Acupuncture is a part of TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) and has been practiced for thousands of years. In TCM, the body (and the entire universe) is considered to consist of two opposing forces – yin and yang.

Yin represents femaleness, the moon, cold, slow, darkness, passive, etc. and Yang represents maleness, the sun, heat, active, light, active, etc.

Yin and yang are in a constant cycle, and when they are in perfect balance, you are healthy. When they are not, the energy flow (qi) in the body gets blocked and you experience illness or pain.

A TCM practitioner (such as an acupuncturist) will take many things into consideration when figuring out the cause of the imbalance, and which points to treat.

To decide how to best treat the patient in order to restore balance, the practitioner will ask questions, observe the patient (both appearance and demeanor), listen and smell, and palpate (touching and taking the pulse).

Once a diagnosis has been made, the treatment can begin. The practitioner inserts very fine needles into specific points along the meridians (energy paths that run throughout the body – explained more in depth in the acupressure post) to remove the blockages.

It may take many or only a few visits to achieve results, but once the blockages are gone, the yin/yang balance (and consequently health) is restored.

The acupuncture case studies (two today) comes to us from Becca Seitz, MAcOM, LAc, founder and owner of Thrive Acupuncture in Portland, OR.

Becca discovered acupuncture by chance. While in college, with plans to become a vet, she all of a sudden started experiencing incredibly dry eyes. She stopped wearing contacts, but even so, it eventually got so bad it became unbearable.

Becca describes it as “similar to the feeling you have when you have slept with your contacts in. They’re dry, they’re sticking to your eyeballs and you can’t WAIT to get those suckers out!”

Her ophthalmologist eventually discovered that her eyeballs were covered in little bumps, caused by allergies. Becca tried every eye drop on the market without getting any relief. She says “I couldn’t stand to keep my eyes open because they would feel like they were drying out, and I couldn’t stand to keep them closed because it felt like there was sand in my eyes. I was left squinting and rubbing my eyes constantly.”

Her Dr. suggested taking Benadryl every day, which wasn’t an ideal solution – if you’ve tried it, you know it makes you sleepy or just weird (in my case, I can’t stop shaking if I take it) and not staying awake all day was not an option for Becca, with full time school and part time work.

As luck would have it, her chiropractor shared an office with an acupuncturist, and Becca, feeling she had nothing to lose, gave it a shot. Within 2 weeks, her eyes had improved dramatically, and after a month, she was back to her old self again.

This was a life-changing experience on several levels for Becca. Before experiencing acupuncture for herself, she had always considered the results from acupuncture a placebo effect, but she knew now that was not the case. She not only became a believer in acupuncture, she also changed her plans and decided that instead of becoming a vet, she would become an acupuncturist. She now practices reflexology, Chinese herbs and acupuncture for animals (and humans) at her clinic in Portland.

We have two case studies today, where Becca treats a dog and a cat with combinations of acupuncture and Chinese herbs.

One experience I had in those classes really stood out in my mind. At the time, I had had a cold for several months, with a cough that was so bad that I had broken a rib just from coughing! I mentioned it to our teacher, who asked if I had lost someone close to me recently. I was stunned by the question: my Mom had passed away 5 months earlier and there was no way she could have known that. Turns out the lung meridian is connected to grief. Interesting, isn’t it?

Since then, I have studied acupressure further on my own on a sort of leisurely basis, and frequently use it on myself for things like headaches, colds, soreness, stomach bugs, low energy, etc. It really is amazing how well it works. A great book if you want to try it out on yourself is “Tsubo” (see book recommendations at the end of this post). I pull that out whenever I have something that needs treating.

Acupressure is a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) healing method which has been practiced in Asia for thousands of years, and has slowly but surely been gaining acceptance here in the west as well.

It is based on the theory that energy (“chi”, “qi” or “ki”) is constantly flowing in the body, along 12 main pathways called “meridians”. Each meridian is connected to a certain organ, and has a symmetrical “twin-meridian”, mirrored on the other side of the body. For example, the stomach meridian runs from a point right under each eye to the lateral edge of the nail of the second toe on each foot.

When the flow of energy gets blocked, from stress, trauma, injury or even negative thoughts, problems arise. We don’t feel well and are more susceptible to illness.

The acupressure practitioner deals with these blockages by using finger and palm pressure on certain points (“acupoints”, there are more than 400 of them) along the meridians, where the energy is closest to the surface, to improve the flow of chi and restore health. To decide which points to work on, the practitioner goes through a whole list of things, known as the Eight Principles. To explain all that would take up too much space here, maybe I’ll do a separate post on that at some point.

Today’s case study comes from Jodi McLaughlin, a Certified Holistic Small Animal Massage Provider, Nationally Certified in Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork, and the creator of The Blissful Bunny Massage Workshops. She has written many articles on alternative healing for rabbits, (don’t miss her other guest post on AMG – The Basic Bunny Massage Strokes) and she was also featured in Lucile Moore’s books, “Touched by a Rabbit” and “The Care of Special Needs Rabbits: Traditional and Alternative Healing Methods”. (Note: Jodi is currently taking a break from treating animals due to family obligations).

Jodi has spent many years working on both animals and humans, but one rabbit in particular touched her life in a very special way. Jodi met Diego Cinqo De Mayo Rivera in 2003, and it was love at first sight. Diego was paralyzed at around 6 months of age and Jodi started working with him 4 months later (and continued to work on him for 5 years). He briefly regained use of his hind legs but arthritis and nerve/soft tissue compromise caused the return of the hind leg paresis.

I have included a Pdf here, because the post would be way too long otherwise. It is a full record of an acupressure treatment for those of you who are interested in how Jodi decided which points to work on, and how Diego reacted to it.

I’m very thankful to Jodi for agreeing to let me publish all this on Animal Massage Guide. Here is Diego’s story in Jodi’s own words:

Don’t miss Jodi’s other guests posts about The Basic Massage Strokes and how to do a Massage and Acupressure Treatment For Rabbit Digestion.