Andrej Prado Nickel, L.A.c. was raised in Germany, a leader in the alternative medicine practices in Europe. He finished his Masters of Science in Acupuncture and TCM at Colorado School of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Denver, CO. While there, he also invested time expanding his education on different forms of acupuncture, such as the Distal Point Method taught by Dr. Richard Tan. This method aims for quick pain relief while being a gentle treatment approach. Andrej now specializes on treating musculor-skeletal and pain conditions while incorporating advice on lifestyle, general health and fitness to keep his patients healthy. He aims to be professional, personable and approachable in his delivery and go beyond expectations in meeting his patients expectations. 

In the last 30 years, Acupuncture has found some solid ground in the U.S. healthcare market and it has left its mark. We have believers & non-believers, proof and disproof, rejection and adoption, all around this treatment method. However, the growing consensus on its efficacy is most solidly anchored in the number of clients whose lives are being changed for the better.
 
Acupuncture is part of an over 2000-year-old medicine that has slowly developed into what we now call Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The application of needles to various sites on the body is used to induce change in disease and maintain health. Acupuncture itself might be even older than that if we look at the story of Ötzi - the iceman. Thousands of years have been spent on trial and error, data collection and presservation to make TCM what it is today, an extensive collection of knowledge and experience in the treatment of almost any health conplication in a systematic and symptom based diagnosis. The true amazement lies in the realization of how comprehensive TCM has become for the treatment and prevention of disease. It is designed to be a true whole care or holistic medicine. 

1. Nutrition - is understood to be the most important part to maintaining health. Foods are categorized by the effects they have on one's body. The most easily relatable properties here are warming and cooling foods, such as cinnamon and peppermint. Foods are also considered tonics, such as sweet berries and roots, of which Goji berries and Ginseng have risen to popular heights. Other foods are used to treat constipation, such as rhubarb and hemp seed.
2. Lifestyle - hard work, overeating, uncontrolled sex drive and too much leisure have all been identified to have straining/ depleting effects on your health.
3. Emotions –  are you excessively worried, afraid, angry, sad or even over-the-top joyful? Many scholars believe emotions to be related to disease, think PTSD.
4. Medical treatment - including acupuncture, gua sha, cupping, massage (Tui Na) & Chinese Herbal Medicine.
5. Maintaining health - rather than providing care only when disease has a head start, a TCM practitioner makes every effort to keep his patients healthy. In historic China, a healer was judged not only by how he managed to cure an affliction, but by the general health of the community he was caring for.​

TCM utilizes an extensive collection of Super-foods, some of which you will recognize from your kitchen. Ginger, Spring Onion, Cinnamon and other usual suspects are commonly used in Chinese Herbal Medicine. Single herbs are most importantly categorized by their respective taste: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, as well as, bland. Together with other properties, herbs can, for example, be used to increase Lung Yin which would be helpful in a dry cough. Bitter herbs aid to resolve water retention, which is common among patients with Type 2 Diabetes. Most often you will find multiple herbs combined to a classical or custom formula, which includes as little as two and as many as twenty herbs, mixed to benefit one another and address multiple symptoms simultaneously.

​More important than being a well-functioning medicine by itself, Traditional Chinese Medicine makes for a good team player. Acupuncture has been praised for its ability to integrate and compliment other treatment modalities by either supporting the treatment strategy or by treating undesirable side effects. This becomes most beneficial when receiving taxing forms of treatment, such as, being treated for parasites or cancer.
 
At the center of this medicine is the idea of a universal force inherent to all life and all matter that exists - Qi. This idea has broad applications across the world we inhabit. It is there when you breathe, your heart beats, the wind changes direction and when your DNA is spliced to be transcribed into RNA. It is a force that keeps the very fabric of our world together.

Qi obeys the principle of duality described by the terms Yin & Yang.
Yin and Yang have a relationship and… it's complicated.
Yin is used to describe such things as cold, hard, dark, slow, etc.
Yang on the other hand is hot, soft, bright, fast, etc.
While they are often used to describe opposites, they have an interdependent relationship in which they indefinitely demand the existence of the other and thus their own.
 
An example can be your nearby traffic light:
The red light is Yin, it demands halt, waiting, giving others the chance to move about.
The green light is Yang, it requires flow and movement on your part.
The traffic light is Yin, then Yang, then Yin, then Yang…
If we don’t have a red light, we don’t need a green one and thus we would need something else… a roundabout: Yield, then go, yield, then go…
Yin is used to describe such things as cold, hard, dark, slow, etc.
Yang on the other hand is hot, soft, bright, fast, etc.

Next time you find yourself stuck at a traffic light allow this to be a brief moment of Yin before you accelerate to inhuman speed. This philosophical principle has been a loyal guide by my side in the past years. It helps me to remember that no event in my life is one sided. If I am frustrated, sad or happy, I know that these emotions are not all there is, but that it is a small moment weighing against the whole of my life. This makes my problems a little smaller and my pleasures all the more valuable.
 
Would I recommend TCM for everyone? Of course, I would! I do strongly believe, though, that most of the magic of healing comes from the trust you can place in your healthcare provider. Do you have the feeling that he/ she has your interest at heart? Can you communicate your concerns and questions to this person? That little bit of magic, or placebo, can make all the difference in the treatment outcome.
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 About the Author: Kate Olson, CPC, CHT, is a Life Transformation Coach, Clinical Hypnotherapist, NLP Practitioner & Reiki Master practicing in Seattle, WA, as founder of Northern Lights Life Coaching. She does workshops & classes, as well as, individual and group coaching. Her emphasis is on guiding clients in finding path, purpose and peace. She focuses on integration of mind, body and spirit wellness. It is her mission to help clients find joy through connection, creativity and change facilitation. She is passionate about the arts, travel, the environment, personal growth, family and living with joyful purpose. She has a second wellness-related business offering Salt Therapy, Salt Works Saltariums. Salt Therapy offers an all natural treatment solution for respiratory and skin issues.

   While I strongly believe in living in the present, moving forward and not dwelling in the past, there is value in taking time for a little reflection. It is important to realize how far you have come, what you have accomplished, what you learned and to relish the pleasures and gifts you have received or even the lessons learned through trials and painful experiences. I am looking back on 2016, my personal and business progress, as Northern Lights Life Coaching. It is easy to see only what we have not yet accomplished and forget about the journey as a whole and the the achievements we have made along the way.

  I started off 2016 with hesitation, trying to get my barrings after a busy 2015, that went by very quickly.  My business model for my saltariums was not working the way I planned and the first location for the units had not worked out. I needed to re-evaluate and decide on a different plan. My life coaching was coming together, but definitely requiring more time for marketing and some fine tuning, in terms of direction and focus.  I wanted to do everything, but realized I needed some targeted focus and clarity of mission. Personally, I was concerned about my son, who was having a hard time with his living circumstances in Wichita, KS. He had moved there 3 years earlier.  He was considering moving back home and I wanted to help him with that transition. It involved selling a condo I had bought there and  those two things took up a lot of my time the first part of the year and I was not able to put all my focus on business. While I wanted my son to move back to Washington and was happy to have him back home, having your adult children back living at home is always a challenge and an adjustment.  I think business-wise my year really started off in March.  My son moved back home in mid-April and I am happy to say he is doing well now, with some direction and goals for his future.

  In March 2016, I decided to commit to some business networking after going to a workshop where the facilitator suggested that a new business should be networking 20 hours per week.  While I found that much networking was nearly impossible, I did give it a good try and joined several networking groups. I will have to say, it did get my year hopping and I met some interesting and very helpful connections that also turned out to be great people. I gained a lot of support and good ideas for moving my business forward. I  also committed to ramp up my social media presence and that led to some great opportunities.

  To summarize the highlights of 2016, in April, I started a meetup group, Vibrant Spirit "Living On Purpose" Tea Chats. It is a group for connection and conversation and has led to a bigger idea I will be introducing this year. The group struggled over the summer, but the concept is a good strong foundation for future plans and we had some fun meetings over the year.  At the end of May, I went to Japan with a friend who was born there. She asked me to accompany her there to visit her 86 year old Aunt. It was a great opportunity and an interesting trip.  Japan is a beautiful country with a fascinating culture and I know I will have to go back, as a week was not enough time to really explore. In July, I was presented with an unexpected and fortunate opportunity to attend the Personal Development Symposium in Boston, MA and do a presentation, as well as, participate in round tables and panels for the 2-day event at Harvard University Faculty Club.  The event was in mid-September and I will have to say it took me that long to decide that I was up to doing the presentation.  I did my presentation on "The Simple Grace of Embracing Change" with emphasis on how to inspire clients to embrace change. This was appropriate, as I was embracing change myself and it was a high impact learning experience. It was an amazing, inspiring adventure. I met colleagues from across the country, connected with and learned from them and will keep in touch long-term.  In early September, I took a trip down to Salem, Oregon and appeared on a CCTV show called, "Gray Matters", hosted by B-Lee Coyne. The program highlights subjects of importance to the health and wellness of the community. This was a big step out of my comfort zone, but good preparation for my presentation at the Harvard Faculty Club, just a couple weeks later. 
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  Just a week after returning from Boston, I left on a trip to Sedona, AZ where I attended a personal growth workshop, Women-n-Spirit and then did some personal growth sessions designed specifically to help me in reaching my own goals and dreams. Sedona is always a nurturing and soul inspiring location for me and I came away with new energy and focus. Even though the airline lost my luggage, creating a great deal of inconvenience, I very much enjoyed my trip. Next, I went to Madison, WI, for a 3-day business conference. It was my first time in WI. Madison was a lovely city with a small town feel and I loved the lakes and old buildings. The conference provided some good information and insight, but I had a bit of jet lag and ended up missing part of it dealing with the airline about my luggage. The luggage was never found and I was eventually reimbursed in mid-December. The luggage was lost on a two and a half hour direct flight on September 22.  Since it was a 3 week trip, I had packed a lot of clothes. Lesson definitely learned, on luggage and airlines. From Madison, WI, for the last leg of my trip, I flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the Balloon Fiesta. It had been on my wishlist for a couple of years and I will say, it was totally worth it! I really enjoyed Albuquerque and will have to go back soon to see more and visit the surrounding areas. When I returned home, I had a lot of catching up to do and the time flew by.  I was featured in a "Member of the Month" blog for Heart to Heart networking group. To find out more about my business and how it was started click the link to the blog post below: 

http://www.hearttoheartnetworking.com/2016/11/member-of-month-kate-olson-with.html 
​
  I was privileged to be invited to interview by the Positividy Now podcast 1% Club. Listen below:
 
We sat down with Kate Olson on the latest episode of our podcast. Listen here: https://t.co/Wf9cxzVlUN
@KONorthernlites #coaching https://t.co/6ZMzAZuUGX
(https://twitter.com/positividynow/status/816665861553528833?s=03)
This is such an inspiring program and it was truly an honor to be included as a guest! 

  After my Harvard presentation, I was inspired to become a more proficient speaker, so I enrolled in a 3-day speaking workshop that was held in Port Ludlow. It was another challenging, but rewarding experience. I learned a lot and will put it into practice in 2017, as I continue to work on developing those skills.. A few days after I returned from the Port Ludlow speaker workshop, I left on my birthday trip. I went to Santa Barbara and Palm Desert, CA for a week and it was a wonderful relaxing retreat where I nurtured myself and enjoyed the sunny weather thoroughly. The rest of the year went by in a flash, as I tried to get the many things still on my to-do list completed. The last Vibrant Spirit "Living On Purpose" Tea Chat included a guest speaker and some pop up stores and was a fun event. I enjoyed Christmas with family and toasted in the New Year with Brunch with friends and a great view followed by a Seahawks game. It was so nice to have my son here to share the holidays, as I had missed that in 2015. 

  My most valued takeaways from the year were definitely the amazing people I met and connected with, the ideas that were inspired by those people, the places I visited and the amazing opportunities and experiences that I was blessed to participate in.  I know I will be more open to opportunities in 2017 and will continue this journey. That included some great clients that I was priveleged to watch grow and achieve goals. I am thankful for the trust they showed in sharing their journey with me. The year inspired a new mission and has given my business goals more focus and momentum. Personally, I feel more centered and ready to reach out and create the vision I have for my life.  What a year I had and what a year I am looking forward to. I hope you had a year you can look back on, see how far you have come and smile!  Wishing you an amazing 2017!