Hey everyone! If you’re new to my corner of the internet, then here’s some things to know about me. 1. I struggle with chronic migraines and mental illness, mainly anxiety. 2. I don’t respond to medications. 3. I’m always looking for natural ways to reduce my stress and deal with my issues.

Recently, I embarked on a journey to try out the ancient art of healing through Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture. If you want to read up on what Acupuncture is and its benefits, you can catch the Q&A I did with my Acupuncturist, Lori Earley. So after 6 weeks, I promised that I would provide my honest review of what I really think about Acupuncture. So here we are!

Full disclosure: The services were offered to me at no cost but the opinions I express in this post are my own. In today’s post, I’m going to explain what one of my typical Acupuncture sessions at Phoenix Rising looked like and what I learned from doing Acupuncture. So without further ado, let’s get after it, shall we?

What a typical Acupuncture session looks like

After I arrived at Phoenix Rising, my Acupuncturist, Lori Earley would escort me into a private, dark room with one elevated bed, a heat lamp and a chair. We would start the session by chatting about the previous week and discussing what specific areas to focus on.

I would then get on the bed and Lori would ask me to lay flat with my left arm down and my right arm lifted with the palm facing the back wall. We would then assess how my nervous system was responding to decide what to work on.

Next, we would calm the nervous system by running an electric back massager down my back as I took deep breaths and touched each of my finger tips on one hand. Once we did that, Lori would place the needles strategically. After that she would turn a heat lamp on my feet and I would be instructed to rest for 30-35 minutes. If I’m being honest, I’m not great at napping on command. So, I usually spent that time trying to do mindful meditation. After the 35 minutes of rest, the session would conclude.

What I learned

So now you know what the sessions looked liked, here’s what I learned and my major takeaways.

It’s completely painless and very relaxing

Sounds paradoxical right?! Anytime I told someone that I was doing Acupuncture, their first reaction was ohh needles! Doesn’t that hurt? If there’s one misconception I want to break down right here and right now it’s that Acupuncture hurts. It doesn’t. Quite the opposite, really. When the needles were being placed, I never felt them going in.

In fact, the only way I even knew they were in, is when I saw them. And even though I never really slept during a session, I always left feeling like I had gotten a massage or drank a glass of wine. Totally smoothed out. I looked forward to these sessions the most when I was feeling tightly wound. There was a particular Saturday session where I went in nearly in tears from anxiety and walked out feeling like a brand new woman!

Everything is connected.

Lori and her mentor were amazing at explaining not only the science behind what we were doing but also how my mental state and my physical were totally interrelated. And when one is out of balance, the other will be too. I asked a lot of questions every session and Lori was so kind to explain everything to me in details and break it down for my easy understanding! It was fascinating to me how I could go in feeling shaky, nauseous, anxious or with a headache and come out feeling at ease and ready to take on the day. I felt the results of our sessions instantaneously.

Final Statements about Phoenix Rising

To close, the work is not over. And I am happy to continue to the work at Phoenix Rising. This past 6 weeks, I have learned a lot about myself, my migraine and mood triggers and now have another tool in my tool belt to improving my mental and physical health.

If you are a Houston resident and want to check out Phoenix Rising, you can make an appointment here. What questions do you have about Acupuncture and have you ever tried it? Let me know what you thought in the comments below!