let’s make some babies.
Acupuncture helps regulate hormones, lowers serum cortisol levels, thickens the endometrial lining, helps to increase egg quality, and improves success rates in embryo transfers.
It can also make you happier, reduce your stress levels, bring down your anxiety levels, and help prepare you for when your world to turn upside down because mama, you’re looking to have a baby!
fertility health is women’s health.
Acupuncture isn’t just for magically making babies — it works because the person who’s doing all that internal work for making the baby? Her health matters. Your health matters.
Empirical studies didn’t even think to add women in as subjects until 1987, and it wasn’t until about a decade later that women were regularly studied. Why? Women’s hormonal fluctuations made us too confusing to study. Women had too many variables, it was reasoned, and that led to poorly designed and executed studies.
That also means women were literally, completely ignored when it came to pharmaceutical research until nearly the 21st century.
Acupuncture has been helping to regulate women’s menstrual cycles for thousands of years.
It is quite literally made for all those variables. (Which, incidentally, is one of the main reasons it tends to perform poorly in empirical studies.) We work from the ground up with your menstrual health, and we 100% make this about your body and how we can best bring it into a state of homeostatic health.
Growing your family is a major life change.
Whether you already have children or you’re looking to have your first, it’s a big deal to make a human being and then bring that human into this world.
It’s also a big deal to become a mother. Matrescence is the name for what it means to become a mother, and we here at Well Collab Acupuncture know all about how important it is to hold space for that process.
One of the most intense parts of parenthood is the ever increasing expanse of space that you are expected to hold: for your children, for your partner, for your family.
Acupuncture has a unique ability to hold that space for you.
what role does acupuncture play in pre-pregnancy?
Acupuncture works to optimize the body — i.e. the future home to a future fetus! It can smooth out your hormones, clear up your PMS, make your period a breeze… and we get that that’s not what you’re coming in, but those things are important precursors to pregnancy.
Pre- and Post-Embryo Transfer
On the day of embryo transfer, we provide pre-transfer acupuncture with a specific protocol. Post-transfer, you come right back for a separate protocol. We encourage you to come as close to your time of transfer as possible.
how often can i come during pregnancy?
As much as you want! Some people feel they need weekly sessions for the duration of the pregnancy; some people disappear until week 38 and they’re ready to pop!
Our ethos is: more is more. Bodies are constantly undergoing different iterations of stress, and acupuncture helps to remove the film of what’s been left behind. We also are creatures of habits and patterns, and acupuncture can help to rewire us towards health. This is important during any time of your life (so if you’re reading this and you’re not looking to get pregnant, that’s cool — feel free to come in, anyway!), but during pregnancy you’re stressin’ for two.
Our future mama’s love their regular acupuncture sessions and how it helps them deeply relax.
does acupuncture help prepare for labor?
We love it when those people who crop up around week 38 commit for the next couple weeks because time and again, we see that when you get a bunch of acupuncture just prior to giving birth, that birth can go a lot smoother. Moms tend to be a whole lot more mentally and emotionally prepared for when the real work and real love begins.
Our Labor Prep Package is a 5 pack of acupuncture, meant to be used within 2-3 weeks of purchase. We use a combination of acupuncture and medical massage to help best prep your body for birth, be it vaginal or c-section. This is a strong but mighty approach in making sure both mama is ready to bring a new human earth-side, and that baby is ready too! Unused appointments (due to birth!) are given an extra 6 months from date of purchase before expiration.
yes, acupuncture is good for that.
And that, too. Yup, it’s also good for that!
(That is to say… because of how acupuncture works, it stands to reason that it can help with nearly anything.)
Holistic medicine is about prediction, prevention, and teaching your body how to work optimally, and studies are starting to back that up.
As more and more empirical research is properly designed for the way acupuncture works (rather than it being made to fit into the way most research is designed, which is antithetical to the core tenets of acupuncture), more and more of those studies reliably confirm what we know through firsthand experience with thousands of appointments each year: acupuncture works.
This comprehensive list from the WHO gives insight into the enormity of acupuncture’s reach in terms of what it can treat.
We recommend you try it for yourself to see what it can do for you.
How does acupuncture work?
Acupuncture has a layering effect. Just like any kind of learning, each acupuncture session is a lesson that builds on the ones before it in order to give you and your body a solid baseline of knowledge.
Research is beginning to show that acupuncture activates different centers of the brain, depending on the disease or disorder, and also regulates neurotransmitter responses.
How often should I come in?
It depends is a real salt of the earth acupuncturist answer to this question. There is no magic number of appointments! Some people come once and we never see them again (looking at you, guy with the tendonitis who came in once a year for two years and now I assume you’ve been feeling better since 2017?!). Some people come weekly for years, because acupuncture buoys their mental and physical health to the point where it’s a non-negotiable in their weekly routine.
A general rule of thumb for a chronic condition is: how long have you had that thing, in years? (Let’s say it’s 3 years.) So, the first month of weekly acupuncture is a kind of stabilizing, smoothing out process. And then the next three months are peeling back the layers of that condition, month one for year one, month two for year two, month three for year three.
which acupuncturist do I choose?
Both acupuncturists at Well Collab Acupuncture trained at Pacific College of Health and Sciences and have been in practice for over a decade, respectively.
But both also treat whatever you come in with.
The whole idea of Eastern Medicine is that you take the body as a whole. Specialities are more relegated to Western Medicine, which is micro in nature, versus the bigger picture way acupuncture looks at patients.
You can specialize in acupuncture because you’re interested in something. Chryssa loves helping people get pregnant and grow their families. Both Mark and Chryssa are staunch LGBTQIA+ allies, and IVF is an excellent way to grow your family! She also has developed a signature acupuncture facial and based on her experience, she builds out courses around the feminist ethical minutia involving women’s faces and aging.
Mark has a background in teaching, both in and outside of acupuncture classrooms. He offers mentorships and practices trigger point needling — a style he’s also taught. Mark also is a skilled herbalist and uses herbs to treat everything from ovarian cysts to post-Covid symptoms to pain management for chronic lower back issues. But he coaches men on modern masculinity, too, and incorporates his knowledge of Buddhist thinking into the ways he interacts with everyone who steps through these doors.
feminist facials
Your beauty. Naturally.
Be intentional about the most emotive part of your body. Be conscious about what you do about feeling good in that body of yours. Make sure you’re the one who has the last word about what beauty means to you.
The point of the acupuncture facial treatments that we do here at Well Collab Acupuncture is to remind you that feeling good in your skin is a birthright: the way you look has everything to do with you and, um… no one else. Not your parents, not your partner, not the guy at the corner store. No one but you.
We don’t take kindly to the fact that as women show signs of aging, they lose societal value. We think it’s bullshit.
But we also acknowledge that we’re in it.
It’s a hard spot to be in, when you recognize that the forces working to encourage you to feel a certain way aren’t actually true and yet you’re so embroiled in that social fabric that you can’t help but feel the truth in what those forces are peddling.
before/after
what’s involved in an acupuncture facial?
We focus on is the underlying structure of your face.
We do a lot of manual work: facial massage to learn the lay of the land (because all faces are different!), gua sha to increase circulation and encourage lymphatic movement, and cupping for fascial release.
To be clear, our Signature Feminist Facial is not your esthetician’s facial: we don’t do extractions; we don’t focus on skin-care.
It’s still an acupuncture treatment, but we focus less on putting a ton of needles in the face to address individual wrinkles and instead use acupuncture judiciously for muscular release.
Many clients note that there’s a lifting effect to the treatments as individual sessions, and then marvel at the staying power when those treatments are layered on each other.
It’s a full body acupuncture treatment, too! so as with all acupuncture treatments, you’re left on your own for awhile to relax, sleep, meditate… whatever works for you in that time.
These treatments are safe during pregnancy. Make sure to notify your practitioner of any history of migraines, vertigo, or high blood pressure.
can I do botox and fillers with these facials?
You can! We insist on a 6-week wait post-getting-any-injectables, but then it’s fair game.
There aren’t many special accommodations needed for Botox; with fillers, we are careful with cupping pressure to make sure everything stays put.
Feminist Facials have also been used successfully to help gently move years-old filler from the cheek area.
Make sure to let your practitioner know of any major or minor facial procedures you’ve had done.
how often should I come in?
Based on our in-clinic experience, we can give a broad range based on what you’re looking for.
Coming in strictly for the relaxing benefits of the Feminist Facial? Come in whenever you want!
Looking to affect change, visually? All faces are different! Age, lifestyle, and genetics all play hugely impactful roles in what gets reflected out of our faces. With that in mind, a general rule of thumb we give is:
under 30: 2 consecutive sessions, monthly maintenance sessions with an increase to consecutive sessions once a year.
between 30 and 45: 4-8 consecutive sessions; bi-monthly sessions for the next 1-2 months; down to once-a-month maintenance thereafter with an increase to consecutive sessions once a year.
between 45 and 60: 8-12 consecutive sessions; bi-monthly sessions for the next 1-2 months; down to once-a-month maintenance thereafter with an increase to consecutive sessions at least once a year.
between 60 and 75: 12 consecutive sessions; bi-monthly sessions for the next 1-2 months; down to once-a-month maintenance thereafter with an increase to consecutive sessions at least once a year.
over 75: 12 consecutive sessions; bi-monthly sessions for the next 2-4 months; down to once-a-month maintenance thereafter with an increase to consecutive sessions at least once a year.
We offer packages of 4, 8, and 12 at a discount of 10, 15, and 20% respectively.
We also strongly recommend at-home maintenance! Our course Proof of Life™ was designed specifically as a companion course to the Feminist Facial.
does it hurt? there’s a point for that.
Whether you’re an athlete, you have a chronic pain condition, or both: acupuncture can help.
INCREASED HEALING. REDUCED RECOVERY TIME.
Time is important, especially for athletes who are working on a tight timeline either with their team or to reach their personal or professional goals.
On a cellular level, acupuncture helps not only speed up the process but it also teaches the body how to heal better. And research backs it up: studies look at very specific things, and one thing about acupuncture is how you can monitor blood chemistry. One study found a “decrease in lactate levels after exercise in elite basketball athletes was significantly greater after acupuncture treatment than in the control group.”
nourishing life
available in person and virtually
Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist tools for living each day well
It takes skill to do something well. Living well is no different; and, like any skill, it takes practice.
That’s what Nourishing Life is all about: practicing living well.
Why East Asian philosophy?
Well, we are acupuncturists — we do what we know.
And for thousands of years, Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism have provided frameworks for the practice of skillful living.
Using these frameworks as a starting point, we help to cultivate an awareness of the life you want to live, and of the habits and behaviors that will nourish that life.
In your Nourishing Life sessions, you might cover:
The importance of our emotions and how to interact with them healthily
How to use habit energy to our advantage
The importance of ritual in our daily life
The how and why of unconditionality
The difference between capacity and ability, and why that matters
What me mean by attention, and how to use it skillfully
The importance of integration
What it mean to live at the leading edge of your growth and expansion
herbal medicine
Herbal medicine of all traditions has a history as long as humanity. It’s a natural off-shoot of living off of the earth and understanding that the ground has the ability to provide us with what we need.
Chinese herbs are a complicated medicine that have the ability to shrink fibroids, reduce or eliminate headaches, relieve physical pain, and even act like anti-depressant and anti-anxiety pharmaceuticals. But unlike most meds, they take into account that you change and require refinement as treatment progresses.
let me guess: you were in gifted and talented.
When a global pandemic shut the world down for months and then permanently shifted the way we socially operate thereafter, a lot changed. One of those changes has been the uptick in later-in-life autism and ADHD diagnoses. Why the increase?
Both ADHD and autism historically bring to mind little boys: either disruptive ones, or fact-obsessed ones. But both diagnoses extend into adulthood, and they span the gender spectrum. Girls, women, and anyone who didn’t fit the pre-pandemic mold often fell through the diagnostic cracks.
But now, ADHDtok has 2.4 billion views. People are looking for help, and we’re here to help you find some answers about yourself.
how can you help me, a later-in-life-diagnosed neurodivergent?
Part of it is that both of us were diagnosed neurodivergent in the past few years, and we’re both in our 40s now — which means we spent the bulk of our lives figuring out how to live amidst these round holes when we’re more the square peg kinda people.
We have that experience while also being acupuncturists, and therefore we necessarily view the whole experience through a Chinese medicine lens. Acupuncture can be really helpful for neurodivergent brains because they have real neurological differences from neurotypical brains, which means our brains can be greatly helped to function more optimally with acupuncture.
is my brain broken? it feels like my brain is broken.
Nope! That’s part of the reason we offer real, tangible, help-you-navigate-this-world support.
Your brain is actually pretty remarkable.
People are wising up to the fact that neurodivergent brains are good for the world, but the world has yet to change its boring neurotypical mold to better accommodate us.
The work we do together is to help reduce some of the stress on the ol’ noggin so it can better navigate the way the world is designed, while still staying true to its strengths.
