TELEMEDICINE IN THE TIMES OF PANDEMIC
The title of this blog reminds me of one of my favorite books called “Love in the Times of the Cholera” by Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The book is about life and love during an awful cholera epidemic in a world of magical realism.
The human race has endured many epidemics through known history, but we, the current earthlings haven’t. We thought we were superhumans! We thought that with our technology, we had conquered Nature, we thought we were in control. But this infinitesimal, not even independent life form has brought us to our knees. Our world is upside down.
What to do? How to proceed?
Usually, my “modus operandi” when disaster strikes is as follows.
First: I acknowledge. This is a Disaster!!! I could even curse or scream in this stage. There is no point on denying what it is or to fight it or run away from it.
Second: I let myself be miserable…for a very short time. That is, I throw a pity party. It is usually a private party. I let my emotions play, I look at them and I feel them.
Third: Party is over, I get up, clean the mess, face the Disaster and FLOW with it. I usually have to go out of the box and look for creative new solutions, I might even have to change habits and patterns that no longer work. At the beginning it is not a very comfortable situation but with time, you get use to it, you make friends with it. The new reality sets in.
Where are we standing now? It has been over a month since the stay at home mandate, is the Shock over? We have certainly had enough of “corona news”. Are we stuck in the “being miserable” stage? Certainly many people that have lost their jobs and live-hoods and have had their lives disrupted in a disastrous way have all the right in the world to feel miserable! Or…are we getting adapted, are we flowing with the “new normal”?
At this stage of the Pandemic, we might be tired of the politics, of the confusing news, of the social distancing, of the zoom calls! Maybe feeling a bit hopeless, anxious for the uncertain future, wishing that “all went back to normal”. But Now is the time to remember what we humans do best: WE humans ADAPT, we humans are capable of change, even if we don’t like it. We humans are resilient, creative, innovative.
Many of us are doing this now, finding new ways to keep living fulfilled lives. And let me tell you, there is no better creative force than necessity!
At Full Moon Acupuncture and Healing Arts Center we adapt and flow with the times. Telemedicine has emerged as a great way to serve our patients simply because Oriental Medicine is not just the needles. Acupuncture, – the insertion in the body of sterilized needles in so called acupuncture points- is an important and efficient way of working with the energies but IT IS NOT THE ONLY WAY, and in times of need, we can reach out and bring back other modalities and efficient treatments to get you back to health and balance.
How can I help you if not physically present? If you are familiar with my practice, you already know. But if this is all new to you…Do you know why I named my practice Full Moon (the Moon inspires me) Acupuncture (the obvious and most known modality of Chinese Medicine) AND HEALING ARTS Center? Because I practice the Integrative Art of Chinese Medicine, inserting needles is part of this ancient art but not all. The not-that-well-known part of Chinese Medicine and the other Healing Arts are what I use in the telemedicine to allow me to still be able to care for my patients.
We would all agree that a good diagnosis is key for an effective treatment. Can we still diagnose using video? How?
To gather data for a diagnosis, the Chinese Medicine practitioner asks questions to the patients, observes and listens, looks at the tongue, and takes the pulse and palpates. All that but for the palpation and pulse can be easily done in a videoconference. Regarding the palpation and pulse, even though we cannot feel the “physical pulse”, we can still feel the “subtle pulse” of the person we are connecting with. An experienced practitioner does not need to “touch” a person to make an energetic connection and get information of what is happening to them. How many times my patients have asked me “how do you know that? How can you tell? Energy medicine, -and Chinese Medicine works with the subtle energies- the beauty of this ancient art of Oriental Medicine and other Healing Arts is that it also reaches beyond the physical to the emotional and the spiritual bodies.
Yes, we need to care for our bodies, and right now, strengthen our immune system to say the least! In a video session after the questioning and observation and listening that allows me to reach a diagnosis, therefore, I custom make the proper recommendations for herbs, supplements, homeopathy and food, and proceed with instruction on any other modalities that are appropriate to the case.
And how about emotional-spiritual issues? As we all know the emotional aspect plays an important role in the physical well-being. Now more than ever we are in need for emotional and spiritual support. Our world is changing too fast, uncertainty leads to fear and often fear leads to anger and confusion. Also, hidden unprocessed emotions can resurface now and Anxiety can get the best of us. Thankfully, Chinese Medicine and other Healing Arts are well equipped to provide tools to maintain our mental and spiritual balance. Through Breath work instruction, guided imagery, EFT, self massage instruction, qi gong exercises recommendations, acupressure, DISTANT HEALING, aromatherapy and of course, Chinese herbs and homeopathy we can regain our center, we can find HOME.
The times are changing, and Telemedicine and Distance Healing are here to stay!
How to book a TELEMEDICINE SESSION
*In the TELEMEDICINE TAB in the menu at https://aliciavillamarin.com/telemedicine/
*or by calling or texting 954-540-9583
*or e mailing to fullmoonhealingartscenter@gmail.com
