Acupuncture

There are a few different types of acupuncture available in the UK, I practice a little known branch which rests in Daoist philosophy called Stems and Branches. As such it’s roots are spiritual and the model is like a tree, with the roots in the Earth and the branches reaching for the Sky or the Heavens. This image reflects the human energetic picture. We are both very much in this physical body (of the Earth) and also somehow much more than just this, there is a lightness and a knowing that is more than just physical form consciousness. I see this as our connection to the Sky/Heavens.

This concept informs the way I practice and on the deepest level, as a healer, I am working with my clients to put them on the path to their true knowing of themselves, who they were when they first arrived on this human journey and how to get back to this or to what they want to achieve.

This might look like helping them recover from an illness, ease physical pain, restore physical movement, ease physical symptoms or it might look like rebalancing a persons nervous system and helping them to process their own trauma. In all ways it is a freeing of energy that is trapped within the body and inhibiting their natural flow state.

I am also trained in five elements acupuncture which has a deep relationship to Stems and Branches, five elements is (unsurprisingly!) based on a five elemental picture of fire, earth, metal, water and wood which is used to translate the symptoms a person is currently experiencing, their medical history, their body signs, their pulse and their Stems and Branches astrological chart into a workable map of the energy body, providing tools to find the blockages and work with the body and the person to ease them.

In practical terms this work looks like talking and taking a detailed case history, looking at the patients body & tongue, taking the pulse (which is a whole energetic blockage finding tool in Chinese Medicine not just for blood pressure and speed of beats) then piecing all of this together to find the right points to begin the process of unblocking the flow. I use between 2 and 5 needles per treatment and sometimes use a substance called Moxa (processed mugwort herb) which I burn on the end of the needle to introduce pure light energy to the patients system.

The needles are extremely fine and most often inserted in the lower leg or lower arm, there is a sensation on needling and sometimes they are painful but most often not, I don’t aim for pain! The needles stay in for 20 minutes while the patient rests on the couch, I stay with the patient throughout this process checking the pulse intermittently looking for the change I am hoping to achieve with the needles. Some people fall asleep for this part of the treatment, others talk it depends.

Once the 20 minutes are up the needles are removed and the patient is free to move and slowly get off the couch. It’s important to drink water after an acupuncture session and the main counter indications are not to drink alcohol and not to have a bath for 24 hours, both of these influence the energy body and could impact the effectiveness of the treatment.

Depending on the focus of the treatment on the day (pain reduction, symptom management, anxiety calming etc..) we will also discuss any recommendations for diet, daily massage, use of a certain oil or herbs or any practice that would be beneficial to the process of getting where the patient wants to get. I generally find that most issues can be addressed within 3-5 treatments, this doesn’t mean healed and gone necessarily but we will know pretty quickly if acupuncture will be effective.

Session are an hour and a half for the first treatment and an hour for follow on sessions, this looks like 20 minutes chat, 30 minutes treatment and 10 minutes settling and gathering before leaving. Sessions are on a scale from £45-£120 per session, depending on your financial situation and practice from my home in Buckfastleigh, Devon and from the clinic of the Neals Yard branch in Totnes, Devon.