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Monday 10am - 6pm Tuesday 10am - 6pm Wednesday 10am - 6pm Friday 9:30am - 3:30pm

Amy Vlacich Acupuncture, 292 York Street, York, ME (2025)

09/05/2025

This past week, I had the pleasure of meeting Cornelian Cherry (Shan Zhu Yu) in the wild, a sweet and sour fruit, rich in anthocyanins and antioxidants. A tree of beauty and longevity, her fruit helps to astringe and retain the vital fluids of body, known as "Yin" and "Essence" in Chinese Medicine. She is a nutrient-rich superfood with anti-aging and mildly aphrodisiac properties. 🍒

For those who are familiar with the traditional Chinese pharmacopeia, Cornelian Cherry is one of the chief herbs in Liu Wei Di Huang Wan, a formula crafted in the Song dynasty 900+ years ago to strengthen the Liver and Kidneys. It's often used to treat deficient heat conditions, such as night sweats, hot flashes, tinnitus, dizziness, and poor vision, but has shown promise in treating chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes as well. 🍵

I'm planning to pot a handful of Cornelian Cherry seeds indoors, which will germinate over the fall and wintertime, then be ready for outdoor planting once the ground thaws. I look forward to someday enjoying her spring blossoms. In the meantime, I'm savoring her fruit and the abundance of late summer, daydreaming of future jams, jellies, and other recipes for my kitchen witch cookbook. 🪄

08/29/2025

A gentle reminder....

Growth isn’t a straight line—it’s a spiral. A continuous process of circling back to lessons we thought we’d already mastered, only to invite us deeper every time. What looks like “going backwards” is just another layer of the healing journey, reminding us that progress can be gentle, cyclical, and full of grace. 💫

🪵 Art by

08/12/2025

I've been reflecting a lot lately on the power of narrative and how the stories we tell ourselves can truly shape our emotional experience and our world.

To clarify, in no way am I advocating for toxic positivity, as it is so important to acknowledge our own pain and suffering and in our communities as well. Life is full of ups and downs and there is always a time for grieving and healing.

That said, where we start and end our stories matters. Do we look back on our lives as a string of good and bad times, or do we connect the dots, and see the overarching themes of resilience, transformation, and growth?

We are more than the main character in our own story, we are the narrator, the one who illustrates the scene, creates the theme, and echoes the message, which can either be empowering or disempowering and deeply affect our mental health. Perhaps the key to awakening joy and gratitude is seeing our setbacks as our teachers rather than some cruel twist of fate.

So who are you in your story: the victim, the hero, the maiden / mother / crone, the conscious observer, or is it ever evolving?

📖🪞💫

08/06/2025

Sooo excited to announce that I will be offering a FREE community acupuncture circle on the final day of the Northeast Eco Communities Convergence on Sunday 8/24 in Unity, Maine. 📍✨

I am honored to be able to learn from and give back to this inspiring collective of environmental movers and shakers working together to create a more collaborative and sustainable future here in New England. 🌎🌱

If you'd like to join us, follow the link below to register for a single day, weekend only, or all 4 days of workshops, arts, music, and community building. There are also volunteer openings for those who cannot afford a ticket or prefer to share their skills in exchange for attendance. Hope to see you there! 🌻🏕️

https://events.humanitix.com/permatours-ne-eco-communities-convergence?c=amy

🌎

07/20/2025

Reclaiming my power.
Remembering my worth.

Reflecting in solitude—because time alone in nature is how my nervous system unwinds and how all the solutions to life's problems become clear. 🌿

Truthfully, these past couple of months have been deeply unsettling—filled with heavy news and hard goodbyes. It stirred up old wounds, familiar and uncomfortable emotions, and at times pulled me back into a scarcity mindset that I thought I had outgrown. But even in the heaviness, I’ve been choosing to stay present, feel it all, and trust.

This chapter isn’t about loss. It’s about return.
Return to joy.
Return to truth.
Return to the version of me who feels whole, vibrant, and free. 🪽

Lately, I’ve been reconnecting with community through dance—moving my body, sweating out the tears, and letting the rhythm remind me that I’m not alone. I’ve been foraging and forest bathing, tuning into the Earth's quiet wisdom, and remembering that healing can be slow, sacred, and seasonal.

Not every challenge comes to break you—some come to awaken you. And I’m welcoming this chapter as a catalyst for deeper growth, transformation, and alignment. 💫

04/24/2025

I'm sure it comes as no surprise to those who know me, but I am absolutely in love with the alchemy of - teas, powders, tinctures, capsules, decoctions, infusions, salves, poultices, smudges, syrups, steams. Herbal medicine is an integral part of my practice as an acupuncturist and strongly influences my point prescriptions as well. 🌿

When creating custom teas from scratch or even modifying classic formulas from the ancient pharmacopoeia, I am in a flow state like no other. To an outsider, I probably look like a mad scientist in her laboratory: sensing, smelling, weighing, mixing. It truly is magic in motion. 🪄

While choosing which herbs to combine, I picture the patient in my mind's eye: their constitution, temperature, nature, emotions, and of course, any pathogenic factors or diagnostic patterns. There are at least a dozen herbs to treat phlegm or mucus, for example, so it's a matter of selecting the right herb for that person and for the affected organ or channel. ☯️

In TCM, every formula has 4 components: a "chief" herb (or two) that defines the primary goal of the formula and often carries the most weight (literally & figuratively). Then there are "deputy" herbs that support this main function and work synergistically. "Assistant" herbs may address other related issues to the chief complaint, while the "envoy" directs the entire formula to the correct channel or organ of the body, much like a messenger. 📫

I also take into consideration the temperature and flavor of the formula, not necessarily to make it more palatable, but to make it more effective for the condition being treated or the patient's underlying constitution. A patient with a fever and constipation may need a cold, bitter tea to clear the heat and unblock the bowels, while someone who runs cold and tends toward loose stools will need a spicy, sweet, and warming tea. 🍵

Creating a custom formula is a complex, dynamic, and personalized process, which never ceases to challenge and inspire me. Someday, I hope to establish my own herbal line or pharmacy, but for now, you can find me mixing powders and potions at in York, Maine. 📍

04/04/2025

What is the AcuGraph and why do I love using it in my practice? 📊

The AcuGraph is essentially a high-tech pulse reader that measures electrical skin resistance using a tiny voltage so subtle you can't even feel it. This electrical reading is taken at the 12 source points of the 12 primary meridians of the body around the ankles and wrists where the Qi and Blood collects, creating a pulse. 💓

These numbers are then recorded into the system and drawn into a bar graph or pie chart, which creates a visual image of the flow of energy in your body at this moment in time. This pattern illustrates where in the body there is too much (excess) or too little (deficiency) Qi and Blood flow (circulation), indicating a blockage or obstruction in the channel or organ system, which can cause symptoms such as physical pain, fatigue, headaches, sinus congestion, muscle weakness or spasms, anxiety, insomnia, indigestion, and so forth. ⚖️

One of the ways that acupuncture works is by unblocking these areas of stagnation or "stuck" energy, both emotionally and physically, which in turn makes you feel more vibrant and healthy. So as your body begins to heal, these numbers start to shift, ideally balancing out with less areas of extreme highs and lows. 📈📉

I find that the Acu Graph is more accurate and less biased than traditional pulse taking, which can vary widely from practitioner to practitioner. It also creates a helpful visual of the body's imbalances, which shift over time, and can help to guide more effective and timely treatment strategies. 📍✨

03/23/2025

Leaning into the seasonal flow of the Spring Equinox:

🌱 Coming out of hibernation and deep meditation
🌱 Moving the stagnant energy of winter
🌱 Forest bathing or exercising in nature
🌱 Acknowledging and releasing anger or frustration
🌱 Channeling creativity through self-expression
🌱 Transforming ideas into action, vision into reality
🌱 Planting the seeds for long-term projects and goals
🌱 Cleansing and detoxifying body, mind, and spirit

Herbal allies: 🌼🌼🌼

Dandelion, burdock, milk thistle, artichoke, celery, peppermint, chrysanthemum, hawthorn berry, goji berry, citrus fruit, cruciferous vegetables, leafy greens, and green tea. 🍵🌿

What are your favorite spring rituals?

02/13/2025

Our wishing tree is full of hopes and dreams! A welcome ray of light in these dark times.

Thank you to all who contributed to this Lunar New Year offering and celebration. So grateful for this community. 🙏💕

May we all grow from the wisdom and metamorphosis of the Wood Snake year. And continue to support one another no matter what the future holds.

Keep on hoping and dreaming, friends. It is our true nature and the force that keeps us moving forward.

🧧🐍✨

01/27/2025

🧧 2025: Year of the Yin Wood Snake 🐍

As predicted, the year of the Wood Dragon was a wild and chaotic one, full of unexpected trials, twists, and turns. Many of us may feel burned out as we move into 2025. Yet as we close this energetic Yang cycle, I personally welcome the quieter, more introspective aspects of the Yin cycle. An opportunity to look within rather than rely on external advice or validation.

On January 29, the Lunar New Year, we usher in the year of the Snake: often revered for their magic, wisdom, and healing in legend and lore. Like other arthropods, snakes shed their old layers of skin to produce new ones as they grow, seemingly regenerating and never aging. For this reason, the snake is often depicted as a symbol of transformation and immortality.

The snake is also very powerful for its size, capable of taking down animals much larger than itself. Its venom is both poison and cure; able to kill but also to heal, not only in the form of antivenom but many modern drugs today. In ancient China, snake oil was used for millennia as a potent anti-inflammatory rich in Omega-3 fatty acids. Snake medicine is real.

The snake is an intelligent and tactful creature, careful not to lunge too quickly at its prey, but to wait for just the right moment to attack, which could be days, weeks, or months in some cases. Some snakes hunt just once per year. Some are more active at night, others during the day, but when they are not hunting, they rest. Deeply. This conservation of energy is key to the snake’s survival and ability to slow its own metabolism.

So what does this mean for the year 2025? What wisdom can we glean from the Wood Snake?

First, know that you already have what you need to survive. Now remind your nervous system because it forgets sometimes. Know that you already have the answers, however deeply buried they may be. Trust your intuition. Trust that you are capable of self-soothing and self-healing. There may be periods of time where you need more rest to recharge because the fight is exhausting. And that’s okay. You will be more effective and more present after a solid nap or a good night’s sleep.

Be wise with how you spend your time and energy. Surround yourself with those who inspire you and fill your cup. The ones who truly listen and allow you to let down your guard. Limit your time reading the news or scrolling social media. Allow yourself daily breaks in screen time. Immerse yourself in nature. Be alone if you need to be. And find a creative outlet for self-expression: art, music, dance, film, poetry. Whatever it may be, pour yourself into it. Channel your creative energy. Use it to heal yourself and your community.

Because we all need a bit of your medicine right now. ,✨🙏✨

01/15/2025

Office assistant for the day! 🐾

Terrible with paperwork. Never answers the phone. Mostly snacks and sleeps on the job. Always licking. Really excels at cleaning the floors. Probably not the best fit for the job, but look at those eyessss.

Amy Vlacich Acupuncture

09/05/2025

08/29/2025

08/12/2025

08/06/2025

07/20/2025

04/24/2025

04/04/2025

03/23/2025

02/13/2025

01/27/2025

01/15/2025

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Monday	10am - 6pm
Tuesday	10am - 6pm
Wednesday	10am - 6pm
Friday	9:30am - 3:30pm