Acupuncture
Fine needles are placed at specific points to ease pain, reduce stress, and restore balance, always chosen for your situation. Sessions usually run 45 to 60 minutes, so there is time to understand what is going on and treat without rushing.
Annie also offers distal acupuncture, where needles are not placed directly on the problem area but still provide effective treatment. That can be a good option when an area is too tender, inflamed, or difficult to access.
Treatment plans often combine acupuncture with lifestyle advice, and sometimes herbal medicine, so care fits both your symptoms and your day-to-day life.
What sessions may include
- Classical acupuncture
- Distal acupuncture
- Support for pain, stress, and recovery
- Integration with herbal medicine when useful
An initial session will include a questionnaire and a discussion of your symptoms and health. Annie will also take you pulse, check your tongue and eyes or other similar observations to assess which patterns your body is exhibiting and therefore which needles will be placed where.
How does acupuncture actually work?
Fine needles are placed in areas that correspond to many different aspects of the bodies internal system. There are acupuncture meridians and points that make up it's own network but relate to all of the bodies other complex systems such as
- Circulation
- Nerves and nervous system including 5 senses
- Lymphatic system
- Hormonal system
- Digestive and filtration system
- Muscular system
- Individual organs or abstract concepts of these organs
Sometimes these points may be along a major meridian that is associated with a particular organ system of the body. Often meridians follow facia, ligaments or hollows such as the gaps between bones or muscles. The impact and technique of each needle insertion may also achieve a different results, such as unblocking a point, tonifying (uplifting) or down regulating it. There are some points that reflect or correspond so directly to an illness or another specific part of the body that you might feel a deep sensation, emotion, aching or referral pain as the needle stimulates the body's natural corrective mechanisms. Sometimes barely a few needles may be used to target a specific area, but often there will be a number of needles used to provide supporting benefits.
While needles are placed and during the session, Annie will be monitoring how the body responds at each step and may adjust or change needles.
Why exactly all of these points exist and the exact mechanisms of the system remain somewhat mysterious but they have been found to exist and work due to thousands of years of careful observation of the body and practice.