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Monday 11am - 5:30pm Wednesday 1pm - 4:30pm Thursday 9:30am - 7pm

Balboa Park Holistic Wellness Center

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Balboa Park Holistic Wellness Center

Acupuncture, Chinese herbs, functional nutrition, craniosacral therapy dedicated to helping people get back to doing what they love!

05/14/2026

Depression, whether during a chronic illness, from life's curveballs getting to be too much, or from a chemical imbalance in the nervous system, can be miserable and life threatening. If you or a loved one are experiencing 3 or more of these warning signs of depression, it's time to get help.

Start by reaching out to your primary care doctor. They can run lab tests and determine if there is something physical making you feel so awful and get you on the right medications to start healing.

If you have a chronic condition or stressors which aren't going away, look for a qualified therapist or other mental health professional who can help you manage your symptoms and get your life back. Most cancer treatment centers offer counseling services to patients who ask for them.

If counseling isn't enough, ask for a referral to psychiatry.

And if you're having thoughts of hurting yourself, dial 988 for immediate help.

Mental health IS health, and YOU are worth taking care of.

05/12/2026

Chronic illness, including cancer, affects mental health as well as physical.

It's like a fly in a jar of peanut butter. When you feel physically crummy for a while, it creates stress which affects your nervous system. When you feel anxious as well as feeling awful, it's even worse. While it can sometimes be a huge and immediate challenge, usually the mental health hit starts out small small and slowly creeps in until it's insidious.

You get a little bit more cranky. Your fuse is shorter. Maybe you cry more easily while wondering what's going on with you. Meanwhile, that fly (that annoyance of a condition) which is trying to get out (but can't), just gets more coated in peanut butter until its wings no longer work and it gets embedded in the jar (your psyche). You may start to wonder if fighting the condition is worth the suffering.

Eventually, a blob of peanut butter forms around the fly, and while everything seems normal when you first look into the jar, somewhere deep in there, is an unpleasant surprise nobody wants on their sandwich. (Your mental health is slowly suffering, taking your quality of life with it.).

This experience is normal, but that doesn't make it easy to manage, and it CAN get out of control. That's why many programs which work with people with chronic conditions offer counseling and other mental health services in addition to the medical care for the condition. If you find yourself struggling with frustration, feelings of hopelessness, frequent crying or bursts of anger, or other mental health challenges while you are going through treatment, there is NO shame in requesting help for your mental and emotional health as well as the physical. Mental health IS health.

05/10/2026

Happy Mother's Day!

I know Mother's Day can be bittersweet for people who have lost their Mom, for Moms who have lost a child, and for people who are estranged from their Moms.

If you can, hug your Mom, give her flowers, make her day. That time with her is precious.

And if you're missing your Mom today, or missing a child, or otherwise grieving, I see you. May your loved one's memory be forever a blessing.

05/08/2026

Opening my posts on Mental Health Awareness Month with a reminder - we don't have to be "ON" all the time. If you're feeling not so great - sad or lethargic or overwhelmed or whatever you're feeling, it's ok. It's normal to feel the whole range of feelings, and it's necessary.

The problem comes when the not so great feelings become overwhelming to the point where we no longer feel the good ones and start to feel trapped in misery. Help is available. There are support groups, individual counselors, coaches, and even acupuncturists who can help to break the cycle of funk when you can't quite manage on your own, and there is no shame in asking for help when you need it.

This month's posts will be focused on strategies for beating the blues, pulling yourself out of anxiety, and what kinds of help are out there if you need more than internet suggestions.

05/07/2026

Have you noticed I've been "absent" from this page for most of April? As much as I love connecting and putting up what is hopefully helpful and useful content, sometimes life just gets in the way. In March, I had a minor bicycle incident leading to my chin being wound-glued back together and making chewing challenging. Then I got launched into April with two contract jobs where I was out of the clinic for a few days, followed by a planned photography solo retreat in the desert to learn how to use the camera I got for my birthday. Yes, acupuncturists need down time, too!!

In the middle of all that, a tooth which had been bugging me hit the point where the "nice to do but not critical" surgery which had been scheduled in mid-May became urgent. The oral surgeon said I was a unicorn with all 4 of my wisdom teeth still intact, but with one of them cracked, two had to go. I'm now only half as wise as I was a few weeks ago, lol, and I'm starting to use both sides of my jaw for chewing for the first time in months!

The deeper message here is that life happens to all of us, and what we need when everything gets crazy is the grace to step back and admit we can't do it all. I took some time out to heal which included less time in the social media world, had a blissful 3 days chasing owls and night skies in the local dessert (I was more successful with owls than night skies on this trip - newbie mistakes were made which was expected!), and I'm BACK, just in time for Mental Health Awareness Month.

Stay tuned...I'm preparing a series of posts on taking care of your mental health for the month of May, which will feature photos from my "retreat".

05/05/2026

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone! May you enjoy your tacos in commemoration of Mexico's win in the Battle of Puebla in 1862 🌮🌵

04/09/2026

Nausea and anxiety tend to go together, especially during cancer treatment. It's MUCH easier to stay ahead of nausea than to get ahead of it once it starts. As much as I support trying to minimize medication as much as possible, managing nausea during chemotherapy is one of the times when I say "take whatever meds are offered and use them as instructed."

If you still have breakthrough nausea or even queasiness or heartburn, acupressure on Pericardium 6 can help. You can even pick up as set of "seasick bands" from your local pharmacy and wear them - these bands are designed to stimulate this point.

What to do:

First, locate the point. It's on the inside of the wrist, about 2 thumb-widths above the wrist crease, between the two prominent tendons. It feels a bit "nervy" when you press hard on it. Either wrist will do.

Next, apply gentle to moderate pressure. You can hold it steady, or press/release repeatedly for 30-60 seconds until you feel some relief.

Repeat as needed. You can't "wear out" the point, but switch wrists if one gets sore.

Bonus, this point also helps for anxiety, especially the kind which feels like something sitting in the pit of your stomach or squishing your chest.

04/06/2026

If you feel constantly on edge during cancer treatment, you're not alone! Cancer is scary. You go from doctor visit to doctor visit, get poked and prodded, and every decision feels like it's urgent and your life depends on it. (Spoiler alert - usually you have more time to make decisions than you think!)

You feel on edge because your nervous system thinks you need to be ready to run for your life from an apex predator at any moment. Racing heart? Great! More blood to the legs so you can sprint. No appetite? Of course - you need to run, not digest. Can't sleep? There's no sleeping next to a tiger's den.

Sometimes, the best you can do is recognize that it's F***ing hard, it sucks, and you're going to get through it. The feelings are REAL, and the only way through is, well, through.

If you're dealing with cancer and feeling constantly agitated and on edge, there's nothing wrong with you. Your nervous system, specifically your amygdala, is doing its job, trying to protect you. And you don't have to do it all alone. Asking for help for your mental health doesn't mean you're weak, it means you're human and struggling.

Here are things you can do to support your overworked amygdala:

🌹Join a support group where you'll meet people who "get it"

🌹Ask your cancer center's social worker to connect you with a peer counselor

🌹Get professional help. There are therapists who specialize in working with cancer patients who can help you navigate all the feelings. (I worked with one for almost 2 years as I went through my own treatment and recovery.)

04/04/2026

Chinese medicine says that foods can help to warm or cool our bodies, and recommends eating the right temperature foods for the season and your condition. Cooking is one thing which affects the temperature of foods. Cooked foods are warmer in nature than uncooked, and foods eaten straight from the fridge are definitely cooler. But the food itself can also be warming or cooling.

How do you feel when you eat watermelon? There's a reason we crave it on hot days.
How about cinnamon or chili peppers? There's a reason we want them more in the winter.
Smoothies and juice? Typically chilling.
Soups and stews? Typically warming.

When you're struggling with hot flashes and night sweats, aim for cooling foods. Cucumbers, celery, salads, watermelon, mung beans, most seafood but especially white fish like cod or halibut, green tea. You can figure out which foods are helping to cool you off by paying attention to how foods feel in your mouth and your belly. Do you feel warm as soon as it goes in your mouth? If so, it's probably warming. Do you instantly feel a tiny bit cooler? Those are the foods to eat when you're feeling too warm.

04/02/2026

Night sweats are the evil twin of hot flashes, and can leave you changing your pajamas at 3am. They seem to come randomly, but the good news is there are things which typically make them worse and avoiding these things can make them less frequent and less intense.

Here are 4 things which can worsen night sweats:

🌵The bedroom is too warm. If your room is too warm or there are too many blankets on the bed or your partner generates heat like a furnace, your night sweats are guaranteed to be worse. Open windows, turn on a fan, consider lighter weight bedding or just a cotton or silk sheet for covers.

🌵Consuming alcohol. Sorry, not sorry. Chinese medicine considers alcohol (and caffeine!) to be warm to hot in nature, and warm/hot foods can increase your internal heat making night sweats worse.

🌵Consuming spicy foods. Like alcohol, spicy foods add heat to your body. When you're already too hot, night sweats can be the result. BUT extreme yang (heat) can transform to yin (cool) if pushed too far. Sometimes, a hefty dose of tongue-numbing, throat-scorching, anus-scalding chili will flip that switch and start a cooling trend. Try at your own risk, because it will definitely make things worse if it doesn't make it better!! (I once completely stopped my hot flashes for almost a month after eating green chili in Santa Fe, but I don't recommend this to most people!!)

🌵Dehydration. When your car's radiator runs out of water, the car overheats. Your body does the same. Drinking 3 or more liters of water each day keeps your radiator topped off and reduces the frequency and intensity of night sweats.

04/01/2026

Happy April Fool's Day! Be calm, and Prank On 🤪😛

Address

2310 6th Avenue
San Diego, CA
92101

Opening Hours

Monday	11am - 5:30pm
Wednesday	1pm - 4:30pm
Thursday	9:30am - 7pm

Telephone

+16197724002

Website

https://balboaparkholisticwellnesscenter.com/, http://linktr.ee/acupuncturegeek

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