On March 16th when Covid 19 closed the doors of my clinic I wasn’t sure how I could continue to care for and treat patients. As a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine my work was all hands on – especially when in addition to acupuncture, I also performed healing touch on patients who needed more attention.
Healing touch – the practice of moving one’s energy to bring the body back into balance begins at the patient’s head where I clear away their excess energy and slowly working my way down their body release stuck energy or blockages and in some cases bring in energy where it is needed.
I made a decision after a week of processing all the changes that had taken place to offer remote acupuncture treatments but combine them with healing touch. The premise was straightforward. I would mail out acupuncture press tacks – a very tiny 1.5 mm sterilized stainless-steel needle that would only puncture the epidermis layer. The benefit of these needles is they work but they won’t cause bleeding and they can be inserted by the patient under guided instruction.
Using Zoom or FaceTime I would conduct the patient intake, guide the patient on the tack insertion and then perform real time healing touch for about 25 minutes. Afterwards the patient could take the needles out and dispose of them in regular garbage. If Chinese herbs or formulas were required, I would mail those out post treatment.
As I began this practice the most common question was, “How do you do remote acupuncture?” What I would have asked instead was, “Does this really work?”
The results varied from patient to patient but 90% of the people I treated have since booked back in for follow up sessions. Their experiences varied – some could feel energy moving around their head or through their fingers or down their legs. Others felt tight neck and back muscles release. The majority reported feeling way more relaxed, at peace and grounded.
The most amazing treatment I performed was on a patient who had travelled to Italy to take care of her elderly mother. At 10 pm on a Friday night in Milan I performed healing touch and the results were as though I was treating her in person. She could feel me clearing the heaviness from her chest, the pain between her eyebrows also released and she felt calm and grounded. The beauty of energy is it’s not bound by geography it can be moved with intention.
The clinic is going to re-open May 19th, and I will continue to offer this form of treatment as it has proven itself to be very effective and well received by my patients and now new patients due to word of mouth endorsements.
It also provides an alternative to patients who are not ready to come in for a face -to -face treatment due health concerns. The downside is most insurance companies will not cover this form of treatment even though it is covered in clinic. The cost of this treatment is $85.
