Words cannot express the gratitude I feel, I honestly feel like I’ve been given a second chance at life.

I’ve been getting acupuncture from Christina for over 6 months now. 

I have lived a lifetime of trauma and abuse growing up and it’s affected my thinking patterns and caused a great deal of anxiety and depression. In 2016 I suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), which was not diagnosed until several years later. I was a new mom and a lot of my symptoms were blamed on being an anxious new mother. I knew this wasn’t the full picture. A year after the TBI, I started experiencing extremely frightening behavioural/personality changes. I was struggling to manage as a parent and all the demands what came along with it. The doctors decided to load me up on several medications including stimulants and an SNRI medications. I personally believe being on the medications slowed my healing process and hindered my brain even more. It took me 5 years to come off these medications and it left me in extreme fatigue, brain fog and with a huge lack of motivation. 

I started seeing a Naturopath to get their insight on how to improve my symptoms and one of the suggestions was to specifically go see Christina at the Heart & Hands. I was honestly skeptical at first thinking it wouldn’t work or if it did, it wouldn’t last. I found out they had a sliding scale option which pushed me to at least go try it. I recall my first session, I was extremely disassociated from the world around me and my thinking was really cloudy and almost felt like I was in a delusional state. Everything around me felt distorted and heavy. I couldn’t believe after my very first session a weight was lifted, I couldn’t believe it!  I started thinking clearly and most importantly I had the energy to function in my day to day life. I was so encouraged to keep going back and I don’t think I’ve stopped going to see Christina since.

I still go weekly and I no longer need psychiatric medications – I’ve been officially discharged from psychiatry – they said I don’t meet any criteria for depression/anxiety and didn’t see any reason to continue medications for now. 

Words cannot express the gratitude I feel, I honestly feel like I’ve been given a second chance at life. I am a single mother with two children and now feel like I can keep up with my daily routines and actually manage! I highly recommend acupuncture at Heart & Hands. They are kind, compassionate and attentive. I can’t thank you enough for your support. 

E.M-C.