Treatments:: Lois Nethery - Family Clinic - Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine - Curl Curl NSW (on Sydney's Northern Beaches)

Treatments offered at the clinic

We use a range of treatments to help you achieve your health goals.

Acupuncture

Acupressure

Chinese herbal medicine

Acupuncture

Acupuncture has been practiced in China for thousands of years. It involves the use of tiny, hair-like filiform needles that are inserted at certain points to help your body overcome illness, relieve pain and resist disease.

Very specific points are carefully chosen for your particular problem. For example, to clear blocked Qi (vital energy) or Blood, improve the body's energy, harmonise Qi, nourish Blood or balance Yin and Yang.

Your practitioner will then use subtle oriental energy techniques to direct the flow of energy throughout your body.

Acupuncture needles are nothing like those used at the doctor's surgery. They are only tenths of a millimetre in diameter, like a hair.

At this Clinic, acupuncture treatment is virtually painless and is usually very relaxing. You may even fall asleep!

After an acupuncture treatment you will notice that painful areas feel loose and free and your whole body feels relaxed and light.

Acupuncture is an effective and safe treatment for a great variety of health conditions.

Acupressure

Acupressure involves the use of pressure, rather than needles, on speficic acupuncture points. It is ideal for those who want the benefits of acupuncture without using needles.

The pressure may be firm or light, depending on your body's condition. Your practitioner will hold the area with their thumb, fingers or hand, and then use oriental energy techniques to move the energy in your body to strengthen weakness or clear away blockages.

Chinese herbal medicine

Chinese herbal medicine involves the use of plant, mineral and animal substances that have medicinal properties. Although less widely known in the West compared with acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine is extremely effective.

At this Clinic, herbs are available in several convenient forms to suit your busy lifestyle. Water-soluble granules are the most common as they act rapidly and are easy to take. Herbal capsules are a useful alternative and consist of granule herbs inside a capsule. The other form is herbal pills. Pills are less strong than granules or capsules and are especially useful for maintenance treatment once the initial health complaint has been resolved.

If you would like to take herbs in the raw form (requiring cooking in water) then you can take a prescription to a herbal dispensary near you. Herbs can also be applied as tinctures, linaments, ointments, washes or creams for external use.

Cupping

Cupping has been practiced in China for centuries. A flame is used to quickly create a vacuum inside a glass cup that is then placed on painful areas such as your back or on the backs of your legs. The feeling of cupping is unique and satisfying – the suction lifts the underlying muscle, stimulating energy and blood circulation to wash away blockage and stagnation, leaving the whole area feeling relaxed and invigorated.

Moxibustion (moxa)

Moxibustion is an ancient technique of warming the acupuncture needle with the herb mugwort. The smouldering herb is placed on the end of the needle, creating a warmth that transfers down the needle and penetrates to the deepest level of muscle tissue, bringing a soothing feeling that relaxes the muscle and brings you a wonderful sense of relaxation and relief.

Sometimes moxibustion is used instead of acupuncture. The smouldering moxa stick is held a few inches away from specific acupuncture points. The heat radiates into the point, creating a relaxing effect and stimiulating the body's healing response.

Chinese massage (An Mo Tui Na)

Chinese massage (Tui Na) uses a range of techniques such as pressing, kneading, tapping, pulling, stretching or rolling to relieve muscular aches and pains and to improve the function of the whole body.

Tui Na is usually performed while you are fully clothed.

Dietary therapy

At this Clinic, dietary therapy means talking openly about the foods that you eat and coming up with easy ways that you can use food as medicine. There are no strict diet regimes, no bags full of expensive supplements to take home, no banning of certain foods or food groups, no rules for food combinations, and no pressure to change if you are not ready.

Instead, we will give you information that is relevant to you, at this time. We will tell you why certain foods are making your condition worse and which ones will make it better. We can provide you with guidelines on how you can use your food to heal yourself. You can even take home shopping lists to take to your Asian grocery store so that you can start experimenting with Chinese herbs that are also foods.

Our aim is that dietary therapy should be easy, interesting and fun for you to practice.

Lifestyle advice

Sometimes it is very useful for you to learn how your lifestyle choices can impact on your health. Then you can decide whether you are ready to make some changes, or whether you need more time to think. Often, just being aware is enough to help you to see how you can influence your own health, without having to make radical changes.

For example, stress or frustration can stop the Liver energy from flowing properly. The Liver energy can get stuck and then attack the digestive system, leading to symptoms like wind, diarrhoea or poor appetite. In this case, lifestyle advice would mean educating you about this link, so that you can think about whether there are areas in your life that cause you frustration, and whether you are able to change them.

On the other hand, if something else has caused your Liver energy to become stuck, then this can actually cause you to feel the emotion of frustration. In this case, using herbs or acupuncture to free the Liver can then lead to freedom from frustration.

Reiki

A method of hands-on healing which began in Japan's Taisho period (1912-1926). Reiki (pronounced "ray-kee"), a Japanese word meaning "Universal Life Force", is a healing energy therapy. It is a technique of transmitting life energy by placing the hands gently in specific positions either on or above the fully clothed body. Reiki can provide relaxation, energy, decrease pain, anxiety and promote health, wound healing and release of emotion.

Reflexology

Reflexology is the use of one area of the body to influence the whole body. Chinese reflexology takes many forms.

For example, the body can be mapped onto the ear and therefore blockages can be treated by sticking tiny seeds to the ear that you can press throughout the day to treat yourself. Alternatively, tiny stick-on needles can be used in the ear. Ear acupuncture or ear seeds are very useful for treating addictions.

Another area that maps to the body is the abdomen, so that problems in the limbs or head can be treated through the abdomen.

The most well known form of reflexology is mapping the body onto the foot.

Your acupuncture treatment may involve a relaxing foot massage that works on the meridians (acupuncture channels) that run through the feet and connect to the whole body. By working on the channels in the feet, the whole body receives fresh qi (vital energy).

Treatments for babies and children

Babies and children respond extremely well to acupuncture and herbal medicine. At this Clinic, we use a very gentle style of acupuncture with special, extra-fine needles designed for pain-free treatments. Herbal medicines come in easy-to-use granules that can be dissolved in water and then mixed with juice.

Initial consultation

At the initial consultation we will take your medical history and run through a series of questions about your health. We will then look at your tongue and feel your pulse. All of this information is brought together into a Chinese medicine diagnosis. A treatment plan is created and discussed with you.

The initial consultation includes a treatment (such as acupuncture, reiki or cupping). You may also be prescribed herbs, which are made for you on the spot so you can take them home and begin treatment straight away.