The team at Happipuncture Clinic believe that better health means a happier life, and vice versa. Verve chatted to Caren, the founder of Happipuncture to find out more about their holistic offering.
Can you briefly explain some of the key strengths of both Western and Chinese medicine and how you have integrated the two together at Happipuncture Clinic to offer the best of both?
Both Western and Chinese medicine have their own unique strengths and weaknesses, which is why it’s an advantage for a good practitioner to have a thorough background in both. At Happipuncture Clinic, our team is well-versed in both disciplines so we can combine the knowledge of both therapies to better help our patients with their health concerns. Our allied health services include general and cosmetic Acupuncture, herbal medicine, therapeutic massage, osteopathy, physiotherapy, and holistic lifestyle support. By utilizing the strengths of each discipline, we’re able to set our patients up for better outcomes than we would be able to achieve by using only one medical philosophy.
Western medicine plays an irreplaceable role in reducing pain and disease. It offers an efficient examination system (such as lab tests and imaging) for diagnosing conditions to quickly identify what might be going wrong in the body. The tools of surgery and pharmaceuticals can also rapidly alleviate some conditions and symptoms, helping to greatly decrease mortality risk and allow patients to easily resume their daily lives. We utilize lab testing or imaging when it will help us get to the bottom of a patient’s issues and avoid the damage that can come from delaying some treatments. Western medicine offers access to quick clinical data that can help better guide our overall treatment plan.
But, what about patients who don’t quite feel well, but whose test results come back normal? Or patients whose Western treatments aren’t doing enough to improve their quality of life? Some illnesses don’t easily fit into the paradigm of Western medicine, and it can’t always offer a solution for a patient’s issues. This iswhere Chinese medicine shines. It can play a sizeable role in improving general health, supporting the discomforts that can come with some Western treatments, and helping patients feel better in their day-to-day lives.
Chinese medicine offers a different treatment perspective by treating the body as a whole and acknowledges the intimate relationships between all our various organs and systems. Your rash isn’t separate from your GI complaints, but instead, they connect into a bigger pattern of illness. Chinese medicine also allows us to be more individualized in our treatment approach, not only by offering a wide range of treatment tools but also by dividing patients into different types of body constitutions. For example, a patient may naturally be more deficient in Yin, the calming and cooling part of our being, making them more prone to feeling overheated and anxious. Another individual may be more prone to Dampness, leaving them feeling heavy and lethargic during the humid summer months. Understanding these differences can play a big role in successful treatment strategies for helping apatient achieve comfort in their day-to-day life and avoid future illnesses.
Individualizing treatments is also easy thanks to the variety of holistic and natural treatment tools Chinese medicine offers. One patient might benefit from a mixture of herbal medicine, acupuncture, and cupping, while another might do better with moxibustion, gua sha, and tui na. Chinese medicine offers us theflexibility to support patients based on their specific cases.
How do each of the treatments (acupuncture, massage, osteopathy and physio) you offer work holistically together?
For some issues, a single type of treatment might solve a patient’s problem. But for more challenging cases, we usually combine different methods to help patients heal better and more quickly. While the benefits of our different services can overlap, each offers unique advantages for supporting varying aspects of a treatment plan. For example, acupuncture offers a wide range of benefits, including relieving pain by reducing muscle tightness and inflammation, as well as improving some internal health issues and supporting emotional balance. Meanwhile, therapeutic massage is a great tool to release muscle knots andimprove blood and lymphatic circulation. Physiotherapy improves the cooperation of different muscle groups, mobility, and strength during recovery, while osteopathy focuses more on musculoskeletal frameworks like our spine and joints. A treatment that combines different modalities can help to bring back a more balanced body structure more effectively and better support pain management and recovery.
To help us devise the best combination of treatments for each case, our practitioners perform a thorough assessment with patients where we discuss together what treatments might be most helpful. Our practitioners work closely with each other and often have joint consultations to better explain and share opinions with our patients. We also ensure we reassess cases as time goes on so we can adjust treatment plans to better fit apatient’s current state. Apart from in-clinic treatment options, we also develop lifestyle and self-care plans for our patients to help them achieve and maintain a better life, both physically and mentally.
For someone that is experiencing discomfort (either physical or mental) and is unsure where to begin withtreatment, how do you work with your patients to ascertain which is the best path for them?
Our patient consultations start with a thorough assessment to help us understand their specific past and current medical histories, daily habits, diet, stress level, lifestyle, life-changing events, and more. Once we learn more about their unique background and contributing factors, we break down in detail the treatments that we believe would be most beneficial to them and work together to devise a plan to best suit their situation.
We have numerous treatment options to offer, but we also keep in mind a client’s budget, preferences, expectations, and ability to sustain treatments. Treatment plans are not “one size fits all,” so we actively work with our patients from the beginning to help put together the best plan for them.
What would you say are the most common stressors that we are faced with in modern-day society and what are some strategies we can use to regularly mitigate these?
School or work-related stress commonly plays a big role in people’s daily lives. As a startup owner, I know I’m guilty of devoting more than 90% of my waking hours to work. Asking people to stop working so hard isn’t an easy solution, since a lot of people study or work to survive, or to strive for some future goals. Aside from overwork, common stressors we see in our clinic are those associated with injuries, chronic pain, difficulties with conception, and people suffering from the impacts of life-changing events or major illnesses. These events can lead to mental health issues like anxiety, depression, and PTSD. No matter what triggersstress, if it starts affecting our daily life, it begins to get in the way of the things that make us feel fulfilled. It can start to impact our careers, finances, and relationships.
Here is some of my advice to help mitigate daily stressors:
- Work on developing consistent daily habits like exercise and stretching, reliable eating and sleeping routines, practicing self-forgiveness, and aiming to complete one task a day that gives you a feeling of accomplishment. Small habits add up to a positive lifestyle, which we believe to be an important foundationfor overall Our slogan at Happipuncture is “Health and Happiness go together.” For more ideas, we’ve collected some of our favourite self-care tips and health hacks on our Instagram (@happipuncture).
- Practice having empathy for yourself. This especially comes in handy on those bad days. Embrace yourself for who you are. Work on improving yourself bit by bit and acknowledge the hard work you’ve putinto your personal development When possible, pamper yourself. This could be with a beautiful and healthy meal, a relaxing massage, or anything that gives you the feeling of being loved and cared for.
- Remember that taking good care of your physical and mental health isn’t just about you, it’s about yourloved Find what motivates you to keep sticking to the habits that make you feel your best, and everyone around you will benefit, too.
- Don’t put off getting the support you need. If you start sensing something going on with you, whether it be physical or mental, listen to your body’s inner voice and reach out to a medical professional or an allied health provider for help as soon as you can.
What can someone expect from a Cosmetic Acupuncture Treatment and what are the benefits?
Cosmetic Acupuncture is relatively a new concept in New Zealand. It naturally helps skin look younger,smoother, and all-around healthier by not only addressing the signs of aging but also by supporting our skin’s overall health. Benefits you can expect from Cosmetic Acupuncture Treatments include:
- Brighter Skin. Cosmetic acupuncture can brighten and liven up your skin by improving blood flow, triggering healing, and balancing the acupuncture channels of the face. Treatments help to even out your complexion and promote your skin’s glow.
- Toned Muscles, a natural facelift, and fewer fine lines. When your facial muscles are too tense or loose, they can have a negative impact on your overall appearance. Treatments work to address this by relaxingmuscles full of tension that need a release and activating loose muscles that need to be As aresult, your face can appear more toned, smooth, and vibrant. Different needling techniques also stimulate the production of collagen, which helps improve elasticity, minimizing fine lines and wrinkles.
- Less Acne and Breakouts. Cosmetic acupuncture can help clear up skin by balancing hormone levels, calming stress, harmonizing organ systems, and supporting against imbalances in your inner environment that may be triggering acne.
- Natural and safe. Acupuncture is shown to be a safe therapy with a low risk of adverse events inclinical Cosmetic Acupuncture is practiced with little to no discomfort during treatments.
We’ve worked hard at Happipuncture Clinic to put together our unique Facial Sculpting and Rejuvenation Cosmetic Acupuncture treatments to bring out the best results possible and offer an unmatched treatment option. Thanks to the extra training and superior experience of our practitioners to target various layers on and under the skin, expect to look younger after your first session. Though results vary, we find that the more aged skin is, the more of an improvement our Facial Sculpting and Rejuvenation Acupuncture will make.
Our techniques can greatly improve saggy skin, marionette lines, nasolabial folds, frown lines, lip lines, facial depression, spots, acne, acne marks, redness, scarring, wrinkles and fine lines, as well as help with lifting, tightening, and plumping the cheeks.
Our practitioners also understand that the state of the skin on the outside is a reflection of the state of our body inside. If you fixate only on changing your face without acknowledging the influence of the state of your internal body, your cosmetic improvements won’t last very long. This is why we also focus on creating long-term changes in your overall health, such as reducing anxiety and stress, improving digestion, and supporting sleep quality. When our body is in balance, our skin benefits from better collagen stimulation, a brighter skin tone, reduced jaw tension, and a smoother appearance. Our diet and lifestyle are fundamental factors in our skin’s long-term health. Our approach to Cosmetic Acupuncture is a holistic beauty treatment, allowing our patients to look naturally beautiful, healthy, and years younger.
What does your team do to ensure you’re always up to date with the latest developments in the field?
Being able to react quickly and effectively in our treatments is important to our team, and a key part of this isto stay up to date on new developments. Our team is constantly improving and enhancing our skills by participating in ongoing education to stay current with the latest techniques and research. We regularly attend lectures and meetings to exchange ideas with professionals and leaders in our field from around the world. Our practitioners frequently discuss cases to allow us to learn from one another at work. If a practitioner was very successful in treating a difficult case with a specific strategy, it’s valuable for our entire team to have the opportunity to learn from their experience.
All of our practitioners work to align with our core values on a daily basis. These values include trustworthiness and professionalism, care and devotion to treatments, creativity, maintaining a cooperative team environment, a passion for learning, and staying up to date with best practices. Staying recent with developments in the field is a core foundation of our treatment strategies. Tohelp positively motivate our staff to constantly improve and discover their greatest potential, we maintain an evaluation system that measures parameters such as productivity, patient feedback, self-motivation, learning tasks, and communication. This allows us to hone in on any areas that could benefit from improvement and keep us relevant in our day-to-day treatment styles.
