Rivertown Acupuncture

Every illness tells a story. Every ache and pain expresses a set of beliefs, and no injury exists without its genesis. Chinese Medicine embraces the continuum that is body, mind and spirit, so it's understood that emotions and thoughts influence our health and come to fruition in our physical form.

Several styles of acupuncture are practiced at Rivertown Acupuncture. Each has its strengths, and I may utilize one or a combination, depending upon your diagnosis and presentation. Acupuncture Physical Medicine with dry needling is a meridian or channel based system that incorporates Western physical medicine techniques.

Rivertown Acupuncture often employs the use of trigger point needle therapy to alleviate various types of muscle pain. This is a highly effective and direct type of needling that is based upon the diagnostic system of referred pain and trigger points developed by Janet Travell, M.D. Rather than acupuncture points, the practitioner inserts a needle into muscle trigger points and manually stimulates.

Rivertown Acupuncture offers Tui Na as an adjunct to the acupuncture treatment, primarily for structural and muscular injuries and conditions. Tui Na (pinch and pull) is a therapeutic type of deep massage that has been a pillar of Chinese medicine for many centuries.

On the surface it may resemble Swedish massage because some of the techniques include gliding (effleurage), kneading, percussion, friction, pulling, rotation, rocking, vibration, and shaking.There are similarities to shiatsu, as both utilize the channel energy system and apply acupressure to specific acupuncture points.

The Japanese style known as KM (Kiiko Matsumoto) is characterized by abdominal palpation, the use of reflex zones, shallow needling, and a unique set of tools. At Rivertown Acupuncture diode rings and diode chains, the pachi-pachi, triple bypass cords and ion cords may be used as part of a KM treatment.