The elements of earth, fire, metal, water and wood evoke images of our natural world. Life in Montana is rooted in these elements and getting closer to nature is a theme most Montanan’s can relate to. It is why we live here, the rivers, mountains and forests are right out side the door. Bozeman native Christina Clark has never taken her proximity to nature for granted-in fact-it just made her want more of it. To get back to nature in her career she followed a path less traveled-the path to practicing acupuncture and Chinese medicine. “My work is based on the five elements,” Clark explains. “I wanted to get even closer to nature. Chinese medicine is a comprehensive medical system incorporating acupuncture, herbal medicine, tui na (a form of physical therapy and massage), as well as Chinese fire cupping and moxibustion (a heat therapy).”

Christina’s training at Southwestern Acupuncture in Santa Fe, New Mexico (the only time she moved away from Bozeman in her 36 years) compliments her degree in physiological psychology from MSU. The formal schooling along with her studies of indigenous medicines and traditional Chinese medicine give a well-rounded balance to her approach in practicing this most ancient Daoist cosmology. Christina’s safe and gentle acupuncture focuses on all aspects of health and balance with emphasis on women’s health care, fertility enhancement, pre-natal care and peri-menopause. “My greatest wish for my clients is that they leave their session/treatment with a new understanding of their body-mind-spirit connected as a whole, and also connected to their community and to the natural elements. Our health affects our emotional well being, our relationships, how we engage and respond to the world, and how we care for that world. I like people to leave the office with some new tools of their own to care for themselves, and hopefully pass on to others. Those tools can be breathing techniques, nutrition tips, meditation, or exercises.”
As important as being in a balanced natural environment like Montana is to the holistic success of Clark’s practice there is another element that is equally as important-community. “Healing does not take place in isolation. Healing is a communal effort. Community support is shared support; this creates a sacred space for bonding so that healing can begin. When someone in a community is sick that affects the entire community. Healing that sickness also involves the entire community. How the individual in need of healing relates to the family, and in turn the community, causes the needed shift in energy to heal imbalance.”

“The concept of community has many parts. One is the idea of togetherness. A community must include more than one person, and they can’t exist in isolation. The next thought is that community requires work. For a community to survive, everyone must put in the effort to satisfy their common needs and goals. And finally, a community includes a sense of caring and compassion for one another.” For Clark Bozeman fits these criteria perfectly as she sees this concept of community in action all around her, ”Community shows up most profoundly for me in my own neighborhood. I have never lived in an area where the people realize the profound power of cooperation…a shared vision of healing within each home supported by an active and caring community, melded yet defined boundaries, aiding each other to achieve a personal goal. We create art, share music, food, laughter and troubles together.”

This March Clark will have an opportunity to take her education and experiences to a region of the world that has known it’s share of troubled times. Oaxaca City is among Mexico’s poorest cities with 76% of its population living in poverty. Prone to natural disasters like floods and earthquakes the people of Oaxaca City are in desperate need of healing. Acupuncturists Without Borders (AWB) is leading a group that will include Clark to this region in late February as part of its “World Healing Exchange” program. According to the AWB website “The purpose of Acupuncturists Without Borders World Healing Exchange program is to provide service and trauma treatment training in communities around the world as well as to learn from indigenous and traditional healers about their healing practices. On these journeys we also renew and refresh ourselves and deepen our own practices to support the work we each do in the world.”

Clark continues, “We will meet with and exchange healing techniques with local health practitioners, learning to work with their traditional medicine such as herbs and sweat baths. I hope that this trip will reconnect me with aspects of my medicine I have forgotten or not yet discovered. In addition to sharing what I know about acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine, we will be learning indigenous medicine of the Oaxacan area. Both are rooted in the elements of nature. I am hoping to learn more about my medicine through the medicine of the Oaxacan area, and bring this knowledge “home” to share and offer to others.”

If you wish to get involved in helping the people of Oaxaca City, Mexico receive the healing gift of acupuncture as well as assist with costs of medical supplies, teaching, lodging, guides and meals that Clark’s trip will incur you may do so by writing a check in any amount to: AWB (put Christina Clark in memo) P.O. Box 1603 Bozeman, MT 59771 or go to http://www.acuwithoutborders.com
Christina Clark L.A.C. has an office located at 40 E. Main Suite 220 in historic Downtown Bozeman. Clark can be reached at 406-599-9284.

Kathleen Johns is a Bozeman Holistic Advisor and Psychic with a desire to bring Bozeman’s metaphysical/holistic community into the spotlight monthly with her column  “Metaphysical Moment”. Kathleen can be contacted at Kathleen@KathleenJohns.com