Pure Joy Acupuncture

26/06/2024

Interested in simple acupressure techniques to help you and your loved ones feel better? Join me for an hour-long introduction to acupressure on this Saturday, June 29 at 10 AM!

Learn how to locate and activate six points that relieve headache, insomnia, improve digestion and increase energy that you can take home for yourself and your family.

Feel free to come by yourself or bring your loved ones with you. The class will be held at the Pure Joy Acupuncture clinic in San Rafael.

$35/person class fee goes entirely to JL Soul Camp an organization committed to creating safe spaces for black and indigenous women to rest and recharge.

If you’d like to attend this in person class, please contact Pure Joy Acupuncture: (415) 994-0252.

22/06/2024

Interested in learning how to relieve headaches, jaw pain, and neck pain? Learn how to find an acupressure point that can help relieve your pain with Licensed Acupuncturist, Katharine Chaney. Katharine demonstrates how to locate and use Large Intestine 4 in this mini-acupressure tutorial.

Illustration by Dr. Maura Hartzman, LAc

In this video Licensed Acupuncturist, Katharine Chaney, teaches you how to locate, use, and activate an acupressure point commonly used to relieve headaches,...

19/06/2024

We’re approaching the longest day and most yang time of the year, the Summer Solstice.

What is yang? It’s associated with the sun, daytime, summer, light, heat, activity, joy, the fire element, and the masculine.

Yang qualities are revered in our society. The value placed on productivity in your workplace and free time may give you the impression that you’re never doing enough. Do you even feel pressured to have fun plans for the weekend or your summer vacation? Instead of making you feel happy, this constant energy output can leave you burned out and unable to do anything. The burnout cycle is a prime example of yang becoming excessive, and then deficient.

To have yang, you also need yin. Yin both counterbalances yang and nourishes it.

While burnout can be a year-round problem, you may notice that summer and winter are more challenging than other seasons. Imbalance can be present as feelings of overstimulation, anxiousness or getting sick easily.

If you tend to struggle in the summer or winter, what can you do to counteract our culture’s yang imbalance and improve your health? See the link in the comments below for some ideas.

23/05/2024

When our worries seem to outnumber solutions, dreaming becomes a tool. In order to build we must first imagine!

Succulent Manifestations is an afternoon of meditation, creative writing, and sound healing intended to help you envision the world you want to build.

This event is lead by a quartet of Bay Area powerhouses.

A guided manifestation meditation will be lead Alie Jones, self-care advocate, writer, and artist whose work on black mental health has been featured on Afropunk, xoNecole, and Medium.com as well as A Paradigm for Intentional Healing at SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco. Her work as a yoga teacher centers on breathwork as sacred.

The creative workshop will be led by author and JL Soul Camp Founder Joyce Lee and Marin’s own Amber Peirson, who you may know as author and activist Clearly Clarity. These two women are magic, and a writing workshop with them is unlike anything you’ve experienced. Prepare to be transformed by your work with them and the group.

Sound Healing will be led by Valerie Trout, an Oakland-based musician and composer featured at iconic venues in New York and LA as well as Bay Area venues like Yoshi’s and SFJazz.

If you’re in town over Memorial Day weekend, this is an event not to be missed! Reserve your ticket to this intimate event using the Eventbright link in comments.

29/04/2024

Springtime check-in: How are you doing?

Many patients I’ve seen in my acupuncture clinic recently report feeling more irritable and less patient than usual.

If this sounds like you, here are some suggestions for restoring your health and harmony. (Link in comments)

07/03/2024

Daylight Savings time starts this weekend and the week following can be jarring.

In a world where you wake up with an alarm clock and not the light of the sun, moving the clock ahead (or back in the fall) profoundly affects the rhythms of your life. It disrupts your sleep cycle, and shifts when you eat, work, exercise, and spend time with your friends and family.

This sudden shift in your routine can leave you feeling tired, and irritable, and affect your mood and mental health for weeks around the time shift.

Changing the timing of your daily habits throws off your body clock from an East Asian medicine perspective as well. In East Asian medicine each of the 12 meridians has a 2-hour period where its health is showcased.

For instance, the two hours between 1 and 3 AM are a reflection of the health of your Liver meridian. The Liver channel is associated with springtime, vision, planning, and strategy, and plays a key role in reproductive health, circulation, and managing emotions. It can be thrown out of balance by excessive stress, irritation, anger, lack of exercise, overexercising, staring at screens for hours, overconsumption of fatty foods and alcohol, and underconsumption of protein. Frequently waking up during this time can be a sign that the Liver meridian is out of balance. If this sounds like you, please reach out to schedule some acupuncture, and know that herbs and possibly some lifestyle shifts could benefit you as well.

You can help your body clock adjust to daylight savings by stimulating specific acupressure points on the Saturday before daylight savings.

For best results hold during the recommended point during the hour that the time change will affect, highlighted in bold below.

Click the link below for suggested acupressure points to help your body adjust to "new time."

https://www.purejoyacupuncture.com/2023/03/acupressure-to-help-your-body-adjust-to-daylight-savings-time/

17/11/2022

The rain has come. There is a chill in the air and the trees are changing colors and shedding their leaves. Cozy weather has arrived!
If you’ve been following me for several seasons, you know that East Asian medicine recommends shifting your sleeping, eating, and exercising patterns with the season to maintain optimum health.
During fall & winter you are meant to slow down, do less, and sleep more.
If you’re feeling caught between your desire to hibernate and do very little and to produce a beautiful holiday for family and friends, you are not alone!
Finding balance in any season is about choosing activities that fill you with joy and replenish you while saying no to those that don’t.
One idea for a smooth holiday season: prioritize what’s important.
Check in with yourself- what do you need to make it feel like a holiday celebration? Is it making your mother’s famous pie recipe? Going for a walk with the family after a meal? Certain decorations on the table?
Focus on what makes it feel like a holiday to you and let go of Pinterest-perfect recipes & IG-inspired decorations if that is that what matters to you.
For more ideas for a smooth holiday season, check out my blog:

The rain has come, there is a chill in the air, and the trees are changing colors and shedding their leaves. Cozy weather has arrived! If you’ve been

25/10/2022

Happy World Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine Day! Acupuncture is a beautiful doorway into the world of East Asian medicine and there is so much more to the medicine than needles! East Asian medicine includes a vast herbal pharmacopeia, dietary therapy, movement practices including tai chi & qi gong, stillness practices, including meditation, and various forms of hands-on healing including acupressure, cupping, gua sha, and moxibustion.
All of these facets of East Asian medicine have great value and can contribute to your health. our focus is on helping you restore your joy and ease in life using acupuncture, cupping, gui sha (gentle scraping along the skin to release facial tension & increase blood flow), herbal medicine, acupressure using ear seeds, and if requested guidance around diet and movement.
Curious about how East Asian medicine can help you? Schedule a 15 minute virtual visit or new patient in person visit today: https://www.purejoyacupuncture.com/book-now/

23/09/2022

Happy Equinox! Last night (yin) and day (yang) were exactly in equal and in balance. In Chinese medicine, health is found and maintained when yin and yang are in harmony.

So often in our society, we speak of balance as a set point that you strive for and cling to once find it.

When I lived in San Francisco I took modern dance from who wisely shared, “Balance is not a place you find and stay, it is a point your hover around and continually rediscover.”

Let this day be a reminder that balance is constantly changing. Appropriate balance of yin and yang is not always 50/50. It changes with the season. What worked perfectly for you over the summer, may need to shift as you head into fall.

As the wheel turns, night becomes longer than day, and yin becomes more plentiful than yang, I invite you to reassess the balance of your life.

If you can sleep more, nourish your body with slow cooked foods, and enjoy any moments of stillness and quiet in your day. If this sounds impossible, please book an acupuncture session to reestablish your sense of balance and well being: https://www.purejoyacupuncture.com/book-now/

14/07/2022

“I don’t feel like myself.” How many times have I heard this from patients the past few weeks? I’ve seen lots of people who report crying way more than usual, that their usual coping mechanisms aren’t working and that they have lost their sense of joy. If you feel your inner spark is a dim right now, know that you are not alone!
Acupuncture will not solve all the world’s woes, but it can help you cope better with them. It helps shift your body out of fight/flight/freeze/fawn mode into rest and digest mode, where you feel safe in your body. From a relaxed state, it’s easier to respond rather than react to your surroundings.
If you feel like you could use some help finding your quiet, calm, and yourself, schedule your acupuncture session: https://www.purejoyacupuncture.com/book-now/
And if you’re rocking the Casbah and doing well right now, share your experience in the comments section- I’d love to hear what’s inspiring you! And if you’re not feeling like yourself right, I’d love to hear from you too 💖

14/02/2022

East Asian medicine is the original preventive medicine. The core tenants of East Asian medicine revolve around how NOT to get sick.

Modifying your sleeping patterns, eating habits, and activity level to be appropriate for the season you are in are important steps in maintaining your health.

In addition, you can treat problems before they arise by noticing what seasons are most challenging for you. In addition to coming in during the season, you find the most challenging, you also want to come in for treatment during the opposite season.

For instance, say you know that you always get sick in the fall. Your behavior in the spring (the season opposite fall) may be impacting your immune health.

East Asian medicine is the original preventive medicine. The core tenants of East Asian medicine revolve around how NOT to get sick. Modifying your

05/02/2022

This recipe combines immune bolstering properties of mushrooms, miso, bone broth (vegan option given below as well), and green onion. Sh*take, maitake, and reishi mushrooms all contain polysaccharides called beta-glucans in their cell walls. Beta-glucans enhance immune cell function (macrophages and natural killer cells) to help your body fight off any marauding germs. Live miso acts as a probiotic to improve your digestion and your immune health. Bone broth also benefits your digestive and immune systems with amino acids like glutamine. In East Asian medicine, bone broth is also used to nourish depleted reserve energy, so if you are feeling run down, this recipe is great for you! In addition, green onions are used to fight colds and flu in East Asian medicine.

This recipe combines immune bolstering properties of mushrooms, miso, bone broth (vegan option given below as well), and green onion. Sh*take, maitake,