With its roots in classical texts dating back several thousand years, contemporary Chinese Medicine is the primary health care system for one third of the global population.  Today, this ancient healing art has stood the test of time, and has evolved as a medicine of global relevance.  

Chinese Medicine can seem mysterious to Westerners.  A popular way of understanding how Acupuncture works is an ecological model.  Just as a network of rivers, seas, and oceans run throughout the earth to sustain life, your body contains a circuitry of pathways called meridians.  Meridians carry what the Chinese call qi, or life force.  The uninterrupted flow of qi in your body is essential to good health.  

What is qi?  The Chinese character for qi is a picture of a rice pot cooking over a fire; the lid is bobbing up and down, and a bit of steam is escaping from the pot.  The rice is not undercooked and the pot overflowing, but moving in perfect harmony: life is moving.  


When the waters of an ocean are polluted or a fallen tree obstructs the course of a river, steps must be taken to clear toxicity or to remove obstructions and re-establish the flow of movement.  When you receive an Acupuncture treatment, your practitioner assesses the how qi is moving within your body, and determines the cause of stagnation or disease.  She does this by assessing bodily phenomena, taking your pulses, and asking questions.
 
Acupuncture points, carefully chosen and delivered with intentionality, are reminders to the individual of the proper flow and movement of qi. This simple and subtle intervention often has profound and far-reaching impact.  As treatment progresses and you have an embodied experience of what constitutes a balanced state of health for you, the need for any intervention from the practitioner diminishes, and seasonal treatments are all that is needed to maintain a healthy working balance.  Dr. Vincent Pedre explains the modern western understanding of acupuncture as such: "needling the acupuncture points stimulates the nervous system through peripheral afferent fibers (nerve fibers that carry signals to the central nervous system) to release chemicals in the muscles, spinal cord, and brain. These chemicals will either change the experience of pain, or they will trigger the release of other chemicals (such as endorphins and enkephalins) and hormones which influence the body's own internal regulating system.  The improved energy and biochemical balance produced by acupuncture stimulates the body's natural healing abilities, thus promoting both physical and emotional well-being with minimal side-effects."