Why Acupuncture? My Quest to Understand our Energetic System
Curious about the meridian system, massage therapist Mary Wallis apprenticed with Dr. Thomas Duckworth to learn and practice Meridian Therapy Acupuncture.
Having practiced massage therapy since 1989, the mystery of the meridian system remained. Many spoke of this energetic system but few could explain what it was and how my work affected it. The more I studied the intricacies of anatomy and physiology, the greater my curiosity about what underlies and drives us. Physics tells us energy first then form. I had to know more.
In 1999, I decided to focus my study on the energetic system. As acupuncturists were the only profession of which I knew that focused on the “meridian system”, I decided to study acupuncture. It took me several years to discover Dr. Thomas Duckworth and Meridian Therapy Acupuncture. Once I felt the power of this medicine, handed down to him by a Japanese master, M. Masahilo Nakazano O’Sensei, I knew this was the path of my vision quest.
In 2002, I began my apprenticeship with Dr. Duckworth learning the “radical way” of Meridian Therapy Acupuncture via pulse diagnosis. It is said by the Meridian Therapy pulse-taking community that “it takes reading ten pulses a day for ten years to earn the title of beginner”. Pulse diagnosis is a life long commitment. Each day’s understanding builds from the previous day– seeing where the energies are deficient or excessive and through the tools of our medicine, fortifying the deficiencies and freeing the excesses. And that is what I love about this medicine. It is the patient’s pulses that lead the treatment. The goal, if you will, is to remind the patient of “their” unique state of balance and help them to maintain that state of healthy balance.
Each acupuncture session reminds them of their balance again. Over time, the memory holds. Symptoms are signs of energetic imbalance. They are the body’s outcry that something is wrong. As balance is held, symptoms are shed. When the pulses show a maintaining of balance, session frequency is reduced. When balance is maintained over three sessions within a reduced frequency, the patient is released. Seasonal treatments then become the option. When the seasons change, sometimes we have difficulty syncing up and treatments help with that synchronization.
This medicine is best used as a preventative. However, in our society, we tend to maintain our cars better than ourselves– feeding it the proper fuel, getting tune-ups, tires rotated, etc. Our bodies (which could last up to one hundred twenty years and beyond healthfully), get mostly processed foods and are dealt with only when symptoms arise.
Acupuncture has been shown to regain health. The National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization lists many ailments where acupuncture works as well as or better than mainstream interventions (link to article: What Can Acupuncture Treat?). Only in the last decade or so has western science attempted to prove or disprove its merit. The Orient has continued to use acupuncture for over 3000 years.
I can tell you as a recipient of Meridian Therapy Acupuncture that my dysfunction has reduced and my health enhanced. Does it mean that you will never have a cold or flu again? No. That is how the body learns to build its immune system.
My mission is to help you commit to yourself in remembering balance and in helping you maintain it.