Holistic psychotherapy for North Shore individuals navigating anxiety, burnout, life transitions, grief and the complexity of modern emotional life — integrated with Chinese medicine where helpful.
Conventional psychotherapy and standard acupuncture share an important limitation: they each address only part of the person. Talking therapies engage the mind, but can leave the body holding stress it cannot release through insight alone. Acupuncture regulates the nervous system and supports emotional balance through the body, but does not always create the reflective space needed to process complex psychological experience.
Holistic psychotherapy at Lane Cove Acupuncture recognises that the mind and body are one integrated system — and treats them as such. Dr Christine Shen’s approach draws on her dual training in Chinese medicine and psychotherapeutic modalities to offer North Shore patients something genuinely rare: a practitioner who can move fluidly between the psychological and the somatic, matching her approach to where each patient is and what they need.
This is not a combination of unrelated therapies bolted together. It is a coherent, whole-person model of care that has developed over more than 20 years of clinical practice in Lane Cove and across the North Shore.
Chinese medicine has always held that emotional states and physical health are inseparable. Grief affects the lungs. Chronic worry taxes the spleen. Unresolved anger rises to the liver. This framework enriches the therapeutic conversation in ways that standard Western psychology alone does not always capture.
Many Lane Cove patients arrive carrying stress in their bodies — tight chests, clenched jaws, shallow breathing they have stopped noticing. Somatic awareness practices help bring these patterns into conscious attention, where they become available for genuine change.
All holistic psychotherapy sessions take place in a private consulting room at our Lane Cove clinic. Dr Shen observes strict professional confidentiality and ethical obligations across both her Chinese medicine and psychotherapeutic practice.
The North Shore is one of Sydney’s highest-performing communities — and also one of its most pressured. Understanding this context shapes every therapeutic conversation at our Lane Cove clinic.
Lane Cove, Chatswood, Artarmon and Willoughby are home to a high concentration of professionals, business owners, executives and high-achieving families. The culture of the North Shore values competence, achievement and forward momentum — qualities that serve people well in many areas of life, but that can also make it genuinely difficult to acknowledge struggle, seek support, or permit the kind of slower, reflective work that psychological healing requires.
Many North Shore patients arrive at holistic psychotherapy after standard approaches have not quite reached the depth they needed: therapy that felt like talking in circles, or medication that managed symptoms without addressing their origins, or acupuncture that helped physically but left the emotional layer untouched. Dr Shen’s integrative approach is specifically suited to patients who sense that their distress has both physical and psychological dimensions — and who want a practitioner capable of working across both.
The demands of senior corporate roles, long commutes from Chatswood or North Sydney, and the expectation of continuous performance without visible strain are among the most common presentations at our Lane Cove psychotherapy practice.
North Shore families frequently manage two demanding careers alongside parenting, mortgage pressure and caring for ageing parents — a combination that generates chronic low-grade stress with few visible outlets.
Whether in professional, academic or parenting contexts, the performance culture of the North Shore can generate perfectionism, self-criticism and anxiety that standard CBT approaches do not always address at their roots.
Each of the following presents differently in different people. Dr Shen’s approach begins with your specific experience — not a category label.
Persistent background anxiety, catastrophising, physical symptoms of stress (palpitations, insomnia, digestive upset) and the exhausting effort of managing worry as a constant companion.
When the pressure to perform has been sustained for too long and the tank is empty — characterised by emotional detachment, chronic fatigue, cynicism and a loss of meaning in work that once felt purposeful.
Low motivation, emotional numbness, loss of pleasure in formerly enjoyable activities, disrupted sleep and appetite, and the particular heaviness of depression in high-functioning people who appear fine on the outside.
Career change, divorce or separation, new parenthood, children leaving home, retirement, relocation — transitions that alter identity and require a new internal map to navigate effectively.
The death of a parent or partner, pregnancy loss, the grief of a relationship ending or a career shifting unexpectedly — all forms of loss that deserve proper space and skilled companionship.
Patterns of disconnection, communication breakdowns, the aftermath of betrayal, or the quiet drift that accumulates in long partnerships under pressure — explored in individual sessions with Dr Shen.
Unresolved past experiences that continue to shape present responses — including childhood relational trauma, acute traumatic events, and the more diffuse developmental trauma that is often the least recognised and the most pervasive.
No single modality fits every person. Dr Shen draws from several evidence-informed frameworks, allowing her to meet each patient where they are and adjust as the work progresses.
Working with the body’s held experience — noticing physical sensations, breath patterns and posture as windows into emotional and psychological material that language alone may not reach.
Exploring the stories we tell about ourselves and our lives, identifying where dominant narratives no longer serve us, and developing the authorship to write a more spacious and accurate account.
Understanding how early relational experiences shape adult patterns of connection and protection — and how greater security becomes possible through increased self-awareness and therapeutic relationship.
The Chinese medicine map of how specific emotional patterns correlate with organ systems enriches the therapeutic conversation with a dimensional framework unavailable in Western psychology alone.
The Integrated Wellbeing Session — Dr Christine's Signature ApproachDr Christine Shen's preferred way of working is the Integrated Wellbeing Session — where Acupuncture, Chinese Herbal Medicine and Holistic Psychotherapy are woven together simultaneously into a single, seamless experience. This is not three treatments done one after another; it is one integrated session in which each modality enriches the others.
You are settled comfortably onto the treatment bed. Acupuncture needles are placed according to your presenting pattern. Once you are relaxed, Christine begins a gentle, open therapeutic conversation — covering whatever is most alive for you that day. This might be physical symptoms, emotional states, how relationships are feeling, work pressures, life transitions, or anything else on your mind. There is no agenda imposed. Your Chinese herbal prescription is also reviewed and adjusted within the same session. The needles work quietly on your body's energetic balance while the conversation unfolds — mind, body and spirit addressed all at once, while you rest in a calm, deeply supported state.
Integrated Wellbeing Sessions are 75 minutes / $165. The Integrated Mind-Body Package (5 sessions) is $750 — save $75. HICAPS rebate applies to the acupuncture component.
Professional ethical obligations apply across all aspects of Dr Shen’s practice. What you share in the consulting room stays there.
All information shared in psychotherapy sessions is held in strict confidence. Disclosure to third parties occurs only in the limited circumstances required by law and professional ethical obligations — which Dr Shen explains clearly at the outset of your work together.
Sessions take place in a sound-insulated, private consulting room at our Lane Cove clinic. You will not be seen, heard or disturbed during your appointment. We understand that many North Shore patients particularly value this privacy.
Dr Shen practices in accordance with the ethical standards of both the Chinese Medicine Board of Australia (AHPRA) and applicable psychotherapy professional frameworks. This means you can be confident that your care is underpinned by robust professional accountability.
Where appropriate, Dr Shen works collaboratively with your GP, psychiatrist, or other health professionals. If your situation requires a level of support beyond holistic psychotherapy, she will say so clearly and help you access appropriate additional care.
Clear, transparent pricing. HICAPS rebates apply to acupuncture components. Some funds also rebate psychotherapy — check with your insurer.
Signature SessionSome health funds provide rebates for counselling and psychotherapy sessions. Check with your fund regarding your specific policy entitlements. HICAPS available on-site for acupuncture components.
If you hold a GP Mental Health Treatment Plan, please discuss this with Dr Shen at the time of booking. Medicare rebates for psychotherapy sessions depend on the practitioner’s specific registration type.
