Five, the Number of Change and Transformation

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Here's a sneak peak at our new office which is under construction.

Within Chinese Medicine and culture the number 5 is significant. There are five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, water), five states of change, and five major organ pairs or systems we use to map body function and assess health. In the ancient Chinese text of the I Ching, five is significant as a number of transformation and change.

September 9 will mark our five year anniversary at LBCA and we are heading for change and transformation too--We will be moving locations. Since opening, we’ve given over 30,000 treatments, enjoyed help from able volunteers, and created jobs for others. Providing affordable care in our community has been one of the highlights of my life, truly. There is nothing like offering this service to people who could never afford it otherwise!

It would be impossible to tell you in a single blog post how much I have learned in five years about running a business, patient care, and building community. This practice has revealed the wonders of frequent treatment and importance of access. Nirva and I have both witnessed responses to acupuncture that are nothing short of miraculous and at the same time we’ve worked with people who make slow, incremental changes that add up to significant, lasting healing. And then there’s every scenario in between.

 Working in this way has changed me forever. I cherish the relationships that I’ve built with so many of you, and I know Nirva feels the same about our community of patients. You enrich our lives beyond measure.

 By the end of October, we will move the location of our clinic to a new space. Our treatment room will be a bit cozier and our new building includes a parking lot, plenty of bathrooms, and a much cleaner and safer exterior environment.

 Earlier this year as I was struggling to make this decision to move, I consulted the I Ching. The hexagram I received was 50, which is sometimes translated as vessel or cauldron and indicates stability and harmony. In Chinese culture these three-legged vessels were used in rituals as well as for cooking; they have the ability to contain and transform. Most important to me, by virtue of their structure, a vessel can be moved. When I think of the clinic as a vessel, where we practice and people are transformed, it made sense to me to look in earnest for a new place where we might do this work.

 In addition to changing locations, we will be changing our schedule and logo. We are also discussing other modalities to include to enhance your care. While we will always do what we can to keep acupuncture affordable, we are altering our sliding scale, after 5 years, to reflect cost of living increases. Our new scale will be from $20 - $50. We still plan on having treatment packages and specials and will certainly honor ones you have already purchased from us.

 Thank you for you a wonderful first five years! We look forward to five more years together, transforming one another through community.

Pain Really IS Strange!

People come to acupuncture for many reasons, from anxiety and stress, to fertility, allergy, and digestive support. Most often, though, people try acupuncture to resolve or manage body pain. We treat pain patients everyday and the presentation runs the gamut: one person slept funny and tweaked her neck, while another has suffered chronic back pain after multiple surgeries, and still others deal with over-use injuries from their jobs that they can't quit because they need to support themselves and their families. 

Treating pain can be a complex process but I recently learned just how complex the experience of pain is. A new graphic zine we have in our waiting room called, Pain is Really Strange, explains that "pain is the moment when your brain decides something is unsafe and you need to know about it."  In acute cases, this could be the uncomfortable zing in your knee when you kneel quickly without thinking or step oddly off the curb and feel something sharp in your ankle.

With chronic pain, however, most often the issue is not in the tissues. This claim was profound to me. Author Steve Haines explains that the experience of pain not only comes from an overly-sensitized nervous system, but also derives from the components of one's lived experience, including socio-cultural elements like our beliefs, memories, senses, emotions, and learning. Haines says "some researchers go so far as to say chronic pain is like a disease."

Much of Western-based pain management and treatment is often determined by what is seen on x-rays and MRI. These tools justify surgeries despite the "overwhelming" evidence showing tissue pathology does not necessarily cause chronic pain. In fact, many of us have structural issues from arthritis to bulging disks and do not have any pain at all! This book was a good reminder to me why chronic pain can be so difficult to treat. If it were easy to solve, then we likely wouldn't have the opioid epidemic that we do in this country. It also made it more clear to me how acupuncture can help.

While acupuncture increases blood circulation, decreases inflammation, and stops pain, the more subtle parts of getting treated point to how effective it can be in addressing the other elements that are part of chronic pain. Resting with needles allows people to feel their bodies, before and after relaxation. During treatment some are reminded of memories associated with their conditions, or belief systems that might contribute to their experience of pain. Setting aside the time and space for yourself in the treatment room can even let you practice some of the body mapping techniques Haines describes in his book that can help you reduce chronic pain.

Artist Sophie Standing has drawn the graphics which show complicated physiological processes in clear, and sometimes funny, ways. It is part of a series of books that we have available in our waiting room that you can enjoy.  Other titles include the following: 

• Trauma is Really Strange
• Anxiety is Really Strange
• Forgiveness is Really Strange

Many of our community members are living with these kinds of issues--or know someone who is--and these books offer a way to conceptualize those experiences. The simple act of understanding a disease or issue can broaden our awareness and help us better cope with symptoms.

Maybe on your next visit you can come early and check them out! We invite you to do so!

Trauma-Informed Care and Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

“May all brings be peaceful. May all beings be happy. May all beings be safe. May all beings awaken to the Light of their true nature. May all beings be free.”

— Buddhist Metta Prayer

We have followed closely the ongoing immigration crisis taking place at the US-Mexico border. As a trauma-informed clinic, we are well aware of the long-term effects this policy will likely have on the children and families that are enduring painful separation. The images are disturbing at best and despite mass public outcry, lawmakers have made little to no impact in reuniting separated parents and children.

As this continues to unfold, we as community acu-punks and health advocates are feeling angry and sad. Community acupuncture, by its very nature, is committed to battling oppression on a daily basis, bringing acupuncture to the working-class, and creating a safe place for all peoples to thrive, heal, and coexist. We recognize that this itself is a radical act. As POCA Co-Founder Lisa Rohleder states: "...society doesn't treat poor people or working-class people well, or women and children, or immigrants or people with mental illness....[ Acupuncture Points Are Holes: A Case Study in Social Entrepreneurship, pg. 169]. 

As part of this movement, we are compelled to change that narrative. We want to share an important study that highlights the potential long-term effects of today's immigration policy that is deeply affecting families and children. The Adverse Childhood Experiences study (ACEs) is summarized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as follows: "Childhood experiences, both positive and negative, have a tremendous impact on future violence victimization and perpetration, and lifelong health and opportunity. As such, early experiences are an important public health issue."

To flesh this out further, the ACEs study has shown that long-term exposure to traumatic events (such as sexual, physical or verbal abuse; physical or emotional neglect; a family member who is in prison; the loss of a parent through abandonment or divorce; and household dysfunction), can greatly increase the risk of mental health problems and substance abuse, as well as physical health problems later on in life.

In essence, no matter what side of the immigration platform you stand on, detained children are being setup for high ACEs scores and long-term health consequences. As this continues, they're at greater risk for:

• risky health behaviors,
• chronic health conditions in adulthood (such as pain due to arthritis, headache or chronic back or neck pain)
• low life potential, and
• early death (due to cardiovascular disease, liver disease, chronic lung disease, and cancer)

That isn't to say that these outcomes are set in stone. The study also recognizes the role that resiliency has in early development and the key role that close relationships have in building resiliency in a person. But, as is the case with detained children, they have been separated from the very people that might help them recover from these experiences. More than likely, their lives, liberty, and ability to find happiness, will be a challenge that lingers far beyond the moment if/when they find their families.

As we process this information and the news in the coming days, weeks, and months, we can allow ourselves the space to acknowledge, talk about, and do what we can to provide relief.  In talking with a patient about this crisis, we agreed it is not something to simply "get over" or ignore.  The full effects of these policies are unknown but clearly they are harmful to people now and they will likely have significant, long-term effects.

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If you would like to learn more about the ACES study, visit the CDC's website or read this NPR article, the latter of which includes an ACEs test you can take to see if the research outcomes ring true for you.

There is also a wonderful graphic zine, Trauma is Really Strange, that recognizes how "stress and trauma [change] how our brains work"; how if you "squeeze any human hard enough, [they] will be overwhelmed"; how "the best way to reset the old parts of our brains is to slowly wake up the body"; and how "healing trauma is not about remembering, it is about self-regulating to turn down intense reactions in the body." It adds that "being in a body, without chronic tension patterns and a sensitized brain, will lead us to being happier and healthier."

Given the widespread effect of trauma, we offer trauma-informed acupuncture to help you process these experiences. Acupuncture is no panacea, but it can help calm the nervous system, treat many of the symptoms and diseases brought on by chronic stress and trauma, and help manage PTSD symptoms. To quote Lisa again: "...many, many people are suffering from stress, injuries, or emotional problems that make it difficult for them to work. If acupuncture can help people recover and return to work, acupuncturists have a social responsibility to help them, particularly at a time of economic difficulty for the entire country. (Acupuncture is Like Noodles)". We welcome anyone to our clinic who is feeling like they need a safe space to heal. We (and all of our affiliated POCA clinics) will hold space for you. 

Healing. It takes a village.

If you’ve worked with me before, then I’m sure you’ve heard me say the words, "healing takes a village".  It’s a light-hearted phrase I use to remind folks of the simultaneous strengths and limitations of acupuncture.  Personally, I believe that acupuncture is a powerful medicine--a belief that has been reaffirmed daily in my work with many of you!  It has been effective for such a variety of conditions, such as stress, infertility, allergies, digestive disorders, autoimmune disease, organ dysfunction, anxiety, and the common cold.  But, like any other medicine, it would be a folly to assume that acupuncture is all-encompassing.

Despite acupuncture’s wide-ranging benefits, certain conditions and injuries may require a little extra help from another modality.  Researchers have found, for example, that yoga and acupuncture can effectively treat back pain. In other cases, for those experiencing depression or anxiety, a combination of acupuncture, talk therapy, yoga, and/or emotional freedom technique might offer greater benefits. 

Sometimes, however, it’s necessary to consult a physician.  Eastern and Western medicine are so often placed at odds with each other, but they can create a beautiful synergy when used together.  I often encourage patients to return to their medical doctor for further review when it’s appropriate to do so.  This has, in some cases, led to a significant diagnosis and medicine that has helped the patient avoid major illness.  

In one case, I was working with a patient who complained of GERD.  Acupuncture successfully treats GERD using needles and herbs most of the time.  However, after working with this patient for over a month, their condition remained unchanged.  They took my advice and a local GI doctor diagnosed them with advanced esophageal damage after performing an endoscopy.  With that knowledge, the patient agreed to take the prescribed medication and returned for biweekly acupuncture. In a few months their esophageal damage had fully healed.

As we continue our work together let’s discuss what options may best suit you.  If you need a referral please ask us the next time you come in.  We have a great list of practitioners from a variety of modalities.  In the end, as your health care provider, it is our goal to ensure that you're receiving the best set of options to heal.

How Did you Hear About Us?

This post is dedicated to the remarkable life and legacy of community member, S.B..

On our intake forms, we ask new patients how they were referred to us simply to see where people are finding out about Long Beach Community Acupuncture (LBCA). It’s always fun to read a familiar name that answers the question. Sometimes people simply write “a friend” and often the name of some social media platform. Recently, a new person had written in the name of one of our patients who died earlier this year. When I read her name in the referral, it made me smile because that patient had a wonderful smile, an infectious laugh, and a life perspective that was unique and uplifting.

It made me glad that I had had the opportunity to treat her during a terminal illness and while I cannot pretend to have known her very well, I know I will never forget her. She brought light to many and when I remembered the network of referrals, a gallery of faces hung in my thoughts. At least three other LBCA patients had all been touched by her life.

When community acupuncturists get together, we often talk about how heart-opening our work is. This is not just an emotional response; it’s visceral, in the solar plexus. I felt that feeling when I first heard about community acupuncture in my last semester of school. I read an article in CJOM (California Journal of Oriental Medicine) by a woman who had opened her community clinic in San Francisco. From the description of her practice, I knew deep down that I just HAD to practice this way--it was a feeling beyond words.

Every business wants word-of-mouth advertising--it’s free and it’s the best. When patients come in, I remember how they got here and remember the ones who have sent in others over and over again. It is a map of connection among friends, family, and community.

I know referrals happen in private practice for people too, but there is really something unique and special about the way community clinics work that facilitate relationships. Often couples come in to nap together and certainly friends do too. Just the other day, a patient came in only to find her boss and boss’s husband sleeping in the chairs next to the one she picked! It was a happy realization.

It is easy to feel isolated in our culture and that’s one of the best things about the community treatment room. You don’t have to nap next to your spouse, lover, co-worker, or friend. It is salutary to know that you are not alone in this world. And it is a beautiful way of remembering others, if they’ve passed on or moved away.

Over and over again, I am filled up by working in this clinic; it keeps my heart wide open to human beings, how complicated we all our, how deep our needs and wounds.