Career Corner

Acupuncture is a path of healing

Megan Kawa

 

Imagine entering the lilac colored interior of Thirteen Moons Acupuncture on 79th and Blondo.  Smells of just-burned incense give off an aura of calmness and serenity.

 

Inside the waiting room, a fountain flows peacefully in the background. A bookshelf is full of reading material ranging from health to self-improvement. Across from the bookshelf sits a neatly covered desk. Two elegant, but comfortable chairs stand next to a water cooler.

 

Besides the waiting room, Thirteen Moons is complete with two examining rooms and two offices. Along the walls, diagrams and charts are placed neatly next to one another.

 

Donna Huber greets you with a smile and shows you around Thirteen Moons Acupuncture.

 

"Acupuncture is part of TCM, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Meridians run through the body and give out qi (pronounced "chi") that carry blood and energy," says Huber.

 

There are more than 3,000 meridians in the body and as long as someone is healthy, energy flows throughout the body freely. However, when there is ill health, "needles are placed in the meridians to balance the flow of energy," she says.

 

The balance of the flow of energy is known as "yin and yang" (pronounced "yong").  "They are separate but can't exist without each other."

 

She mentions how she came to the realization to study and become an acupuncturist. "On my own path of healing I discovered it. I was trying to get pregnant and tried acupuncture and than decided to study it."

 

Huber's training is in Traditional Chinese Medicine.  She even went to China for two months last year as part of her training. She now has a Master of Science degree in Oriental Medicine. 

 

Acupuncture is "not like getting blood taken or getting a shot.  You get a sensation.  There might be a dull ache or a feeling of electrical charge or itching but these are good responses and they go away," she says. 

 

According to Huber, the acupuncture needles stay in for about 15 to 20 minutes and "usually people see results after the first treatment."

 

Appointments should be scheduled "generally no more than a week in advance."  For your first visit, which includes acupuncture it costs $108.  All follow-up visits cost $78.

 

Acupuncture treats "all kinds of different things," says Huber.  "Chronic back pain, sports injury, digestive problems, depression, anxiety, women's health, infertility, postpartum depression, menopause problems."  Acupuncture can even correct the position of a breached baby; a baby positioned the wrong way, around.

 

Just like other acupuncturists, Huber is trying to distinguish her career from chiropractors. "Chiropractors only attend one weekend of acupuncture [training]," she says. Acupuncturists must pass a five-hour test in order to be certified by the National Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and graduate from an accredited school.

 

Huber says she enjoys, "empowering people to take charge of their own health," but "its [acupuncture] not recognized as a valid treatment of medicine."

 

By next January, Huber will have completed her first year of practicing acupuncture.  "My goal is to treat twenty to thirty patients" a week.  Her current plan is to receive a nursing degree so she can integrate two important medicines.