Techniques Used

close up of hand inserting acupuncture needles

Distal Acupuncture

Part of the theory behind Acupuncture is selecting effective points away from the site you are trying to treat. The theory is to guide your body's Qi to the affected area to remove obstructions and help it heal. This is why a needle is put in your foot to treat your head, or your hand to ease your lower back pain. In the end the prevailing theory is we are working with the nervous system, trying to get it to 'reset' and stop sending out pain signals, and instead begin healing the trauma.

The system workings off what we call body imaging and channel relationships. This is what guides me to point selection to help treat your symptoms. The idea is you give your nervous system a few clean accurate signals, which in turn helps your body to respond to the therapy.

Often I will palpate your spine, limbs and abdomen to get a feeling of where our body is holding on to tension and pain, then select points to release those areas. Often you will find an immediate response in those areas, this lets us know we've gotten a response from your nervous system.

I use this style to treat most symptoms my clients present with, not just pain, but also allergies, digestive and menstrual symptoms to name a few.

NeoClassical Acupuncture

This style of Acupuncture uses only a few needles (sometimes just one) to treat a whole host of symptoms and complaints. By using abdominal palpation we can identify areas where the body has 'obstacles' or imbalances that are bringing about your symptoms and pathology. By removing and rebalancing these abdominal elements, we can bring relief and help eliminate the symptoms.

The abdomen is considered a key area for diagnosis in many forms of natural medicine, often because it is where life and nutrients start in the womb via the umbilicus. Just as the ear (also due to its early embryonic development) or hand can be used to treat or diagnose the whole body, so can the abdomen.

I find this style very useful for complex health issues and when there are multiple sites of pain or pathology going on in the body at once.

close up of hand inserting acupuncture needles

Dry Needling

The term comes from the middle of last century, where physiotherapists where injecting saline into tight muscles to illicit a release. They then discovered just the act of inserting the syringe had a similar effect. Hence the term Dry Needling. Many other modalities now use this term to describe a type of local needling to often stimulate the muscle to twitch. In Chinese Medicine this is called "A'Shi needling", and it has been in use for many hundreds of years. It was first recorded in some classic texts which are over 1000 years old.

The main difference in modern times is the level of training: as a registered Acupuncturist I have undergone hundreds of clinical hours practice during my studies alone to begin needling. As Dry Needling is unregulated, most only have 16-20hrs training, some even less. Since there is no standard that must be adhered to.

Dry needling is only one technique available in an Acupuncturist's arsenal, there are other systems that often simply work better. However, certain clients do like the feel and release of local needling, even though long term, a different style could yield better results.

The clinic has moved! New address: Suite 4 / 9 Clyde Rd Berwick

X