Mental Health

Chinese medicine can support symptoms associated with:

  • Anxiety

  • Depression

  • Low mood

  • Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD)

  • Postpartum depression or anxiety

  • Grief

  • Neurodivergence

  • Stress, burnout and nervous system dysregulation

We do that by taking a thorough intake, including physical symptoms that might seem unrelated, medical history including medications used and tools you are using to manage it at present and in the past.

From there we can diagnose you from within the Chinese medicine framework and apply herbs, acupuncture and cupping where indicated.

Chinese medicine does not replace the support of a trained mental health professional (psychologists, counsellors, mental health social workers etc), but compliments the work that talk therapy offers.

This often looks like regular appointments in the beginning that we aim to space out, eventually landing at monthly/bimonthly maintenance appointments only. During times of stress or exacerbations to your condition you may feel like you require more support. We liken that to a chronic knee injury. It is something you learn to manage.

Often patients describe a reduction in mental health symptoms as a side effect of Chinese medicine treatment for other conditions. We think this reflects the holistic nature of Chinese medicine work.

Mental health support often goes hand in hand with the work we do in Chinese medicine. What we understand to be true is that the mind and body are one and so physical ailments can impact the mind and vice versa.

Clinically what this looks like is that while we manage one condition, a person may notice a shift to their mental health OR if we are working specifically on anxiety or grief, they may notice positive changes to digestion or energy for example.

Your practitioner will use multiple signs and symptoms as guide posts to assess the direction and shifts in your condition. There should never be guess work, but strategic, measurable support.

Chinese medicine does not replace the need for talk therapy.

While some Chinese medicine doctors have mental health credentials, your practitioner Caz here at Nice Health will support you within her scope of practice.

It is common for clinical conversations to be in depth and cover a lot of ground, but this will always be done safely with externals referrals offered where required.

You are also under no obligation to share personal information, either! The important information are the symptoms surrounding the issue:

  • Sleeping in

  • Difficulty falling asleep

  • Rumination, worry

  • Feeling like you’ve lost the light in your eyes

  • Uncontrollable anger, irritability

  • Shortness of breath

  • Tight chest

  • Upset stomach

  • Menstrual cycle related onset

Stress and Burnout

While stress and burnout aren’t specifically diagnosable mental health conditions, they can exacerbate negative symptoms and so with our patients, we seek to manage and avoid where possible the descent into burnout.

Burnout is described as mental, physical and emotional exhaustion, usually as a result of work and/or parenthood. It can look like detachment, irritability and lack of motivation and despite overwhelming exhaustion, often sleep is impacted too.

Coming back from burnout can take concerted effort to pull back on unnecessary occupations and inserting rest wherever you can. We bet you read that and scoffed internally thinking, “where the hell can I possibly pull back” but we will work with you, hand in hand to find moments that you might not think possible.

And where resources allow, we can support you to find the help you need, while using herbs, acupuncture and cupping to ameliorate symptoms.

It will come as no surprise, but stress is so common that it plays a part in most treatment plans, though as we have moved from Melbourne to the Surf Coast in January 2026, we’ve noticed that stress management in our patients is managed significantly better (no shade Melbourne, but I’m sure that comes as little surprise).

That said, sometimes there are circumstances beyond our control that require regular support, despite a surf, morning walk or pilates class.

Nervous System Regulation

Nervous system regulation has become a bit of a buzz term these days.

In a practical sense, we are looking at how well a person manages a stress response. Stress can be positive and is important for building resilience and so when people speak about nervous system regulation, it is not about erasing any and all stress and NEVER becoming angry or sobbing uncontrollably or feeling sad. All emotions are good emotions, we simply want them to feel containable and reasonably appropriate.

This does not mean that there is a prescribed way that everyone must experience emotion, but it does mean that we can understand whether your emotions are guided by a fight, flight, freeze or faun response.