What is Acupuncture?
Acupuncture is an ancient and very effective healing method and a common alternative to traditional Western medicine. Acupuncture has been around for thousands of years, and the practice is based on ancient Chinese knowledge regarding the energy system in the human body. Julia practices Balance Method Acupuncture, which utilizes the ancient Chinese principle of obtaining balance using distal needles. Needles are placed below knee/elbow and head in order to bring balance and harmony back to the body.

What can I expect During treatment?
The treatment works best when you are relaxed! Being being relaxed, and even taking a nap during the session is best.
Occasionally some people may feel dizzy, start sweating, or even have slight nausea, this after needles in. Don’t worry, this is normal and the acupuncturist is there help you. Just let her know how you feel.

After the first treatment, What can I expect?
There can be different reactions to your first treatment as each persons body reacts slightly differently to treatment. While the majority people feel good after the initial treatment; you may experience slightly different results; such as:

• Some people won’t feel much change after the treatment, but notice improvement in the following days.
• Slight fatigue. Take it easy. Rest more at home.
• Around 3-5% people may feel worse initially but feel better after 2-3days.
• Some people won’t feel any result until 2-3 treatments.

What is Balance Method Acupuncture?

Many new patients are visibly surprised when I tell them which points I will be using to treat their condition.  More than one person has asked, “why are you putting needles in my ankle if it’s my shoulder that hurts?”  Honestly, I can’t say that I blame them for their confusion.  In North America, we are used to symptomatic-based treatments, if your low back hurts, therapy is applied directly over the low back.  Whether it’s massage, ice/heat, physical therapy, cortisone injections, or surgery, you’d be hard pressed to find a practitioner who doesn’t go anywhere near the problem area itself.  That is, until you visit an acupuncturist using the Balance Method.  So, what is this newfangled idea, and how does it work?

The Balance Method is actually not “new” at all.  In fact, it is based on a very classical form of acupuncture.  Many of you have by now read or heard of the meridian system that acupuncturists use.  For those who haven’t, the meridians(systems of the body) can be thought of as highways that connect every part of our body much like the Highway system does in Canada.  It is through these highways that our body’s energy flows and interact with each other(also interact with the environment we live in).  Because every part of the body is connected, there are multiple ways to treat any given body region (just like you can take multiple routes to get to the same place).  The Balance Method, based on the works of Dr. Chan and Master Tung but popularized by Dr. Richard Tan, capitalizes on these connections.

Returning to our highway example, if there is a road(system) is blocked/wrecked due to some reason (weaker system you might born with, or due to unhealthy use of that part, or simply overused it, or injured etc).  it will affect the roads that it connects with. pain is like a “wreck” there is a “blocked” region of the body that healthy blood flow and energy cannot reach.  Instead of allowing blood, inflammation and energy to create a “traffic backup” in the area, alternate routes are opened.  The chosen routes are based on a mirrored view of the body.  We already know that our bodies have matching right and left halves.  However, the Balance Method also views the body as having a mirrored top and bottom.  This makes sense when you consider that not only do we have two limbs on top and two on the bottom, as well as two hands and two feet with ten digits each, but also that our body’s main openings occur in only a few places, our heads, hands and feet(top) and our genitals (bottom).  Keeping this in mind, to open an “alternate route,” we need simply look to the opposite region of the body.  So, to treat the Right Ankle, we would treat “or open” a meridian “highway” on the Left Wrist, by working in this way, the energy going to where it needs to go and the body comes back to the balance, the ‘wrecked’ part is so that fixed by the body itself. If the ‘Wrecked’ part is because of the (weaker system) narrower road, then while open up another road for energy going through, at same time strengthen the weak part, so that the body goes to balance, and the root problem solved.

The beauty of Balance Method is that most results are immediate. Classic Chinese texts state that “when you stand a pole under the sun, you immediately see its

shadow.” In other words, as soon as an acupuncture needle is inserted, changes can be felt. Often times pain is decreased by 30 – 50% with the insertion of only a few needles. This also makes it an excellent choice for people sensitive to needles, or for whom access to the painful parts of the body is difficult. Multiple treatments are necessary for sustained pain relief, with acute cases of pain often resolving in as few as 1-4 treatments.