And other than showing up for your appointment, there’s no efforting required from you on the way. Five Element acupuncture is rooted in the concept that when you are fully yourself, you are well. The best way to get there? Be yourself as you are, now. You get to come in as messy & unscrubbed, or as uptight + buttoned, as you choose. Be who you are in this moment, and let the medicine meet you.

Everything is medically relevant—from the way your hair smells on wash day to the way your voice cracks when you talk about something that matters. This is validating. The way you are right now (even if it's not your preference) is good information.

This type of acupuncture isn't just about helping your sleep or digestion or whatnot. It certainly is about treating sleep/digestion/etc, but it is also—at all times—about supporting you in your wholeness. Not just what’s wrong, but who you are. Your symptoms are signals that show where there is imbalance. Five Element acupuncture helps restore that balance in concordance with your core nature.

Five Element acupuncture helps you feel more connected to the world around you. By restoring alignment with your true nature—your core self—it becomes easier to recognize the patterns moving through your life, your body, and the world itself. These elemental patterns mirror what we see in the seasons, in art, in relationships, and in the Tao. Through this work, you begin to experience yourself not as separate, but as part of a larger, interconnected whole.

Five Element acupuncture is a way of seeing. The more I study it, the more I notice its patterns everywhere—reflected in nature, in art, in stories, in other traditions. It’s not dogmatic. It doesn’t need to be the only truth. It’s a neutral, curiosity-loving framework that helps you face the brutalities and beauties of the world. It gives (often wordless) language to the forces moving through your life—and helps you stay within the center of your center.

Five element theory developed from close observation of the natural world. East Asian medicine often views the body as a landscape shaped by weather, time, seasons, emotion, and environment. Five Element acupuncture draws on the natural world as a blueprint for understanding how energy moves through a person's body and life. The shifting qualities of each season become diagnostic tools, treatment principles, and reminders of how health flows when we’re aligned with both our inner and outer climate. Five Element acupuncture holds that you, too, are part of nature. Your symptoms are not mistakes, but signals asking for attention and care.

This tradition is syncretic & grounded in ancient thought, while also being very alive. Five element acupuncture is shaped by acupuncture lineages from many parts of East Asia. It prizes the spiritual and esoteric actions of the points while also honoring their functional, physiological resonance. It is grounded in history, drawing from classical Chinese medical texts written over 2,000 years ago. At the same time, it is a living tradition—kept vibrant through regular gatherings, lineage teachings, and a deep culture of practitioners sharing stories and insights from the treatment room.