I am so excited for this! As of September 27th I will also be offering Community Acupuncture. What is Community Acupuncture? Community Acupuncture makes acupuncture much more accessible to everyone. This treatment takes place in a reclined chair in a room with a five other patients. The patients will all receive treatment at the same time. The treatment consists of feet/hand/head/ear points which means you don’t have to undress for the treatment. The treatment is 30 minutes,

Sugar comes in all forms, the most beneficial are those from whole foods. These are the good sugars that are beneficial and necessary to our body – in moderation. It is the refined sugars that, frankly, have no place in our diet. Refined sugar in your body 1. Increases inflammation in the body. Ingesting refined sugar triggers the release of inflammatory messengers called cytokines. 2. Mineral imbalance. “Refined sugar passes quickly into the bloodstream in large amounts, giv

‘Endometriosis affects an estimated 176 million women worldwide regardless of their ethnic and social background. Many remain undiagnosed and are therefore not treated.’ There is no exact known cause for endometriosis, the best way it is treated in Western Medicine is with hormone therapy, pain killers, or sometimes even surgery. The general consensus is that endometriosis is worsened by estrogen, so getting estrogen levels under control will help alleviate the symptoms – thi

I have compiled a list of some other therapies that can help someone heal from a traumatic event in their life. At the bottom of the page, there is a list of practitioners in Stettler. Talk Therapy “Talk therapy may be somewhat underrated as other forms of therapy, such as Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) most often take the forefront. Still, the benefits from talk therapy are vast and said to last even after therapy has ended. This type of therapy allows us to process event

Now that we have learnt about trauma in the last two posts. I am going to dive in a bit deeper to the Traditional Chinese Medicine side of things and explain how acupuncture can help someone who has been through a traumatic event. There is actually a very significant overlap between Western and Eastern Medicine. Western psychologists call it ‘PTSD’ or ‘dissociative states’. Eastern practitioners call it ‘Shen disturbance’. But it doesn’t matter whether its diagnosed in Wester

Let’s talk a little about the connection between our physical bodies and trauma. It took me a long time to make the connection between my low back pain and trauma that I experienced as a child. I was never physically harmed to cause back pain. But a series of events – mostly emotional – that made me feel unsafe are what triggered my low back pain. It wasn’t until just a few years ago that I really started to dive into the emotional healing aspect of my physical body. I had be

Trauma. What an intense word. I have always been drawn to the psycho emotional aspect of people. I tend to find myself constantly asking “What situation from their past triggered this..?” I started really thinking about trauma a few years ago, and then took a couple courses related to TCM and trauma this past year. This, and the next three blogs, will be solely dedicated to trauma and everything triggered by/related to it (physical pain, PTSD, etc). So many people experience

I’m sure we all know someone who has a herniated disc or perhaps you have herniated a disc yourself. Unfortunately, in our society with the lifestyle we lead, disc issues are far too common.  I will focus primarily on herniated disc syndrome in the low back. What is a Herniated Disc? A herniated disc can sometimes be referred to as a slipped disc or a ruptured disc. But really they all mean the same thing. A disc is the rubbery cushion between the vertebrae, it’s there to hel

If you have been in my treatment room, you have seen my model on the counter with the meridians all over it. A lot of the time people will think that the meridians are actually the Nervous System nervous system, and thats why I get the common question ‘so you are hitting the nerve, right?’. Actually no, not at all. If I hit the nerve with an acupuncture needle it would be quite uncomfortable. I needle along the meridian system. But what exactly are meridians? The word ‘meridi

“Premenstrual syndrome” (PMS) is the cyclic recurrence of a group of symptoms that peak 7 to 10 days before menstruation and disappear a few hours after the onset of the menstrual flow. It is occurrent with an imbalance of estrogen and progesterone levels. This condition is characterized by multiple and diverse symptoms including, but not limited to: breast tenderness, transient weight gain, bloating, constipation, insomnia, acne, headache, pelvic pain, irritability, depressi

When you have an acupuncture treatment – no matter what part of the world – it is quite common for the practitioner to ask to see your tongue. It also is quite common for the patient to feel silly, surprised, or confused when you ask to see their tongue. That is until I explain why the tongue is so important to me. The tongue is a micro system of the body, and contrary to popular belief,  all tongues are not the same.  The colour, size, coat, and moistness level all vary depe

After careful consideration and great excitement, I have decided to pursue my acupuncture career full time at Goodsense Healthcare & Happiness Boutique in Stettler. I feel so grateful for the wonderful opportunity and patients I have experienced at Refresh Wellness Centre. The transition will take place April 1st, 2016. All the practitioners at Refresh are up to date on patient files. Sunday: 11am -4pm Monday: 12pm-7pm Tuesday: 2pm-9pm Wednesday: 6:30am-2pm Thursday: 9:30am-1

When you hear Liver Qi ‘chee’ Stagnation, what do you think? Probably the first few thoughts that come to mind are “well I have no idea at all”, “that’s not a thing”, and/or “um… what’s wrong with my liver?” Well, in Chinese Medicine your Liver has a very specific action on the Qi –or energy- of your body. When I speak about the Liver, Spleen, Heart, etc., it isn’t your physical heart or liver- the anatomy of those organs is probably fine- it is the Chinese Medicine aspect of

If you know me at all, you will know that I am very passionate about sports and living an active, healthy lifestyle. I have experienced a variety of sports injuries – the leading injury to date ended with two knee surgeries. I ruptured my ACL, tore my MCL and medial meniscus – the triple threat as the surgeon called it. There are typically two types of sports injuries. The first type is overuse or chronic – usually the result of repetitive training. Whether its tight muscles,

Having a baby is such an exciting time in so many people’s lives; unfortunately the harsh truth is that there are growing numbers of cases of infertility. I have found that a lot of the time when a couple is having a difficult time conceiving it is the women who seeks treatment or thinks something is ‘wrong’ with her. It is so unbelievably sad to see this. First things first, both men and women have fertility issues, it is important for both to get checked out. And secondly,

Who doesn’t love to eat?! I know I do, I love every aspect of it – food preparation, smell, taste! But its a lot less enjoyable when you experience digestive disturbances. I would estimate that about 90% of my clientele come in with what they commonly call “stomach trouble.” Bloating, gas, nausea, loose stool, gurgling in the stomach, the list goes on…. it is uncomfortable and can be embarrassing. There are a number of reasons that can lead to digestive disturbances. Firstly,

Ah, yes. I remember the first time I went for acupuncture: You’re going to put needles where? What is it going to feel like? What exactly is this going to do? These were all questions I really wanted an answer to before my acupuncturist started poking around. And if you have the same questions, they are totally legitimate! You can read about how acupuncture has helped me personally on my info page but I wanted to share with you a ‘Cole’s Notes’ version of what acupuncture is