『医学部進学大百科 2024』(関口新平〈ジュン・キドコロ・デザイン〉デザイン)／プレジデント社
Hello there, it's a pleasure to meet you. I’m Dr. Wang.
My background is in psychological counseling, having engaged in it for several years. However, I gradually came to realize that some issues, seemingly psychological, could not be resolved through the counseling itself. It led me to explore an interlinked relationship between the mental state and physical health. Later, I accidentally came across Slap Therapy in traditional Chinese medicine. Slap therapy can not only treat physical ailments but also help patients get out of their mental lethargy to achieve spiritual "healing.” Slap therapy also focuses a great deal of attention on the mental condition of the patient, representing traditional Chinese medicine’s approach of "observation, listening, questioning, and pulse-taking." In particular, the aspect of "questioning" focuses most on the spirit and vitality, proving that both practices are interlinked at their roots. As a person who only focused on psychological counseling initially, I had neglected the physical support of the body. Through interaction with traditional Chinese medicine, however, my concept of psychology deepened to show their complementary relation wherein no clear-cut division is established.
Modern people firmly believe that it is impossible to treat a person without medicines; they more likely doubt our opportunity to "chase away" the sickness by such easy actions as tapping, slapping, pressing, and rubbing. Besides, there is such a belief that the profession of slap therapy practitioner is an easy one, and everybody can learn it in a while and start practicing this profession themselves without being aware of a very long process of study and effort. We tend to dispel these doubts with our results, for words, no matter how beautiful they sound, cannot achieve enduring outcomes in themselves; it is the actual results that talk louder. The best method of showing them their doubts is by showing tangible and constructive results.
However, the atmosphere is not very encouraging for traditional Chinese medicine at present. There is no encouraging atmosphere in the industry, neither at the regulation nor at the promotional level. The superficial level calls for different traditional Chinese medicine schools to support one another open-mindedly and not refuse other schools of traditional Chinese medicine in diagnosis and treatment methods. At the same time, it is inappropriate for there to be some competition at the top. On a deeper level, since traditional Chinese medicine is time-consuming and labor-intensive, the treatment style will not be able to adopt fast, quick-fix treatment methods but instead provide more humane, diversified long-term services. Only by recognizing and promoting this characteristic can traditional Chinese medicine practitioners ensure that traditional Chinese medicine gains a more lasting influence within the medical community.
At the age of 30, I transitioned from psychological counseling to traditional Chinese medicine slap therapy after considerable thought and deliberation. Even when I see peers in psychology and Western medicine earning higher salaries and enjoying higher social status, I have no regrets. It brought me a higher level of understanding on this journey. Admittedly, my income may not be as high as my peers, but I built up an entire team and transformed personal gains into collective benefits, which I think is well worth it.
- Dr Wang
China
Interviewer: Leni
Editor: Victor
Translator: Kendy Liu
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