After a long retreat hiatus, we got together with our friend and Chinese Medicine practitioner Giulia Chiro @space______within to dream something new up for you at @high____noon in Warrandyte on Sunday May 3rd.
We will share somatic movement and meditation, medicinal food, a yin and acupuncture workshop, and Giulia will be crafting a Chinese Medicine tea and acupuncture bead package so that you can take the deep rest we practice at the retreat home with you. Every detail of the experience is designed to reset the nervous system and support deep sleep as we furl inwards towards the cooler months of the year.
We have 12 places available. And we are offering an early bird discount until April 1st (concession $180 full $240). Payment plans available at the checkout when you book via the link in our bio.
Design by @hantocanto
THANK YOU to the patients who walked through the doors of my little Athens clinic. To learn from you, to sit with you and to treat you was truly an honor!! The people of Athens really touched me, a city of beauty and chaos and so much heart.
I’m now back treating and doing what I love 🪡🪡🪡 in Melbourne (beginning on the Lunar New Year -VERY auspicious), with appointments in Fitzroy North, Altona and Warrandyte. Booking link is in my bio or DM me for North Warrandyte bookings.
If you’re in need of some care, whether it be stress, hormones, pain, digestion, insomnia or just feeling a little out of balance I’m here to support you.
As always, it is a pleasure to share this transformative medicine with you ❤️🔥
Giulia
Happy Lunar New Year 🌑🐍🪵
In 2024 the year of the dragon asked us to look at and let go of old outdated patterns and beliefs, and to mature. In the year of the snake, we collectively reach maturation through the shedding of old belief systems. We can utilise the snake’s transformative and creative energy to take slow, steady, calculated action toward meaningful change.
The energy of the snake is one of power and wisdom, allowing us to create union within ourselves, each other and our environment. It is creative, wise and intuitive. The snake’s intuition comes from being connected to both the earth and the heavens. It understands the intricate balance between both intuition and logic. It is tenacious, diligent and patient.
2025 asks us to assess which systems, structures and beliefs we wish to transform and how we can do so through innovative, steady and grounded action.
Gong Xi Fa Cai 恭喜发财 🧧✨Wishing you happiness and prosperity 🐍
I’m back in the clinic after a short break and reset, once again tending to and nourishing tired souls through the ancient and humble practice of Chinese Medicine. For many, acupuncture provides a place of pause, stillness, and spaciousness—a stillness and grounding that we may draw on as we move through and navigate a hurting world. It is my deepest honor to offer community care in times when it is most needed. Supporting pregnancy to grief, pain to digestive issues, or any persistent chronic conditions, acupuncture and herbal medicine serve as true allies on the health journey. This is a practice we can lean on in times of need.
Bookings are open and the link is in my bio ~ or feel free to reach out with any questions. I love hearing from you or seeing your faces in the clinic 🤍
Rebuilding energy post bleed 🫐
It’s likely that if you have long or heavy bleeds, you may be prone to feeling exhausted and in a slump during / post period. In eastern medicine we recommend energy building meals during and post bleed to replenish all the blood that was lost and prepare you for the rest of your cycle. This includes foods are easy to digest ❤️🔥 encourage the production and rebuilding of blood 🌹and have plenty of hydrating qualities, warm food with fluid for example (to rebuild Yin fluids)💧the digestive system doesn’t do great with dry food!
Oats like this are the holy grail of all breakfasts! an excellent way to start the day, super easy to digest and grounding. This means the Spleen and Pancreas (the main digestive organs in Eastern Medicine) can transform it into easy to use energy (Qi) and blood.
Pretty much anything red / purple in colour will build blood and berries are exceptional for this! As well as beetroot, red meat, and leafy greens.
Nuts such as hazelnuts, macadamia and walnuts are great for rebuilding Yin energy that is lost during a bleed.
Using these foods consistently sends the message to the body that it’s time to build blood! which in turn builds energy and also gives rise to beautiful glowing skin ✨
I love talking food as medicine and all of these little tips and tricks for building energy are part of a general Acupuncture consult.
G x
I’ve been thinking a lot this week about change. About how resisting change can wind up as pathology in the body. The stuck stagnant feeling in our minds can translate to our tissues and cause physical pain also.
Prentis Hemphill quotes ‘By every account we are standing on a precipice of necessary change, the seduction of contraction to do things as we’ve always done, to settle into the stale and oppressive beliefs and behaviors, to be lulled by the familiarity of fear ~ is to miss what is the awkward messy, loving change that is our due’.
Creative possibility lies within this change. May we continue to be the awkward messy, loving beings that we are, settle into the change that is our due and support one another through this evolution.
Hello! I’m back from Japan and back to regular programming at @quiescence.chinese.medicine 🪡carrying with me a whole lot of inspiration and information from being fortunate enough to observe at a clinic in Tokyo.
I am so excited to have some acupuncture needles back in my hands and to be able to be there for my patients again.
I am constantly in awe of (and owe my own health personally) to Acupuncture and it’s ability to assist those who seek it out.
It’s a side effect free, pain free and pretty damn relaxing way to alleviate pain, help with digestive issues, regulate period cycles, quiet the mind, get you sleeping through the night, soften your neck muscles, get rid of those pesky pimples that just won’t leave. I could go on forever.
If you have any questions about how it can support you please feel free to reach out.
G x
How does Acupuncture actually work? 🌀🪡
Acupuncture is one branch of Traditional Chinese Medicine that has been used for thousands of years to assist health & well-being and to cure ailments. It aims to bring us back to our natural state of being. A homeostasis.
Qi flows through channels in the body called meridians. When there is an imbalance or blockage in the flow of Qi ~~/~~ it can result in pain or illness.
Acupuncture uses the insertion of fine, sterile needles into points on the body with a specific function. Mostly to affect the way Qi or Blood, Yin or Yang interact with this point. Acupuncture works by stimulating specific points on these meridians to restore the flow of Qi and promote the body's natural healing process.
In a TCM consult we work through a complex diagnostic process to understand the way this Qi is flowing and which specific points will assist the body in its ailment.
The acupuncture needles themselves are very fine (like, a few hairs width kind of fine) and are inserted just below the skin's surface. Most people experience little to no discomfort during the treatment. I tell my patients that sensation with the needles is good! It means that Qi and Blood are moving and that the acupuncture is taking effect.
Before inserting the needles I will often palpate the body, and after I have gained consent I go by direct feedback to make sure you are comfortable and so is the sensation of the needles.
If you’re curious about the practice I am always open to questions via DM or email. Let’s chat ✉️
📷 Spring Awakening, Riita Ikonen, 2017
The health journey can sometimes feel like a constant unraveling. It takes vulnerability and patience.
TCM aims to uncover the layers in order to get to the root cause, the why. It sometimes may look like symptoms getting worse before they get better. Sometimes, the body needs to vent. Up and out. Consider this the body’s way of moving through something, whether it be physical or emotional - it cannot stay contained within the body it must move freely, it is not meant to be held.
In Eastern Medicine it is viewed that symptoms within the body are the body’s way of notifying you of an imbalance. We aim to understand the individual, right there as they are.
Your health journey is unique to you ~ and you deserve to be listened to and understood. You are not a diagnosis, you are not bound to a diagnosis.
With patience and the right team of people to support you, healing is possible. Not just in the absence of illness and symptoms but also in greater richness, depth, self-knowing, creativity and aliveness.
🌀Christian Kerez, ‘Cavernous Cloud, 2016
Qi is a central concept in Traditional Chinese Medicine. It refers to the vital energy or life force that flows through all living things, including our bodies. It is the inextricable link between all living beings.
In Chinese medicine, Qi is believed to circulate throughout the body along specific pathways known as meridians, and when it flows freely, we experience good health and wellbeing. However, when Qi is blocked or depleted, we may experience pain, illness, or emotional imbalances. That's why many traditional Chinese medicine practices, such as acupuncture, acupressure, and herbal medicine, aim to restore the flow of Qi and rebalance the body's energy.
I’m often asked how to feel Qi. The best answer is to quiet down and listen to your body’s sensations. Qi can be felt through practice or training, and becoming acutely aware of these intrinsic sensations in the body when quietening down during acupuncture or meditation. Qi is the movement you may feel when an acupuncture needle is inserted. It may feel like pooling, prickling, grabbing, or a range of other sensations and it can be very unique to the person 🪡✨
🌀 Otto Künzli, ‘Ring for Two’ 1980
The medieval chinese spoke of the term Li.
The thread that connects all beings. The patterns embodied in all living things. The principle of pattern in all its forms. For 23 centuries, ancient Philosophers and Physicians alike studied nature, both human nature and that of the universe, other beings and the world around us. Both the tangible and intangible.
Over years they learnt to interact with, yield it and to cultivate it. This guiding force and thread they saw to be the common amongst it all. They called this Qi. It is life’s animating force and substance. They saw this flow of Qi within the human body, and it’s fluctuations, in tissue and in blood, within so as without. In the streams and springs and flowing rivers, the patterns inscribed in wood, the cracks in the dry soil, in fertile and abundant moss, and moist earth. Chinese Medicine was birthed and evolved through the philosophy that human beings are a microcosm of the world around us.
Chinese Medicine rests upon the both tangible as well as the spiritual, subtle, ephemeral and invisible. They are regarded with a similar significance in terms of healing the human body. Caring for the human spirit is just as important as looking after what can be seen, touched and measured.
And so birthed this holistic medicine.
🌀Sonja Hinrichson, Snow Tracks, 2014
