Words hold incredible healing power. I think of all the times when a client finishes a session and shares that the knot in her belly has dissolved even though she hasn’t even taken a single drop of herbs yet. The act of putting our fears and experiences into words is often the first step to significant relief. Words can lift some of the burdens that our bodies are carrying around for us. They’re one way to convey our needs to those who want to help, a way to reach across the boundary between Self and Other to make contact. Words expand.

There’s a hidden aspect to the healing power of words. Words limit our thinking just as much as they open up possibilities for connection. If you’ve never thought about this in connection with healing before, it might help to start with examples from dystopian literature and sacred texts. Think of George Orwell’s 1984, in which the totalitarian regime has changed the language in order to make it impossible to name concepts like bad, evil, dictatorship, and surveillance. Stripping the population of the words to name the problems that flow from their oppression prevents them from thinking about the possibility of freedom, or considering their capacity to rebel.

The way you name a problem shapes the way you solve it. Words open up certain avenues of thought and close down others.

Another example is the limitations of the English language when it comes to the all-important word: love. Many languages have different words to describe the fire of passionate, romantic love and the deep non-sexual love experienced in close bonds of family and friendship. The early Christian tradition defined itself by a specific kind of self-giving love distinct from these other loves, and the word lacks a direct English translation. It’s harder to think and speak about love in English than in languages with a more extensive vocabulary.

Traditional Medicine offers a set of words and concepts that’s distinct from the language of conventional medicine. The difference in words is not just an accident of culture; it’s a key reason why traditional medicine offers hope to those who’ve been failed by conventional medical approaches. One set of vocabulary isn’t better than the other, but they each open certain horizons for healing and close down others. The most important benefit of working with someone skilled in Chinese Medicine is that she’ll be able to look at your body, mind, and spirit through a different lens. If the lens of conventional medicine hasn’t been able to solve your problems, it might be because you’re caught in the narrow sliver of the population whose experiences fall into a place for which conventional medicine hasn’t yet found words.

If you’ve been looking for answers and can’t seem to find them, or if your doctors seem like they genuinely care about you but don’t quite believe what you’re telling them —- it might be time to change your vocabulary. Life is so beautiful that it just so happens that most of the time, when conventional medicine can’t name a problem effectively, Traditional Medicine can. (The converse is also true. So if you’ve been going to tons of alternative practitioners and you’re not getting better, it’s time to see a conventional doctor!)

I’d love to show you how powerful a new set of vocabulary can be. That’s what a tongue reading session is all about!