Clair Hamilton, ND, LAc

06/17/2025

From the perspective of East Asian medicine, our digestive center is also where we process life. It’s our Earth—our ability to absorb, metabolize, and integrate. When that Earth is taxed by stress, urgency, or overload, it can show up as bloating, changes in appetite, fatigue, and irregularities.

New post [link in bio] exploring underlying causes of bloating—both biochemical and energetic—and offers practical roadmaps for rebuilding your center.

06/10/2025

Fire season has arrived.

According to East Asian medicine, summer corresponds with the element of Fire [火] and the organ of the Heart [心]—a season of joy, purpose, connection, and luminous self-expression.

When people talk about living a Heart-centered life, it sounds beautiful in theory. In practice, it’s not always so easeful. Returning to the be in touch with the tenderest parts of yourself, can feel feel scary, raw, risky, and vulnerable. I don’t know, sort of like lying naked across something powerfully alive, unsure whether you’ll be held safely or thrown. Kind of like that.

In school, one of our Classical Chinese medicine professors reminded us ‘all disease comes from the heart’ and the pivotal role of emotions in healing and health. In this system of medicine, the Heart is the sovereign—guiding all the other organs. It flourishes when we live in integrity, in relationship, and in awe. The Heart is a sensitive, discerning instrument. It longs for truth and alignment—and it lets us know when we’ve veered away.

And, unlike other organ meridians, the Chinese characters for the Heart [心] contain no pictographic element for the flesh or the body acknowledging that the Heart is named for its immaterial, etheric, and energetic nature. And that it responds best to medicines that have no physical mass: truth, beauty, resonance, frequency, precise witness, dilute energetic remedies, to name a few.

So, let this exploration of the energetics of the Heart be an invitation. This is a good season for healing.

Acupuncture and bodywork in the Fire season can help soften what’s armored, reawaken the Heart, and re-open the channels of joy and meaning.

05/21/2025

In quieter moments, I’ve heard many of you share about how you deeply long to slow down. How the pace you’ve been moving at hasn’t felt sustainable for a very long time now. How that desire for more spaciousness lives not just in your thoughts—but in your bodies, your bones, your nervous systems, and in the tender spaces of your relationships.

And how easy it is to say you want to slow down—but how hard it is to do. Especially if you're caring for a family or community and managing multiple schedules. Or if you keep bumping up against ingrained conditioning or expectations to keep doing more and more. Or if you find yourself navigating the frenetic rhythm of city.

I suppose this is an “I hear you” post. But maybe it’s also a gentle nudge—to bring this conversation to those you're close to. To name the ache for slowness aloud. A reminder that your time is precious, and that you’re allowed to shape it to meet the moment you’re in.

Small shifts can ripple.

05/14/2025

Gripped tightness in the upper back + shoulders. A low hum of tightness around the spine. Rigid pain in the head + neck. A stuck hollowed space in the chest. Breathing that stops short.

I like to talk about the concept of resting tension with patients in the treatment room. In osteopathic traditions, some patterns of body tension are described as a kind of "protective armoring" that the body maintains, even when we’re not actively stressed.

Protective armoring is how our tissues respond to our experience of insecurity, past trauma, or emotional overwhelm. Sometimes the armor is physical: bracing, clenching, tension that never quite lets go. Other times it shows up as numbness or a difficulty accessing the felt-sense in the body.

But here’s what often gets missed: our armor may be wise. It may be an elegant, unconscious strategy to dull difficult sensations in order to stay functional. That tightness might be a boundary. A silent, gripping companion that’s helped us survive.

In some cases, the work isn’t always about muscling through held tension or cracking things open. It can be about honoring why those protective shields the body puts in place arose in the first place. The process of letting the body acknowledge it's own protective mechanisms—a careful spacious witnessing in a safe environment—can be the first step towards softening and relief.

Lately I've been noticing how much accumulated stress and tension we all seem to be carrying -- coming in from many directions. Sometimes we meet the hardness of the world with more hardness in ourselves. But what seems to start to shift things isn’t more force—it’s awareness and gentleness.

01/18/2024

In East Asian medicine the Kidneys are responsible for our energy reserves—our stamina versus fatigue, vitality versus decline. And so, they are also related to the balance we strike between activity versus deep, peaceful rest.

The emotions that correspond to the Kidney Organ Network are fear and awe. Ultimately having a healthy relationship with the existential fears of our lives—fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of abandonment, fear of inadequacy, fear of scarcity, fear of suffering, fear of death and impermanence, you name it—is what opens us up to living courageously and in peace with the creative mystery. It also determines our capacity to trust rest.

Deeper share up the blog: 'Kidney Vitality: Mirroring the Peace + Strength of Water Season'.

Learn about the Kidney organ's role in protecting vitality and the keys to resilience. Elevate your well-being with seasonal wisdom from East Asian medicine to help recover from prolonged fatigue and exhaustion, boost energy, improve metabolism, and deepen your understanding of holistic healing.

09/27/2023

THE ECOSYSTEM OF PAIN. There are so many more underlying causes contributing to back pain than may initially meet the eye. ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The acupuncture meridians provide us with a detailed map of the body. They help us understand, with subtle sophistication, about the soft tissues and organs that may be influencing pain patterns.

Potential underlying contributors to chronic pain that may seem purely musculoskeletal in nature might include:
🐚 Digestive imbalances (acid reflux, indigestion, weak/suppressed digestion, inflammation, exposure to food sensitivities) can reflect to the back and ribs.
🐚 Hormonal imbalances (including abnormalities in the uterus such as polyps, fibroids, endometriosis, or heavy me**es) can impact the low back, pelvis, sacrum, and even the hip joint.
🐚 Nutrient deficiencies may contribute to poor tissue healing and persistent tendon, nerve, and ligamentous pain.
🐚 Liver congestion often shows up as chronic tension in the midback, ribside tension, and right-sided neck and shoulder issues.
🐚 Lingering sinus infections and congestion can impact chronic neck pain and upper back stiffness.

So, if you've had a nagging musculoskeletal or postural problem that doesn't seem to be going away with conventional or direct approaches, it can be refreshing (and effective) to look at the issue from the connective anatomy approach of East Asian medicine. The body is an intelligent system and we can understand pain as one of the ways it is trying to communicate to us.

Imagery: 🐚 'Shells at the beach' [silver gelatin hand print] by the impeccable

09/07/2023

It's time!

New share up on the site with best practices to help your body align with the energetics of autumn.

Gain wisdom from both integrative naturopathic medicine and East Asian medicine as we explore the energetic qualities of Autumn. Learn about how this season encourages us to embrace an interior orientation, practice reflection, release what no longer serves us to find renewal. Additional wellness ti

08/31/2023

So happy to be collaborating with to bring you a sweet group offering next week Friday September 8th.

This evening together will combine many of our most potent healing allies all at once: community and connection, reverence for the natural elements, a sound healing tune-up, tea to lift your spirit, and a personally-guided es**rt to acu-land while we rest together.

We are beyond excited to be doing this at the dreams-made-reality healing space.

Sharing the link to register in in the comments section below. Please check it out and share.

08/04/2023

Explore Heart Qi Deficiency from the perspective of integrative naturopathic and Chinese medicine. Learn traditional knowledge about patterns in the Heart and how imbalances may impact other areas of health -- including immune, digestive, mental-emotional conditions such as anxiety, and musculoskel

07/07/2023

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health recently funded new initiatives in researching acupuncture.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Current NCCIH Director and intellectual heroine Helene Langevin, MD shares her fascination with acupuncture in a recent interview (link to full interview in up on the website): ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
“Chinese Medicine was showing me that one can take a history in a completely different way. In general, I think it is fair to say that if you think that there’s only one way to look at a problem then you’re probably wrong. So, yes, working in the pain field allowed me to appreciate and try and better understand healing from the wisdom of indigenous cultures and from different healing systems that have been in place for thousands of years.” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Langevin's perspective on medicine is inspiring to me because she has such depth and breadth as a clinician, researcher, and author AND ALSO consistently asks beautiful questions with her work. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I’m heartened to see acupuncture validated and studied. I think it’s important that we continue to deepen our understanding of it, but I also often see the limitations of research and it’s inability to appreciate individuality, nuance, and the expanse of our healing potential. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Sometimes when I’m working on a complex case or balancing my clinical insights with test results, I like to intentionally include our bodies as the another important source of ‘data’. You know? Include the body as another important field of research.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
I am excited to see the questions Langevin and her teams will explore. So many way of perceiving the body.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Image Courtesy Gray's Illustrations; Posterior Knee
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

06/28/2023

Minnesota has been experiencing waves of poor air quality as Canadian and coastal fires impact our airstream. Conditions are expected to be more frequent with longer burning seasons so it’s important to take care of yourselves and each other as best you can. A reminder to be cautious about spending too much time outside during advisories, especially if you have an infant, you’re over 65, or you have a lung condition like asthma or COPD. There may also be times you should stay indoors with air filtration even if you don’t have any health issues.

The particles from wildfire smoke are so small (only 2.5 microns or 1/5 the size of pollen) that they can impact the immune system (T cells) in ways that affect both short- and long-term health. Check the blog [link in comments] for full post on at-home supports to help you either recover from the effects of recent exposures or get better prepared: key nutrients, herbal allies, steam inhalation tips, air filter recommendations, etc. Naturopathic care can also help folks who are heavily impacted with nebulized treatments.

But as you know, individual-based recommendations only go so far; we need collective action. Sending love to all of you working for a brighter future for all of us and for the generations to come. Honoring all of those who are doing the work to protect what we can't stand to lose. May we all tend to our earth home.

Photography: