Acupuncture for Emotional Healing

The Healing Power of Acupuncture Therapy

It looks at how each organ system functions and how much qi and blood are flowing through each of those systems. In essence, acupuncture therapy for addiction and mental health recovery sees the body as an ecosystem – a complex network or interconnected system – where everything influences one another. Acupuncture therapy is used for many different diseases relating to physical and emotional health such as chronic pain.

One area that it is specifically effective in is addiction recovery. Recovery from drugs and alcohol encompasses the physical aspect of the body and the mental, emotional, and spiritual as well. Healing from all of these allows one to have a better chance of staying sober. Acupuncture therapy can assist with many of the symptoms of addiction recovery, such as detoxing the body, decreasing physical symptoms without medication, regulating digestion caused by abuse of drugs, insomnia, depression disorders, and anxiety disorders, and increasing alertness and focus.

This is done through the balancing of the organ systems in the body (the ecosystem). There are 12 meridians or pathways in the body that contain qi (life energy) that connect to an organ and 2 meridians that run up and down the body. This qi needs to be abundant and needs to flow smoothly. When the acupoints on these meridians are stimulated with a needle, balance can be obtained within the body. For example, to detox the toxins’ body, the liver meridian is stimulated to release the negative excess qi.

To decrease any pain in the body, acupuncture therapy increases the flow of qi and blood to the area of the body in pain. This can disperse stagnant energy, relieve any tension or tightness in the body, and reduce stress. For obvious reasons, pain relief without the use of Western medicine is particularly important in addiction recovery. Another symptom that can occur with recovery from drugs and alcohol can be severe digestive issues such as constipation. Acupuncture therapy can stimulate intestinal movement through qi and blood flow in the digestive organ.

Another side effect of recovery can be depression, insomnia, or anxiety. These emotional aspects are addressed by smoothing liver qi, and heart qi, and calming the spirit with specific acupoints. Many feel much relief as their body returns to balance – resulting in less physical pain, relaxation in the body, and peace of mind. Acupuncture therapy during addiction and mental health recovery is an effective holistic therapy used to help women recover and achieve and maintain their sobriety.

What is Acupuncture?

Villa Kali Ma offers acupuncture as part of our holistic health program for recovering from trauma, addictions, and/or mental health struggles.

Acupuncture is a valuable asset when it comes to restoring the body, mind, and spirit. Acupuncture promotes the self-healing force that’s already inside of us, without incurring side effects.

Acupuncture comes from the ancient traditions of Chinese medicine, and involves traditional Chinese medicine practitioners stimulating specific energy points in the body, through the painless insertion of thin tiny needles into the skin, into different areas of the body called, acupuncture points to relieve pressure points. Acupuncture is an ancient practice to assist with emotional well-being.

What Does Acupuncture Treat?

Acupuncture effectively treats many mental and physical health conditions, such as those having difficulties falling asleep, or those experiencing low back pain, and shines especially when it comes to pain management. Acupuncture is one of the most efficient natural ways to release pain from the body, and does so without risk of addiction, dependency, or tolerance. It reinforces the body’s natural healing abilities.

Acupuncture aims to heal dysfunctional patterns at their root by making amendments to patterns of flow in the body’s natural circulation of vital life force energies. When we understand that any pain, be it psychological or somatic, is connected to blockages in the natural flow of our vitality, we can understand the value of a method that effectively restores healthy flow patterns inside us.

For people with addiction, trauma, and mental health problems, acupuncture can be a powerful, non-invasive solution that does not require the expense, side effects, or complications of some aspects of the Western medical model.

How does Acupuncture work for addiction?

Acupuncture works through the conscious, deliberate stimulation of chi, or vital life force, throughout the body.

Acupuncture aims to regulate the body out of the sympathetic nervous system that responds to traumatic experiences and into the parasympathetic nervous system. Acupuncture activates the central nervous system, which in turn releases chemicals into the spinal cord, brain regions, and muscles. The biochemical changes help stimulate the natural healing process and abilities to promote physical and emotional well-being.

Traditional Chinese Medicine interprets any disease pattern or symptom, including those associated with addiction, mental health, and trauma, to be surface indicators of a deeper blockage in the body’s ability to circulate chi.

Acupuncture and other treatments rely on removing blockages to the vital life force. Reiki for addiction is an effective treatment method for mental health, addiction, and trauma because each of these problems arises from constriction of energy.

Wisdom and research from other traditions lend credence to this model for understanding how and why acupuncture is effective for psychological disorders, as well.

How are Psychological Problems Connected to the Physical Body?

Psychological problems are connected to the physical body in complex ways. Changes to physical health, such as those introduced through healthy diet and exercise, have enormous benefits to the psyche. Addiction, mental health problems, and trauma are not able to linger or create problems in a physiology that is appropriately circulating blood, oxygen, electromagnetic impulses, hormones, and chemical messengers.

Further, the way that trauma, mental health imbalances, and addiction are reflected in the autonomic nervous system, stiffened musculature, and breath restriction indicate blockages.

Trauma creates areas within the brain and nervous system that become isolated, stuck in stereotyped patterns, repeating and looping, very much like water that’s become separated from the main energy and caught in an eddy. Trauma creates fear in individuals and it’s not a quick fix to heal from.

When acupuncture stimulates the body to dissolve blockages and promotes the electromagnetic information being conveyed from cell to cell to flow in the same ways that a naturally healthy body does, the body has a chance to dissolve and release the materials comprising these blockages.

This means emotional releases, untangling of negative cognitions, reprocessing of traumatic memories, and restoration of unity inside the body’s system. It can take several weeks to feel the effect.

The Benefits of Acupuncture During Recovery

Acupuncture has many benefits for people who are working on their recovery from trauma, mental health problems, and/or addiction.

First of all, any modality that has no side effects and does not require engaging with pharmaceutical products is an asset for people who have a history with substances. Many substances prescribed to treat physical or emotional pain have significant side effects for women with trauma or who are otherwise prone to developing addictive responses to chemicals.

For example, a woman who suffers from depression and is on antidepressants for her broken heart may not question her prescription addiction at the moment because she wants the associated emotions and pain to be gone.

Acupuncture is one of the strongest available holistic solutions for physical and emotional pain. Physical and emotional pain tends to be a relapse trigger for people with trauma, mental health problems, and addiction, so anything that works relatively swiftly to modulate and reduce the intensity of pain is a good modality to keep in the toolkit of options. The acupuncturist during acupuncture treatment ensures the patients are brought back to good health.

Acupuncture is very calming, and it can help with the emotional turmoil that attends the beginning stages of recovery, helping women repattern their automatic nervous system to more stable states of peace and basic safety, less fear, anxiety, depression, and stress.

Many women with a history of trauma, mental health problems, and substance use are unfamiliar with what a relaxed, safe body state is, due to the length of time they have experienced life from the lens of an over-activated or mood-altered nervous system.

Acupuncture therapy is anti-anxiety and pro-overall well-being. The entire process is focused on healing work so whether that is improving sleep as your main reason for receiving acupuncture or reducing stress and anxiety, it can help.

Acupuncture helps the body understand what relaxed, safe, alert ways of processing life stimuli feel like, which reminds the body how to be. The human body learns and adapts when we give it a chance to, and acupuncture can help the body entrain to states that are better for physical and psychological health.

How is Trauma, Addiction, and Mental Health Deeply Connected to the Body?

Borrowing the eastern concept of chi, we can consider that trauma, addiction, and mental health are all deeply connected to the body, as well as to the ways that we circulate, or do not circulate, vital life forces throughout the entirety of our human energy field. Healthy thoughts, healthy emotions, and healthy bodies all require free flow for restrictions, blockages, and obstacles to be cleared.

Trauma can be viewed in places in the body, mind, and spirit that are held in ways that restrict flow. This is reflected in the body as muscle rigidity, restriction of movement, and stereotyped patterns. This means also a limited range of emotional and cognitive options.

By contrast, when we are in a healthy state of body, mind, and spirit, we experience more flow in all domains. Our bodies have fluidity and range of motion, we breathe deeply, eliminate toxins appropriately, and take in beneficial nutrients and positive electromagnetic energies from our environment.

Emotional health also relies on good circulation of our emotional energies, as does cognitive health. So acupuncture’s promise of restoring the flow of chi in all levels and layers of our being is just what the doctor ordered if we struggle with trauma, mental health problems, and/or addiction.

Why Should Women Use Acupuncture to Treat Addiction?

Villa Kali Ma uses acupuncture to treat addiction, mental health problems, and trauma. We use acupuncture as an integral part of our multi-modal approach to healing women and helping them go on to live fulfilling lives of freedom, joy, and personal purpose.

Acupuncture is used more and more in holistic treatment centers. This is because addiction is a disease that affects many layers of a person, and it responds very well to modalities like acupuncture, which treats the whole of a person rather than a specific part or symptom.

This form of holistic therapy has been reported to reduce the experience of difficult cravings, assist in detoxifying the body of chemical residues, ease pain, lessen withdrawal symptoms, and support better rest.

Acupuncture is also a valuable asset for clearing negative emotions and healing the thought patterns that create depression, anxiety, and other forms of psychological torment.

Acupuncture is believed to create these positive results through its ability to stimulate different pathways inside the body, including the immune, endocrine, and cardiovascular systems, all of which have deep connections to not only physical but also emotional and mental resilience.

At the level of neurochemistry, acupuncture appears to help interact with several hormonal and neurotransmitter pathways. The creation, circulation, and appropriate regulation of dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins globally throughout the body are positively affected by acupuncture. All of these molecules are important when it comes to maintaining physical health, and they are also deeply implicated in addiction, recovery, pain management, emotion, cognition, memory, and trauma.

The use of acupuncture within addiction recovery settings has been linked to promising outcomes related to restoring the pleasure and reward system and reducing anhedonia. Anhedonia is the phenomenon of being unable to take pleasure or experience enjoyment anymore after the use of drugs, due to impairments in the body’s ability to enjoy natural, healthy pleasures like creative expression, emotional connection with other people, sex, and hobbies or activities one used to enjoy.

Finally, since acupuncture is a natural pain treatment, it can be used safely to address physical pain without creating addiction.

Villa Kali Ma Offers Acupuncture Treatment Options in California

Here at Villa Kali Ma in San Diego County, California, acupuncture is offered in tandem with our multi-modal treatment programs for women. We provide acupuncture treatments that are integrated with our holistic offerings for women recovering from addiction, mental health struggles, trauma, and any combination of these. Acupuncture services are available as a part of our residential treatment, or inpatient programs, as well as our outpatient programs.

If your reason for seeking support through acupuncture is that you are struggling with your mental health, trying to restore your happiness and freedom despite the impacts of traumatic stress, or you are grappling with dependency on a chemical substance, we highly recommend that you also seek psychotherapeutic help for your struggles.

Acupuncture works best when integrated with programs that directly address cognitive, emotional, and soul/spirit struggles so that the experience of these troubles can be better understood and the woman can regain command over her own life choices and agency.

If treatment with us isn’t possible for you, acupuncture’s popularity is ever on the rise throughout the West, so you can likely find an acupuncturist or Traditional Chinese Medicine center in your area. Please contact your doctor about this process of this practice for further information.

Keep in mind that acupuncture must be administered in person. Also, if you do not like the idea of working with needles, acupressure can be a viable alternative for you, in which energy meridians are stimulated with manual pressure rather than the insertion of small needles. Contact us today to begin.