What is Your Body Trying to Tell You? – An Exclusive Interview with Connie Ng

From salt therapy to root cause and quantum healing, this practitioner’s approach to wellness has evolved through years of personal experience, study, and listening closely to what the body may be communicating. In this interview, she explores the connection between mind, body, and spirit–the role of emotional and energetic patterns in health, and why curiosity may be the first step toward deeper healing.

Connie Ng, Holistic Practitioner, Quantum Healing Facilitator & Transformational Coach

Your practice has evolved far beyond salt therapy, so what inspired you to expand into root cause and quantum healing?

It certainly wasn't part of some grand master plan! When I opened my salt therapy clinic, I thought I was helping people breathe better, improve their skin and perhaps enjoy 50 peaceful minutes away from the outside world. Instead, that little salt room became one of my greatest classrooms.

Clients came through the door with eczema, respiratory problems, digestive issues, chronic pain and other persistent conditions. Once they relaxed and started telling me their stories, I often noticed an emotional undercurrent to what was happening physically. It could be grief, chronic stress, trauma, relationship difficulties, or something carried for years. Sometimes it wasn't even what they said. Intuitively, I sensed there was more beneath the surface. I later wrote about this in When the Body Speaks: Decoding Mental Health with the Five Elements.

My own experience made me curious too. I lived with chronic eczema intermittently for around 35 years, so I know firsthand how much a long-term physical condition can affect you emotionally. But I became equally interested in the other direction: how unresolved emotions, chronic stress, and deeper psycho-spiritual patterns may influence physical wellbeing.

So I kept studying, first for answers for myself and later for more ways to help my clients. I've never believed one modality holds all the answers. Holistic counselling, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), five-elements coaching, vibrational medicine, and eventually quantum healing gave me different ways to understand the mind, body, and spirit connection.

My question changed from, “How do we get rid of this symptom?” to “What else might be going on here, and what could the body be trying to tell us?”

I encourage clients to feel into their bodies too. If an uncomfortable emotion surfaces, where do they feel it? A knot in the stomach? Tightness in the chest? What happens if they become curious instead of immediately trying to make it disappear?

My interest in Star Magic Healing and 0 Ishiki Healing came later because I wanted tools that might help facilitate healing at what I call “quantum speed.”

One striking example was a man with eight years of restricted ankle mobility following surgery involving a metal rod. After around 20 minutes of quantum healing work, his range of movement improved, and he was surprised to find himself walking downstairs without consciously protecting the ankle. I shared his story in He Had Accepted Eight Years of Restricted Mobility: Then, in 20 Minutes, His Ankle Began to Change.

When someone has lived with a condition for years, they can start believing the best they can hope for is to manage it. There is nothing wrong with management when it is needed. What concerns me is when it quietly becomes the limit of what someone believes is possible.

A noticeable shift can challenge that assumption. Suddenly the question becomes, “If this can change, what else might be possible?” That curiosity can be an incredibly powerful place from which to begin healing.

You combine traditional Chinese medicine principles, quantum healing, counselling, and vibrational medicine in your work, so how do these approaches complement one another during a client's healing journey?

I think of my modalities as tools in a toolkit, or perhaps keys on a rather large keyring! Having lots of keys isn't useful if you don't know which lock they fit. The skill is recognising which approach might unlock something that has been suppressed, protected or dormant for a long time.

Traditional Chinese medicine and five elements coaching gives me insight into someone's constitution, emotional patterns and response to stress. Holistic counselling lets us explore beliefs, relationships, behaviours and life experiences. Plant Essences can support the emotional and psycho-spiritual layers, while Tissue Salts are used within biochemic therapy to support mineral balance and healthy cellular function. Star Magic Healing and 0 Ishiki Healing give me an energetic framework to work with.

I don't use everything at once. That would be quite the session! What I use depends on the person and what they want to change. That's why I offer a complimentary 15-minute to 30-minute clarity call. I don't expect someone to scroll through my services and somehow know whether they need five elements coaching, plant essences, holistic counselling or quantum healing. We talk about what is happening, what they've tried, and what they want to achieve. I can then hone in on the approach that may best support them.

The modality needs to fit the person, not the person fit the modality. Mind, body and spirit don't conveniently operate in separate departments. My job might be easier if they did! I listen to the whole person, work out where we might begin, then reach into that toolkit for the right key.

You often describe symptoms as messages rather than problems to eliminate, so what have years of working with chronic conditions taught you about listening to the body?

I believe the body is an infinitely intelligent system. It is constantly trying to keep us alive and bring us back towards balance, or homeostasis.

Traditional Chinese medicine has long viewed health through the lens of balance and imbalance. Even the word “dis-ease” makes sense to me because something within the person is no longer at ease.

I also tell clients that the body is one big detoxing machine. It eliminates what it doesn't need through our bowels, urine, sweat, mucus, phlegm, and, yes, even farting! Healing isn't always glamorous.

In my work, I see physical symptoms as one way the body communicates with us. The body cannot speak our language, so it gets our attention through aches, pains, itching, headaches, digestive discomfort and other symptoms.

With chronic and complex health conditions, I explore psycho-spiritual patterns alongside the physical picture and see what resonates with the client's life. I might ask, “Were there any significant events around the time your symptoms began, or even six to twelve months beforehand?”

I want to know about everyday life too. What are the dynamics at home, within relationships, friendships or work? What might be happening beneath the surface that has never been connected with the physical symptoms?

Then we feel into the body. If an uncomfortable emotion comes up, where is it physically? Does the stomach tighten? Is there pressure in the chest or throat? This builds body awareness and helps the client understand their own patterns.

Living with eczema intermittently for around 35 years taught me that this relationship can travel both ways. Chronic physical conditions can profoundly affect us emotionally, just as I believe our emotional lives can influence our physical health.

For me, root cause healing begins with curiosity. Rather than only asking how to make a symptom disappear, I want to understand why it may have appeared.

The body cannot speak our language, but it certainly knows how to get our attention. The question is whether we are willing to listen and feel into it.

Where do you think conventional and holistic healthcare have the greatest opportunity to work together instead of separately?

I don't think we need to choose between modern medicine and ancient healing wisdom. They are looking at the same human being through different lenses.

Conventional medicine is incredibly sophisticated at examining anatomy, pathology and organ function. We have imaging, blood tests, genetic testing and biotechnology that our ancestors could never have imagined.

Traditional systems such as Traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda and Sowa Rigpa offer another lens, looking at patterns across the whole person and recognising mind, body and spirit as interconnected.

TCM fascinates me because the Five Elements map relationships between organs, emotions, senses, tastes and colours. What intrigues me is how some of these ideas seem to echo through the English language, despite emerging from cultures worlds apart.

We say someone has “the gall” to do something. In TCM, the gallbladder is associated with courage and decision-making. We say “green with jealousy.” The Liver belongs to the Wood element, associated with green, while anger, jealousy, and frustration are traditionally linked with the Liver. Then there is “the eyes are the window to the soul.” The eyes, Liver and Gallbladder belong to Wood, while the Hun (魂), often translated as the Ethereal Soul, is traditionally said to reside in the Liver.

Coincidence? Perhaps. But it makes me wonder whether our ancestors, living miles apart long before global travel became commonplace, understood something about the intrinsic connection between mind, body and spirit that we are only beginning to rediscover.

Years ago, a client came into my salt room for a respiratory condition and mentioned that he regularly woke around 2 a.m. I explained that according to the TCM Qi body clock, this falls within the Liver hour. He replied that it was funny I should mention his liver because six weeks earlier he had been rushed to hospital with acute pain and diagnosed with liver disease.

I wasn't diagnosing liver disease because somebody woke at 2 a.m. But you can imagine why that conversation stayed with me.

Before CT scans and pathology laboratories, traditional practitioners had to become highly observant. TCM developed tongue, complexion, and pulse assessment as part of pattern differentiation. Sowa Rigpa has its own observational and pulse traditions. I think that accumulated knowledge deserves study rather than being dismissed simply because it is ancient.

I'm developing those observational skills myself. Through Tissue Salts and biochemic therapy, I'm sharpening my facial diagnosis skills based on traditions within German naturopathy, alongside tongue diagnosis.

This is where integrative healthcare gets exciting. Modern medicine gives us extraordinary tools to investigate and measure the body. Holistic and traditional medicine can add observations about constitution, lifestyle, emotional wellbeing and the relationships between different aspects of the person.

I'd love to see more collaboration between doctors, specialists and holistic healthcare practitioners, with respect for what each discipline brings.

Instead of conventional versus holistic medicine, perhaps the better question is, “What can we learn from each other that may empower this person towards full healing and recovery?” That's where I think the future of healthcare gets really interesting.

More people are exploring energy-based healing today, but what do you think they misunderstand most about what it actually involves?

One misconception is that you need to completely understand or believe in energy healing before it can work. Some of my most interesting clients have been sceptics!

What I ask is much simpler. Come with an intention for what you would like to change and be open enough to receive. I sometimes call it a “suspension of disbelief.” You don't have to understand everything. Just leave the door open to the possibility that your current understanding of what is possible may not be the whole story.

I work with the premise that we are energetic beings and our physical, emotional, and energetic states influence one another. In quantum healing, I also work with the concept of the Higher Self and whether a deeper aspect of the person is ready for healing and transformation.

I've had sceptical and half-sceptical clients expect very little, then walk away pleasantly surprised by something they could see, feel, or experience that didn't fit their previous understanding of reality. Perhaps the conscious mind was sceptical, but another part remained curious enough to receive.

Another important point is that a powerful quantum healing session doesn't remove free will. I see energy healing as an opportunity to clear and reset. What someone does with that reset matters.

If they return to unresolved emotional patterns, limiting beliefs, relationships, or ways of living that continually pull them down, there may be more work to do. I may use Holistic Counselling, coaching, and Plant Essences afterward to continue working through trauma, emotional patterns, and limiting beliefs while supporting a healthier inner environment.

My role as a Quantum Healing Facilitator isn't to become the person who “fixes” somebody. I can facilitate the clearing, help create the reset, and offer tools for what comes next. The client still has a role in their healing and transformation.

Healing isn't only about what happens during the session. It's also about what you choose once you walk out the door.

When someone has tried multiple treatments without lasting results, what first shift in perspective do you encourage before beginning the healing process?

The first thing I encourage is curiosity. Instead of concluding, “Nothing works for me,” I might ask, “Why hasn't it worked yet?” This isn't to assign blame, but because there may be something we haven't understood.

One of my favorite self-inquiries starts with, “How is this not working for me?” Most people can answer that fairly easily. They know how their condition affects their health, relationships, mobility, confidence, work, or quality of life.

Then I ask, “How is this working for me?” That's usually when things go quiet! We explore whether there could be a secondary benefit to staying where they are. It doesn't mean someone consciously wants to be unwell. I'm curious about what may sit beneath conscious awareness.

Rather than thinking their way to the “right” answer, I encourage them to breathe and feel into their body. What comes up? Where do they feel it? Sometimes the body responds before the conscious mind finds the words.

This is why, when clients sign up for what I affectionately call “the works,” I don't necessarily start with quantum healing.

My three-step approach usually begins with holistic counselling, where we unpack their story, lifestyle, relationships and emotional patterns. I draw on TCM Five Elements principles and other mind-body and metaphysical frameworks to explore possible psycho-spiritual correlations between what is happening physically and what is happening in their wider life.

Plant Essence work can take the enquiry further. An Oracle Reading and Constitutional Trauma Mapping, where appropriate, may bring other themes into awareness. Quantum healing comes later as the deeper clearing and reset.

By then, the person who lies down for quantum healing may already be thinking quite differently from the person who first came to see me.

When we start looking holistically through the lens of physical and emotional imbalance, rather than only seeing a body that has somehow gone wrong, we naturally ask different questions.

We can revisit psycho-spiritual themes that resonated in the counselling session and ask what remains unresolved. Is there an old identity, belief or relationship dynamic they still can't let go of?

People can become so accustomed to managing chronic illness that they stop imagining life beyond it. I explored this in What Future Has Your Diagnosis Quietly Persuaded You to Stop Imagining?

In my clinical observation, clients who engage with the deeper enquiry by signing up for “the works” often reach the quantum healing session more open to what may be possible.

Before we ask the body to change, sometimes we need to give the mind permission to contemplate and the courage to dream that full healing and recovery might actually be available to us.

Then we can return to three questions:

• Where am I out of balance?

• How is this not working for me?

• How is this working for me?

Sometimes the question we least want to answer is worth sitting with the longest.

How can someone start recognising whether their physical symptoms may be connected to unresolved emotional or energetic patterns?

Become a bit of a detective about your own body. Don't only notice what hurts or flares. Notice when it happens, what was going on beforehand, and who you were with. Does your stomach tighten around a particular person? Do headaches appear during stressful periods? Does your skin flare when life feels overwhelming? Do you repeatedly wake at the same time at night?

Patterns can become clues. Traditional Chinese medicine offers an interesting perspective through the TCM Qi body clock, which maps two-hour periods to different organ systems. As mentioned earlier, a client who regularly woke around 2 a.m., during the Liver hour, subsequently told me he had recently been diagnosed with liver disease. I'm certainly not suggesting you diagnose yourself by the clock, but recurring patterns are worth noticing.

Look backward too. Were there any significant events around the time your symptoms began, or even six to twelve months beforehand?

Think about what life was actually like. What was happening at home or work? Had a relationship changed? Was there grief, conflict, financial pressure or a major transition? Were you taking care of everybody except yourself? Sometimes something has been “normal” for so long that we no longer recognise how stressful it is.

Then feel into the body. When an uncomfortable emotion surfaces, where does it show up? Does your throat tighten? Does your breathing change? Does your stomach react?

In my practice, I draw upon TCM Five Elements principles and other mind-body and metaphysical frameworks to explore possible psycho-spiritual correlations. I don't hand somebody a meaning and announce, “This is why you're sick.” I explore the pattern with them and see whether it resonates with their lived experience.

A simple journal can help. Record the symptom, when it appeared, what you were doing, who you were with, and what you were feeling. Connections can become clearer over time.

To me, body awareness is learning your body's language. The body cannot speak our language, but it communicates remarkably well when we pay attention. The key is to slow down, feel into the body, and stay present with what arises. With practice, we can become more attuned to what it may have been trying to communicate all along.

Your belief is that the body is communicating rather than broken, so how has that philosophy changed the way you approach both healing and life?

It has changed almost everything, including my relationship with my own body. When you've lived with a chronic condition for a long time, it's easy to become frustrated with your body. I lived with eczema intermittently for around 35 years. There were certainly times when I wished my skin would just behave itself! Over time, I stopped seeing my body as the enemy and became more interested in what it might be trying to communicate.

Instead of “Why is my body doing this to me?”, I now prefer, “What needs my attention?” I see the body as an incredibly intelligent system, continually trying to keep us alive and bring us back into balance. Even when its way of getting our attention is uncomfortable, inconvenient, or downright annoying, I don't automatically interpret that as failure.

I also pay much closer attention to what I was feeling when a symptom appeared. What was happening emotionally that day or in the weeks leading up to it? Was I stressed, frustrated, grieving, anxious, or ignoring something or someone I didn't want to deal with? Sometimes the connection becomes surprisingly obvious once you start looking.

The body can be incredibly honest. It often reacts before the conscious mind is ready to admit something isn't right. It could be a relationship, lifestyle, environment, pace of living, or even a version of ourselves we've outgrown.

That's why I've become more interested in feeling into my body rather than only thinking my way through life. How does my body respond when something feels right? What happens when it doesn't? I've learned that physical responses can sometimes tell me something my logical mind hasn't caught up with yet.

This philosophy has also deepened my appreciation for what the body does every day. I explored that in A Love Letter to the Body That Never Gave Up on You. We spend so much time criticising our bodies for how they look, what hurts, or what they can no longer do that we forget everything they've carried us through.

Healing, for me, isn't only about becoming symptom-free. It's also about the relationship we develop with ourselves along the way.

When we listen instead of constantly fighting the body, we may discover that healing asks for changes beyond the symptom itself. Perhaps we need stronger boundaries, more rest, or the courage to leave something behind that no longer fits who we're becoming.

Your body has been with you through every heartbreak, illness, stressful period, mistake, reinvention, and new beginning. Maybe instead of asking what is wrong with it, we could occasionally ask what it has been trying so hard to do for us. That has changed how I approach healing and, frankly, how I approach life.

If readers could take away one idea that changes how they think about health and healing, what would you hope it is?

I would want them to remember that they are more than their diagnosis, and their current state of health does not necessarily have to define their future.

A diagnosis can be useful. It can finally name what you've been experiencing and point you toward treatment. What concerns me is when it quietly becomes an identity and, before you know it, you've built your life around what you've been told you may never do again.

I understand that personally after living with chronic eczema intermittently for around 35 years. If you've lived with something for five, ten or twenty years, stay curious. Feel into your body and notice what was happening emotionally when symptoms appeared or changed. Look at your lifestyle, relationships, environment and patterns. Instead of only asking, “What's wrong with me?”, perhaps ask, “Where am I out of balance, and what might my body be trying to tell me?”

I believe the body is infinitely intelligent and always trying to keep us alive. Looking at “dis-ease” holistically through the lens of physical, emotional, and psycho-spiritual imbalance opens a very different conversation about healing. Don't automatically assume something is permanent simply because you've lived with it for a long time.

As mentioned earlier, I've seen an eight-year mobility restriction begin to change in around 20 minutes. Experiences like that keep me fascinated by what may become possible when we challenge limits we've unconsciously accepted.

Healing, for me, isn't simply about chasing symptoms until they disappear. It's an opportunity to understand yourself more deeply, reconnect with your body, and question limiting beliefs about your health that may have become so familiar you don't even realise you're still carrying them.

So I want to finish by saying to your readers what I often say to my clients:

"I want you to know that full healing and recovery are available to you. You just need to give yourself permission to stop letting your diagnosis write your ending, and the courage to dream again."

Life is for living.

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