Clinic Information
Please call the clinic to make an appointment 07 3857 8887.
Our clinic is located at 60 Lodge Road, Wooloowin, Brisbane northside.
We are in an old-style corner store with plenty of on road parking.
I have a general practice with an interest in digestive disorders, skin problems, injury and surgery recovery, mood disorders, auto-immune disorders and maintaining good health.
An appointment usually involves listening to your concerns, asking questions, taking the pulse, looking at the tongue and other examinations to arrive at a diagnosis and to develop a treatment plan. Some people prefer to have only acupuncture, or only herbs.
If you would like to discuss your health concerns in more detail and develop good health plans, you can book an extended appointment.
Acupuncture, Chinese herbs, diet, lifestyle, and meditation advice are my primary treatment methods. Where necessary I use, moxibustion, cupping, massage, and other Chinese treatment techniques. I am happy to collaborate with other practitioners to get the best result for you.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture involves the insertion of very fine needles into acupuncture points. The points are chosen based on a diagnosis of the pattern of symptoms and signs. This may involve the use of local and distant points. Point selection is also influenced by the recorded clinical experience of practitioners over centuries. We use an extensive literature describing ways of locating points, and the specific techniques to elicit the various effects of each point.
Treatment times vary. Most treatment take around 20-30 minutes. Sometimes massaging points or areas, using a heat lamp, locally applying herbs, using cupping or moxibustion and other ways of utilizing points are included.
Most basically acupuncture works by improving circulation. We say the circulation of qi (energy). Included in qi is nerve, blood, lymph, and circulation all types. Acupuncture also functions by balancing or harmonizing. For areas of the body, or certain organs or functions that are overactive, it calms. For those underactive it reinforces. Thereby restoring harmony. For example, a person presents with acid reflux, poor appetite, feeling like they don’t void their bowel, and find it difficult to get to sleep because of a busy mind. This may be an example of internal heat. Heat has the nature to rise so the person experiences acid reflux and a busy mind. Because of excess rising there is less descending, hence the feeling of not voiding the bowel. A practitioner discerns this pattern and choses points to restore harmony. That which should go down does, so the heat is cleared through proper bowel movements and doesn’t rush up causing reflux and a busy mind.
We use stainless steel single use, sterile, disposable needles. Most people feel nothing from the needles. Occasionally there may be a mild sensation. Very occasionally there may be a small bruise.
If you have any questions or are curious to know more, please ask.
View more information on acupuncture.
Chinese Herbal Medicine
Chinese herbal medicine is the prescribing of fresh and dried herbs, and occasionally minerals or shells, for help with a wide variety of health concerns.
First, a diagnosis based on patterns of signs and symptoms is made. Diagnosis may include questions, pulse, tongue, and physical examination. From this the nature, degree and possible development of a pattern is determined. Then a formula is written to address the patterns.
Formulas are often based on ones written many centuries ago. These have an extensive written record of case histories, ideas for modifications, and knowledge of how they work based on clinical evidence and experience.
Greg prefers to use the plant material and have you boil them up to make a cup of tea, taken usually twice a day. This is the most flexible, that is, we can tailor make a formula just for you. It is the strongest delivery method that often leads to results sooner. They have a distinctive smell and taste. Most people usually get used to those quickly. We do our best to track back to source to provide the best quality products we can. We do use other commercially manufactured cooked then dried and powdered herbs. These don’t require cooking and are well suited for people needing to take a formula over a long period of time.
Sometimes individual herbs or herbal formulas are prescribed for topical use, as a wash, in a bath, or to add to food. External applications are particularly helpful for things like injuries, post-surgery, and various skin conditions.
Because formulas are made to address your current patterns, as the patterns change so should your formula. For a sore throat, fever, and cough with lots of mucous, we make a formula to address those symptoms and their cause. After a few days and the sore throat and mucous have cleared but a dry cough persists, the formula should change to address the remaining symptoms. The heat clearing and mucous transforming herbs should not still be taken. A formula that worked well last year for a group of symptoms, may not be appropriate even for a similar set of symptoms this year. Because our health, our symptoms are influenced by so many things, we rarely prescribe the same formula for long term use, without occasional changes. For example, during an extended hot, humid period your usual formula may be modified to cool the body in the face of the weather. That modified formula would not be appropriate in the cold of winter. If you are wanting to use herbs, please check in regularly to make sure your formula is appropriate and working well for you.
It usually takes 20-30 minutes to make up a formula depending on the number of herbs in a formula and the number of bags prescribed. They are often ready at the end of an acupuncture treatment or while you wait. You can also pick them up later.
Chinese herbal medicine has a long history of health preservation and maintenance. We can always feel better, have better focus, sleep better, and feel more relaxed, digest more effectively and enjoy our lives more. Good health care is just that, caring for our health. It is not just for help with symptoms.
We will provide you with a list of the ingredients in the formulas made for you. Please ask if you have any questions. Because we use formulas, looking up the functions of individual herbs often won’t tell you much about how or why the formula was prescribed. We appreciate many are unfamiliar with our medicine. Please feel free to ask questions at any time.
Chinese herbal medicine is appropriate for people of any age and constitution.
View more information on Chinese herbal medicine.
Diet & Lifestyle Advice
We should remember that Chinese medicine is a stand-alone medical system. While we are familiar with acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, Chinese medicine includes diet and lifestyle advice; massage, muscle and joint manipulation, exercises; wound management, rudimentary surgery; fertility, pregnancy care, birthing skills and post-partum recovery; mental health care; public health issues like food and water quality, public sanitation, pandemic and disaster relief.
Here we consider primarily diet and lifestyle advice. What do we need to do to maintain and preserve health, or to recover health? In Chinese medicine, the main factors are nourishment, rest and recreation, movement, connection, and mind training. We will go them individually.