Acupuncture is becoming popular to treat stress and stress-related symptoms or conditions; learn how to treat stress with acupuncture in this acupuncture video.
Check for liver chi stagnation
Feel energy flow
Treat the "Four Gates" for 15 minutes
Robert Linde is an Acupuncture Physician and Herbal Therapist in St. Petersburg, Florida. He has been practicing acupuncture for close to six years, and owns his own clinic. He was educated at the Florida Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Linde also has a professional herbalist training program.
ROBERT LINDE: One of the things acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine is wonderful for is dealing with a lot of the effects of stress. And so in Chinese medicine, we think about the normal things that we think about it for stress, maybe the tension in the shoulders or maybe a little bit of a tension headache. But we actually see the relationship with stress to so many other diseases. So oftentimes, your acupuncturist will actually be talking to you about a lot of stress. So in Chinese medicine, we look at liver chi stagnation. I know that sounds a little bit odd but that is one of the ways we oftentimes talk about things. Chi or the energy of the body suppose to flow freely throughout the entire body will get stressed. Oftentimes it gets stuck and causes a variety of different ailments. So, we look at the liver as its responsibility for that. So we use a combination of points as a bare minimum called the four gates which are the ones here between the thumb and forefinger. Some people are familiar with it for things like frontal headaches and we will combine that with the ones in the feet. Those four points together creates a combination called the four gates. It is the starting point of dealing with most stress issues. It is one of my personal favorites because sometimes even acupuncturist get a little bit of stress in their body. Ones these points are in, we can leave them in for about 15 to 20 minutes so that you can get nice and relaxed. And most people after their acupuncture treatment feel as if they have just taken a nice nap. My teacher actually said "You always know the best acupuncture clinics because when you walk in, all you hear is snoring." So people do get very relaxed despite the fact that they have a number of needles stuck in them.
