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This article is a reprint from my July 2010 Newsletter

You may have noticed the business name at the top of the page – Transformational Acupuncture. After some long hours (and a lot of indecision!) I decided to go with this name, as supposed to a more normal business name like using my own name and title, or something like Holistic Health Associates, or DC Acupuncture Center. Why did I choose this name?

About 11 years ago, just out of college, my health hit bottom. I was about 25 pounds underweight (which I know a lot of you would probably hate me for, but it sucked for me), had a whole host of digestive problems and food sensitivities, and my energy levels had pretty much tanked. I felt foggy headed and lethargic after every meal. Emotionally I was extremely vulnerable to the emotions of others, extremely indecisive and prone to worry, and I think it’s fair to say, very depressed and in a generally bad state of affairs.  It was really at this point that my “healing journey” began.

In my last year of college, I had started to become interested in holistic health and eastern spirituality.  Immediately after graduating, I got a work-study position at the Heartwood Institute, a holistic healing and retreat center.  Located in the mountains of Northern California, about 45 minutes from the nearest town of Garberville, and 4 hours north of San Francisco, it was a very beautiful location, to say the least.

At Heartwood, there were a wide variety of holistic training programs.  The Chinese nutrition and shiatsu program caught my interest. Luckily, the students there were required to give practice sessions, and the work-study residents like myself were the perfect guinea pigs. A very wonderful student gave me a series of Chinese nutrition counseling sessions and shiatsu treatments, and over time, I did feel my health starting to improve, little by little.

As I explored more of what Heartwood had to offer, I discovered classes in an art form called qigong (pronounced chee-gong), taught by a woman named Suzanne Shaw. In these classes, we would coordinate slow and precise movements with our breath, mirroring the movements of the crane, bear, tiger, and other animals. As time went on, and I got the hang of the movements and breathing, my stomach would start to gurgle and bubble – the beginning of a deep and inner healing process. Suzanne also taught an herbal medicine class, and was the first person to feel my pulse and look at my tongue (two of the major diagnostic indicators in Chinese medicine), and prescribe me a Chinese herbal formula for my digestive problems.

Paul Pitchford, the author of Healing With Whole Foods, one of the top books on Chinese medicine and nutrition, was a resident teacher at Heartwood. I took several classes and workshops with him, including nutrition, Chinese medical theory, Japanese Shiatsu, tai chi and mindfulness meditation.

At my first half-day meditation retreat, I decided that I was really going to breath into my lower abdomen, just like Paul was instructing. However, my stomach gurgled so much, that I think it really tested the concentration of my fellow participants! Paul informed me afterwards that really, it wasn’t the physical expansion of the stomach that counted, but rather the gentle concentration of the mind on the lower abdomen. The first of many lessons about meditation…

It was with during a conversation wtih Paul that I experienced my first conscious moments of true “quiet mind”, where my thoughts completely stopped, and I was just present.

Other healing experiences included Iyengar Yoga classes, Reiki healing sessions, eating a completely organic and whole food diet from the Heartwood kitchen, and learning about conscious relationships skills as taught by Gay and Kathleen Hendricks (thanks to the owners of Heartwood, Bob and Roy).

At some point along my healing journey at Heartwood, either consciously or unconsciously, I decided that I was interested in not just getting better (although I very much wanted that).  I was interested in something much deeper than that – the full transformation of my body, emotions, and mind. I didn’t just want my symptoms to go away – - I wanted to build a new body, learn a new way of reacting to my emotions, learn a new way of handling my thoughts and belief patterns. I wanted health that was built from the ground up, with a strong, lasting and solid foundation, on all levels.

I’m thankful that I started my “healing journey” at Heartwood, because it taught me one of the key lessons in undertaking this transformational process —a comprehensive approach. As you can see, I was exposed not just to new ways of eating, or to yoga, or meditation alone. I had the opportunity to engage in all of them together, interweaving them over time into an integrated set of “health practices” and new ways of living. It was this comprehensive approach that not only helped me start my healing process, but also helped me to truly transform myself physically, emotionally, and mentally.

So… that’s why I’ve included the “Transformational” name in my business title. To help signal to people that this is a health care practice where they can not only seek help with alleviating their symptoms, but also a place where they can find the support, education, and experienced help that they need to transform their lives physically, mentally, and emotionally.  It’s my hope that I will be able to help clients who want to truly change and transform themselves, using a comprehensive approach to healing that works with their particular life circumstances and situation.