A web site’s first blog post is fraught, indeed. How might I introduce myself to you so that you will read to the end of it and, I hope, come back again and again for future installments? This web site has lofty goals for you, esteemed reader. My goal is to ask you to consider what holistic health means to you, a person who lives with hypermobility or hEDS.
I want to invite you to take part in a journey that supports your own creation of your own unique version of this very concept.
Most times, when we think of holistic health, we think of the mind-body axis, or maybe the mind-body-spirit triad. Popular culture maybe trained us to view holistic health as something that only slender, wealthy, privileged people (usually women) can obtain. It’s something to buy at Lululemon and nurture by way of expensive supplements and regular trips to Costa Rica for yoga retreats. Acupuncture can be pulled into this narrative too, although I for one think that’s an unfair association.
For me (and I hope for you, as a reader of this blog and a person who will develop a connection with this web site), I think of holistic health as an individual’s acts of self-knowledge and empowerment. When we learn about ourselves and our needs, that’s whole-self health. When we have some agency over how things go, that’s engagement with health. And when a person lives with a chronic condition? These acts are so valuable. To achieve self-knowledge and agency over what one can control (even if that’s only one’s thoughts) is a genuine version of holistic health that truly means something. And self care on the individual level becomes part of a larger fabric of community care when we are able to lift one another and when we share, be it knowledge or acts or even just a smile or a healing thought.
If anyone needs holistic health, it’s people with hereditary disorders of connective tissue (HCTDs) like the Ehlers Danlos syndromes. And though this web site is mostly geared towards the hypermobile version, I want to hold space for everyone with this condition. This is definitely intended to be a resource for people with MCAS and other comorbidities.
I think that holistic health is when we know ourselves and nurture ourselves in ways that directly answer our needs and respect our limitations. Our unique optimal level of health might not seem like much to someone who is easily healthy but that doesn’t lessen its value.
My brand of medicine is Chinese medicine and this website is a branch of my original website and clinic, Two Hearts Wellness. My first foray into social media and my earliest manifestations of my business started almost ten years ago, while I was still in my second graduate program to study Chinese medicine. By now, enough of my practice revolves around EDS that I decided to create this web site to go along with the book I wrote. When you click the “book now” button, though, it will take you to Two Hearts Wellness. I will continue to refer to my clinic until the day I rebrand (assuming I ever do). But this web site is strictly for the bendy people and those who love them or at least who want to work with them.
What you can find here will, as the site develops, include:
- Community—this is your web site and you are the norm, not the normies;
- Tips for healthy living curated just for you;
- Interviews and other fun ways to learn about the community world over;
- Information about updates in Western biomedicine; and
- All sorts of great things about Chinese medicine and what it can do for you!
So, thank you for stopping by, and as I continue to add to the content of this site, I hope that it becomes more and more a part of your holistic health practice.
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Paula Bruno, Ph.D., L.Ac., is a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist, an AOBTA-CP traditional Chinese bodywork therapist, and a wellness educator. She maintains an active and growing practice at Two Hearts Wellness, her Austin, TX office. Dr. Bruno is also available for distance appointments for wellness consultation or coaching.
In her first career, she was a Spanish professor.
Dr. Bruno’s specialties as a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner include: • Musculoskeletal health (acute or chronic pain relief; Ehlers Danlos syndrome & hypermobility support) • Digestive support, gut health, and weight loss • Aesthetic treatment, including scar revision • Men’s health • General preventative care and immune support for all persons.
When you are ready to discover what traditional medicine plus a vibrant and engaged approach to holistic health can do for you, either contact Dr. Bruno or book an appointment online.
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Holistic Health & hEDS does not accept paid advertising on this website
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Holistic Health and hEDS 