I had the pleasure of talking to Yolanda Vasquez-Douge, a licensed acupuncturist (and my acupuncturist-smile!) last week to get an in-depth view of acupuncture:
Lydia: So Yolanda, tell me what exactly is acupuncture?
Yolanda: I would say that acupuncture is a way to provide balance in the body from either excess or deficiency. It's a preventative form of medicine; preventative in a sense that it can help you avoid surgery or help you avoid being placed on 10 different medications to relieve a condition. It's preventative in that it allows an acupuncturist to 'catch' anything that may lead to serious conditions, which Western medicine either treats by giving you medication, in order to control the symptoms.
Lydia: Would you say acupuncture embraces the idea of a mind/body connection to disease?
Yolanda: Yes. Western medicine doesn't really look at the root of the problem and acupuncture addresses what the root of the problem may be as well as ultimately treating the symptoms. Acupuncture's perspective is that all disease is rooted in the spirit. There is a mind/body connection to dis-ease and my training has taught me that this is something both the acupuncturist and patient must look into. Without that understanding, a patient will keep coming back for the same symptoms and getting to healthy will be more challenging.
Lydia: Do you find that people are more receptive to using acupuncture?
Yolanda: Absolutely. Because many people feel that when they see Western doctors, they're not finding real resolutions. A person may go to their doctor for gastritis and the doctor will write them a prescription and tell them to avoid these foods...and that's it! There's a lack of personal connection between the patient and practitioner. Or may be a person has gone to several doctors and still has no resolution so they try acupuncture as another option. I had a patient that had back pain, that was also shooting pain down his leg. So I just started to describe to him the energetics of that particular meridian. And how it's a place where energy gets 'stuck'. Just by saying that, it made his treatment completely different because he realized that he was holding something in. That's where you want patients to be; understanding in a simple way that the pain is stemming from something emotional. My practice is about being able to help them decipher what the root of the problem is and what emotions are connected to they physical symptom. My practice is a broader type of practice...a spiritual type of practice.
Lydia: Is there another patient success story you have?
Yolanda: Yeah...I have a patient now who starting coming to me for back pain. It took like 4 or 5 session where she finally got to a place where she stopped taking birth control pills. As we started working through her back pain, it evolved into us finding out that she may have issues with expressing herself. That brought her to her realizing that she grew up like that...not being expressive at all. She didn't want to be that way and it was affecting her relationships and manifesting physically. This revelation took her to a deeper place in that it made her become aware of the emotions attached to the physical manifestation. With that, I felt more comfortable with taking her much deeper in her healing.
Lydia: It's not surprising that you are able to do that with your patients because of your knowledge of acupuncture and because you make an honest effort to connect with your patients to allow them to truly acknowledge what the root issues may be that are causing pain.
Lydia: Explain ear acupuncture.
Yolanda: Ear acupuncture is a completely different system from body acupuncture. Body acupuncture you are moving things around...you are expelling something, clearing something, balancing something...you are working with the channels. The ear has 365 points; the ear is sending that signal straight to the brain. You can focus on these points to treat all kinds of conditions: stress, insomnia, addictions. With the ear, it's more specific...the affects of the treatment. Some practitioners do not combine ear and body acupuncture. I do both because with ear acupuncture it keeps my patients in tuned with the fact that they are being treated and it helps them to stay with that intention. It's like I'm still with them, providing the treatment by the use of the ear beads on these points.
Lydia: What would you tell someone who is apprehensive about acupuncture?
Yolanda: I would tell them to start with ear acupuncture...it's just as effective and non-invasive. This will also begin a relationship of trust between myself and the patient. Sometimes even in a massage I will show them one needle and how it's placed on the body to get them to open up that fear and tackle it. But it's about keeping it light and easy so that they will be open to it.
Lydia: Anything else you'd like to share about acupuncture?
Yolanda: That it's really preventative; it's not a band aid but it can help you get through something. It helps you treat on an emotional level as well as addressing physical symptoms. It's not just for pain. Acupuncture can help you get through the emotional stuff as well.
Lydia: Lastly, tell us what conditions acupuncture can treat?
Yolanda: Main thing I use acupuncture for are stress (huge complaint), anxiety, pain (lower back pain, stomach pain), irritability, women issues such as PMS, infertility, abnormal menstrual cycles. headaches, weight loss. But there's so much more it can treat.
**Yolanda holds both a Master’s degree in Acupuncture, and a Bachelor’s in Professional Studies, from the Swedish Institute School of Acupuncture and Oriental Studies in New York, where she was trained by the world renowned, 88th generation Taoist priest, Dr. Jeffrey Yuen.**
Her website is: http://www.nycclassicalacupuncture.com
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