the needle can, you can push through. Otherwise, it's too flexible. So the shorter needles we can do very easily because they're only going in, you know, half a centimeter to a centimeter and a half. But if you go into something deeper, the bigger muscle groups, like in the glutes and the hips, then you're going to go in a little bit deeper. So you need a little bit of a thicker needle so it has some stiffness factor to it. You don't notice until you get closer to the nerve, then you'll get a little bit of a twitch or, of a sensation there. But the majority of the needles are much less discomfort than people would imagine.
Erica Carroll [00:22:33 - 00:22:56]:
It's interesting too, because when you see images of acupuncture in say media, it always looks alarming to see all these needles in someone's back. Thing is I'm lying on my face. You're putting needles in my back. I can't see it. There's nothing, it doesn't seem alarming, you know, but I guess when you see it in that way, it can seem, um, shocking.
Chris Parsons [00:22:56 - 00:23:50]:
Absolutely. It can be very unsettling to see a needle. So we generally start with people laying face down is the best way so that they can't see them. They're experiencing it, you help them work on their breathing. So they continue breathing and that helps to relax the skin and the pores that keeps their nervous system a little bit calmer. And then once a couple of needles go in, they go like Oh, are they in, are they still in there? Like, where are they? I can't really, I don't know they're there anymore, but, and then when you take them out, they don't even, most of the time, they don't even notice them coming out. I'll take them out and I'll be like, okay, needles are all out. They're like, what? They're out. You took them out. The muscle has relaxed. The tissue is soft. They're, you know, they're half asleep and people just drift into that, into this meditative place. Their mind is wandering and they're just, they're cozy and warm, tucked into the bed with a heat lamp. They've got a heating pad on their feet and. Drooling. They're drooling.
Erica Carroll [00:23:50 - 00:24:00]:
Exactly. Is that just me? Probably. When a new person comes in, you often ask to see my tongue and then you check my pulse. What's the deal behind that?
Chris Parsons [00:24:00 - 00:25:58]:
So the tongue is kind of a confirmation piece of the signs and symptoms in the body. We're going to help figure out the final diagnostic syndrome based on the tongue. The color of the tongue body, the shape of the tongue body, how much swelling or lack of swelling is in the tongue, if there's teeth marks on the tongue, what the coating looks like, where the coating is, what the color and the thickness of it is. If there's cracks in the tongue, all these things are indicators of the amount of phlegm or dampness in the body, the digestive strength or weakness. If the fluid of the body, if you have enough fluid in you or if you're very dry and have different areas of the body that are lacking that fluid, they all show up in the tongue. The tongue is like an internal organ that we can see, so take it out. If someone has a very, very pale tongue, it can be a syndrome of cold, or it can be a syndrome of a type of blood deficiency, we would call it, where people are lacking their ability to produce blood and fill their body to the proper amount. And so that gives us that deep picture and then the pulse is based on we're feeling qualities of the pulse. Of course, the pulse rate is important as a baseline, but also, we can kind of feel the different levels of the body and circulation of the body through the pulse. We typically take three pulse readings at the wrist and then depths there. And that'll give us an idea of where there's a weakness. And you can feel, if someone's lower body, their kidneys, which are a very important vital organ, whether they're stressed, if someone's in adrenal fatigue, you'll feel that their pulse is very, very weak or very, very deep in that area. And so that helps you to figure out, okay, that's where we really need to focus to build up that energy system. and that organ flow.
Erica Carroll [00:25:58 - 00:26:27]:
Right. Okay. So when you're on the table, you've got the needles in, sometimes I've found different practitioners, a needle goes in and I'm like, it gives a kind of feeling to me … It's like tugging, right? It's not like a pain. It's there, like a tugging type sensation. Um, how does a client tell the difference between, and is there a good pain and a bad pain when it comes to a needle going in?
Chris Parsons [00:26:28 - 00:26:50]:
I mean, there's always going to be a point or two that are more sensitive, that might be based on the body location, the nerve distribution closer to the hand. Tips of the hands and the feet have more nerve endings there. But sometimes that's an indication of where the most stagnation is. The nerves or the tissue is inflamed in that area. So that's hypersensitive.
Erica Carroll [00:26:51 - 00:27:04]:
And I've also found too, quite often it goes in and it's like, Ooh, and then I breathe and it just dissipates really quickly. Cause you've hit the money spot and then it just releases.
Chris Parsons [00:27:04 - 00:28:05]:
Yeah. Then your body starts to produce that pain relief effect and it fades away. And most people feel like there's a dullness or an achiness or a heaviness. You can sense the needles there, you don't exactly know where it is, but that initial sensation generally goes away. If we're really close to a nerve and it's really, really firing, which is very, very, very rare. Like, most of the time, we can leave the needles in, even if it triggers a little bit of a twinge or that stingy response, within a minute or two, it'll go away, and then it'll be totally, totally gone. As long as people keep breathing and they don't fight it. You know, if people are super, super nervous and totally needle phobic, then it might not be the therapy for them. They might benefit from something else and just even acupressure. And we could still trigger those acupuncture points without a needle. But, for the most part, the pain is just an indicator where that stagnation is and then that's what allows it to open up and to restore that circulation so that that pain goes away.
Erica Carroll [00:28:05 - 00:28:09]:
So is cupping the same thing as needless acupuncture?
Chris Parsons [00:28:10 - 00:28:42]:
Needless acupuncture would typically be like acupressure or laser therapy on acupuncture points or electric stimulation, and on acupuncture points with, like a tens machine. So cupping is kind of a separate therapy on its own. And we just combined it in the modern day. It developed as a separate piece of Chinese Medicine and then became more combined. But you're still working with the same body, same acupuncture points and body areas and you're just using a different tool to m influence that circulation there.
Erica Carroll [00:28:42 - 00:28:56]:
So that tool is like a little rubber cup that you create a suction and if you watch any athletes or even just on social media, you'll see people who have these little round bruises on their back and that's from the cupping.
Chris Parsons [00:28:56 - 00:28:57]:
Yes.
Erica Carroll [00:28:57 - 00:29:06]:
And is that bruising, uh, you know, does it hurt? Is it dangerous? What is the point of the cup and how does it function?
Chris Parsons [00:29:07 - 00:30:59]:
Yeah, so there's a few different cups we use. You know, modern day, we use some silicon cups which are flexible and soft. Or we use the plastic cup, which has a hand pump or the ones more often used are the glass cups, which you suck. You light a alcohol soaked cotton ball inside that sucks and the oxygen out and creates a vacuum, and you put it on the skin. The bruise that's created is a therapeutic bruise. Modern research is showing that this bruise, as the body reabsorbs that bruise, produces its own anti-inflammatory chemicals that influence that tissue. It's going to help the body. When you chew up a bruise, when the body reabsorbs that, it also reabsorbs and influences that local circulation. It's the same mechanism of action, it's just improper blood flow. There can be internal bruising where you have dead blood that's sitting in the tissue. When capillaries break and it leaks into the interstitial fluid and is in that local area. Now, that anti-inflammatory chemical is also going to absorb that, so it's going to have a net anti-inflammatory effect and those bruises generally don't hurt. The cupping can be strong, depending on someone's sensitivity level and what's going on. So, we try and gauge that and make a slight discomfort or pressure from the cups only, and then once the cup comes off, that has a lot of sense of relief. And then that bruise will reabsorb in three days to a week or so, and almost never do people feel pain from that bruise. It's not like an impact bruise. It's picky. So, you're just sucking, blood to the surface, right?
Erica Carroll [00:30:59 - 00:31:04]:
Yeah. And sometimes when the cup is on, you can move it around on the skin.
Chris Parsons [00:31:04 - 00:31:06]:
Yeah. We'll apply a little bit of oil.
Erica Carroll [00:31:06 - 00:31:07]:
Which feels delightful. Yeah.
Chris Parsons [00:31:07 - 00:31:08]:
It's great.
Erica Carroll [00:31:09 - 00:31:16]:
It just pulls your skin up. Yeah. Does it do something to the fascia underneath? Like when you're pulling it up like that?
Chris Parsons [00:31:16 - 00:32:56]:
Absolutely, yeah. It has a lifting effect, which helps the fascia and all those microfibers to realign and to stretch. You know, it's like a lattice matrix, is what the fascia looks like. So, you're lifting it up, you're vacuuming fluids. Whatever vessels are underneath, and the capillaries and the interstitial fluid is all being vacuumed up into a state of suspension. And then when you release that cup, it's flooding back in and kind of like a waterfall. It's washing things through different metabolic waste. You know, everyone talks about cupping as a detox tool. Well, there's metabolic waste that all our cells are breathing and consuming energy and releasing waste material, and that will also get cleaned up in that process, it is going to pull it and move it.
It's all about creating circulation of all levels, because the most basic saying of Chinese Medicine is, if there's pain, there's no flow. If there's flow, there’s no pain. So, we're always just working on flow. If that's lymph vessel flow or blood flow, venous return flow, it's all about improving that. And that's how the whole healing is based on the circulation. You know, if there's no blood flow, then there's no, no tissue regeneration. It's just using that. And then cupping is one of the best ways. It's a standalone tool on its own, and clinics and practitioners just do cupping therapy as an option for people who are needle phobic or for younger children, or just as people who prefer that because it feels great and has a great effect.
Erica Carroll [00:32:56 - 00:34:34]:
Oh yeah. I love it.
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Erica Carroll [00:34:36 - 00:35:18]:
What was the next question I had for you? Oh yeah, so sometimes I've been to practitioners where they pop in some needles, they leave the room, they come back 20 minutes later, they twist them a little bit, and they leave and they do that kind of thing. Sometimes I've been where they've put a little clip on it that has a little current, and then sometimes, like yourself, you're doing the little tweaking every once in a while, and then you use a cold laser, and then the cups, all the things are happening. Is that just a personal style of a practitioner? They just come in, they leave you to process, and then what the current stimulation is, and then the cold laser?
Chris Parsons [00:35:19 - 00:38:59]:
Okay. It's a three-parter. Yeah. Really based on, you know, a person's, a practitioner's experience and then what treatment approach they want to do. You know, a lot of times there's a lot of value in just leaving people for that needle retention time under that heat lamp with those needles in and, you know, stimulating every, maybe every five minutes or so is enough. And, just letting people sink into the experience, you know, because it starts memories and images and sensations, and then you don't distract them from the experience.
But sometimes I'll stay in the room more often, if people want to talk or they feel more needle phobic or they're very sensitive, you want to monitor them more closely and make sure they're comfortable the whole time. As people get more used to it, it's easier to let them on their own. They just want a few needles in, the heat lamp, and then, you know, a little bit of cupping after, and that's enough. And then they have more of a meditative experience. Which is really super, beneficial because just get to check out of your mind and stop dialoguing with someone else and just be. Hear your own internal narratives running. And it'll just go in such random places. People just float and have, like, almost out of body experiences or very random memories come to them, which is often related to their pathology. Whatever is the source of their discomfort is sometimes revealed to them. So it's good for some people to have that alone time.
And then some people will use the electrical stim machines, the tens machines, and attach it to needles or put it on, just the gel coated pads that can stimulate some muscle releases. Just by running that electrical current, you're getting that little reset in the muscle when it flexes and releases. And I don't do a lot of that these days. There are so many tools you can use. So, I really have been liking the cold laser the last couple years.
The research around the lasers is profound and shows how much of a healing benefit it is. It really adds energy to the system, is how I really take it that, the mitochondria capture the light as energy in your body. So, when you have a body problem, you're ahead, you can deliver energy right to the site of a problem and create a local, extra energetic so that the body can heal from the inside out. Acupuncture is not adding energy to the body. Typically, it's increasing circulation, so that energy can regulate and regenerate itself. But lasers will add extra energy to the body. So, then you get that double healing response. When we get a lot of feedback from people who have had surgery, when they go and see their surgeon, after we've done laser, 100% of the time, the surgeon says to people, like, what have you been doing? This tissue is, it's so fresh, it looks so good. If it's like sinus surgery, everything is just fresh and flowing and healing so fast, becoming dense so much quicker, or the inflammation is clearing or, you know.
All these factors that you can look at, their recovery rate is dramatically increased just by having the cold laser. So that along with acupuncture, this is the synergistic effect that my goal is to facilitate someone's return to sport or return to their lifestyle as quickly as we can. If we can add a little extra energy at the same time, then we're getting multiple force multipliers to have all those things together.
Erica Carroll [00:38:59 - 00:39:07]:
Is the laser going where the needles are or is this just going on the skin over the needle? Where exactly are you?
Chris Parsons [00:39:07 - 00:39:52]:
Yeah, it'll be usually around the needle is how I would do it. All the needles are in. Sometimes I’ll do it around the needle or on related acupuncture points up or down, above or below the needle, depending on what direction of flow I want to encourage or on other points that are energizing points to the system or actual laser frequencies that are for pain relief. If it's a pain syndrome we're working on, then you're giving another level of blocking that pain signal to the brain. So just getting as high an efficient and powerful effect as possible is what I'm aiming for. Combine these therapies together like that.
Erica Carroll [00:39:52 - 00:40:15]:
Well I found the combo of all three, I mean, the last time I left my appointment, I had a fit of giggles. Like, I just, I can feel this surge of energy and, and I just had this tremendous sense of joy and, you know, everything is shiny and I find it to be effective for myself.
Chris Parsons [00:40:15 - 00:41:02]:
Yeah, that's the release that we want, you know, it's been held back. It's the joy that's been shadowed by the health challenges. So, when you get some freedom, you feel light and you feel like, okay, oh, there's light at the end of the tunnel. We're not stuck in this, in this healing crisis. And that's the mission of my work, is to help people to realize there's alternative treatments and there's things that, you don't need to be stuck, you don't need to be suffering. There are methods out there and these methods go back thousands of years. It's not all just deceiving, you know, there's a physical effect that's happening and it's profound and, you know.
Erica Carroll [00:41:02 - 00:41:10]:
And people just have thousands of years of practice, of evolution, of data, and then even you go and experience it for yourself and, and you can feel there's so much more. This is just this modality alone, you know, and then you get into all the other ones and it's super eye opening. Do you find in your clients, are there common ailments that people come in for or is it just a whole spectrum?
Chris Parsons [00:41:27 - 00:43:14]:
There's quite a spectrum. Now, I think people are discovering acupuncture because they can just google it and then, say, like, how do I cure my insomnia? Or how do I cure menstrual cramps, or how do I stop anxiety? Pain is one of the main reasons that people come in. They just can't take the pain, or their partner can't take them complaining about the pain anymore. So, neck pain, back pain, joint pain, any kind of pain is treatable with acupuncture and as well as internal medicine conditions we would consider that are like insomnia or something where there's some imbalance in the nervous system. Looking at it with our own Chinese Medicine lens, we can identify more clearly that individual's syndrome, and where their particular imbalance is and help to restore, their sleep, if that's the case, I have a general practice I focus on, definitely a lot of pain syndromes are what we treat mostly because that's what brings people in sooner. You know, they can put up with lack of sleep, they can put up with stress and anxiety, or just, just push through. But pain is what will force people to take action. So that's what we see a lot more. And living in Whistler, where everyone is hyperactive and doing extreme sports year-round, there's lots of sports injuries that need to be taken care of, and people are very driven to return to their sport as soon as possible. Everyone and all their friends are out playing in the snow or in the sunshine, mountain biking and doing, you know, skiing and snowboarding and stuff, they're driven to get back to their sport, so they take action.
Erica Carroll [00:43:15 - 00:44:27]:
It is interesting, you know, you're saying, they're having sleep issues or anxiety issues, and it's the pain that gets you to really pay attention. Yeah, but if we pay attention to not sleeping, which causes a cascade of issues, and then the anxiety, which is going to cause a whole hormone response in the body, and you're already tipping the scale and the pain or the manifestation of some dis-ease is your end thing. So if we can focus on that, these are the warning signs. Your body gives you warning signs.
And I'm speaking from experience because I had 20 years of warning signs, and then my body finally went, that's it, enough. Like, you're going to pay attention now. So acupuncture can help all the different ways in which it opens channels and it gets blood flowing and it gets energy moving. That's another thing, too. It’s like, oh, pain is just this thing. It's just this nerve. It's just this one thing. But it's, again, it's this web of complex components that creates the whole issue in the first place. That's why I like acupuncture, because you're coming at it from all these different angles at the same time.
Chris Parsons [00:44:27 - 00:45:28]:
Yeah, you're looking at the branch and the root of an illness. And, you know, a western medicine approach is typically, often, treating the branch and not, the root. They're getting the symptoms and taking a pill. It will relieve those symptoms and mask them, or maybe sometimes give some longer-term relief. But we're always trying to identify both. You treat the branch and the root at the same time. You try to relieve the symptoms as soon as possible and target them right from the beginning of treatment. Looking at the root of the problem, like, why is this dysregulation coming? Why is this chronic pain here? You know, what muscle imbalance is there? What organ system imbalance? You know, is it people's blood sugar regulation, their hydration, their digestion? Whatever is out of balance is the root of the problem. So, we're doing both all the time and chasing the root to see it so that we can prevent the manifestation of that root from turning into the branch symptom.
Erica Carroll [00:45:28 - 00:46:02]:
And when you speak about if the practitioner goes out of the room and people are just there in a meditative state, you're also processing those other levels. The emotional, the spiritual, all that stuff is also part of our dysregulation. So, the acupuncture is also helping access those levels as well, which has to be given attention. And quite often, it's like, if you can address that, the rest follows.
Chris Parsons [00:46:02 - 00:46:49]:
Illness originates, in spirit. So in our nerves, our story, you know, in our own personal narrative and experience. And so if you can treat the nervous system and that spiritual aspect, then you can help to quiet the story and help people to rewrite the story and reimagine it, because what people believe is their reality. If you can help them to just make a little shift in their thinking at the same time using either dialoguing with people or using certain acupuncture points, which expand their ability to create a newer narrative, your bigger picture idea, then you can shift the whole course of healing.
Erica Carroll [00:46:49 - 00:47:03]:
Do you ever find people resistant? Sometimes when you come up against someone's story and they've really identified as that story. Do you ever notice friction from people or?
Chris Parsons [00:47:03 - 00:48:21]:
Yeah, I think rarely do I feel a resistance. I'm sure there's people who internally have a dialogue going on that I'm not privy to. I'd rather be someone’s shot of whiskey than everyone's cup of tea kind of mentality. The people who come to see me, I mean, I believe that the universe works in unique ways and those who are showing up for me because I have my skillset or experience is what they need and that's why they're there. And it just seems to work that way that, the majority of people, you can just, it's more, it's more giving them a question to ponder that makes them shift and go, oh, maybe this is from this aspect, or maybe I need to visit this place in my mind or clear out some old emotional baggage this way, or just opening their awareness to another aspect of health that they didn't realize was going on.
But again, yeah, there's, for sure there's a percentage of people who probably don't come back and see me and move on to a different practitioner, which is awesome. Everyone needs to self-select and figure out that working relationship. And so, I have thick skin. I don't let that bother me. I just, I do what I do and if it fits, then it's awesome. And we have a good working relationship. If not, then it helps to push them into the person that's going to help them, you know?
Erica Carroll [00:48:21 - 00:48:54]:
Yeah. And you attract your ideal clients. You attract the frequency and the vibration of the people who are going to resonate, like you said. And that's something I think is really important for a healer to operate from that place where it's, am I the person for this person? And it takes humility to release someone too. Because you can't heal everyone and you're not the right fit for everyone.
Chris Parsons:
Exactly.
Erica Carroll:
Can you overdo acupuncture? Like, could you do acupuncture every day and be fine? Or is there an overdose point?
Chris Parsons [00:48:54 - 00:50:40]:
I think that when someone's in a state of chronic pain or acute pain, that they really need a lot of acupuncture. You could do it daily. In China, people would come daily for acupuncture, but westerners tend to respond more quickly for some reason, to acupuncture. And so, we don't really have that need. But it would, it's tough to overdo it. You would change your treatment method based on how often you're seeing someone, and you would just shift it a little bit so you're not over stimulating one area of the body, but still influencing circulation and flow in those areas that are needing it.
So, I mean, I usually tell people to come once a week when they're working through a problem, and that can be a kind of a nice balance of not too little, not too much. But if someone was undergoing something really, really serious and, you know, we could do it every day for, you know, for weeks and it wouldn't be too much unless someone was chronically fatigued or very, very old or very, very weak or had some, you know, chronic, a serious disease where they were, where you don't want to sap their energy because it's energetically demanding to get the acupuncture. And then some people feel very, very tired after, mostly because they're sleep deprived and fatigued and just pushing through, and then they're … I feel like you see people who get fatigued, and I always tell them it's your body telling you to rest. Like it actually needs that nap, you need that earlier to bed routine and to restore that better sleep cycle, and then they can recover. Most people don't come more than once a week, for both financial and just time considerations.
Erica Carroll [00:50:41 - 00:50:48]:
Right. You also practice and teach Tai Chi and Qigong. What inspired you to learn about it and then promote it?
Chris Parsons [00:50:48 - 00:54:01]:
Yeah, so I chose the school that I attended, because they had such a Tai Chi and Qigong component to it. I'm a do-it-yourself person, through and through my whole life and so I was always searching for ways to heal myself and I intuitively sensed, well, Qigong is definitely a healing art. Tai Chi is a martial art primarily, but it's also a form of Qigong. It's a very high-level form with a martial arts foundation to it. I intuitively knew that that was what I needed for my body. I had been living in Japan for three years and training in martial arts and getting a lot of hands-on treatments, shiatsu and Japanese massage but I kept injuring myself and still dealing with chronic back pain, that was extreme at times, and would make me bed rest only, type thing. And that was so frustrating. I thought that I was getting stronger and smarter in my body, but in the end, I needed to learn how to be softer and nurture my body. And Tai chi and Qigong both provided that aspect. And within my first two months of studying Tai chi and Qigong daily, because that was a part of my school program, plus I was studying outside of school and practicing, I was doing 4 hours of practice a day probably, but my back pain was 90% cured within that first six weeks to two months. I've practiced every day since I was in my twenties, and I just turned 50 this summer and I'm young now and it's thanks to that movement art. Every day you move your body, and you regulate your body there. They're a system, they're a branch of Chinese medicine that is the self-healing art. You know, the mentors and the teachers that I try and emulate, are senior citizens who move like they're in their thirties. And so, it really shows you that potential. I was really drawn to it for all those levels.
I also wanted to have a system that you could teach people that you're not just, you know, we have a saying in Chinese Medicine, the body is a garden. And so, you know, the garden is not a complex thing to regulate. Any landscape gardener, anyone can tell you what the five basic problems of a garden are, get out there with the shovel or the water or the trimmer and you just use strategy and experience to facilitate that healthy, glowing garden. And the body is the same way. So, I didn't want to be stuck as being everyone's gardener. I can help them to learn those few basic things and they can take care of it themselves. Then that benefits my treatments because they're facilitating that flow and that healing practice on their own. Then they respond better to the acupuncture, so it becomes a reciprocal kind of modality. And then people walk away empowered, with knowledge. It's nothing. I'm not the holder of the secrets. These are the arts of the people that need to be shared.
Erica Carroll [00:54:01 - 00:56:11]:
In North America, we tend to think, you know, no pain, no gain. I was always running; I was lifting weights. My body's getting more and more and more in pain. And then I remember you introduced me to Qigong and the first time I did it, I was like, well, this is going to be so easy. I was like, I have to move so slow. You're just so used to that pounding at it and just pounding your body and that you’ve got to feel pain, but you just don't. It really is a retraining. I do remember even the first time I was introduced to osteopathy, I had been getting weekly deep tissue massages for this neck and shoulder pain, to the point that I'd be like bearing down while they're working on me. And I was like, this is good. This is gonna be good. You know, you're in so much pain. And then I go to osteopathy, and the guy just has his hands on my head, and I'm lying there going, are you serious? Like, am I actually paying for this?
Chris Parsons:
Right?
Erica Carroll:
And I had the most amazing release after that very first session. And it was almost spooky because I was like, what is happening? And all this emotional stuff came out. He's got his hands on my head, and he's telling me about an injury from my face in my childhood. Like, he asks about this injury in my childhood. I'm just like, what is going on? I have to do an interview with someone all about osteopathy, obviously. But it's this conditioning or belief system, or you're limited in what you're exposed to, and you think that it has to be hard on you.
For some people, that is the way it works, and it works best for them, but you may actually be a very sensitive person, and that's also okay. And there's also different practices that may be more beneficial. I think part of the thing is we try to fit ourselves into the same mold. You know, we got to keep up with everyone else we got, but we're all built so uniquely that imagine if there was only that way of doing things. I mean, we'd all be exhausted and broken.
Chris Parsons [00:56:11 - 00:58:16]:
Yeah. Stretch. To accept new things. And, you know, I had to suspend my disbelief and my own cynicism or criticism of many of these systems, for I resisted for a long time, but I did the practice. But I would analyze and try and, like, how can this possibly be doing anything? Yeah, but I'll do it and then I experienced the healing, and then I was like, okay, well, why did that heal me? And then I went into that. I wrote my thesis project on Qigong and Tai Chi as an aspect of preventative medicine that can be incorporated into a hospital setting and went down the rabbit hole of research and found there's just so much research on so many levels of the benefits, and it's been known, and it's well studied and well documented. So that just kept pushing me. When people are skeptical, I'm like, that's great. Be skeptical. I still am. I catch myself playing both sides of it, being hyper woo woo and super skeptical at the same time. And those two sides of my brain going, analyzing from both ways and then eventually just silencing it and experiencing it and seeing it takes a little bit of openness, to just realize there's other ways.
I had the deep tissue massage tendency for years as well. And then I had cranial sacral therapy, one of my mentors, and then she completely fixed my back pain in an hour of this lightest touch. And I was like, okay, I got to redefine what healing is. And then you realize below the conscious level, you don't need to be struggling. You know, your body can, can make the changes it needs with such subtle touch. When it's, when your suffering is witnessed and addressed in that gentle way, it can be even more powerful. Both tools have different, you know, deep tissue massage. I still can enjoy some of that. And for years, I just tended towards the super light and the cranial sacral style and the acupuncture. And then now I've kind of found a balance and realized, like, sometimes you need this, sometimes you need that. You’ve got to adapt.
Erica Carroll [00:58:16 - 00:59:03]:
Like you were saying, at different times, different things. At this point, I have used so many different practices and modalities and practitioners that I can go, yep, I need to go get my head tweaked a little bit, you know, just osteopathy. I know now that if I go to the dentist or get my haircut, I always schedule a little tweak afterwards just because the way I'm holding my head, people don't even realize, like, holding your jaw open that long, it can really affect the alignment of everything, the flow of everything. It's just good to be aware of, let's see here.
Do you wake up in the morning and you have a mantra or health? Is there a certain quote that inspires you regarding health? Something you'd be willing to share like that?
Chris Parsons [00:59:03 - 01:01:22]:
I really like the body as a garden metaphor because it just reminds you, you got to pull the weeds. And it's not profound, it's not esoteric, it's just practical. We didn't need, we don't need to study the content and the chemical breakdown of a seed for people to plant it in the ground and grow it into something that produces food or fruit. Its basic level, it’s, get out there with a shovel, it doesn’t need to be a certain shape shovel. It doesn’t, you know, there’s not a lot required for natures program that’s embedded in the DNA of all of nature to be enacted, we just have to remove those slight obstacles, you know?
And again, the master gardener looks at a garden and can solve those problems immediately. Like, oh, there's not enough water here. There's too much water there. There's too much heat. These plants don't work there. And they can cultivate into this Zen garden. You know, I used to live with a gardener who had the most amazing English garden in her backyard and it was just so gorgeous. And then the next-door neighbor had just, it was just wild. It was just weeds and long grass. And I would compare and be like, you know, this is a cultivated garden and that's a wild garden. And they both have their own sense of beauty. But you can cultivate it with just putting your time in. It's an investment in yourself. And so, movement practices, you know, getting work done from therapists and healers and, and engaging in the basics is everything and can be so profound and life changing. And it doesn't take something, it doesn't take a belief system. No one had to believe that the seed was going to produce fruit to see, we didn't wait thousands of years to start, to prove that gardening and farming was growing. The food that we ate, it just did it. It was self-evident.
And that's what we need to return to is like, the body is a healing mechanism, but like you say, there's vested interests in the world that want to make it a profitable thing. You know, it's all for profit. But if we can help people to grow their own food a little bit, so to speak, and tend to their own garden, then we can raise the general level of health with next to nothing, and it costs nothing. It's just your own time and effort.
Erica Carroll [01:01:22 - 01:02:10]:
So that's interesting. The body is a garden, but the body also functions best in the garden, in nature. You know, we've got all the biomimicry devices like the PEMF and red lights for the sun, but all of that stuff is free. When you put your feet on the ground, you get that air, you get that vitamin D from the sun. You get the morning sun codes, as I call it, with that red light. And, you know, and just the frequency of the sounds that the birds make and all of it. And that garden is tending to your garden. So that is, I love that. That's so good. Chris, this was awesome. Thank you so much. Could you let us know in your clinic do you have a website, social media links, or anything like that?
Chris Parsons [01:02:11 - 01:02:19]:
My instagram is @whistlertaichi and my clinic is called Whistler wellness and it's www.whistlerwellness.ca
Erica Carroll [01:02:19 - 01:02:41]:Okay, great. Well, again, thank you so much. And if we could do this again, we could talk a bit more about tai chi and qigong, because I don't know much about it yet, so I need to chat with you more, and I look forward to my next appointment if you'll have me. Awesome. Thanks so much Chris.
Chris Parsons:
Thank you. Take Care.
Erica Carroll [01:02:41 - 01:03:12]:
To all our listeners, I want to wholeheartedly thank you for listening today. If this content resonates with you and compels you to like, follow or subscribe to Alchemy of Healing Podcast, we would be ever so grateful. Or if you're like me, when listening to a podcast and you hear some factoid that would be helpful for one of your friends or family members go ahead and share the episode link with them. It's the whole reason we created it. So until our next episode be free be well and stay weird you beautiful human.