For patients looking for herbs, acupuncture, hot rocks, and relaxation, Paula Lord at Acupuncture for Southern Living can help.
Lord began using acupuncture after having severe pain from getting whiplash about every five years in Los Angeles.
After trying physical therapy, her symptoms were still getting progressively worse until she went to an acupuncturist and for the first time, felt relief. From there, she took an interest.
It took Lord almost seven years to complete her schooling in Eastern medicine including Korean, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Chinese.
"I had to get my degree and then get a masters in it," Lord said. "I went to Emperor's College in Santa Monica."
Lord said she learned for thousands of years, no matter what was wrong with someone, they went to a local person who looked at the body as a whole. This is where they differ from Western medicine.
"(Western medicine has) experts, a heart expert, a gut expert," Lord says. "They're not taking into account any other organ systems, but the body is a unit."
Lord gives her patients sheets that say what different body parts do in the eyes of Western medicine, and then also in Eastern medicine.
The sheets show what physical and emotional symptoms patients may have when different organs aren't working well, what foods to avoid or eat most, and what time of day an organ is at its peak. She also gives patients different herbs for their problems.
"Any time I prescribe herbs, I always have a big sheet of paper as to what organs its doing, what is its purpose, how many to take. . . [and] nutrition suggestions and lifestyle," Lord said. "You can't come in with a problem and not change anything and expect to get better. I try to get them to become active in their healing."
Lord's daughter, Katie Hanna, works at Acupuncture for Southern Living. Hanna helps with Gua Sha, hot rocks and Moxa, a healing herb that they light.
"What [Moxa] does is go around each needle and it acts like a laser," Hanna said. "It warms it up and makes it even more potent. It's really relaxing."
Hanna started acupuncture because she suffered from migraines since childhood. After two to three acupuncture treatments, her migraines were gone, Hanna said.
Bebe Macdougall, director of operations for Auburn security, also helps Lord. She said that patients come in for a variety of reasons.
"It all depends on the individual," Macdougall said.
They treat patients for acne, neck and shoulder tension, ADD, ADHD, digestion problems, and women trying to get pregnant, among other things.
There are three treatment rooms with soothing music where the needles are kept in sterile containers.
"I have super small (needles) for hands and feet, and if I have to do one on the face," Lord said. "Then I have medium and then I have larger for like the thighs and things like that."
Lord doesn't touch the part of the needle that actually goes in the body.
She does full body, but said that she mostly does it on the knee down, the elbow down and on the torso.
"Those are called distal points to make sure the organs are going all the way down and all the way up," Lord said. "It's signaling information to the organs on that channel, it's mainly to signal some action to happen."
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