Western Psychotherapy: An Introductory Overview - Whither the Yin and the Yang? Kevin Baker Baker describes the development of modern Western psychotherapy, and Core Process Psychotherapy (CPP), which integrates eastern spiritual traditions with psychotherapy. From this psycho-spiritual perspective, patterns within one's life situations, as well as deeper existential issues including impermanence, insubstantiality and the truth of suffering are explored. The qualities of the therapist are also discussed.
The Hurts, the Angst, the Blues: The Tangle of Pain, Emotion and Psychopathology David Mayor In this second article on chronic pain and its measurement (the first was published in EJOM Vol 2, No 4), Mayor provides a thorough literature analysis about the complex inter-relationships between pain, anxiety and depression. He discusses which comes first - pain or anxiety. He also explores how the emotional state of a patient relates to the task of pain prevention, particularly in regard to chronic pain sufferers.
Making Use of Acupuncture - A Psychotherapist's View Pauline Lucas This short article by an acupuncture client, who is a psychotherapist, describes her experience of using acupuncture. She found that TCM explanations complemented her own body-mind understanding and compared how psychotherapy opened up suppressed feelings while acupuncture similarly opened up blocked energy channels. This was effective both for the patient's physical and emotional well-being.
Grasping the Nettle: A Response to Reports of Adverse Events from Acupuncture Hugh MacPherson and Alison Gould The authors have drawn from reviews of the literature reports of adverse events, in particular Rampes and James (1995), Norheim (1996), Rosted (1996), Bensoussan and Myers (1996), and Ernst and White (1997) and have ascertained there are four main categories of adverse events: trauma, cross infection, physiological responses such as fainting or allergic reactions, and clinical misjudgement such as inappropriate removal of drug treatment or failure to refer. Based on their research findings, the authors estimate that the risks associated with acupuncture are very small compared to orthodox interventions. This conclusion is supported by a recent report from the USA National Institutes of Health (1997), which states 'one of the advantages of acupuncture is that the incidence of adverse effects is substantially lower than that of many drugs or other accepted procedures for the same condition.'
Give Me That Old Time Religion, It's Good Enough for Me Peter Mole In this article, Peter Mole discusses the internal causes of disease and explains how he feels that they have been marginalised in TCM, which tends to focus on the external causes of disease. The article also addresses how the practitioner/patient dialogue can affect patients' expectations and experience of acupuncture treatment.
Psyche and Substance Ken Lloyd Using a case history, the author shows how the patient's psyche can be helped with TCM; that even though the patient's psyche may be in a complicated state, it is in the understanding of yin, yang, qi, xue, jinye, i.e. 'substance', that TCM operates most effectively. Read the whole article
Life after Death: The Impact of Bereavement on the Elderly Patient Karen Simporis This short article looks at the various effects of bereavement on the body's qi of elderly people. As well as the commonly known effect on the lung qi due to grief, the liver energy may become stagnant as a result of anger, for example, or the kidney qi depleted due to fear.
What is the Meridian System Encoding? (Part 3) Phillip Beach Continuing on from his previous two articles, Phillip Beach analyses the Heart, Small Intestine, Bladder, Kidney, Pericardium, Sanjiao, Gall Bladder and Liver channels. He looks at how needling patterns affect the shape of disease, and at how acupuncture works on internal organs.
Ladder of the Soul: Ted Kaptchuk Seminar (December 1997; York, UK) Charles Buck The author reviews Ted Kaptchuk's seminar that described his interpretation of the shen of the five zang, and his idea of medicine without form. This was described by a famous herbalist who said: 'in the most direct form of healing, the patient feels better before they have taken the medicine’.
Back Issues 
