Frequently Asked Questions

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Most likely, yes.  Chinese Medicine (of which acupuncture is one of many tools) can create change for nearly every concern, whether mental, emotional, physical, spiritual or energetic.  Each person heals differently and there are myriad factors that influence outcomes but acupuncture is a powerful healing tool.  

Prior to our actual appointment, you will be sent a detailed online intake form that you will fill out prior to our time together.  I will review your intake form and begin forming a loose diagnosis and various treatment options.  

A lot of people have never experienced Chinese Medicine nor acupuncture before so I will answer any questions (those not answered here in FAQs) you may have.  I will also ask clarifying questions of you to fine-tune my diagnosis.  Details matter so it is details I'm seeking.  We will also discuss expectations and helpful information to know regarding sessions. 

I will take your pulses (3 on each wrist at 3 different depths so it will feel a bit like I'm playing a trumpet on your arm), look at your tongue (I know, it grosses me out too), and perform any other diagnostics such as checking heart and blood pressure, nervous system function, range of motion of joints, hearing acuity and other baseline diagnostics.

I will then offer you at least two treatment options for you to choose from.  You are encouraged to take the information home and make the choice that is best for your TEEF (Time, Energy, Emotion, Finances).  

When you decide which option works best, go onto your patient portal and schedule your next appointment.   

In ancient China, medicine was taught through oral tradition passing down through lineages.  Written instructions were not allowed in order to preserve and protect their lineage and as a way of ensuring dedication to the work.  Having something written holds less sacred and precious nature than knowing you have one chance to hear something and remember it.   Oral tradition requires tremendous focus and dedication. 

In the 1960s, Communist dictator, Mao Tse Tung, forced acupuncturists and herbalists to come together to form a corpus of medicine stripped of Chinese medicines deeper psychological and spiritual aspects and outlawing Taoist (Daoist) alchemy traditions during his 'modernization' of his cultural revolution.  This stripped down version is what is commonly known as TCM or Traditional Chinese Medicine.  (Keown, p.45). The result is a system of symptoms grouped into "patterns" and a set of prescribed acupuncture points to treat the pattern.  

Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine (including herbalism) has their beginnings in the early Neolithic healer priests, known as the Wu.  Taoist alchemy (psychological and spiritual) is an aspect of Daoist Classical Chinese Medicine.  The Wu are the spiritual ancestors of Taoism (Daoism) and were the first to insert sharpened bits of jade (stone medicine) and bone under the skin to heal sickness and shift psychological stress (DeChar, L., p4).  The work of the Daoist Classical Chinese Medicine practitioner then is to use the various tools of our medicine, our personal observations and subjective experiences to create alchemical change and transformation creating not only healing of pain and disease, maintenance and repair, returning of balance and reducing of the effects of daily life, but to help with reorganization and spiritual upgrading of individuals lives (DeChar, L. p4).  

"According to Thomas Cleary, one of the West's most renowned Taoist scholars, "the basis of Taoism may be thought of as the primary body of knowledge underlying original Chinese culture.  Its legends and traditions reach back to prehistory, preserving within themselves memories of an earlier matriarchal tradition preceding the historical emergence of patriarchal Chinese civilization"." (DeChar. p5)

Daoism seeks spirit and spirituality in all things and holds crucial the interaction between every aspect of the individual: mind, body, spirit, emotion, energy.  Key to Daoist Chinese Medicine is understanding the impact of one action on another and, indeed, anticipating that action for an intended result. 

"Classical" refers to the 6 layers of the body, the nine needle techniques, the 6 Stages and 4 Levels, and the various other diagnostic and treatment tools, techniques, ceremonies and rituals I received in my training that can be found here.  You will see this Daoist Classical effect in the incantation of the acupuncture point names, needling techniques, the order the acupuncture needles are put in and removed and other subtle aspects.  The texts we studied and practice from are the most ancient written accounts of Chinese medicine.  

Additionally, my direct teachings from Master Jeffery C. Yuen, who was taught in the oral tradition by his grandfather, Master Wen.  Read more about Master Yuen here. 

TCM, Traditional Chinese Medicine, works on one level of the body, the middle level, utilizing the Primary Channels.  While TCM is affective for most concerns, it may not treat the actual source of the concern such as Ancestral trauma, emotional origins, psychogenic traumas, etc..  

TCM is part of Daoist Classical Chinese Medicine training but Daoist Classical Chinese Medicine training is not part of TCM.  

Well, no, but it helps.  

Working against resistance is always going to delay results and, potentially, cause frustrations.  

I get it.  This is strange medicine that involves sticking really sharp things through your skin and asking your body to shift.  

There is also a 'woo' factor that can be challenging for some.   I promise I won't make you dance naked around a bonfire with a chicken until, at least, the sixth treatment.  Even then, it will be a rotisserie chicken because that is hard work and we are going to get hungry.  (Kidding....maybe.)

If this isn't the time or place for you, or my style is not a best fit for you, that's totally cool.  I have incredible colleagues in the Charlotte area that may work better for you.

Fair question.  Once I meet with you and discuss your area of concern and learn a bit about you I can better answer this question.  There are a couple factors at play in this answer:

1.  I will have limited time with you in order to affect direct change.  What you do, or do not do, outside of our sessions has greater impact on your results than what we do in session.  This is a variable I won't know.

2. Every person is unique.  While it make take a certain individual a matter of weeks to see results, another person may take longer.  Genetics, mental-emotional mindsets, support and other factors come into play that negate me being able to accurately determine one individuals rate of healing from another.

3. Research as shown that it takes 10 weeks to change a habit.  Since you have, most likely, been in a habitual pattern creating your concern, we need to work to overcome that.

4.  For chronic conditions, for each year you have had a concern, it will take a month of weekly sessions to affect change.  Change does not necessarily mean heal.

5. Twelve weeks of treatments allow me to see your body through a season and observe its reactions to the energies of the season.  It also helps to create new habits of wellness.  

Chinese Medicine is not an instant medicine.  Chinese Medicine, of which acupuncture is a part, is a lifestyle and deliberate medicine.  

Again, this means that instead of only looking at a symptom or sign, we look at the totality of the various facets of your life that may be creating, or contributing to, your concern.  The deliberate aspect refers to daily investment over time which compounds into results and wellness.  

Best results will always be obtained via greater personal awareness and engagement in your care.  

Regardless of the style of acupuncture or Chinese Medicine (there are more than a dozen different schools of systems and styles) its effects take time to compound into change.  

If you are seeking a quick fix, please know that although you may find a large shift after an initial treatment, that does not equate to magnitude of instantaneous healing.  

Thanks so much for asking!  

Please refer to me as your Chinese Medicine doctor when describing me to friends or other healthcare practitioners.  

Personally, Dr. Cliff or Dr. Crystal is fine until we've worked together for a while. 

Lineage means that the person you are working with has a traceable history to the information they are sharing with you that spans more than a weekend course or a spiritual enlightenment. 

Practitioners with lineages have Teachers who have Teachers who have Teachers, well, you get the point.  Because of this, if an adverse reaction or healing crisis were to occur following a session, the individual has a Teacher to go to for guidance, information, support and help in supporting or healing the person in crux.

True lineage offers support before, during and long after sessions or personal ceremonies.  Anyone who provides you with a 'one and done' holds no honor, no lineage and should be avoided.  

Lineage Teachers do not teach until they master their medicines.  When they have mastered it, they learn more still and work until that has been mastered.  They don't become Teachers of Lineage by choice, they become Teachers of Lineage by calling and by the arrival of students willing to learn in the long, dedicated, investment laden old ways.  There is deep honor in being part of a lineage.  There is also deep respect and highest integrity to the original Master Teacher. 

Read more about my Lineages here.

Newly Crowdsourced Definition of a Shaman via Nicholas Breeze Wood in Wales.

" A Shaman is someone chosen by the Spirits and who can go into a controlled and repeatable deliberate trance state.  In this trance state they:

A.  Experience spirit flight where they go into the spirit world and meet spirits who they either fight with, negotiate with, or trick in order to create change in this physical world and (note: this is hardcore traditional Shamanism + weaponry they take with them) 

B.  Are often taken over by the Spirits, normally Ancestral Shaman Spirits or local Land Spirits, while in this physical world.  The spirits using the Shamans voice and body to heal or to give advice to members of a Shamans' community.

C.  In Addition to A and B, they also need to engage in ritualized magic or ceremony  which is based on an animistic understanding of creation while not in a trance state.  However, practicing of C alone does not make someone as Shaman as the trance aspect is essential."

A Shaman is not a calling as much as it is being chosen by the Spirits.  Although every individual has abilities to journey and have spiritual gifts, only a few individuals are willing to accept the work of the Shaman.   

In all of Nature, there is an exchange of energy that creates Life and movement.  In physics and organic chemistry, there is always an exchange of the energy that can not be created nor destroyed.  

When a Teacher or Healer offers a Sacred Ceremony, the ceremony exchange is usually a payment of some sort.  In Ancient times, the exchange for the ceremony was made in food, fur pelts, lodging and anything the medicine person needed to live.  The community took care of their medicine person who, in turn, cared for the community.  

In modern times, this practice has been lost due to massive population and loss of community healers.  The exchange of energy now is in monetary exchange. Something has to be given of equal value in order to keep the balance of energy.  

In ceremony where no monetary fee is charged, it is expected that an exchange of value equal to the healing is given to the Teacher or Healer.  This can be in the form of a medicine tool (feathers, stones, bones, bowls, herbs), foods (ie. homemade bread or bread starter), garments, or anything the receiver has that they want to exchange for the care.   The value is determined by the receiver, not the teacher/healer.