Acupuncture and Manual Therapies
Acupuncture provides a gentle, safe and relaxing form of treatment that brings relief to pain, reduces inflammation, helps regulate neurotransmitters, hormones and the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. For these reasons, it treats a broad range of problems by helping your body heal and re-balance itself. I use the tiniest of needles to maintain patient comfort and relaxation. Sessions range from more in depth work that includes bodywork, cupping, herbs and nutrition to simple return appointments that will get you the results you desire quickly. Generally, longer held chronic conditions take more time to resolve, and acute conditions or new injuries take less time.
Patients often ask me how acupuncture works. While I'm happy to explain things within the terms of Chinese Medicine in our sessions, it can also be useful to look at how western medical science thinks about it. Here is a link to a series of of blogs explaining how acupuncture works and this one specifically about how acupuncture treats pain. If you want to explore evidence based science on Acupuncture, check out this website.
The benefits of acupuncture and in general, holistic therapies are cumulative. Generally I recommend about 6 visits to start our work together with 10-12 visits the norm for treatment to resolve an issue and stick. In our initial consultation and after your first treatment we will go over your treatment plan and discuss how soon you can expect relief. For some issues, we find relief very quickly, for others, like fertility, migraine headaches, autoimmune conditions and menstrual cycle shifts changes can take longer. Some conditions are also best treated with acupuncture as well as herbs and we can discuss what to expect from treatment. Take a look here to see pricing and average treatment plans for how acupuncture and Chinese medicine work on common conditions brought to our offices. My appointments are on the higher end of the national range because I offer acupuncture as well as bodywork, guided breathwork and meditation, cupping, herbal medicine and nutritional consults.
What to expect from your first appointment at my Durham Office
We will discuss the primary and secondary reasons for your visit and go through your health history from both western medical and traditional Chinese points of view. I will take your pulse and take a look at your tongue to assess your constitution and the patterns giving rise to your condition. I'll invite you onto the table and we'll do our first acupuncture treatment. I may also do cupping or some bodywork or use moxabustion to stimulate acupuncture points. If we have time, I may flip you over and do the other side of the body's points. At the end of the treatment we'll talk about a treatment plan and I'll send a follow up email with suggestions for lifestyle, nutritional and dietary changes according to your constitution and patterns. To book an initial consult and acupuncture treatment, click here
Feel free to contact me via email to schedule a 15 minute consult to see if acupuncture or the other forms of traditional medicine I use, will be right for you and book your package now!
"Tong zhi bu tong, bu tong zhi tong"
Where there is free flow there is no pain, where there is pain, there is no free flow
Bodywork
I've been practicing bodywork and massage therapy since 1995 and I've trained extensively in Japanese therapeutic bodywork called Amma Shiatsu, having practiced and apprenticed in San Francisco's Japantown from 1997 to 2018. I've trained in Qi Gong for self cultivation and Tuina, Chinese Therapeutic bodywork with master teachers in the North American Tang Shou Tao lineage. On the Western side my training includes Orthopedic massage with Tom Hendrickson DC, originator of the Hendrickson Method.
With over 700 hours of therapeutic bodywork training, and tens of thousands of hours of experience, I address your injuries, aches and pains with skill and expertise. Since beginning my training in Acupuncture and Chinese medicine in 2011, I was able to add cupping, moxibustion, and gua sha to my pain relieving toolkit. If you are a regular returning patient you can book a bodywork and cupping session (without acupuncture). I often encorporate these modalities into return sessions but be sure to book a longer Extended Acupuncture and bodywork treatment if you know you want some undivided time to experience the benefit of these modlities.
If you are a new patient and you don't want to do acupuncture, but you want to work with your health care concerns just using bodywork, cupping, contact needling (acupuressure) herbs, lifestyle adjustments, nutrition, you would book an Bodywork and Chinese Medicine initial consult and treatment click here.