Be Well: Getting Right to the Point with Acupuncture
Written by Jessica Metcalf
In a world that seems to demand a constant hustle from one activity to the next, making time for self-care can look like taking a day off work to attend to the laundry list of chores and tasks that seem never to get addressed - leaving most of us convinced that there is no such thing as true rest and relaxation from endless mental and physical gymnastics. But the balance of mind, body, and spirit is available for those who have willingly braved a very Western-world apprehension to the time-honored healing practice of acupuncture. I walked into my first acupuncture appointment with definite biases, but the minute I met Keri Onderus at the Urban Acupuncture Center in Clintonville, all my prejudices disappeared. She was not a low-voiced, zen-conjuring guru but someone energetic and passionate about restoring the body's natural healing properties. Our session began with a basic explanation of the differences between traditional Eastern and Western health, wellness, and healing approaches. Generally speaking, Western medicine tends to focus on treating the symptoms of injury and illness, often as an isolated issue. This practice excels in treating injuries and critical care concerns but is criticized by Eastern practitioners for lacking a therapeutic process that addresses the entire body as a system. Conversely, Eastern medicine views a patient's symptoms as indicators of an imbalance in the body's natural flow of energy, or qi (chi). By stimulating specific locations with its famed microneedles, acupuncture is believed to draw this natural energy to areas of imbalance, restoring the body's natural state and allowing it to function at its full potential. Because acupuncture deals with whole-body systems, there are several ways to tap into total healing. All are based on the idea that the body naturally moves toward homeostasis, with acupuncture as a method of achieving that critical balance of energies. General acupuncture utilizes a complex map, developed over many centuries, of pressure points on channels aligned with nerve pathways. For example, Keri explained the qi stagnation on the liver channel is "caused when people are 'on' all the time and moving at a breakneck pace, and we hold this stagnation in the major joint spaces of the body: the jaw, the shoulders and the hips." When this channel is off, she said, it disrupts the flow of everything else. During my general acupuncture session, we discussed what I hoped to get out of my session – mental relaxation and peace, as 28 slmag.net
well as healing from physical pain in my shoulder and ankle. Keri described the process of selecting certain points on the channels of which I was having physical pain and using that as a jumpingoff point to create a treatment that would systematically follow the course of the liver channel. Keri compassionately talked through each needle insertion, congratulating me for sticking it out (pun intended). Over the next 30-40 minutes, I could really sense the energy moving throughout my body as I went into a deeply meditative state that no amount of research beforehand could have prepared me for, leaving me with a desire to return to continue the process of reaching my body's homeostasis. As I was experiencing a traditional acupuncture treatment for the first time, Amelia Jeffers, Editor-in-Chief of Sophisticated Living Columbus, was expanding her understanding and trust in the practice by exploring the burgeoning field of cosmetic acupuncture. "I went to acupuncture for the first time when a friend bought me a gift card for my birthday," Amelia explained to me over a working coffee. "It was amazing - six treatments completely restored mobility in a frozen shoulder that I had been told would require extensive physical therapy and possibly surgery." Convinced that the same practice that healed her injury could certainly offer anti-aging benefits, Amelia endeavored to identify a practitioner specializing in Botox and facelift alternatives. While many acupuncture offices will accommodate requests for facial treatments, few tout it as a focus within their practice
