Ask Me Anything Series: Are TCM Practitioners Doctors?

Doctors are people who are qualified to treat illnesses. Yet many associate doctors with stereotypes such as they need to be in white coat, they have to have stethoscopes around their necks, they have to be in a hospital, and many others. And the term ‘doctors’ seems to have a Western Medicine domination over its usage. Doctors are meant to just treat the illnesses, not the person.

In ancient times, doctors have a much wider range in responsibility. Not only do doctors have to treat the surface illnesses, they have to treat the person right from the heart and core.

That brings us to the fact that illnesses are viewed and perceived differently today and in the past. Illnesses today are segmented from the person, it is as if it is a toxin that has infected the person. And the job of modern doctors is to eradicate the illnesses with the fastest shortcut methods.

Yet in the past ancient times, illnesses are seen to be built up from the person internally, and it can be not just from physical factors but also mental factors. Illnesses became a reflection of how a person takes on responsibility of not just his physical health but also his mental health. In other words, what he thinks and values add on to the build up of physical illnesses. You can see that even emotions can slowly develop to physical illnesses . In fact illnesses and disease are messages, not enemies.

Real doctors treat the person, as a whole.

Doctors in ancient days exists as healers, shamans, even soothsayers.

Therefore, real doctors treat the person, as a whole. Not segmenting the illness from the person. But rather treating the person from the inside out. Doctors in ancient days exists as healers, shamans, soothsayers. Some doctors even have abilities that can go beyond the physical. Because these are the masters who know how to help a person deep within. Not just dabbing a few antiseptic on the surface.

Ancient TCM practitioners are known to be all rounded in understanding astrology, geography and human minds. Because TCM is an energy medicine, not a medicine that ends at the tip of the nose.

So my answer to ‘Are TCM practitioners Doctors?’: My answer is the real practitioners, yes.