Acupunktrix: Acupuncture, Apothecary, Birth and Death Guide, 1800 Hertel Avenue, Buffalo, NY (2025)

10/15/2025

Last night I held my first free transgender, nonbinary, and gender expansive acupuncture, tea, and meditation evening.

The room was packed.

(Obviously, not everyone in attendance was comfortable with photos, which is beyond understandable! Those posted gave permission.)
I can say without any hesitation that the gorgeous humans that showed up blessed me far beyond anything I may have given them.

I wish the right could have seen how incredibly kind, generous of spirit, bright, gentle, and powerful those in attendance were.

We introduced ourselves and shared the best part of our day. The room was filled with everyone from artists to educators to insurance agents.

The White House narrative that transgender people are violent terrorists is the most horrific and egregious lie. In fact, only .2 % of mass shootings are carried out by people identifying as trans. Cis women contribute to double that number, and the rest are overwhelmingly straight cisgender white men. This actually means that statistically, trans people are far less likely to commit such acts than the general cis population. The right has it twisted.

So our meditation centered upon the theme of safety, because the truth is trans/nb people are actually more than four times more likely to be the victims violence than cis gender people (Williams institute study). If we’re being honest, that number has to have increased since January.

Each person received a simple acupuncture treatment meant to soothe the nervous system and calm the body and mind.

I also served a tea I created called Comfort and Strength, a blend of calming herbs and warming, fortifying spices. Everyone got their own take home bag.

We wrapped up the evening with a mini qi gong session and some joyful discussion.

Folks in attendance were eager to exchange info to continue their conversations. Fostering community is the best way to build resilience and power. 💕

I hope I was able to offer a soft and safe place to land. I was incredibly moved by the trust, openness, curiosity, and compassion of all in attendance.

May they be protected. May they thrive.

10/13/2025

If you’re in Western New York, you stand on Haudenosaunee land.

I took this photo in a white farmer’s field not far from the Seneca reservation in Salamanca, NY.

It is not lost on me that white folks grow corn where indigenous folks hardly have room to grow much at all.

So, today I honor Indigenous People’s Day.

I’ve literally, more than once, had people say to me but you have to be proud of Columbus, you’re part Italian. Um, no I don’t.

Screw that racist ra**st and the ship he sailed in on.

No more praise for oppressors and abusers.

He didn’t discover squat.

Instead, let us honor the caretakers of this beautiful land and give as we are able to support the work they continue to do.

If you have some extra cash, please donate to your local indigenous shelter, health center, elder care, or youth program.

We have a great debt to pay to the first people who tended this landed.

10/07/2025

Watching our dear Rosemary Gladstar while I pack emergency and medic bags on the living room floor.

You can join this free conference to help support yourself and others during these unprecedented times by going to www. plantsforthepeople.com .

Let’s learn and grow together.

Some of the best herbal teachers in the world will be joining, many of whom I’ve had the pleasure of learning from before.

Let’s get empowered and feel confident and calm with the strength of community.
summit

10/06/2025

Snuck in a quick acupuncture session for my bestie in the middle of the cemetery this weekend. Look closely you can see the tiny needles.

We were going to the fall festival and she had a migraine coming on. I’d brought needles and tack needles in my purse, so we grabbed a spot in the shade and I placed some needles on her forehead, hands, neck and tiny leave in needles on sticky backs in several places in her ears.

Within minutes she was better.

I love being able to help my friends! And I love how powerful and effective acupuncture can be!

Also, loving that the cemetery is using the space for family fun. As I always say in the midst of death…we are in LIFE.

10/05/2025

Medicine making for autumn. 🍂

This week I strained and decanted the summer’s elderberry tincture and the Reishi tincture I made with the gorgeous pristine ganoderma that I foraged with my youngest son and his boyfriend.

Then I simmered the mushroom marc (the plant material left after you macerate it in alcohol and strain) in filtered water for two hours to bring out the water soluble medicinal components. Some medicine can be extracted with alcohol and others with water, so after macerating in alcohol for several weeks, adding the strained water from the simmered Marc creates a double tincture.

I’ll be bottling some, and using the rest to make extra potent shelf stable elderberry syrup to maintain wellness as we enter the dark half of the year. I usually use a combination of plain alcohol and raw honey
to make my immune system syrups more shelf stable, but this year I thought we’d super charge it even more by using tincture!

These will be available for my own family’s use and for sale soon!

Are you making medicine right now? Share your potions with us in the comments!

10/03/2025

Leaves fall to protect the tree. In colder, darker times, survival is prioritized and anything that distracts or siphons energy away is simply let go.

These past few weeks have been unfathomably challenging, as a mother, a healer, an activist, a citizen, a partner, a daughter, and a friend. The level of stress and responsibility that I’m carrying are intense, and I have moments when I feel so overwhelmed that I simple want to run and hide in a blanket fort in the middle of nowhere. And sometimes that’s possible.

Sometimes, you can go on retreat, but sometimes you can’t. Sometimes, you’re the one being relied upon to guide the expedition. And so, you just focus on the moment you’re in and keep on moving forward.

And you look to see what leaves 🍂 can be dropped. I cannot abandon my kids or my house or my patients or my own health. But what is pulling at me that I could let fall?

Doom scrolling is the first thing that comes to mind. I can stay informed, but I can limit my time on social media and I don’t have to engage with everything that saddens or enrages me.

If social outings are feeling a little too ambitious, it’s ok for me to say no. At the end of the day, for now, I can cocoon under a soft blanket with a mug of tea and read. I don’t have to go to every meeting or play or seasonal outing.

I can say no to asks that are not crucial.

I can remember to take my herbs, and stretch my body, rest, and eat some warm, simple nourishing food. But I can also let go of any have to’s when it comes to my own self care. If just getting through the day is what I can do and that means a can of soup and two minutes of deep breathing…that’s enough.

I don’t have to add new projects right now. It’s ok to let ideas rest until I have space for them.

Nature is wise. I’m listening. And I’m letting go everything that isn’t helping me meet my core needs and the needs of those I love.

Autumn gives us permission to go inward, to reduce chaos, and the flurry of obligations and just protect the very essence of who we are and what we love.

Today, I am letting go of the urgency of petty distractions and saving my energy for what matters most.

10/02/2025

In honor of my youngest daughter and many people I love, I want to create a safe and cozy space so trans, non-binary, and gender expansive folks can feel nurtured and take a break from the harsh realities you are being forced to face right now.

Please join me for tea, meditation, and a seated group acupuncture experience.

Due to space constraints, this evening is limited to 7 participants.

Please arrive on time as not to disrupt others meditation.
You’ll need to RSVP to me by text 716-427-4321 with your name, birthdate, phone number and email.

Your health history and consent forms will be emailed to you.

Looking forward to sharing an evening of community, comfort, compassion, resistance, and hope.

Please share widely!

Please note: acupunktrix is in a house that is nearly 100 years old. It has five steps and a bathroom that is too narrow for a wheelchair. Having been a wheelchair user myself, I hate this. Let me know if there is a way I can make the situation more accessible for you.

10/01/2025

Last night I gathered with a small group of kind and wonderfully creative folks at to discuss art interventions and creative approaches to protest that are more visually and emotionally engaging than marching alone.

Some people had incredible ideas for peacefully using art to inspire and to bring awareness to important issues.

My idea is to create a lightweight puppet theater in the traditional style of the classic British Punch and Judy shows. I’d love to create some paper mache caricature puppets of American and world leaders and do parodies of Punch and Judy shows, using humor and satire to take the power and fear out of authoritarian and fascist behavior.

Humor is a deceptively effective tactic because it is approachable, engaging, and really takes the teeth out of the wolf.

I’d love to see more creative approaches to protest happening here in Buffalo and around the U.S. How can we grab the public eye in safe and interesting ways? How can we use theater, art, music, design, writing, and even dance to amplify our message?

What ideas can we bring to life?

Let me know in the comments!

Thanks to for organizing such a generative event!

09/30/2025

Victory!
Found paw paws 20 miles from Buffalo! So excited! I tasted this delicious fruit, indigenous to the Eastern United States for the first time at the International Herb Symposium in Ohio. Ohio has the largest Paw Paw festival in the world and the fruit seems to be most prominent in Ohio and Kentucky but also grows east of there as well.

The fruit has an ultra creamy texture and is in the custard apple family which has 2,000 species! The skin is bitter, the seeds were ground and used by indigenous folks as insecticide or hair lice killer, but the scoopable flesh tastes like a combination of mango, banana, rose, and vanilla custard.

It can be baked into bread, made into jam, added to cocktails, brewed into a paw paw beer or fermented into wine, or made into creamy deserts.

I find it so yummy.

It’s not usually sold commercially as, much like avocado, the fruit takes a long time to ripen, remains green when ripe, and has a very narrow window of edibility from ripeness to flat out fermented.

It also bruises easy and the skin is bitter so you want to be sure that NONE gets in your paw paw creation.

I’m saving the seeds and hoping to start some plants !

Have you tried paw paws? Have any good recipes to share?

09/29/2025

My eldest daughter and I got to give a cuddle to some rescued cows yesterday at Cow Fest.

Animals, man, we don’t deserve them.

Plants are medicine, acupuncture is medicine, meditation is medicine, presence is medicine, but animals are really some of the best medicine we have. And no, I’m not talking about consuming them. I’m talking about witnessing them. Watching crows congregate, or lizards skitter, or deer nuzzling each other in the woods.

And wow, if you get to give animals happy scritches or feel them snuggled up on your lap, could there be anything more soothing?

Cultures the world over have looked to animals for inspiration and healing archetypes. Embodying the spirit of an animal could be employed in medicine rituals, dances, martial arts, or mythological story telling that holds truth inside fiction.

Animals aren’t confused or polluted by social media or AI. They are still connected to the rhythm of seasons and the heartbeat of the earth.

Respect for animals allows us to learn from them. When we see ourselves as separate or higher than, we often miss the opportunity to reflect and gather wisdom from these incredible beings.

Did you know it’s actually proven that petting an animal can decrease blood pressure, pain, and healing time? Even the vibrations of a cat’s purr are thought to foster healing and emotional wellness.

So, today, in the midst of the madness, spend some time just watching the animals in the sky, the streets around you, or your own home. Perhaps write down what you observe. Can you glean any helpful revelations from your observations? How does your body and mind feel when you are simply observing or being with the animals in your environment?

Share your experiences in the comments!

09/27/2025

A sitting president has declared war on peaceful protesters and authorized killing them. We need to respond to this NOW. This is insanity.

09/27/2025

Be prepared. With Trump declaring tariffs on medications and medical supplies and the political and environmental situation being dicey as heck, preparation for disasters and self and community reliance is a good idea.

There are a million great herbals and disaster and medical guides, but this book is a good basic that covers a lot of ground from setting bones and treating gunshot wounds to herbal treatment for headache and anxiety. My recommendation would be to get many other books and take as many relevant classes as you can from first aid to herbal medicine to meditation for trauma.

But this book is a pretty good starting place if you can only afford one thing right now.

What supplies can you get together now? What tinctures and salves and syrups can you start making to have on hand?

Can you make extra to distribute to friends and family and neighbors?

Would you be ready to help if a bad storm came through or protesters were injured or marshal law happened?

Do you have the supplies and knowledge to purify water, calm an asthma attack, treat infection or soothe a fever? Now would be a good time to learn and get ready. Not in a panic, but in a spirit of empowerment. Gird yourself up with knowledge and you’ll be better able to stay calm when emergencies strike.

Obviously if it’s safe to get professional help or call 911 and you’re in a true emergency, do that! But as we experienced here in Buffalo a few years ago when we had zero services (no police, ambulance or fire dept) for three days, sometimes we have to take care of our own.

Basic first aid supplies, plus ways to stop bleeding,make sure air ways stay clear and open, treat pain, treat anxiety, stop diarrhea, lower very high fever, stop anaphylaxis, treat overdose, and address infection are a good place to start and can be expanded upon.

If you can, practice your skills and make them part of your muscle memory.

Dollar stores actually have some decent first aid basics, ask in your local buy nothing group, and start to slowly build stocks a little at a time if you can’t buy or make all at once.

Preparation builds calm and confidence and can be a beautiful way to help yourself and others.

Acupunktrix: Acupuncture, Apothecary, Birth and Death Guide

10/15/2025

10/13/2025

10/07/2025

10/06/2025

10/05/2025

10/03/2025

10/02/2025

10/01/2025

09/30/2025

09/29/2025

09/27/2025

09/27/2025

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