Q & A

Q: How has your acupuncture practice evolved over the past eighteen years and through your engagement with our Mentorship?

A: I've always been drawn to working at a deeper soul and spirit level with my patients, but through the first decade or so I was mostly practicing as I had learned at Tai Sophia - a Five Element school - and finding confidence in my skills and voice as an acupuncturist.

Around 2016, feeling a little bored with my practice and wanting to expand my toolkit, I began to study essential oils with Tiffany Carole. It's no coincidence that this is also the time I began to turn my gaze inward and earnestly begin the processing and healing of my past. My own inner alchemy began.

In 2018, I began using Tarot regularly and, realizing how useful that could be as a way of understanding what the soul was inviting in a given moment, I began using Tarot in treatments and taking inspiration from the readings in treatment design. I dove deep with Tarot for the next several years.

In late 2021, I signed up for the Practice at the Crossroads Alchemical Healing Mentorship after years of considering doing so. Simultaneously, I began a serious (perhaps obsessive) study of astrology and found it to click for me in ways I never could have imagined. I now often reference a patient's astrology chart in our work together and offer stand-alone astrology readings, too.

Prior to the Mentorship I was already working alchemically, but community engagement with magically minded practitioners and your support and friendship has deepened what I have to offer beyond measure. I am growing into more of who I am here to be as a healer, a teacher, a partner, a parent and a human. Finding this tribe has emboldened me to be more of myself, in and out of the treatment room.

Q: What is a “spirit point,” anyway? How would you explain them to your 12 year-old son, Ollie, or your 10 year-old daughter, Joni?

A: I love this question! In simple terms, the spirit of an acupuncture point is what I would call the lesson or offering of the point...the teaching story it carries that relates to human experiences. They are often metaphors from nature or from human relationships. Each point has a bit of life wisdom to share, and choosing an appropriate point at the right time can support someone in accessing that wisdom and integrating it in that moment.

Q: Taking the alchemy a little further, is there a tarot card you might associate with this point?

A: The Ace of Swords aligns beautifully with the spirit of Cloud Gate. This image is one of crisp, shining clarity - the sword - emerging from the clouds. I think of Aces in Tarot as offerings from our higher selves or from the Universe in some way, and the offering of the Ace of Swords has to do with a breakthrough moment of clarity, clearing the way for shifts in perception.

Q: What advice would you give an acupuncturist who wants to bring the alchemy of spirit points into their practice?

A: I'd say start with getting curious about point names and how they relate to the element and/or placement of the point. What imagery or story is evoked by the characters? I am not a sinologist, so I rely on reference books from other scholars, including your book Kigo, Lorie as well as the work of Debra Kaatz and Lonny Jarret for this inspiration. Then I let my imagination play with what about this point's spirit made the ancient sages name it that way. If it's a point that evokes something in nature, imagine how you feel when you're present to that. Like with Cloud Gate - how does it feel when the clouds part after being densely overcast and you can once again see blue sky and feel the sun? Just saying that makes me take a deep breath and lifts my spirit. Then, as you needle or touch that point in treatment, stay present to that feeling and share the imagery with your patient. They will receive the point in a different way.

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