Acupuncture & Women's Health Clinic in Dorking

Elda Edwards
LicAc, BSc (Hons), MBAAC, Dip CHM

Five Element Constitutional Acupuncture & TCM

🌿 Five Element Acupuncture & Traditional Chinese Medicine

A Holistic Blend for Deep Healing right here in Surrey Hills.

At Eastern Remedies, we integrate the profound insights of Five Element Acupuncture with the time-tested diagnostic precision of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to offer you a truly comprehensive and personalised healing experience.

🌱 What is Five Element Acupuncture?

Rooted in ancient Taoist philosophy, Five Element Acupuncture is a deeply spiritual and emotional form of healing that focuses on treating the root cause of illness by working with the Five Elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water. Each element corresponds to a particular emotion, organ system, and season of life.

🔸 Focus: Emotions, spirit (Shen), constitutional imbalance
🔸 Goal: Restoring balance to your elemental nature to encourage deep self-healing
🔸 Unique Strength: Helps with long-standing emotional patterns, fatigue, anxiety, and trauma-related conditions

🌿 What is Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)?

TCM is a broad system of medicine that includes acupuncture, herbal medicine, dietary therapy, cupping, and more. It is rooted in the observation of patterns and symptoms and aims to regulate the flow of Qi (energy) and Blood throughout the body.

🔸 Focus: Physical symptoms, organ dysfunction, energetic blockages
🔸 Goal: Correcting imbalances like Qi deficiency, stagnation, or excess
🔸 Unique Strength: Excellent for treating pain, digestive issues, fertility concerns, hormonal imbalance, and complex physical complaints

🔗 How Do They Work Together?

Blending Five Element Acupuncture with TCM allows us to treat both the root (Ben) and the branch (Biao) of illness. While TCM works on relieving physical symptoms, Five Element Acupuncture addresses the emotional and energetic layers that often lie beneath.

💡 For example:
A patient with chronic headaches might receive TCM-style acupuncture for pain relief and organ regulation, and Five Element treatment to support emotional release and restore inner harmony.

✨ What Makes This Approach Unique?

✔️ Personalised Care – Treatments are tailored to your emotional constitution and your current physical condition
✔️ Depth + Precision – Addressing symptoms and their emotional/spiritual root
✔️ Integrated Tools – We may combine acupuncture with moxa, cupping, gua sha, or herbal medicine based on your needs
✔️ Long-lasting Results – When the body, mind, and spirit are all treated, healing goes deeper and lasts longer

Whether you're seeking help with physical symptoms, emotional overwhelm, or a general sense of imbalance, this holistic approach supports all layers of your being — gently guiding you back to your natural state of harmony.

🕊️ Healing isn't just about fixing symptoms — it's about reconnecting with who you are at your core.

🌿 Emotions & the Organs in Chinese Medicine

How Feelings Reside in the Body

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), every major organ is not only responsible for a physical function, but also holds and expresses specific emotions. These emotional energies are natural and vital—but when out of balance, they can contribute to both physical illness and emotional distress.

Here’s a breakdown of the organ-emotion connections within the Five Element framework:

🌳 Liver – Wood Element

Emotion: Anger, frustration, resentment

The Liver is in charge of the smooth flow of Qi (energy) throughout the body. When this energy stagnates—often due to stress, emotional repression, or overwork—it can give rise to irritability, outbursts, or internalised frustration.

🔹 In Balance: Clarity, decisiveness, healthy assertiveness
🔹 Out of Balance: Irritability, PMS, headaches, tightness in the body

🔥 Heart – Fire Element

Emotion: Joy (excess or lack), anxiety, restlessness

The Heart houses the Shen, or spirit, and governs our capacity for connection, love, and emotional warmth. A balanced Heart brings peaceful joy, while imbalances may result in anxiety, insomnia, or a sense of disconnection.

🔹 In Balance: Joy, compassion, meaningful relationships
🔹 Out of Balance: Panic, insomnia, scattered thoughts, over-excitement

🌍 Spleen – Earth Element

Emotion: Worry, overthinking, rumination

The Spleen governs digestion—of both food and thoughts. It’s easily weakened by excessive mental activity, leading to fatigue, bloating, and difficulty concentrating.

🔹 In Balance: Clear thinking, groundedness, nurturing energy
🔹 Out of Balance: Worry, brain fog, digestive issues, emotional exhaustion

🌬️ Lungs – Metal Element

Emotion: Grief, sadness, letting go

The Lungs are connected to our ability to breathe, release, and process loss. Unresolved grief or chronic sadness can weaken the Lung energy, making us more prone to respiratory issues and emotional numbness.

🔹 In Balance: Acceptance, clarity, reverence for life
🔹 Out of Balance: Grief, skin problems, breathlessness, withdrawal

🌊 Kidneys – Water Element

Emotion: Fear, insecurity, shock

The Kidneys hold our ancestral energy and are connected to willpower and survival instinct. Fear that is chronic or overwhelming can deplete Kidney energy, affecting both physical vitality and emotional resilience.

🔹 In Balance: Courage, inner strength, willpower
🔹 Out of Balance: Anxiety, fearfulness, fatigue, low libido

🧠 BONUS: Other Emotional Associations

While the Five Elements offer a primary framework, Chinese Medicine recognises that all emotions are natural. It is excessive, repressed, or unprocessed emotions that become pathological.

Acupuncture helps regulate these emotional imbalances by restoring energetic harmony to the corresponding organ system.

Oncology Acupuncture Support

🌿 Oncology Support Acupuncture

A cancer diagnosis can turn life upside down.

Over the years in clinic, I have seen more and more patients quietly carrying the physical and emotional weight of cancer treatment — fear, exhaustion, uncertainty, pain, insomnia, anxiety, digestive upset, and the feeling that the body is no longer their own.

💛 This is one of the reasons I decided to expand my practice to include dedicated oncology acupuncture support.

I am currently undertaking specialised postgraduate training in oncology acupuncture, focused on supporting patients safely alongside conventional medical care. This training combines modern scientific understanding, evidence-based practice, and traditional Chinese medicine principles, with particular emphasis on working safely and appropriately with patients undergoing chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, hormone therapy, and recovery after cancer treatment.

🌱 My aim is never to replace medical treatment, but to support the person as a whole — physically, emotionally, and energetically — throughout what can be one of the most challenging periods of life.

🌸 Who Is Oncology Acupuncture Support For?

This support may be suitable for people who are:

✨ Newly diagnosed with cancer
✨ Preparing for surgery
✨ Undergoing chemotherapy
✨ Receiving radiotherapy
✨ Having immunotherapy or hormone therapy
✨ Recovering after treatment
✨ Living with long-term side effects of treatment
✨ In remission or survivorship
✨ Experiencing stress, anxiety, insomnia, or emotional overwhelm related to cancer
✨ Looking for supportive integrative care alongside their oncology team

🌿 Treatments are always adapted carefully to your medical history, energy levels, stage of treatment, and how you are feeling on that particular day.

🌼 How Can Acupuncture Help During Cancer Treatment?

Modern research and hospital-based integrative oncology services increasingly recognise acupuncture as a supportive therapy that may help manage treatment-related side effects and improve quality of life.

Depending on the individual, acupuncture may help support:

🌙 Fatigue & Exhaustion

Cancer treatments can deeply affect energy levels and nervous system resilience. Acupuncture may help support recovery, regulation, and overall wellbeing.

🕊️ Stress, Anxiety & Emotional Support

Many patients describe feeling constantly “on edge” after diagnosis or during treatment. Acupuncture can help calm the nervous system and create space for rest and emotional processing.

😴 Sleep Disturbances

Difficulty sleeping is extremely common during and after treatment. Acupuncture may help regulate sleep patterns and reduce restlessness.

🌿 Nausea & Digestive Symptoms

Acupuncture has been widely researched for chemotherapy-related nausea and digestive discomfort.

💆 Pain & Muscular Tension

Some patients experience joint pain, neuropathy, tension, or post-surgical discomfort. Gentle acupuncture may help ease pain and improve comfort.

🌡️ Hot Flushes & Hormonal Symptoms

Patients undergoing hormone therapies may experience hot flushes, night sweats, mood fluctuations, and fatigue.

🌸 Emotional Reconnection With the Body

Many people feel disconnected from their body after surgery or intensive medical treatment. Acupuncture sessions often provide a quiet, restorative space to reconnect and feel supported again.

🍃 A Gentle & Individualised Approach

Every oncology support treatment is tailored carefully to the individual.

🌱 Sessions are gentle, restorative, and adapted according to:

✨ Current medical treatment
✨ Energy levels and fatigue
✨ Blood counts and overall strength
✨ Emotional wellbeing
✨ Sleep and digestion
✨ Pain levels and nervous system state

Where appropriate, treatments may also incorporate:

🌿 Dietary guidance from a Chinese medicine perspective
🌿 Warmth therapy (when suitable and safe)

🛡️ Safety is always the priority, and treatments are designed to work alongside your medical care — never against it.

🩺 Integrative Oncology Training & Ongoing Professional Development

As part of my ongoing postgraduate training in oncology acupuncture, I am studying specialised integrative approaches designed to support patients safely and compassionately throughout cancer treatment and recovery.

This advanced training combines modern medical understanding, evidence-based acupuncture research, and traditional Chinese medicine principles, helping practitioners work appropriately alongside oncology teams and conventional cancer care.

My ongoing training focuses on:

📚 Understanding the Impact of Cancer & Its Treatments on the Body

Cancer treatment affects far more than the tumour itself.

Modern oncology therapies can place enormous demands on the nervous system, immune system, digestion, circulation, hormones, sleep, emotions, and overall vitality.

My training explores:

The physical effects of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, immunotherapy, and hormone therapies
Cancer-related fatigue and nervous system exhaustion
The impact of treatment on digestion, appetite, sleep, and emotional wellbeing
Inflammation, neuropathy, dryness, pain, and post-treatment recovery
The psychological effects of diagnosis, uncertainty, and long-term survivorship
How treatment side effects may present differently from person to person

🌿 From a Chinese medicine perspective, we also study how prolonged illness and intensive medical treatment can affect:

Qi and Blood
Yin and fluids
The immune and defensive systems
Emotional resilience and Shen (spirit)
Recovery capacity and constitutional strength

This allows treatments to be adapted carefully according to each patient’s stage of care, energy levels, and overall condition.

🪡 Safe Acupuncture Protocols During Chemotherapy & Radiotherapy

Safety is one of the most important aspects of oncology acupuncture.

My training places strong emphasis on understanding when acupuncture is appropriate, when treatment should be modified, and how to work safely alongside medical care.

This includes:

Safe needling approaches for immunocompromised or fatigued patients
Understanding blood counts and treatment-related vulnerability
Adapting treatment intensity during chemotherapy cycles
Appropriate timing of acupuncture sessions around oncology treatment schedules
Supporting recovery after surgery or radiotherapy
Recognising contraindications and red flags
Understanding lymphatic considerations and post-surgical care
Gentle approaches for patients experiencing weakness, nausea, pain, anxiety, or exhaustion

🌱 Treatments are designed to support comfort and quality of life while respecting the demands that cancer treatment places on the body.

💛 I believe patients deserve care that acknowledges both the science of treatment and the human experience behind it.

🌷 What to Expect During Your Appointment

Your first appointment includes a detailed consultation where we discuss:

📝 Your diagnosis and medical treatment plan
📝 Current symptoms and side effects
📝 Energy, digestion, sleep, and emotional wellbeing
📝 Medications and medical history
📝 Your goals and concerns

🌿 Treatment is always adapted carefully to how you feel on the day.

Many patients describe sessions as deeply calming, grounding, and supportive during an otherwise overwhelming time.

💛 A Compassionate Space to Be Supported

Cancer treatment can feel isolating and physically demanding.

Sometimes patients simply need a place where they are listened to, supported gently, and treated as a whole person — not only as a diagnosis.

🌸 My intention is to offer a calm, compassionate, and safe environment where your body and nervous system can receive support alongside your medical care.

If you would like to discuss whether oncology acupuncture support may be suitable for you, please feel free to get in touch.

Electro - acupuncture

Electro-acupuncture has been especially effective for treating neurological diseases, paralysis, chronic pain, and spasms. It combines especially well with acupressure to promote blood flow, muscle warmth, pain relief, and removal of blood stasis.

Electro Acupuncture is the stimulation of acupuncture points with electric current, using needles.

The therapeutic goal is to promote the circulation of Qi and stimulate healing and EA is suitable for conditions we would regard as caused by stagnation of Qi and Blood.

Electro Acupuncture is particularly effective for invigorating the circulation in muscles that have become chronically contracted. By addressing the stagnation in the muscles we can bring the whole system back into harmony both on a physical and psychological level.

From a Western medicine perspective, Electro Acupuncture works by stimulating muscles, nerves, circulation of essential substances, nutrient delivery to damaged tissues, and by removing inflammatory chemicals (Van Laethem, 2018).

The effects of Electro Acupuncture can be faster and greater than manual acupuncture, and Electro Acupuncture can be used for conditions that are not responding to traditional treatment – both acute and chronic (Van Laethem, 2018).

Contraindications: patients with pace-makers, epilepsy, heart conditions, active haemorrhage, fever, infection, or in pregnancy (Van Laethem, 2018).

During the treatment the patient experiences a pleasant tingling sensation.

Cosmetic Acupuncture for Anti Ageing

Constitutional Facial Acupuncture for Rejuvenation is different from other treatment modalities because it treats the patients constitutionally, observing their genetic predispositions, their habitual tendencies, repetitive patterns that undermine their innate vitality.

Changes in our facial appearance are not only dependent on bone structure, the elastin layer of the skin, genetics and hormones, but also on the movement and intensity of facial muscles which are activated by our thoughts and emotions.

This approach means that the facial acupuncture is performed in conjunction with needling specific points on the body which will help the patient heal at a deeper level.

Face plays an integral part of the meridian pathways that flow from the soles of the feet to the extremities, and up to the head, skull and brain.

Constitutional Facial Acupuncture addresses each patient as an individual - therefore, the patients are not treated the same way every time they come for an appointment

What you will experience during a session:

decollete, neck and face cleanse
lymphatic drainage of the neck & face
tiny needles will be inserted in specific areas on your face and body
face & neck rejuvenation massage after the removal of the needles
Anti ageing Frankincense face mask
Finishing with Anti Ageing Frankincense serum and cream.

Are there any contra-indications?

Facial Rejuvenation Acupuncture is contraindicated for some pituitary disorders, heart disorders, diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, individuals who have a pacemaker or who have a problem with bleeding or bruising, or who currently suffer from migraine headaches.

Facial Rejuvenation Acupuncture should not be done during pregnancy, during a bout with a cold or flu, during an allergic attack or during an acute herpes

Cupping

Cupping therapy is currently all the rage amongst celebrities and athletes, but it is in fact centuries old.

Cupping is a safe, traditional treatment that helps resolve chronic muscle tightness and pain faster than massage therapy alone.

It increases circulation, it encourages tissues to release toxins.

Cupping reduces anxiety.

Cupping can reduce stretch marks and scars.

Cupping is like a reverse massage – instead of pushing into the tissue, it pulls.

Treatment involves placing cups onto the skin to create a vacuum which helps to increase blood and Qi flow, loosen fascia, stimulate healing and remove stagnation.

Cups are usually placed on the back, neck and shoulders, or the source of pain.

Cupping may leave temporary marks, depending upon the degree of suction created by the vacuum and the level of stagnation.

Moxibustion

The purpose of moxibustion is to strengthen the blood, stimulate the flow of qi and maintain general health.

It expels Cold and Dampness from the body.

Moxa is a good choice for those suffering from aches and pains.

The warming properties of moxa allow it to increase blood flow by warming the blood. Increased blood flow means increased oxygenation to the tissues, muscles and tendons that are sore.

It relieves pain - back, neck, shoulders.

It relieves menstrual pain.

It relieves pain from arthritis.

The herb material used is mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris, Ai Ye).

Mugwort has a long history of use in folk medicine. It is believed that the Romans planted mugwort by roadsides to make it available to travelers to put in their shoes to relieve aching feet and protect them from exhaustion.

Mugwort is used because of its acrid, spicy odor which makes it able to travel through all of the meridians, regulate qi and blood, and expel cold.

One of mugwort’s active components, borneol, is commonly used in topical therapies for its analgesic effects.

There are two types of moxibustion: direct and indirect.

In direct moxibustion, a small, cone-shaped amount of moxa is placed on top of an acupuncture point and burned.

In indirect moxibustion, a practitioner lights one end of a moxa stick, the shape and size of a cigar, and holds it close to the area being treated for several minutes until the area turns red.

Another form of indirect moxibustion uses both acupuncture needles and moxa.

A needle is inserted into an acupoint and retained.

The tip of the needle is then wrapped in moxa and ignited, generating heat to the point and the surrounding area. After the desired effect is achieved, the moxa is extinguished and the needle(s) removed.

Infrared Heat Lamp Therapy

Infrared light therapy provides effective relief for sore, stiff muscles and joints by directing heat deep into the tissues of the body.

Light therapy produces heat both at the surface of the skin as well as deep into the tissues below. This increases circulation and brings fresh blood to the area to nourish the tissues and flush away any toxins that may be present.

It is effective at relieving the pain and discomfort of ligament damage (sprains and strains), muscle spasms and chronic conditions like rheumatoid and osteoarthritis. Using light from the infrared spectrum, this form of therapy works deep below the surface of the skin.

It is extremely effective when used in conjunction with acupuncture and other types of traditional Chinese healing methods. By temporarily raising the temperature of the area being treated, it increases blood flow and relaxes the muscles and tissues.

Infrared light therapy is ideal for people who cannot tolerate deep tissue massage or require treatment in an area that is not easily accessible. An acupuncturist may choose to use infrared therapy during acupuncture or cupping session to enhance the benefits of the healing technique.

Relaxing the body and the mind prior to a treatment session removes any resistance and will increase the healing benefits the patient receives. Patients who are nervous or frustrated because of their condition and how it affects them, may be anxious or upset during a treatment session.

Using infrared light therapy will not only provide a means of relaxation, but will also stimulate the body’s own healing responses. Infrared light therapy is quite effective when it comes to treating the pain and discomfort associated with nerve disorders.

Sciatica and various forms of neuropathy can be effectively treated with light therapy.

Chronic conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia and chronic neck and back pain also respond well to this form of treatment.

Patients with bursitis, tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome and various types of injuries can also receive relief.

Edema or fluid build up around injured or damaged joints can also be addressed with infrared light therapy.

Guasha

For millennia, a therapeutic healing technique, known as Gua Sha, has been widely practised in China.
It involves using a round-edged tool, traditionally made from materials such as jade or metal, to press-stroke the skin until redness appears.
It relieves muscular tension, breaks up adhesions in the fascia, eases up tightness.
Speeds up the recovery process.
Gua Sha has been used to treat a whole range of conditions from fever to chronic cough and migraines.
In fact, it has been shown in studies to increase micro-circulation by 400%, clear inflammation and increase immunity.

Elda Edwards LicAc, BSc (Hons), MBAAC, Dip CHM