Business Spotlight: Traditional Chinese Medical QiGong

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by Dustin Shipman|ret||ret||tab|

SBJ Intern|ret||ret||tab|

sbj@sbj.net |ret||ret||tab|

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Traditional Chinese Medical QiGong, at 1722 S. Glenstone, opened its doors in 2002. The family-run business performs ancient Chinese healing techniques for the body and the mind.|ret||ret||tab|

Medical QiGong Master David Smith practices QiGong, a 5,000-year-old Chinese energy healing technique.|ret||ret||tab|

Qigong healing deals with the idea that energy, or qi, flows through the body much the same way that blood does. |ret||ret||tab|

"You might have heard someone say, Be one with the universe.' Well, there is a lot to that," Smith said. "There is something that is binding the universe together. There is something there that has a grand similarity which the Chinese believe is energy at its highest form."|ret||ret||tab|

In QiGong, physical pain is interpreted as blockage of the flow of natural energy.|ret||ret||tab|

"It is my job to find and remove the blockage and allow the body's natural flow to return to normal," said Smith.|ret||ret||tab|

According to Smith, removal of such blockages promotes the body's natural healing process. |ret||ret||tab|

Smith said that he is the only foreigner to be certified by the People's Republic of China as a medical QiGong doctor, as well as the only foreigner to be awarded the status of grand master, which allows him to teach these methods. |ret||ret||tab|

"I wouldn't say I was met with opposition," he said of his pursuit of quigong. "I would say it was more like the Chinese people had a difficult time believing that a foreigner could understand qi."|ret||ret||tab|

Belief in qi and in people's ability to manipulate it is the basis of Smith's practice.|ret||ret||tab|

"We all have the ability to manipulate our own energy. I can create an idea with the brain, a signal is sent through neural pathways down to my bicep muscle and tells the muscle to contract and my arm raises up. I have controlled my own energy. I am able to manipulate my own internal circuitry. We do it all the time; we just don't think about it in these terms," he said. |ret||ret||tab|

Smith said QiGong takes this process one step farther by sending energy into a patient's body.|ret||ret||tab|

Susan Lee Smith, PhD, David Smith's wife, deals with the issues of the mind, in particular issues dealing with fears, phobias, post traumatic stress and anxiety through the practice of niegong. |ret||ret||tab|

Susan Lee Smith said niegong is an internal form of QiGong that patients do to promote their own bodies' healing process.|ret||ret||tab|

NieGong focuses on teaching patents techniques to manipulate the mind and body simultaneously by tapping acupuncture points on the body.|ret||ret||tab|

"You could probably call me a personal performance coach," Susan Lee Smith said. "A lot of people have things that hold them back in their lives. They self-sabotage over and over again. I can help with those kinds of things."|ret||ret||tab|

"The reason I am able to do this is because the basic underlying premise of niegong is that all negative emotion is caused by a negative disruption in the body's energy balance, and that disruption happened at the time the memory occurred," Susan Lee Smith said.|ret||ret||tab|

David Smith said he hopes people keep an open mind about his work, but even if they don't, he can make a believer out of almost anyone.|ret||ret||tab|

"I encourage skepticism," David Smith said. "People who are the most skeptical are usually my very best referral sources."|ret||ret||tab|

David Smith said he will only see patients that he can help, and on a patient's first visit he performs a free consultation to determine if he can help the patient. If he can't, he will not take their money. |ret||ret||tab|

He added that only a small percentage of people who come in for treatment can't be helped. The free consultation is also performed by Susan Lee Smith to see if there is an emotional connection to the physical pain. After the free consultation, the first visit costs $125 for a full hour and $75 for subsequent visits, each taking 30 to 45 minutes. David Smith said the treatment usually only takes one or two visits.|ret||ret||tab|

David Smith said an advantage of his form of medicine is the time he spends with patients.|ret||ret||tab|

"An average doctor visit in this country, the time that a patient spends in the presence of the doctor, averages between three and seven minutes," Smith said. "How can a doctor possibly serve the very best interest of a patient doing this?"|ret||ret||tab|

David Smith said that while some people don't believe that QiGong can help them, the practice has been around for centuries and many people have experienced its effectiveness.|ret||ret||tab|

"If I was not able to do what I said I was able to do, then our doors would have been closed a month after we opened. Things that don't work don't last, and QiGong has been around for 5,000 to 7,000 years. We have had time to get the bugs out."|ret||ret||tab|

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