Rainbow Medicine — Dr Christine Shen
"Your Emotions Are Not Separate From Your Body."
An integrative approach to mental and emotional health that holds Western psychology and Traditional Chinese Medicine together — not as alternatives, but as complementary lenses on the same human experience. Mind, body and spirit, understood as one.
The Approach
Modern Western psychology has gifted us extraordinary tools for understanding the mind — attachment theory, which illuminates how early relational experiences shape our emotional templates; somatic therapy, which recognises that the body holds experience as much as the mind does; narrative therapy, which helps us rewrite the stories we live inside. These are evidence-based, rigorously developed approaches that Dr Shen has studied extensively throughout her clinical training and practice.
Traditional Chinese Medicine brings a different dimension — a model of emotional life that is simultaneously physiological. In TCM, emotions are not separate from organ function: they are expressions of it. The Liver governs the free flow of Qi, and when that flow is obstructed — by chronic stress, suppressed anger, unresolved frustration — physical symptoms arise alongside emotional ones. The Heart houses consciousness and governs the Shen (神). The Spleen is disrupted by chronic worry. The Lung processes grief. The Kidney holds fear.
Bringing these two frameworks together allows Dr Shen to work with the whole of a person's emotional experience — the psychological history, the bodily sensation, the energetic pattern, and the meaning-making stories that hold them in place. This integration is not theoretical. It changes what questions are asked in the room, and what becomes possible as a result.
TCM Emotion-Organ Relationships
In Traditional Chinese Medicine, each major organ is associated with specific emotional states — not as metaphor, but as clinical reality. Chronic emotional patterns create organ stress; organ imbalances generate emotional patterns. The relationship is bidirectional, continuous and treatable.
Anger & Frustration
Governs the free flow of Qi. Blocked Liver Qi = frustration, irritability, depression, tight chest. Liver Fire = explosive anger, headaches, bitter taste.
Joy & Anxiety
Houses the Shen (consciousness). Disturbed Shen = anxiety, palpitations, insomnia, restlessness. Heart Blood Deficiency = persistent low mood, poor memory.
Worry & Overthinking
Governs thought and digestion. Chronic worry = digestive disruption, fatigue, brain fog. The gut-mind connection in classical Chinese medicine.
Grief & Sadness
Governs letting go. Unprocessed grief = shallow breathing, recurring respiratory illness, difficulty with endings and transitions.
Fear & Insecurity
Houses the constitutional essence. Chronic fear = lower back weakness, urinary disruption, bone health concerns, existential anxiety.
In Chinese medicine, the character 神 (Shén) carries a meaning that doesn't translate neatly into English — it encompasses consciousness, spirit, mental activity, vitality and the quality of presence that makes a person fully alive. The Heart is understood as the home of the Shen — and mental health, in the TCM framework, is fundamentally about the Shen's ability to rest quietly in the Heart, to be nourished, protected and at ease.
When the Shen is disturbed — by heat, deficiency, stagnation or shock — the result is what we recognise as mental distress: anxiety, insomnia, poor concentration, emotional volatility, a quality of being unable to settle into the present moment. Treatment that restores Heart harmony and calms the Shen addresses mental health from a different angle than either Western psychiatry or conventional psychology — not better, but different, and often complementary.
Dr Shen's holistic psychotherapy holds the Shen at its centre — working simultaneously with the psychological narrative and the physiological substrate that supports or undermines it. Acupuncture to settle the Heart. Herbal medicine to nourish Blood. Somatic therapy to discharge what the body carries. Narrative work to address the meaning structures that perpetuate distress. Together, these create the conditions for genuine Shen restoration.
What Dr Shen Addresses
Generalised anxiety, panic disorder, social anxiety and health anxiety — addressed through somatic regulation, Liver Qi treatment, Heart Shen calming and cognitive narrative work. Both the physiology of anxiety and the psychological patterns that maintain it are addressed.
The TCM view of depression connects it to Qi Stagnation, Blood Deficiency and Heart Shen disturbance rather than a single neurotransmitter model. This opens multiple intervention points — somatic, herbal, acupuncture and narrative — for a more comprehensive response.
Grief belongs to the Lung. Unprocessed grief contracts the chest, disrupts breathing and creates physical heaviness alongside emotional pain. Dr Shen's integrative approach creates space for grief to move through the body, not only be processed cognitively.
Attachment patterns, communication styles, relational wounds and the physiological responses that underpin them — addressed through attachment-informed, somatic therapy within a compassionate, non-judgemental therapeutic relationship.
Trauma is held in the body. Dr Shen's somatic-informed approach works with the body's trauma responses — hyperarousal, dissociation, physical tension — alongside the psychological narrative, creating pathways for resolution that talk therapy alone may not reach.
Perimenopause, career change, relationship breakdown, parenthood, bereavement, ageing — life transitions challenge both the psychological and the physiological self. Dr Shen supports the whole person through these passages with clarity and care.
Session Format
Dr Christine Shen's preferred and signature way of working is the Integrated Wellbeing Session — where Acupuncture, Chinese Herbal Medicine and Holistic Psychotherapy are woven together into a single, seamless experience. You are settled onto the treatment bed, acupuncture needles are placed, and once you are comfortable and relaxed, the therapeutic conversation begins — naturally, without agenda. The two happen simultaneously: the needles working on your body's energetic patterns while the conversation explores whatever is alive in your life that day. Your Chinese herbal prescription is also reviewed within the same session. This is not three separate treatments bolted together in sequence; it is one integrated experience in which each modality enriches the others.
All sessions are conducted in a private, calm treatment room. Confidentiality is maintained in accordance with professional ethical standards. Dr Shen will always discuss the boundaries of confidentiality with you at your first appointment.
The therapeutic relationship is collaborative. Dr Shen does not position herself as having all the answers — she holds the space for you to access your own knowing. The goal is not dependency on the therapeutic relationship but growing capacity for self-understanding and emotional regulation that persists beyond the therapy room.
Comprehensive intake — psychological history, presenting concerns, somatic assessment and TCM evaluation (pulse, tongue, body mapping). Together, you and Dr Shen agree on an approach and initial goals.
Integrated Wellbeing Session (75 min)Dr Christine's signature approach. You lie comfortably on the treatment bed. Acupuncture needles are placed. Then — while the needles work — an open, unhurried therapeutic conversation unfolds. No agenda, no script. Your herbs are reviewed in the same session. Mind, body and spirit addressed all at once.
Acupuncture treatment with progress assessment, herbal formula review and lifestyle guidance. For patients who prefer a focused acupuncture session without the extended conversational component.
Regular reviews to assess progress and adjust direction. Treatment frequency evolves with you — intensive early, then spacing as resilience builds. The aim is always growing self-sufficiency, not indefinite reliance.
Session Fees
Signature SessionIntegrated Wellbeing Session
75 minutes
Acupuncture + Chinese Herbal Medicine + Holistic Psychotherapy — all three woven together simultaneously. You rest on the treatment bed while needles work and the therapeutic conversation unfolds. Dr Christine's signature, whole-person approach.
Standard Follow-up
60 minutes
Acupuncture treatment with progress assessment and herbal formula review. For patients who prefer a focused acupuncture session. HICAPS private health rebate available.
Psychotherapy Only
60 minutes
Holistic psychotherapy session — Western psychological approaches integrated with TCM emotional mapping. For patients receiving acupuncture elsewhere or who prefer talk-based sessions.
Initial Consultation: $150 / 90 min — comprehensive TCM assessment, first treatment, herbal prescription and psychotherapeutic intake all within one appointment.
Who This Is For
You've engaged with counselling or psychology and found it helpful — but there's a dimension of your experience that words haven't fully reached. The body holds what the mind hasn't resolved.
Your anxiety shows up in your chest. Your grief lives in your shoulders. Your stress goes straight to your gut. You intuitively sense that separating the physical and emotional is missing something important.
You're drawn to a framework that holds more than conventional psychology offers — one that takes your emotional life as seriously as your physical health, and sees them as expressions of the same whole.
A loss, a transition, a decision, a realisation. Something is calling you toward a deeper engagement with your own life. Holistic psychotherapy can be a container for that exploration.
You already work with an acupuncturist, naturopath or other practitioner — and you'd value a psychotherapeutic space that speaks the same language about body, mind and the connections between them.
You don't want to be diagnosed, managed or fixed. You want to be understood, accompanied and supported in building your own capacity for wellbeing. Dr Shen's approach begins from this orientation.
Dr Christine Shen's holistic psychotherapy draws on extensive training in psychological approaches integrated with her TCM clinical background. She is not a registered psychologist or psychiatrist. She works as an integrative practitioner offering psychotherapeutic support within her scope of practice. If you are managing an acute mental health crisis, severe psychiatric conditions, or require a clinical psychologist's services, she will refer you appropriately. If in crisis, please contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or present to your nearest emergency department.
An initial holistic psychotherapy consultation with Dr Shen is an unhurried, open exploration — not an assessment or intake form. Simply a conversation about where you are and where you'd like to go. Available at Lane Cove and the Northern Beaches. Monday–Sunday, 9am–9pm.
Book a Psychotherapy Session