Acupuncture and Manual Therapies
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Receiving acupuncture is a safe and relaxing form of treatment that works by stimulating the body's healing and self-balancing capacity. Acupuncture relieves pain, reduces inflammation, and helps regulate neurotransmitters, hormones, and the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. For these reasons, it treats a broad range of problems. We use the tiniest of needles to maintain patient comfort and relaxation. Sessions range from more in-depth work that includes bodywork, cupping, herbs and nutrition to simple return appointments that will get you the results you desire quickly. Generally, longer-held chronic conditions take more time to resolve, and acute conditions or new injuries take less time.
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Patients often ask how acupuncture works.
While most practitioners of Chinese medicine are thrilled to explain things within the terms of our tradition, it can also be useful and more familiar to look at how Western medical science describes acupuncture. Here is a link to a series of blogs explaining how acupuncture works in that view, including, this one specifically about how acupuncture treats pain. If you want to explore evidence-based science on Acupuncture, check out this website.
The benefits of acupuncture and most holistic therapies are cumulative.
In our initial consultation and after your first treatment we will go over your treatment plan and discuss how soon you can expect relief. For some issues, we may find relief very quickly, for others, like fertility, migraine headaches, autoimmune conditions, and menstrual cycle shifts changes can take longer, often many months. Some conditions are also best treated with acupuncture as well as herbs and we can discuss what to expect from treatment. Take a look here to see pricing and average treatment plans for how acupuncture and Chinese medicine work on common conditions brought to our offices. Appointments are on the higher end of the national range because sessions include acupuncture as well as bodywork, guided breathwork and meditation, cupping, herbal medicine and nutritional consults in individualized, one-on-one care.
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What to expect from your first appointment at my Durham Office:
We will discuss the primary and secondary reasons for your visit and go through your health history from both western medical and traditional Chinese points of view. After traditional pulse and tongue assessment diagnosis of your constitution and patterns giving rise to your condition is made and you will be invited onto the table for your first acupuncture treatment. Towards the end of our first session together we discuss a treatment plan To book an initial consult and acupuncture treatment, click here
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Feel free to contact us via email to schedule a 15-minute consult to see if acupuncture or the other forms of traditional medicine we, will be right for you and book your package now!
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"
Tong zhi bu tong, bu tong zhi tong"
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Where there is free flow there is no pain, where there is pain, there is no free flow.
Bodywork
Tara has been practicing bodywork and massage therapy since 1995 and trained extensively in Japanese therapeutic bodywork called Amma Shiatsu, having practiced and apprenticed in San Francisco's Japantown from 1997 to 2018. She trained in Qi Gong for self-cultivation and Tuina, Chinese Therapeutic bodywork with master teachers in the North American Tang Shou Tao lineage. On the Western side, her training includes Orthopedic massage with Tom Hendrickson DC, originator of the Hendrickson Method.
With over 700 hours of therapeutic bodywork training, and tens of thousands of hours of experience, Tara addresses your injuries, aches and pains with skill and expertise. Since beginning her training in Acupuncture and Chinese medicine in 2011, she added cupping, moxibustion, and gua sha to her pain relieving toolkit. For regular patients, she offers stand alone bodywork or cupping sessions.