Stress and anxiety
Stress is the through-line in almost every conversation that happens on my table. Patients name it as something they're working around, not something they're working on. The body keeps the score either way.
Sessions for stress and anxiety use points that calm the heart, soothe the shen (the mind and spirit, in EAM language), and unblock the patterns that show up as the knot in the chest or the clenched jaw. The needles signal the nervous system to shift out of fight-or-flight and back toward rest, digest, and repair.
The goal isn't to eliminate stress. Life is what it is. The goal is to widen the window of what your body can meet without staying braced.
Insomnia and sleep
Sleep is often where the body starts asking for help loudly. Trouble falling asleep. Waking between 1 and 3 AM and not getting back down. Light, fragmented sleep. The wired-but-exhausted pattern where you can't settle even when you're depleted.
The timing of when sleep breaks is itself a clinical signal. Waking between 1 and 3 AM is usually tied to the Liver system (in EAM terms; in modern language, the body's stress and detoxification work peaks at that hour). Trouble falling asleep at all reads as a Heart pattern. I match the treatment to the pattern you're showing up with, not to a fixed sleep protocol.
I often pair acupuncture with herbal recommendations for sleep. The herbs do the work between visits, so the shifts hold longer.
Fatigue and burnout
Fatigue that doesn't lift with rest. Lingering exhaustion after a cold or illness. The depletion that comes from carrying too much for too long.
Most ambitious women I work with know this pattern intimately. Not because they're weak. Because they've been holding a lot.
East Asian medicine reads this as a depletion of the body's reserves (qi and blood, sometimes the underlying root: Kidney essence). The work is to rebuild capacity, not to push through. Acupuncture, herbs, and lifestyle work all have a role.
This is a long-arc condition. Most patients work with me over months, with the rhythm shifting from weekly support during the depleted phase to monthly maintenance once the system stabilizes.
Back, neck, and shoulder pain
The highest-volume reason patients come in. One of the conditions with the strongest clinical research behind acupuncture.
Acute strains. The postural patterns from desk work. The tight upper traps and locked-up neck most women I see carry under stress.
I often combine acupuncture with cupping or gua sha to release the fascial layer underneath. Local points for the immediate pain, distal points for the patterns driving it. When the body is asking for it, I layer in strength and mobility recommendations from my coaching work.
Acute pain often shifts in a single session. Chronic patterns take longer, but the trajectory is usually clear within three to four visits.
Sciatica
Sciatic nerve pain: sharp, radiating, traveling down the leg, often worse with sitting or standing too long. Acupuncture has solid clinical research here, especially when sessions include electro-acupuncture to drive stronger activation along the affected nerve pathway.
I treat the nerve itself and the surrounding muscle patterns (deep glute, piriformis, lumbar) that usually contribute to the impingement. Bodywork and mobility recommendations come along with the sessions.
TMJ and jaw tension
Jaw clenching. Grinding. The clicking that comes and goes. Tension that radiates up into the temples. Neck tension that won't resolve no matter how much the shoulders relax.
The jaw is one of the body's primary holding places for unprocessed stress. I work acupuncture directly into the masseter and temporalis muscles, with supporting points along the meridians that flow through the jaw and skull. Most patients notice the tension ease within the first one or two visits.
A note: for patients whose jaw work intersects with pelvic-floor patterns, I also offer a deeper joint Jaw and Pelvic Floor Reconnection program with pelvic-floor physical therapist Ashlee Gendron of AG Physical Therapy. Ask at intake if that fits what you're carrying.
Digestive issues
Bloating. Irregular digestion. Reflux. The gut patterns that flare under stress or shifting hormones.
East Asian medicine treats digestion as one of the body's central systems. When the Spleen and Stomach (in EAM terms) aren't functioning well, the cascade reaches everything: sleep, mood, energy, the immune system.
I combine acupuncture with herbal formulas and food-as-medicine recommendations grounded in both EAM and the Precision Nutrition framework I trained in. The work isn't about eliminating foods. It's about supporting the system that processes them.
PMS and menstrual irregularity
Painful periods. Irregular cycles. Cycle-related mood changes. The patterns that show up in the second half of the cycle and don't resolve until bleed-day.
Acupuncture and herbs are one of the most-studied integrative approaches for cycle support. I work with the rhythm of the cycle, not against it. Sessions are often paced to specific points in the month: ovulation week, the late luteal phase, the bleed itself.
This is the long-arc, patterns-shift-slowly work. Most cycles take three to six rounds to show the change.
Perimenopause and menopause
Hot flashes. Sleep that breaks at 2 or 3 AM. Mood changes that don't track with anything in particular. Energy that doesn't bounce back. The body and brain feeling different in ways patients struggle to name.
Perimenopause can start a decade before menopause itself. The body is shifting whether the calendar has caught up or not. If you're recognizing yourself here, you're not too young. You're noticing.
Acupuncture has strong clinical evidence for perimenopausal symptom support, particularly for sleep, mood, and hot flashes. I pace the work for the long arc of this transition. It's not a problem to solve in six visits.
I work with many patients in the perimenopausal window, often layering in strength training and nutritional support alongside acupuncture and herbs. The goal is to land in menopause stronger than you went into perimenopause. Not depleted by it.
Endometriosis support
Endometriosis is a complex condition that benefits from integrative care alongside whatever surgical or medical management is already in place. Acupuncture and herbs aren't a substitute for diagnosis, or for the medical team you're already working with. They're a complement.
For endo patients, I focus on pain management around the cycle, support for the nervous system (which sensitizes pain), and addressing the underlying patterns of stagnation and inflammation in EAM terms. Pacing is usually weekly during flare windows, less often when symptoms are quieter.
PCOS / PMOS support
Polycystic ovary syndrome (also called PMOS, the newer name that reflects the metabolic side as well as the reproductive one) reaches beyond the cycle: insulin sensitivity, skin changes, weight, fertility. Like endometriosis, it benefits from integrative support alongside medical care.
Acupuncture and herbs can support hormone regulation, cycle predictability, and insulin sensitivity over time. I often combine those with nutritional and movement recommendations, the areas my strength-coaching and nutrition training add depth to.
Maternal wellness
For mothers past the acute pregnancy and postpartum window. The depletion no one warned you about. The grief of a body that feels different than it used to. The anxiety that surfaces at 3 AM. The exhaustion that doesn't lift even after the children sleep through the night.
This isn't because you're failing at recovery. Postpartum doesn't have a tidy end date. The reserves pregnancy, birth, and the first years of mothering pull from take longer to rebuild than most women are told.
The work blends symptom-level support (sleep, energy, mood) with the longer rebuilding. If you're actively trying to conceive, currently pregnant, or in the first year postpartum, that lives in Fertility, Pregnancy & Postpartum Acupuncture. Wellness is for everything outside that window.
