​Not all acupuncture is the same. The acupuncture sessions I provide are multifaceted. As you sit in front of me on your first visit, you may think you are only coming in for back pain or an overwhelmingly, stressed out day from work but as we start looking more into your energy, on an empathic level, I see the truth behind your pain.

As an empath, I am a projector of ones’ emotions. I am projecting back to you, what you already know, the hidden, feminine side of your internal self. As we sit there, we may start discussing what has really brought you to me in the first place. Is it truly your back pain or your migraines? Or is it something deeper?

Within an injury, there are three different levels involved; physical, mental, and spiritual. If all three levels are out of balance, then we have to restore one level at a time to get them back into balance. The order is not always the same for every patient. For example, I had a patient that came in for back pain. I was unable to touch her back for three weeks. So we began working on the emotional and spiritual part of her treatment first and her physical back pain began resolving itself.

The process of healing does not usually occur in one session. It takes time to address all of areas that brought you into my office in the first place. I am able to facilitate a process of unfolding the unknown within yourself and heal the parts within you that you may not see as broken. As we put these parts of yourself back together, you are able to see who you truly are again.

My sessions always include needles, but I also spend time listening to my client on a deeper level. I always give my clients a choice of whether they want 30 minutes of intuitive counseling or 30 minutes of massage or the whole hour just with the needles.

More and more, my clients are coming to me for the intuitive information I provide. Intuitive acupuncture helps bring us back into our bodies, brings us back home, back to our Divineness. When we live outside of our bodies, we live in illness.
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If you are struggling with loss of self or an injury that just won’t go away, call me. Your injury will not go away until you deal with the emotion that is tied to it. Let’s see what you’re truly holding onto as I facilitate and help you let it go once and for all.

Many don't know this about me but I was professional athlete for many years. In 2002 I was ranked 5th in the world in javelin. I was a two time American Holder, Triple Crown Champion until I had a  life changing injury. 

I injured my UCL. Usually this is a javelin throwers death of the sport but i looked hi and low for all modalities. Acupuncture and Cupping helped shorten my recovery time.

​I was receiving acupuncture and cupping at the Olympic training center in Chula Vista, California. Then continued my treatment in West Lafayette Indiana. 

This is the whole reason I become an acupuncturist. I was so impressed with my recovery time that I started pursuing a career in acupuncture and cupping, knowing that this medicine would empower me to help other athletes recover quickly and return the sport.

Cupping broke down the scar tissue quickly and let my arm reach its full range of motion in the matter of 5 months where normal recovery time would have taken a year.

What is Cupping?

Cupping is suction technique designed to pull toxins out of the body. Cupping can help facilitate the bodies recovery by bringing the toxins to the surface which then lessons the time that lactic acid will take up residence in the body.  When lactic acid takes up residence in the body, it can create muscle spasms and even go into muscle strain because the muscle cannot get enough oxygen and blood to the cells to rid itself of waste.

If this stagnation continues, for example in the shoulder, and the lack of blood and oxygen are unable to move through the muscle structure of the shoulder, the blockage can create a frozen shoulder over time. When this frozen shoulder is created, the scar tissue builds up, hence the name frozen shoulder, your shoulder will be unable to move up, down or around the head. Often times, it is unknown why frozen shoulders occur without any injury at all. But one example in Chinese Medicine is that when the impediment of blood and qi are blocked, it creates a frozen shoulder but Western Medicine has no diagnosis for this. 

Another example is when a swimmer is doing the butterfly stroke and the arm has to extend up and over the head, the arm needs to be free of any obstruction. Cupping the shoulder on a weekly or monthly basis will allow the muscle structure to be free of any toxins or structural impediments. 

Cupping can also elongate the muscles and allow the swimmer a better circumference. Cupping has the ability of breaking down any scar tissue the swimmer has built up in their shoulders. 

Cupping in true Traditional Chinese Medicine is most effective in lung disease, cold and illness. Many Chinese Practitioners will cup along the back for respiratory infections or pneumonia. 

Cupping is great for:

• Lung and Respiratory ailments
• Athletic injuries
• Removing toxins from deep inside the body
• Removing scar tissue 

Is cupping painful?

Everyone has their own pain tolerance level. Each person's experience is different. Cupping creates a suction so it has a pinching sensation that will last for a few seconds. I ask you to breathe through sensation then the pain lessons. I will continue to ask you how you feeling during the session so if there is too much pain, I will lessen the pressure of the cup. 

During the session, you will be cupped a multiple of 2-3 times using 20-30 cups. I apply the cups, then remove them 2-3 times depending on your tolerance level.

Occasionally, you will leave with more pain than what you came with. The reason for this is that we are bringing the toxins to the skin surface. Toxins = Pain. If you need to take some oral pain relievers then please do so. 

What I Need to Know After a Cupping Treatment

After a cupping session, it is recommended that you do not do anything to stress your body such as extreme cold, smoking, arguing, etc.  You want to avoid getting chilled because cupping opens the pores. The pores open to the heart and the lung so you want to keep the area that was cupped covered for 24 hours after the treatment.

The most common and unfortunate misconception concerning Cupping Therapy is the discolorations left on the skin. The discoloration is created by the negative pressure bringing toxins and lactic acid to the surface of the tissue. These discolorations are NOT bruises. The discoloration usually lasts 5-10 days depending on how toxic your body is.

If you are dealing with scar tissue, injury or need to release toxins, give me a call to setup an appointment. You will be amazed with the benefits of cupping.
 

Often times, you will not think about acupuncture when your struggling emotionally. Acupuncture is very beneficial to help clear your emotions and come back into your body. Acupuncture helps put the body into a meditative state where we are unable to achieve when we are emotionally spinning out of control.

As we emotionally spin out of control, it's as if our spiritual self leaves our physical body in a mind/body state of pain. Acupuncture puts the physical body at rest to allow the spirit to re-enter the body and become whole again. When the body becomes whole, operating in mind, body, spiritual self, we are in balance. 

The emotions are an extremely important aspect of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The emotions are connected into an organ system in the body so the emotions are affecting the balance of the organ systems. 

Some of  the emotions that all human beings feel are joy, sadness, anger, depression, and grief. These are all normal human responses. But when these organ systems become out of balance, we begin feeling the physical imbalance in our bodies.

For example, when a patient comes to me feeling angry, has multiple migraines, red eyes, or red face, I take a look at their pulses. As a practitioner, I may ask them if they are having irrational responses to people around them, irritability or explosions at home, which confirms liver imbalance. Then we can work on balancing the liver through acupuncture and herbs. When the liver comes into balance, the redness may clear. 

It's usually not just one organ system that causes the imbalance. There are often multiple systems in play. For  example, the liver could be in excess or repressing emotions and overpowering the heart putting the person into anxiety attacks. I assess all of the meridian systems in the body to come to an overall diagnosis.

We have to look at the constitution of the body. Each body constitution is indicative of an element, such as earth, water, air, metal or fire. The liver is related to the metal system so when metal is out of control, it can overpower fire. Fire will then be put out which can lead to depression and anxiety. 

Most if not all diseases begin with an emotional imbalance which manifests into a physical illness.

Recently, I had a patient come in with an imbalance in the heart having lots of anxiety and emotional depression. She was A type personality. Constitutionally liver which tells me she is a go getter. She is highly successful and driven. 

When this body constitution gets out of balance, I treat liver and heart. Some of the emotions she was having was chronic fatigue because she exhausted her qi entirely. Her fire was dimmed.

Within five sessions, she was not depressed anymore, she no longer had anxiety attacks. Her heart was full. Her energy was abundant. Now she comes in for maintenance sessions to maintain her balance. 

If you are experiencing intense emotions, come free yourself through acupuncture. Let's extinguish these emotions before they lead to the path chronic illness.

What are some reasons people come in to do acupuncture for back pain? Some of the most important reasons are arthritis, bulging disc, degenerative disc disease, spondylolythesis, spinal fracture, spinal stenosis or scoliosis. Also, back spasms  and pinched sciatic nerves. The number one reason people come for back pain is for sciatica.  

Symptoms of sciatica include pain in the lower back which also radiates as numbness down the leg.  Often times, these symptoms are created by poor posture or tightness of muscles. Which then creates trigger points, which impede the meridians' flow of qi. Sciatica feels like a sharp, burning, aching pain. People may experience one or more of these sensations.

When coming in to see me for lower back pain, some of the first things I will do is take your blood pressure and Chinese pulses. I then ask you about where back pain is, how long you've had it and what makes it feel better or worse, such as sitting, standing, lying down.

At this point, I will escort you into a treatment room, ask you to pick your favorite position to make sure you are as pain free as possible.  At that point, we start the needle treatment which lasts 45-60 minutes.  The treatment could also include cupping and massage. At the conclusion of your treatment, I will ask you what your pain level is, whether it's better, worse or the same.  

At this point, we then create a protocol and a plan to get your back pain under control. I had a patient recently who was experiencing scoliosis as well as a bulging disc and numbness into the gluteus. This patient had frequented the chiropractor for two years. The MRI and xray finding revealed that she had a bulging disc. There was never any mention that this patient had scoliosis that was causing the bulging disc.

After only one treatment, the  pain was gone.  

I treated the scoliosis which was pulling on the bulging disc which is what was causing the numbness pain in her buttocks.

With scoliosis patients, it is in her best interest to do maintenance.  Scoliosis does not go away. But acupuncture is great for reducing the inflammation in the muscle that overloads that pulls on the spine which causes pain. 

Therefore, there is no way to completely remove pain associated with scoliosis but if you maintain treatment of massage and/or acupuncture as needed, you will have a better quality of life with your scoliosis.

In the Western world, they prefer to put rods in the back to straighten the spine. Acupuncture offers a much less evasive protocol.

Acupuncture in these cases increase the flow of blood and oxygen and allow the meridians to open up and let the qi flow, therefore, you have less inflammation and pain in the body.

If you are experiencing any of these signs or symptoms or have been diagnosed with any of the conditions above, I would love to help you get to the other side of pain so you can live pain free.

Do you have neck pain?  Are you unable to turn your head from side to side?  If not, I can help.

I have a client who came in recently with a neck pain of 10.  She had a car accident several months ago and was unable to turn her neck from left to right.  She couldn't sleep.  She couldn't perform her job properly.  She had seen a chiropractor and massage therapist before seeing me.

Some of the therapies I use may be different than your average acupuncturist.  I start with diagnostics to see which muscles or nerves are impinged or blocked.  When I take the Chinese pulse, I can feel if the radial pulse inhibited by the inflamed nerves and muscles.  

I palpate the muscles through the neck then use a myofascial glide to break down some of the scar tissue that is inhibiting the turning of the neck.  Next, I use a needle protocol to bring blood flow into the proper areas of the neck.  On complex cases, I also use a cupping method to breakdown scar tissue.

When diagnosing these types of injuries, I look at an overall picture.  I look at the injury, the emotion and the cause and effect of what is keeping you in pain.  I take all of this into consideration when people are stuck in mind/body pain.

I have found that emotion is stored in the myofascial muscles.  As the patient relaxes into the treatment, he/she may experience an emotional release as I work with the myofascial tissue. We start to peel back the layers of trauma, like peeling back an onion.  The patient may start crying or laughing as he/she releases the trauma of the injury.  

It may take several sessions whenever you have an acute, chronic neck pain where you have a car injury or trauma to the neck.  I create a custom protocol which includes a variety of techniques and practices that you can do at home to further your healing process.

My recent client went from a pain level of 10 in her neck to  level 3-4 in the matter of only 8 treatments.  She is able to rotate her neck from side to side without clenching her teeth in pain.  Acupuncture is excellent for bringing the body back to homeostasis.

If you or someone you know is experiencing neck pain, call me.  I would love to help you move through your pain. 

People suffering with arthritis or autoimmune diseases may seek out acupuncture treatment when NSAIDS don't work.   Autoimmune diseases are mostly caused by food sensitivities, stress and anxiety.  

When treating patients with autoimmune disease, I often see immediate relief after only one or two acupuncture treatments.  

Autoimmune diseases are not the same.  Although they show up similarly in the body, the causes may be different.  The constitution of the patient plays an important role in the autoimmune disease itself.  Whether the person is fleshy or not fleshy causes the autoimmune disease to act differently in the body.  There are many different reasons why the autoimmune disease acts the way it does.  

With acupuncture, I look in detail of the overall picture of my patients.  I may look at your hair, your eyes, you ears, your pulse, which enables me to narrow down the causative explanation of the disease itself.  This allows me to get to the root of the disease and not just the symptoms.

With autoimmune diseases, we are often looking at a wind invasion which creates a infection in the body which is a hyper immune response.  The inflammation is the infection.  

The first thing I do is diagnose and locate the source of the infection which is causing the hyper-immune response.  The most common sites of the immune responses are joint inflammation, lymph nodes, lungs, digestive tract, oral cavity and spleen.  The hidden autoimmune diseases include ear infection, tonsillitis, pneumonia, and the lower infections are night sweats, palpitation and insomnia.

Next, I neutralize the antibody response and assist the clearance of hyper-immune response through using blood tonic herbs, wind damp herbs along with regular acupuncture treatments.

Once we clear the hyper-immune response, we address the inflammation.  Acupuncture treatments are excellent at reducing inflammation.  Acupuncture  breaks the cycle of the auto-immune response in the body.

With Rheumatoid Arthritis, antibodies are having an inflammatory response to the bone cartilage, ligaments and tendons.  In one sense they are consuming the nutrients that are intended for those parts of the body.  

For example, one  of my  patients I have been seeing for almost a year has bone deforming Rheumatoid Arthritis.  I have treated her about 25 times.   The first time I saw her, she could not even walk in the door.  Her husband had to carry her and help her onto the table.  She could not bend her knees or raise her arms over her head.  Her knees were as if they were stone and her hips were unmovable.  

After the first three treatments, life started coming back into her body.  She could not feel the needles or touch on her knees, pelvis or hands.  After the next five treatments, she actually began to feel the pain in her knees which was a positive response.  The pain was a sign that she could start moving them.  

Step by step, each body part started to come alive.  Without taking any Western meds at this point, acupuncture was helping her to regain her life and to walk again.  Without acupuncture, she would have been in a wheel chair.

If you or someone you know are struggling with any of these symptoms, schedule an appointment with me.  I will help you regain your life.  (502) 558-6818

Research shows that the combination of acupuncture and IVF together produces a much higher rate of conception.  We ask ourselves why?   Why is this?

Some of the reasons are:

• Acupuncture helps  balance the hormones in the body.
• Acupuncture invigorates blood where there may not have been enough blood before. Often times doctors run test and cannot find any irregularities with the female or male reproductive system.
• One of the best attributes of acupuncture is to create an environment (happy home) for the egg to implant into the endometrium.  How this works is that acupuncture actually relaxes the body and brings it into a homeostasis.  When that happens, the body is ready to conceive.

Whenever I'm treating fertility patients, I don't have a set protocol.  The reason being is that each person is different and are in differed stages of their fertility treatment.  So it is a step by step process going through their fertility phases.

Some examples would be treating a family who has never conceived before, treating miscarriages, treating IVF, IUI, and endometriosis and poly cysticosis syndrome.  Treating someone who has not conceived before and has gone through all of the Western Medical tests may take a little longer.  We setup a plan for each phase.  

At that point, I would recommend herbs, evaluate ovulation, menstruation and recommend acupuncture twice per week.  Also, recommend my patient to receive diagnostic testing through Western Medicine which would be an ultrasound and blood testing.  Sometimes there is no explanation for infertility.  

Chinese Medicine seems to be one of the things that can help you become fertile.

I worked with a woman who had been through all  of the conventional testing through the Western Medical Doctors.  One of the biggest issues in the Western world is overactive sex life from men and women.  From a Chinese Medicine prospective, too much sex diminishes the Ming Men Fire, the gate of life.   Which then means this is taking away the vital energy of the body.  Which is Western Medicine would call adrenal fatigue. So just giving this piece of information to my patient changed the constitution of her body and created an environment of conceiving, along with weekly acupuncture sessions and herbs.  Plus, she no longer had back pain or painful periods .

Another situation was with a client with PCOS.  She was taking Metformin.  Within this instance, I saw this person twice per week.  I did not recommend any herbs for her.  She had been struggling to get pregnant for several years.  Within three months of us working together, she conceived a beautiful baby girl.

These are some examples of how acupuncture can be so powerful in changing the constitution of one's body so when all else fails, people come to acupuncture.  People come to acupuncture when everything else is exhausted.