Through acupuncture, the body’s innate ability to heal itself is stimulated. Thin, sterile, single-use stainless steel needles are gently inserted to promote a balanced flow of energy, increasing oxygenation of the tissues, while regulating and releasing immune substances, anti-inflammatories and even hormones. Through a complex diagnostic system, practitioners are trained to determine the unique constitution of the individual, which areas are out of balance and how to bring harmony back to the body through acupuncture, herbal medicine and lifestyle remediation.

Chinese herbs have been used for thousands of years as concentrated nutritional substances to powerfully balance the body. In conventional medicine, a person’s chief complaint is often solely identified and treated, sometimes with no regard to co-morbidities.The Eastern Medicine approach to treatment is slightly different. When you come to an Oriental Medicine practitioner, you will be questioned about all of your symptoms. The goal in Eastern Medicine is to address the underlying cause of all of these symptoms, thus we say we are treating the “patterns of disharmony.” After a thorough health history, the unique constitution and the relationship of the patient to their environment are taken into consideration in order to prescribe herbs that will bolster deficiencies, drain excess and bring harmony to the organ systems.

Using deep tissue methods, massage therapists can enter the body’s deeper soft tissue layers, freeing previously dense, hardened areas, which may have become chronically painful due to a lack of fluid exchange and energy flow. As such areas soften and ‘re-organize”, their chronic tension patterns release, revitalizing living tissues with blood, lymph, and qi (life) energy. Because living systems like the human body require a constant flow of qi / energy to self-organize and heal, blockages to that flow within our tissues can create longer term health problems like joint and soft tissue pain, movement restriction, and circulatory problems to name some of the most common. As chronic tension patterns held in the deeper soft tissue layers begin to open and change (often called “unwinding”), reservoirs of previously held life energy become available to promote the process of healing. This energy can help clients overcome stubborn, seemingly intractable physical conditions, which have failed to yield to other therapeutic methods.