A little more about Jade…

Hello all of you in 2024!

I hope your holiday times were quiet and gentle (this is what I’m hearing most often from people in clinic). I mostly rested and enjoyed the company of loved ones, while reflecting on the last year what I’d like for the next. This year will bring a lot of exciting things to learn, as I enroll in the certificate program for Balance Method Acupuncture in the Fall. I look forward to diving deeper into the medicine we practice here and bringing its magic to bear for you all!

I have also queued up a scar care training as well as one on manual lymphatic drainage to supplement my work with cupping and gua sha.

2024 is all about leveling up!

Jade (Jaay) Kulhawy-Bartlett, R.Ac.

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Here are some seasonally relevant questions to get to know me better!

What are your favourite winter time activities?

I like listening to the rhythms of the season, so I try to minimize my intensive activities and my outward movement and just watch movies (I’m a Criterion film snob type) and cook hearty and delicious warm meals. I try to tend to balance it out with gentle walks to enjoy our (generally) mild weather.

What are your strategies staying warm and cozy?

I live in an old house, so layers and blankets are my friends. I also make sure that I’m wearing socks any time I’m walking around the house (I just can’t get in to slippers). I’ll turn on the gas fireplace and enjoy that warmth, and having a cuddly cat helps!

What is your favourite soup? (if you have a link to the recipe, include that too!)

My favourite soup lately has to be kimchi-jjigae (kimchi stew). My partner introduced me to it and it quickly entered our cooking rotation. If you can handle spice and have some leftover kimchi that has been fermenting in the back of the fridge a while, this is the perfect recipe to use it! Plus the heat is a beautiful way to warm a system that is being invaded by cold.

What remedies and/or strategies do you use when you are feeling under the weather?

My biggest strategy to deal with feeling under the weather is SLEEP (and staying in bed even when not sleeping). I love to stay up on the later side usually, but the moment I start to feel run down I go to bed as early as I can manage. I add in a bit of gua sha on myself if I have a sore throat or am getting that prickly sensation at the nape of the neck. Then herbal teas and soups to nourish my system.

What are strategies you use to combat the winter blues?

I adore going on long and rambling drizzly winter walks, sufficiently bundled of course! I love witnessing all the flora as they retreat to their brief hibernation, or start to emerge and bloom at times that seem impossibly early. I grew up in Alberta near the Rockies and was never a winter sports girl, and there is no love lost between myself and snow, so the luscious lively greens of the wet winters here (and the fact I can smell things) give me endless delight during the grey times, so I try to be out in them as much as possible.

What conditions to you feel especially proficient at treating and/or find the most rewarding?

With Cupping and Gua Sha, I feel particularly proficient at relieving pain and muscle tension – especially due to ‘tech neck’ or long-term immobility. I find it most rewarding to be brought more challenging, atypical, and internal medicine conditions, ones that we can really explore the bounds of the applications of these tools!

With Community Acupuncture I feel solid with treating most types of pain, and mental health/nervous system dysregulation. I find it rewarding to work on mental/emotional dysregulation, as well as chronic and complex health conditions.

What are some benefits of Community Acupuncture during the colder and darker months?

We provide a warm and cozy place to be around others in a way that honours the drive to be quiet and still that we need to foster during the deep Yin times. Plus who doesn’t need to be bundled up for a nap right now?

I hope you found some of these tips and tricks helpful to care for your winter body and perhaps you’d like to include some Community Acupuncture (and Gua Sha-Cupping) into your winter time self-care!

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