Acupuncture Explained on Voices from the North

John's special guest on Voices from the North on November 5, 2008 was Terri Stout. Terri describes the shift she made ten years ago from psychiatric nursing to the completion of four years of training to become a registered acupuncturist. She has a saying, ‘Listen to the whispers or get hit by a brick,' because her life is guided by meaningful coincidences. She describes the Chinese medical model which is based on prevention and puts the onus on the individual to take responsibility for their own health. She indicates that it is never too late to begin Tai Chi or Chi Gong. Practitioners may be ill in their 60s when they began and going strong in their 90s.

Acupuncture has been around for between 3,000 and 5,000 years and data is being collected today to show its possible assistance in cases of infertility, of all things. This is interesting, because the Alexander Technique has also been found to assist with fertility.

Terri is much more than an acupuncturist. She is an intuitive and a guide. She gives the example of a man who, through a couple of sessions, decided to completely revamp his life and work. Terri has found that people want to be given permission from someone else like herself to make changes in their lives. And she tends to be the visit of last resort, ‘the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.'

An inspiring example Terri gives is of a lady in her 80s with a motor neuron disease who has lost 21 pounds in weight in 5 weeks of treatment and who now has ‘Betty Grable' ankles. The acupuncture has helped her to release excess fluids from this woman's legs.

Terri describes moxibustion and cupping and gives an example of cupping drawing out accumulated toxins, the residue of old injuries. True healing occurs when symptoms move from inside the body outwards. Terri Stout provides her services on a donation basis or koha. Payment is sometimes given in fish, shellfish, furniture or ketes (Maori flax-woven baskets).

Acupuncture works on all levels-physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. New Zealand national health insurance (ACC) covers acupuncture visits. Terri presents an inspiring viewpoint of the role acupuncture can play in the establishment and maintenance of health and wellbeing. The song midway through the interview is Leonard Cohen's Dance Me to the End of Love.

John
http://www.insearchofsimplicity.com/