TRADITIONAL ACUPUNCTURE is a system of healing so effective that it has successfully stood the test of time. Originating in China between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago, it was later taken to Japan and Korea and eventually to all the continents of the world. It is a form of health care that serves to enhance the individual's capacity for self-healing and alignment with the cycles of Nature. It is a safe, effective, natural, and holistic method of treatment, as well as a preventive tool to maintain good health and to assist in reaching the fullest potential of being.
Acupuncture is often effective in alleviating chronic symptoms, physical/ psychological effects of stress, climate-related distress, chronic emotional states (grief, depression, fear, anger, anxiety, etc.) and many forms of pain. It may also speed recovery from emotional or physical trauma and injury as an adjunct to appropriate medical care and psychotherapy.
Through the use of hair-thin needles and moxibustion at one or more of 360 points on the body, the acupuncturist is able to alter the flow of energy, or ch'i, as it moves through the 12 energetic pathways known as meridians. Our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health depends on a balanced and continuous flow of energy through these channels. Disruptions in this flow give rise to physical and psychological symptoms, pain, and disease.
Energetic imbalances may exist from the time of birth, or they may arise from the various internal and external stresses that each of us encounters in daily life. Acupuncture treatment works to disperse blockages and congestions of energetic flow, to restore energy where there is depletion, and to enhance the balanced circulation of ch'i energy. As this occurs, pain and distress are alleviated and our natural biological capacity for self-healing is restored. Patients often say after treatment that they feel restored to a previous state of good health or to a state of health better than they have ever experienced.
The focus of treatment is not just on one symptom alone but rather on a whole pattern of symptoms, emotions, and behavior that indicates an underlying source of energetic imbalance. In treating this underlying issue, the individual is strengthened in a larger way and the psychological and physical processes of the body become more balanced as a result; the initial presenting complaints are improved as the person's entire system becomes more healthy and self-regulating.
The recommended frequency of treatment varies greatly according to the length of illness, the individual's general health condition, and any complications that may be involved in the individual's lifestyle. A person in relatively good health with a problem of short duration who has a healthy lifestyle and environment will usually show quicker improvement than a person with the opposite circumstances. Generally speaking, it is common to see improvement within 6 - 12 treatments; as improvement occurs, treatments are scheduled less and less frequently but at the proper interval to maintain progress.