Terra Gold,
Santa Barbara, CA
Terra Wellness: Holistic Health Care, Acupuncture, Functional Medicine & Integrative Medicine Practitioner
Similar to a naturopath, I assist people through a series of checks and balances to offer a refined system of health support that is unique for each person. I love supporting people with empowering tools for their health on all levels. Having studied and practiced many different forms of east west medicine, natural holistic modalities, functional and integrative medicine over the last 25 years, the best way to describe my practice is to say that I offer:
-Functional Medicine
-Integrative Medicine
-Traditional Chinese Medicine
-Use a Koshas orientation for intakes
and scope of treatments
COMBINING THESE FOUR APPROACHES TREATS THE UNDERLYING ISSUES.
What Functional Medicine, Integrative Medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the 5 Koshas model all have in common is that they all treat the whole person who has the disease or imbalance, not the disease or imbalance the person has. Each symptom or differential diagnosis may be one of many, contributing to an individual' root dis-ease. I find that some clients’ constitutions or health situations call for very subtle forms of medicinal support, while others require stronger measures.
Terra Gold's Wellness Treatments
My treatments are fine-tuned according to each individual and the specific health needs they are presenting with: physically, biochemically, emotionally, and spiritually.
-
Acupuncture or Acupressure magnetic therapy for meridian and organ systems balancing
-
Rehabilitative Massage (to break up fascia adhesions, and prepare the body for acupuncture treatments)
-
Infared Light Therapy with many of my treatments
-
Herbal remedies (and in the case of my practice, added nutritional counseling and supplements, homeopathic remedies, and Bach flower remedies)
-
Movement and concentration exercises (in my practice that include using yoga therapy postures, breath-work, meditation, Qi Gong, and Foundation Training Practices)
-
Moxibustion (the burning of the medicinal herb, mugwort, close to the body to assist circulation and healing properties)
-
Cupping (the use of suction cups to create suction on certain points of the body to increase blood and lymph flow)
Terra Gold: Functional & Integrative Medicine Practitioner
SANTA BARBARA, CA
Patients often ask me "What is functional and integrative medicine and how can it help me?
Functional medicine is a patient-centered, science-based, systems-oriented approach to helping people achieve and maintain excellent health.
Similar to a naturopath, Terra Gold applies Functional Medicine by using natural methods, with nutritional support and diet as a primary component, while also drawing upon the most current scientific knowledge regarding how lifestyle, nutrition, genetics, and the environment interact as a whole system to assess and treat patterns of dysfunction and imbalance.
In keeping with the functional medicine model, Terra Gold's health assessments and functional medicine treatments seek to address the causes of dis-ease and dys-function through getting to the root causes of the imbalances, while also addressing symptoms.
"I use urinalysis and/or blood lab results as assessment tools, and as markers for progress in our work together. I also help you track and fine-tune your diet, nutrition, lifestyle choices and environmental factors contributing to your health and wellbeing."
-Terra Gold, Acupuncturist & Functional Integrative Medicine
How Terra Gold applies Integrative Medicine.
What is integrative medicine and how can Terra help you? Integrative Medicine is best defined by one of the world’s leading doctors in the field, Dr. Andrew Weil. He describes Integrative Medicine as a “healing-oriented medicine that takes account of the whole person (body, mind, and spirit), including all aspects of lifestyle. It emphasizes the therapeutic relationship and makes use of all appropriate therapies, both conventional and alternative."
Integrative medicine may or may not focus on the root cause of the imbalances being treated. Terra Gold, in treating you with integrative medicine, may also incorporate these holistic methods in a Terra Wellness session:
Acupressure magnetic therapy
Homeopathic medicines
Bach Flower remedies
Rehabilitative Massage Techniques
Yoga therapy (including postures, breath-work, meditation practices, and more).
As a Chinese Medicine Practitioner in Santa Barbara, Terra Gold harnesses the healing powers of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture
Terra Gold, a licensed Santa Barbara-based acupuncturist and a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioner who is extensively trained in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese healing traditions. She emphasizes treating the root and the branches of someone’s disharmony or disease by combining traditional Chinese medicine with functional medicine, integrative medicine, herbal remedies in her healing protocols, addressing the whole body. In a Terra Wellness session, Terra seeks to restore her patient's balance in relationship to these natural forces in a manner that is unique to the individual’s health or dis-ease, the internal body responds and regains equanimity. One of the ways this is done is through the concept of properties associated with the five external elements in nature: earth, fire, water, wood, and metal.
Traditional Chinese Medicine is based on more than 3,500 years of Chinese medicine practices. It has influenced and been influenced by Korean and Japanese styles of medicine, Ayurvedic East Indian medical practices, and Tibetan medicine practices. In ancient Chinese medicine practices, human beings are considered a part of the microcosm, which is in turn a part of the larger macrocosm. We are an interconnected part of all of nature, and we are in a mutually reciprocal relationship with those forces.
What are the Five Koshas? Learn more about the Five Koshas here
