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In the foreground, plant leaves. In the middle ground, someone in a red mask with a plaid blanket cross their lap lying back with eyes closed on a recliner covered with a yellow sheet. In the background, three patients lying back on recliners with eyes closed. The one on the left is covered with a yellow blanket, the one in the middle is covered in a multicoloured blanket, adn the one on the right is covered in a red blanket.

Beyond niceness: on pillows, blankets & nervous system overrides

Acupuncture works because it supports the body to do what it already wants to do: rest and heal. Regular visits to a familiar, predictable place where your body gets to feel good (or, maybe just less bad) teaches your nervous system another way of being. Addressing basic needs for comfort (like pillows and blankets, as needed) are a part of the treatment.

A balding man stands in the sunshine with a huge smile waving to the camera. Ocean and rugged coastline behind him.

On distal needling, aka “Finding the switches”

People ask us all the time why we’re not putting needles into where it hurts. (“You know it’s my knee that’s sore, not my elbow, right?”) This is a totally fair question! The answer is that we use distal acupuncture: placing needles away from the site we’re treating instead of close to it. Distal points are below the knee, below the elbow, on the head and at the ears. It’s a safe, efficient and very effective way of practising that’s been used for thousands of years.