Wisdom Series: In conversation with Claire Dabreo
Claire Dabreo | @thelondonacupuncturist
In our Wisdom series, we explore Traditional Chinese Medicine and holistic wisdom from practitioners we love. We invite them to share their area of expertise and how it relates to healthy skin, from the inside out.
Claire is a Classical Five Element acupuncturist with over a decade of experience in working with people across a wide range of issues. She's also a co-founder at The Harmony Principle, a program that brings to life ancient philosophy, making it accessible and easy to integrate into daily life.
She shares how TCM has impacted her life, and gives her top tips to start incorporating it into yours.
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How has TCM impacted your life?
It’s no understatement to say the Five Element acupuncture utterly changed my life.
As a practitioner now I can appreciate all the signals my body was sending out to say it was out of balance, which were either ignored or treated to make them just go away.
When you go to the root cause of the issues you see these incredible changes at every level of the system of body, mind and spirit.
So my intermittent back issues which use to lay me out for a week, my chronic and quite severe eczema, my depressive episodes, my poor circulation, my bouts of insomnia, my fertility….the list is long!
What are your tips to start incorporating TCM into daily life?
At The Harmony Principle I teach people how to live more in tune with nature’s rhythms, which may sound really simple but has a profound effect on our spirit and is one of the foundations of Chinese Medicine.
Why do you love TCM?
I love TCM because it’s so elegant and simple yet powerful.
It works with nature, never against it, and sees humans as expressions of nature.
When you start from that place the world feels very different and you see illness as an expression of dis-ease, which completely changes how you approach it.
Tell us about your Yan Yee experience?
Day to day I now use the Calming Spray as a facial mist before I apply other products, I can’t believe what a brilliant product it is.
It really helps keep my skin calm and moisturised as I’m really prone to eczema on around my eyes, face and neck due to environmental factors (like my cat, which I’m slightly allergic to!).
I’m also prone to irritation if I exercise; like many eczema sufferers my skin doesn’t like sweat, so pre- and post-workout I now always cleanse then spritz and it’s tremendous.
What's one piece of advice you always give to your clients?
Prioritise rest and take bedtime seriously. Smartphones, tablets have no place in the bedroom and are serious disruptors of sleep, one of the foundations of our health.
