Treatment Techniques
We have created this website to serve as a place to share our practice of Acupuncture, Chinese Medicine, Western Herbal Medicine and Holistic Healing with the community.
We believe that these therapies can be both an effective and complimentary treatment to many illnesses and ailments.
Acupuncture
Acupuncture - Moxabustion and unique forms of Chinese massage, such as Cupping, Gua Sha and Tui Na, are used to release tight muscles, improve blood circulation and activate natural healing responses in the body.
Acupuncture is delivered by a trained Acupuncturist (R.Ac) using sterile single-use needles according to a detailed system of Chinese (TCM) medical diagnosis. By activating specific nerve pathways and natural healing mechanisms the healthy functioning of your body's endocrine-immune-nervous systems can be maintained or enhanced to overcome disease or to prevent illness.
Strength and Orthopedic Assessment
When treating pain and injury the body's relative strength and performance is evaluated using EXSTORE functional assessment, muscle testing, range of motion evaluation and orthopedic testing. Considering the body as a whole, diet and lifestyle advice may also be included when necessary or to supplement a treatment plan. The lens of Traditional Chinese medicine is used to complement the physical assessment performed and helps to form focused and effective treatment plans.
The application of acupuncture and manual therapies is then utilized to realize your wellness goals. Acupuncture restores bodily function, treats pain and enhances recovery leading to greater performance and an improvement in overall wellness and vitality. During the course of treatment reassessment is performed against previous benchmarks to assess treatment progress with the focus on resolving your chief complaints.
Acupuncture and Manual Therapy
After assessment a blend of either traditional TCM needling styles (Tung/Tan, Traditional TCM), motor-point acupuncture, trigger point/dry-needling, and electro-acupuncture/IMS are applied along with myofascial work like Gua Sha (IASTM), traditional fire-cupping, or Tui Na and other manual therapies to treat pain, restore function and enhance recovery.
Myofascial work such as Tui Na massage, fire-cupping and Gua Sha are often performed briefly within acupuncture treatments to make soft-tissue improvements. After acupuncture treatment tissues are well prepared for further benefit with the addition of manual therapies. Additional myofascial work may be booked as a stand alone treatment or as an addition to an acupuncture treatment.
Motor Point Acupuncture
Motor point acupuncture targets the motor-neuron, or the "wires", that allow the muscle to receive stimulus to "fire" and contract. These special points are located within the belly of muscular tissue where there are fewer nerve endings making the treatment of motor-points relatively comfortable compared to other forms of orthopedic needling such as Gunns IMS (performed by other therapists) or trigger point / dry-needling.
When acupuncture is performed at a muscle's motor-point location, and with the addition of electrical stimulation, it causes a controlled contraction-relaxation reflex which allows tight muscles to release neuromodulating both the muscle and the nervous system. By applying motor-point acupuncture muscles are restored to their normal length while simultaneously improving their neurological out-put leading to more efficient and timely activation of muscle fibers often resulting in dramatic changes in strength and stability.
When a muscle is tight it becomes weak, losing its ability to powerfully contract. When muscles become weak they fail to stabilize our joints and limit functional movement leading to compensation and eventually the further development of pain and injury. Motor-point acupuncture turns inactive muscles back on like a light switch and allows you to engage them and strengthen them with rehabilitative exercise in order to correct postural imbalances and overcome pain, poor mobility and weakness.
Trigger Point / Dry Needling
Tight muscles can develop painful contracted "knots' or trigger points keeping the fibers of a muscle tangled and disordered. Trigger points not only create shortness in a muscle but they also refer pain away from where they are located. Trigger points can be latent in muscle tissues and cause weakness and inhibition without the body bringing it to our awareness as a painful sensation. Trigger points can suddenly become painful if the muscle becomes sufficiently short and tight. When muscles are relatively weak the body adapts and compensates and muscles that are not intended to be used can overwork and strain leading to compensation in the body and further dysfunction.
Trigger Point Acupuncture, or Dry Needling, releases tight contracted fibers causing a sudden achy twitch which de-activates the trigger point leading to decreased trigger point sensitivity, improvement in flexibility and a reduction in pain.
Electro-acupuncture (e-stim/IMS)
Acupuncture with the addition of electrical stimulation (Electro-acupuncture / E-stim / IMS) is used to remove muscular inhibitions, enhance motor-sensory function of the nervous system to treat pain, injury, stress, anxiety and emotional imbalances. Acupuncture helps moderate the biological stress response through its effects on the HPA axis, the hormonal axis between your hypothalamus, pituitary and your adrenal complex. By acting directly on your nervous system acupuncture is able to down-regulate overactive sympathetic tone in the nervous system and increase parasympathetic function and activity.
Electro-acupuncture applied at specific frequencies promotes the release of powerful pain killing substances like beta-endorphins, powerful anti-inflammatory substances like ACTH, and other hormonal secretions. The effects of beta-endorphins on the HPA axis also encourage a cascade of hormones to be released in women including follicular-stimulating hormone (FSH) and luteinizing hormone (LH) helping to balance and regulate menstrual cycles and can be stimulated in late stage pregnancy to release oxytocin for induction treatment when medical orders are looming.
The application of electro-acupuncture is used for the successful treatment of many conditions. Its application allows for the broad treatment of an area of the body through the depolarizing effects of the electrical current on highly conductive tissues in the body like fascia which integrate systems of muscles and other tissues. E-stim is also used to restore injured nerves by encouraging the uptake of nutrition and neurotrophic factors to injured nervous tissue to promote healing and enliven their function by "exercising" them with electrical signaling.
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The neuromodulatory effects of electro-acupuncture are widely applicable when treating pain. When the body is experiencing pain not only is there a local inflammatory response surrounding the site of injury (redness, inflammation, swelling, pain) but the same inflammatory process begins to affect the nervous system beginning another process called neurogenic inflammation. At the site of inflammation the body begins secreting inflammatory neuropeptides that pollute the nervous system and dampen the motor-output of the motor nerves supplying the muscles affected leading to poor activation, weakness, sensitization, potential trigger points and pain.
By applying electro-acupuncture it reduces neurogenic inflammation through the gentle continuous stimulus's effect on the nervous system. The stimulus promotes the release of endorphins and stops the development of inflammatory neuropeptides affecting the motor nerves decreasing pain signaling in the body and increasing the motor output of the nerves which control muscular contraction.
The application of acupuncture distally (away from the location of the pain) also activates peripheral nerve branches that have a neuromodulatory effect on the central nervous system and the brain. Because our experience of pain is an amalgamation of both the pain signaling coming from the site of an injury as well as our own subjective interpretation of the stimulus via our limbic system (memory) and our frontal cortex (the (cognitive functioning region of the brain), calming sympathetic tone and regulating our nervous system can effectively dampen our perception of pain while promoting the release of healing factors that expedite tissue healing and recovery.
Traditional Diagnosis (TCM) and Internal Health
Using the framework of traditional Chinese medical diagnosis (TCM) evaluation of your chief complaint and underlying health is performed. Diagnostic techniques including direct palpation, observational diagnosis (including the tongue pulse), along with the review of your health history through both the western and eastern perspectives is performed. By considering medical imaging, bloodwork and by working alongside your team of medical professionals, we can form the most effective treatment plans to support any medical diagnosis, whether or not acupuncture is the primary treatment modality.
The system of Chinese Medicine acknowledges the intimate relationship of our emotions to the process of disease and disorder within the body. Emotional disharmony can reveal organ level imbalances and the system of TCM also provides a framework to address those imbalances specifically in treatment. By blending traditional observation with modern diagnosis we open up a variety of treatment approaches by collecting the most diagnostic information possible and acknowledging the inter-relationships between mental, physical and spiritual health.
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By calming the bodies stress response through acupunctures influence on the HPA axis and by allowing the body to spend ample time in the parasympathetic mode, or our "rest-and-digest mode" of our nervous system, the body is able to restore organ level balance and communication to enhance internal function and recover from or support in ameliorating symptoms of chronic illness. Through the neuromodulatory effects of acupuncture on the brain and central nervous system, and the promotion of a regulatory response from our hormonal system, acupuncture's benefits are realized systemically and may be applied to assist in recovering and healing from virtually any disease and illness or increasing performance and overall health.
Diet Therapy
In order to promote healing and to sustain treatment results the right building blocks need to be in place to re-balance, repair and rebuild tissues in the body. Together we work to saturate the body with foods that are dense with healthful nutrients that match your body's needs, while simultaneously working to remove foods that don't support your health and wellness goals. Guided by a combination of modern dietary science and ancient Shi Liao (Chinese diet therapy) principles we can identify easy, manageable steps to support the body work you receive in treatment.
Herbal Medicine
Herbal medicine can be a powerful and effective complementary treatment to any Acupuncture protocol. At our clinic, we currently offer a range of medicinal teas, tinctures and products in compliment to acupuncture treatment. Our range of medicinal teas and tinctures have been formulated as general tonics and to aid common, uncomplicated ailments by our Western Medical Herbalist, Katrina Forgues. For individuals who may benefit from formal herbal consultation, and who have complex medical conditions, Katrina offers thorough private consultations where she formulates custom herbal medicine preparations unique to your health needs and wellness goals.
Lifestyle + Movement
Together we will find practical and manageable ways to meet your goals in health and treatment. We will target areas of improvement and identify and remove obstacles preventing you from your wellness goals.
My focus in treatment is to empower clients through education, movement therapy and self-awareness practices for the betterment of their health. My hope is to encourage clients to make confident and informed decisions about their health and well-being.
I am trained to develop treatment plans that are complimentary with all other forms of medicine or medical practice and strive to work closely with other medical professionals and wellness providers. I actively refer clients when further medical intervention is necessary or when more appropriate treatment is available and out of my scope of practice.
