emotional health

Trying to Conceive: Is Your Lube Getting In Your Way?

Trying to Conceive: Is Your Lube Getting In Your Way?

When you’re trying to conceive (TTC) there are already so many things you’re told you can’t do. And things no one tells you that could be getting in your way. And then on top of that you’re not supposed to stress out about it!

If you’ve been diagnosed with unexplained infertility, you’re trying to figure out what you could do to improve your chances of conceiving. Whether you’re continuing to try naturally or as you add in assisted reproductive technologies like medicated cycles with Clomid or Letrozole, IUI, or IVF, make sure these simple tips are on your list:

Spring Energy

Spring Energy

Happy First Day of Spring! Spring is when new green shoots rise, tendrils reach out for the next hold, and the world gets a bit warmer and brighter. I hope holding that image in your mind helps you find what the majority of my patients said their goal was for this year: more energy.

I think we're so tired in part because we're expected to come out of the gate of the New Year bursting with energy for new projects and self improvement. I've never been one to make New Year's Resolutions, but this year it felt especially off, setting us all up for failure. It's just not the right time. Winter is when we want to curl up in front of a fire with a good book, a blanket, and a hot beverage. No wonder we fail so routinely at most of our resolution setting and everyone coming in in January was so incredibly fatigued!

Can Acupuncture Treat ...?

Can Acupuncture Treat ...?

It's a very common question: "Does acupuncture treat …?" The short answer is YES!, no matter the condition, because acupuncture is a complete medical system.

While it’s tempting to hear that as equivalent to a specific drug being touted as a panacea, it’s really like saying all of medicine can address a wide variety of ailments. We’re much more comfortable with that concept. Western or allopathic medicine can help with lots of things to varying degrees. It’s much the same with acupuncture. That’s one of the reasons it’s more accurately referred to as a complementary medicine, rather than alternative medicine.

Need a Massage? Introducing Tyler

Need a Massage? Introducing Tyler

Update: July 2019 – Note that Tyler is now seeing patients on Tuesdays only in this space.

I’m pleased to announce that Tyler Chamberlain, Certified Massage Therapist is now sharing our San Francisco clinic space at the Sutter Healing Arts Building. He’s seeing clients on Saturdays, Sundays, and Tuesdays.

Tyler’s style is in harmony with my approach to gentle, personalized treatments. He offers time-based appointments that are then tailored to your needs on a given day using his massage skillsets including Swedish, Deep Tissue, Ortho-bionomy, Energy, and Lymphatic/Detox. Having experienced his work myself, I highly recommend his thoughtful, effective, and deeply relaxing care.

His introduction to you in his own words:

What Autumn Holds for You

What Autumn Holds for You

Seasonal change isn’t instant. Especially here in the Bay Area, it’s gradual. 1 step forward, 2 steps back, until it isn’t. It takes a special focus to notice it as it shifts. We may yet get our warm Late Summer days that often show up in late September/ October, but Autumn has already been happening. There’s that chill in the air. A certain crispness. A lot of complaints of dry throats.

Eastern Medicine takes its cues from the natural world. As it is in nature, so is it in our bodies and emotional landscapes. Spring and Summer both have an energy of new growth and expansion. There’s a fullness and flourishing. In Autumn, we start to draw back into the interior.

There are five elements (sometimes also called Five Phases) in Eastern Medicine: Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, and Wood. The Five Elements have corresponding seasons, tastes, channels, energies, diseases, and so much more that there is an entire school of thought in Chinese Medicine defined by this focus.

Treating Stress, Anxiety, and Depression with Acupuncture

Treating Stress, Anxiety, and Depression with Acupuncture

Positive Vibes Only? Definitely not. Negative emotions are natural and can signal a need to change our relationships, environment, or behavior. It’s when negative emotions become chronic and feel like they arise without cause, that you turn to guiding practitioners like therapists and acupuncturists who can help you figure out what forest of feelings you've wandered into and how you can find your way back out again.

Whether your depression, anxiety, and stress are chronic or not, tamping down negative feelings or denying them in favor of only positive feelings is neither realistic nor helpful. What is helpful and what acupuncture helps facilitate is giving all your feelings a space and distance from yourself to be acknowledged, fully felt, and then allowed to pass. That can be an extended grieving period and or as short as a few minutes to recognize that you're getting frustrated and need to breathe deeper and take a walk.

Understanding what you're feeling, giving that feeling space, and then letting it go is essential in our modern world. With these skills, you can begin to move past the thicket of a bad stretch. And when you have one bad day, you'll realize that's part of being human, not a sign that you're broken.