-IBIS-1.5.0-
tx
musculoskeletal system
Dupuytren's contracture
psychospiritual approaches

metaphors and correlations

Chinese psychophysiology:
Liver ~ Gan is the home of the Hun (Ethereal Soul); it relates to decisiveness, control, and the principle of emergence; maintains smooth flow of Qi and Xue (Blood); controls the muscles, ligaments, and tendons, especially the contractility of the muscles and moistening of the sinews; and reflects emotional harmony and movement.
» Healthy expressions are kindness, spontaneity, and ease of movement.
» Liver Qi Stagnation reflects and accentuates emotional constraint as the Liver's function of facilitating smooth flow in the body is constricted. Stagnation is associated with frustration, irritability, tension, and feeling stuck. With time this pattern tends to produce a gloomy emotional state of constant resentment, repressed anger or depression, along with tightness in the chest, frequent sighing, abdominal tension or distension, and/or a feeling of a lump in the throat with difficulty in swallowing. (Maciocia, p. 216)

Gall Bladder ~ Dan is the source of courage and initiative, and is responsible for decision-making as the bodily Minister of Justice; controls circulation of the nourishing and protecting energies [Ying Qi and Wei (Protective) Qi]; and expresses itself through the sinews (ligaments and tendons).
»
Healthy expressions are kindness, decisiveness, control, and spirit of initiative.
» Gall Bladder Shi (Excess) signs include tiredness; sighing; irritability; bitter taste in the mouth in the morning; pain in all joints; edematous knees and legs (Seem, p. 29); tinnitus; lateral headache; heaviness in head and stomach; muscular spasms; and limbs slightly cold.

Kidney ~ Shen stores Jing (Essence) and governs birth, growth, reproduction, development, and aging; houses the Zhi (Will); expresses ambition and focus; controls the bones; and displays the stresses of aging and chronic degenerative processes.
» Healthy expressions are gentleness, groundedness, and endurance.
» Kidney Xu (Deficiency) signs include indecisiveness; confused speech; dreams of trees submerged under water; cold feet and legs; abundant sweating (Seem, p. 28); hearing loss; fearfulness; apathy; chronic fatigue; discouragement; scatteredness; lack of will; negativity; impatience; difficult inhalation; low sex drive; lumbago; sciatica; and musculoskeletal irritation and inflammation, especially when worse from touch.
»
Intense or prolonged fear depletes the Kidney. Often chronic anxiety may induce Xu (Deficiency) and then Fire within the Kidney. (Maciocia, p. 250) Overwork, parenting, simple aging, and a sedentary or excessively indulgent lifestyle all contribute significantly to Kidney Xu (Deficiency).


therapies

imagery:
• Go into pain, and see, hear, feel what happens (pressure, pulling, rigidity) and follow to symbolic meaning. (Bry, p. 76)
• beaver dammed (Chavez): liver-related tension

process paradigm: (experientially oriented)
• What is the symptom preventing me from doing? What is the symptom making me do? (related materia medica listings: musculoskeletal system interview)

related materia medica listings:
the shadow and physical symptoms
body reveals: the spirit
converting a symptom to a signal
process paradigm


footnotes

Reprinted from The Foundations of Chinese Medicine, Maciocia, Giovanni, 1989, by permission of the publisher Churchill Livingstone, a division of Elsevier Limited.