A Deeper Dive: Reintroducing Jade Kulhawy-Bartlett, R.Ac.
Coming out of the early-Summer lull in bookings, we wanted to dig a little deeper and provide an opportunity for me to pull back some of the curtains on how we practice here at Heart & Hands Health Collective and what I’m all about!
Explain in your own words the approach to the ‘balance’ in Balance System Acupuncture:
The acupuncture we primarily practice here at Heart & Hands – Balance System Acupuncture (BSA) – is based on a set of classical Chinese medicine principles that are different than those taught at Traditional Chinese medicine schools. We use the term classical to distinguish it from the system of TCM, and also point to the basis of our system in the classical texts of Chinese Medicine.
Instead of using points based on their functions (where each point is understood to possess a set of responses that it elicits in the body) we select points based on the location on the body where the pathology is found and the channels that traverse the site of injury or illness. Alongside a foundational rule to never needle directly into the area of concern, we can use these principles to choose areas of the body which will accurately and effectively ‘image’ the area we want to treat – a principle known as holography.
We can use subjective feedback from the patient like feelings of tenderness or pain at a possible image location when pressed, or our own observations of what an area feels like upon palpation (tactile investigation). We then chose other points and channels to strengthen the impact of our main imaged points, creating stabilizing structures out of the energetic channel relationships.
Each treatment is a creative fingerprint unique to what is going on for your body in that moment, and needs to be composed in the moment the way one would compose a poem.
Common conditions you’ve seen this Summer thus far:
- Nervous system dysregulation due to neurodivergence;
- Helping to support an L5 fracture heal and treating associated pain;
- Insomnia, anxiety, and anger related to medication change;
- Chronic migraines;
- Always stress and tightness in the neck and shoulders!
Conditions you have a knack for treating:
I regularly see great results with most neck/upper back tightness and pain; low back pain/sciatica; managing migraines; and regulation of menstrual conditions.
As always, your mileage may vary and the presence of persistent physical pathological changes in the body may make the healing process more lengthy, complex, or even impossible to completely resolve. We can always talk honestly about managing expectations and what your possible trajectory might be.
Why is Community Acupuncture so important:
Community Acupuncture is important as a sneaky gateway into both acupuncture and seeing the world a little differently.
Some people come to community acupuncture because it’s what they can afford, having been priced out of private sessions. Once they try it they realize that it is both more affordable and highly effective! Not having to compromise results for cost is revolutionary.
Adding to this magic of distal acupuncture: clients getting to see the results we get from needling one area to treat another allows people to start thinking about their bodies and the world differently. If healing from non-local treatment is possible, then there must be more to our bodies and the laws that govern them than we have been taught in mainstream western culture.
We can learn to see our body as a whole connected system which cross-communicates with itself, and we can also begin to understand our body as part of a broader interconnected whole with the world around us.
What makes you an “acupunk”:
I think what makes me an acupunk is understanding my politics of desiring our collective liberation from oppression as an inextricable core of my role as an acupuncturist.
The origin of the movement of ‘punk’ was a cultural visceral outcry of the underclass. I am not in this to get rich off of the pain and suffering of others. I am looking to play one small role in a larger community of liberatory practice that will support and promote all people to act from a place of meaningful contribution to the well-being of others.
I want a society that takes care of all of us, that is looking to connect and unite rather than divide and distract. And I want to act in the world in a way that promotes this, not just satisfied with platitudes. Working at a community acupuncture clinic that proudly proclaims its politics and makes meaningful good in the community – both within clinic and without – feels to me like a substantial contribution toward these overall politics.
Anything else you’d like to share about your approach as a practitioner:
Your treatment should be a collaborative process!
I’m just as concerned with what I’m observing as what you’re feeling and noticing in your body and your life. I might be an aspiring expert in this medicine but you are an expert in your life and to me that holds more weight. Don’t let my observations (like your pulses) over-determine what is going on in your own body. Too much emphasis on what I’m seeing creates a dynamic that I am there to impart healing upon you, rather than supporting your body to bring forth its innate wisdom and programming to work for you in the way that allows your destiny to come to its fullest fruition.
Find me in the schedule:
| Mon (CA) | 9:30am – 2:15pm |
| Wed (C+G) | 3:00 – 6:45pm |
| Thurs (CA) | 3:00 – 7:45pm |
| Fri (CA) | 9:30am – 2:15pm |
