Integrative palliative and hospice acupuncture care addresses the whole person, emphasizing comfort, peace, and wellbeing. I am here to support you when facing end of life challenges, utilizing conscious Chinese medicine in your time of transition.
How Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Can Help
- Pain Management: Acupuncture offers a safe and effective way to manage pain without relying heavily on medication. It can help reduce discomfort and improve quality of life.
- Symptom Relief: Acupuncture can effectively manage nausea, shortness of breath, dry mouth, fatigue, anxiety, and other symptoms commonly experienced in hospice and palliative care.
- Emotional Wellbeing: The practice of acupuncture promotes relaxation and inner peace, helping patients cope with emotional distress and find comfort.
- Spiritual Connection: In relaxing your physical body and cognitive mind, acupuncture can facilitate deeper reflection and connection to one’s spiritual self, and can help you naturally move towards finding a sense of meaning and peace.
My Approach to Treatment
Taking a holistic approach to care, treatments are tailored to individual needs and preferences. Expertise includes:
- Acupuncture: Precise placement of fine needles stimulates specific points on the body to promote wellbeing, reduce symptoms and guide you towards balance.
- Cupping: Suction cups applied to the skin improve circulation, relieve muscle tension, and promote pain relief.
- Moxibustion: The burning of the herb mugwort near specific acupuncture points warms the body, stimulates energy flow, and can assist in pain relief.
- Dietary Counseling: Guidance on how to adjust your diet to optimize health and wellbeing.
- Herbal Medicine: Personalized herbal formulas to address specific symptoms, help your body find balance and promote overall wellbeing.
My approach combines Japanese style acupuncture, cupping, moxibustion, dietary counseling, and herbal medicine, with training in Trauma Informed Care, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction, and the Hakomi Method.
Experience
My journey into the field of integrative medicine began in 1987 while working as an assistant to an acupuncturist in San Francisco. This ignited a passion that led me to formally study Chinese medicine in 1993 after earning a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, leading to Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine specializing in Integrative Medicine. Gaining licensure in 1998, I studied in Seattle, San Francisco and Beijing, China, practicing first in San Francisco and then Fresno, CA. I had the good fortune to serve a large community of patients in the Central Valley for several decades across diverse backgrounds and life stages.
As a Certified Provider of Hospice and Palliative Care Acupuncture and a member of the National Association of Hospice and Palliative Care Acupuncturists, my passion for studying and understanding the mind-body-spirit connection and Integrative Care has led me to feel called to work with end of life patients at this time.