Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine Psychotherapy

  Chinese psychotherapy, also known as “intentional therapy”, is a method of treating emotional and mental disorders and certain physical illnesses using the theory and techniques of Chinese psychology. The main methods that can be used in psychiatric clinics and are unique include the method of emotional and spiritual compatibility, the method of yin and yang compatibility, the method of shifting essence and changing qi, and the method of blessing.  The method of “Emotion and Spirituality” is based on the law of the five elements, using one kind of emotion and spirit to restrain another kind of excessive emotion and spirit. The Su Wen – Yin and Yang should be the elephant in the room: “anger hurts the liver, sadness is better than anger; happiness is sad, fear is better than happiness; thinking hurts the spleen, anger is better than thinking; worry hurts the lungs, happiness is better than worry; fear hurts the kidneys; thinking is better than fear.” Patients with neurological disorders are often seen in the mood: anger, thought, sadness, when the collapse of ordinary psychotherapy is ineffective, the use of this method, often play an unexpected role.  Modern psychology believes that the mechanism of action is: the amount of pathogenic emotions can be lifted, change the direction of emotional stimuli, and can make the stimulus content recombination. Specific methods include anger therapy, joy therapy, panic therapy, sadness therapy, etc. In clinical practice, anger therapy can be used to treat the inability to eat, sleeplessness and depression due to excessive thinking that damages the spleen and earth, and it can also be used in the treatment of certain epilepsy and carbuncle. For heart pains, heart blockages and chest and diaphragm discomfort caused by excessive sadness, it can be treated with joy therapy.  Panic therapy can be used to treat illnesses caused by excessive joy, such as incessant laughter, sleeplessness, and epilepsy. When using this method, we should pay attention to control the intensity of stimulation, the emotional stimulation used for treatment must exceed and overwhelm the pathogenic factors, but also in the disease that is to stop, and according to the cause of the disease to choose targeted emotional stimulation; Second, Yin and Yang phase victory method is based on the different properties of Yin and Yang, more use of the opposite direction of regulation, in order to disrupt the patient’s original pathological rhythm. If the disease occurs in the upper part of the body due to Qi rebellion, in order to lower the rebellion, the emotion of intimidation should be used to treat it. Because “fear is qi down”, it can calm the upper rebellious qi. The Ling Shu a miscellaneous diseases” chapter said: “retching, …… big frightened, can also have.”  This is the specific application of this method. Another example is that the qi and blood stasis in the upper part of the body, in order to move the qi and break the stasis, according to the principle of the upper part of the “thus over the”, choose the intense emotions of anger treatment. “Anger brings down Qi”. The blood stasis will be vomited out with the rebellious qi, and the disease will gradually be cured. In addition, this method to regulate the bad emotions, in the clinical application of its wide range of practical, worth learning.  The method of shifting emotions and changing qi is to shift the patient’s attention to the disease through language and behavior, so as to adjust the rebellious qi. This method can be applied to a wide range of diseases. This method is suitable for a wide range of illnesses, such as forgetfulness, vomiting, chest pain, thirst, heart carbuncle, etc. It can be used for all illnesses. However, when doing symptom transfer or symptom conversion, attention should be paid to changing internal diseases into external diseases. The transfer of serious illnesses to light illnesses, and the transfer of symptoms from critical areas to non-critical areas.  Blessing method is to bless the cause of the disease, to relieve or alleviate the patient’s psychological pressure, and to adjust the emotion to cure the disease. The focus is on suggestion to stimulate the body’s instinctive ability to get rid of diseases and heal them, but it is different from the suggestion method, which is to “bless the cause of the disease”. It is used to treat certain emotional and physical illnesses. The practitioner is required to have a certain degree of medical knowledge and must understand the cause of the patient’s illness before the operation. The ancients gave the blessing a mysterious and sometimes superstitious color, in order to win the trust of people and move their gods. This method is suitable for those with mild or superficial diseases. If the disease is serious, it should not be used alone. At the same time, the doctor should be serious and convince the patient not to doubt.