Acupuncture
A several-thousand-year old technique that involves inserting needles into specific points along meridian lines where the body’s Qi or energy comes to the surface. It is a part of Chinese medicine and has also been a part of other indigenous systems of healing, including traditional Mayan and Indian medicine.
Body Autonomy
Honoring each person’s right to make decisions about their body. In a health care context, ensuring that the informed choices the patient or client makes about their health and healing are prioritized and honored.
Body Positivity
A term that encourages us to embrace bodies of all shapes and sizes and meets folks where they are at. In the dominant health system, many bodies are pathologized and stereotyped. Negative energy directed towards certain bodies creates an imbalance in all beings. In a holistic health framework, each person is honored for their individual body and encouraged to make their own choices to promote the well-being of their body as they see fit.
Bodywork
Bodywork is way of referring to Asian Body Therapy, a healing practice based in Traditional Chinese Medicine that utilizes various massage techniques, such as shiatsu, tui na, deep tissue massage, thai massage, cupping, gua sha, and acupressure.
Community Acupuncture
Community acupuncture is the practice of treating multiple people at once in one large community room, maintaining a semi-private atmosphere. Community acupuncture appointments are booked every 15 minutes at Sage. The community acupuncture sessions typically last an hour, which includes a short intake with the acupuncturist and your treatment.
Cupping
Cupping is a healing technique within the scope of acupuncturists and Asian bodyworkers to reduce muscle aching and tightness, muscular adhesions, systemic body inflammation and toxicity, colds and flu, and emotional stagnation. At Sage we utilize a pump to create a vacuum in a plastic cup. We place the plastic cup on the desired area of the body, suction air from the cup using a pump, and the cup stays in place on the body, drawing the superficial layer of skin and muscle tissue into the cup. This allows stagnant, old Blood and Qi to exit the cupped area as fresh Blood and Qi enters. Cupping often leaves round marks on the body that can range in color from light pink to dark purple. The marks fade in 3-7 days. Because we are a trauma-informed clinic, we do not do this technique without the full consent of the patient, and we welcome questions and feedback as we perform this healing technique.
Gua Sha
Gua sha is the centuries-old practice of applying pressure and friction to the surface of the skin usually with a smooth-edged spoon (or other therapeutic tool) to release toxins held in muscular tissue, invigorate blood and lymph circulation in specific areas of the body, relieve chronic muscle tension, and more. Gua sha is often used for treating chronic migraines and headaches, neck/shoulder/back tension and pain, colds/flu, and more.
Harm Reduction
A principle that is about meeting people where they’re at and encouraging practices and behaviors that honor individual paths to wellness. It is a strategy of care that is non-judgmental and non-coercive, empowering individuals to take charge of their own process of reducing harms in their life.
Healing Justice
A framework to describe collective practices that can impact and transform the consequences of oppression on our bodies, hearts and minds. It includes the practice of holistically responding to and intervening on generational trauma and violence. Healing justice aims to lift up and sustain social justice work for the long haul in a healing and holistic way. In practice, it meets specific needs of the individuals and communities practicing it, so it can take many forms that can include anything from community forums to sharing wellness practices.
Herbalism
Also known as botanical medicine, it is a type of medicine that involves using plants and plant extracts to treat diseases and their symptoms. There is a long-standing tradition of using herbs for healing in indigenous cultures around the world. Chinese medicine utilizes plants, minerals and animal parts in its herbal treatments, often combining several herbs together to make a formula for each person’s unique constitution.
Holistic Medicine
A system of health care that fosters a cooperative relationship among all those involved, leading towards optimal attainment of the physical, mental, emotional, social, sexual, reproductive and spiritual aspects of health and well-being. It emphasizes the need to look at the whole person within a context of their environment, family, community and society at large to best treat any imbalance or dis-ease. Helps contextualize the health of an individual based on a framework of systems of oppression.
Moxibustion
Moxibustion is a healing technique within the scope of acupuncturists and Asian bodyworkers that utilizes the herb, Artemesia mugort. Mugwort has many uses in Chinese Medicine and is thought to be an herb with a frequency very similar to the human body, therefore, it is thought to be very healing. At Sage we commonly use mugwort in its charcoal form. We light a charcoal stick made of mugwort leaves close to the body to introduce invigorating and warming Qi into the body at strategic points. This technique moves and builds the body’s Blood and Qi, reduces pain, promotes the healing of deficiency- and cold-related disorders, and is often taught to our patients as a self and community care technique.
Meditation
A practice of connecting to oneself with various health benefits, meditation can take a variety of forms. It can include silent practice or intentional movement. It can include praying, visualizations, directing focus to one point, breathing, and many other practices.
NADA
NADA stands for the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association. We use this acronym to refer to the 5-point ear acupuncture protocol we use for treating various addictions, post-traumatic stress disorder, and chronic stress. Sage uses NADA as a community building and community care tool by taking NADA to organizations and workplaces for group sessions. We also offer pay-what-you-can NADA ear acupuncture drop in hours on Fridays from 5-7 p.m. For more information about NADA, please check out: www.acudetox.org
Qi
Loosely translated as energy or energy flow, it is the active life force present in all living beings. In Chinese medicine, we connect with this energy through meditation, Qi gong, acupuncture, bodywork and herbal therapy.
Qi gong
Qi gong is literally the practice of making energy, often involving movement and meditation. It is one of the internal Chinese martial arts. Connecting to one’s breath is an integral part of the practice. It helps the body/mind to move stagnant energy and open up the flow of Qi.
Self Care
A self-determined practice to promote compassion, liberation, and healing. In social justice settings, it is a growing idea to help prevent burnout, manage stress, and promote sustainability. It includes all actions and decisions to heal oneself.
Trauma Informed
An awareness of the fact that the majority of young people and adults are survivors of trauma. In a health care context, we intentionally create space for people to consent to all steps of treatment. We create space for people to ask questions, make requests, and have ownership of the process of treatment at all stages.