ASK Karina Templeton about the way people approach health and wellness these days and she believes we’re seeing some balance in integrating a more clinical Western approach with traditional Eastern methods that are steeped in history.

With a double degree in Health Science and Chinese Medicine, she’s a practitioner who certainly appreciates and respects conventional practices but who has a real passion for Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine principles and associated treatments.

“I’ve studied in a very clinical based environment and I guess I’m now going back to more traditional ways,” she told the Diary. “There’s definitely a way to integrate both in using Western and Chinese Medicine.

“The principles of Chinese Medicine, like eating through the seasons and that kind of thing, have always been there, but we just somehow lost it when there was such a shift to Western medicine. Then, of course, processed foods and busy lifestyles causing stress came into it and I think now people are realising those things are not good for them.”

She believes we’re becoming a lot more conscientious and informed, there’s greater awareness – especially with the internet coming into play on the research front: “I went to a conference recently and they pointed out the importance of knowing what we’re prescribing because it’s so easy for people to simply jump on Google and tell you what’s happening. We certainly have to be on top of it.”

Karina moved to Warrandyte this time last year and is setting about establishing her Chinese Medicine practice from home in Lorraine Avenue to be able to enjoy our village lifestyle and environment while raising a family with husband. Karina uses Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine as part of her “compassionate, supportive treatments” and incorporates modalities such as Cupping, Electro Stimulation, Moxibustion and Chinese Diet and Exercise Therapy.

She studied myotherapy at RMIT in her early 20s, but says she knew it just wasn’t quite for her as the process was taxing on her body as well as the patients’, and she found it was very much about the same musculoskeletal conditions, “of which it works really well for, but it just wasn’t all I wanted to do”.

“So while doing that I had to do some clinical placements where I worked with a whole variety of practitioners and I did it with a Chinese Medical practitioner and was blown away,” Karina says. “It was so gentle, I watched what he did, and took detailed notes of what I was doing. Putting these needles in, which are just so quick and fine, and being able to leave the room and allow a person to rest themselves while not being physically draining on me was something that appealed.

“And the scope of people and conditions he was seeing in that day was just incredible so I was really drawn to the variety, and I could see the changes that were happening.” So what’s the lowdown on Acupuncture and how it works? “There are acupuncture points all along the meridians, there are 12 main ones that run through the body and par- ticular organs, such as the spleen meridian, the kidney meridian, the bladder meridian and so on,” Karina explains. “So they’re not working exactly on those organs, as we say in Western medicine, because it’s a totally different theory, but they’re passing through and that’s why they’re named after them. There are thousands of points we can choose from. Essentially, by using those points we’re inserting messages into the body and how we want it to function. We can use one point on its own or we can couple them by using certain points together where they can have a different effect altogether.”

As for the conditions she treats, they’re wide and varied. “Common ones I’ve seen here in Warrandyte include musculoskeletal, from the majority of men that are coming, but all different types of things. I’m doing a lot of birth work, digestion and insomnia issues, dizziness and, of course, stress is a big thing,” Karina says.

Among a long list, other treatable conditions include: low energy, respiratory infections, hay fever, migraines, stress, digestive issues, constipation, loose stools, pain, IBS, insomnia, vertigo, musculoskeletal conditions, women’s health – menstrual health, natural fertility, assisted repro- ductive support, pregnancy and positive birthing support, pregnancy associated conditions including morning sickness, heartburn, fatigue, pains and turning breech babies.