Above & Beyond Acupuncture--it's the perfect name for this clinic. If you are truly ready to begin a healing journey, whether it is due to emotional or physical pain (or both!), I highly recommend Paul to help you find your way. This experience has been SO much more than just acupuncture. Paul will provide you with many tools to use to heal outside of the clinic. I wasn't really prepared for all of the extra help, but I can't express how grateful I have felt to have all of these extra methods of self-healing. I have been exposed to so many other types of healing as well through his podcast called 'Are You Being Present?' (which is great, seriously, go listen), which has piqued my interest in pursuing multiple healing therapies that I believe can work synergistically to provide even deeper healing when combined.
Paul spoke to me for a decent amount of time at the beginning of each session to peer into my life and try to pinpoint where my pain was really coming from. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and have had chronic neck and shoulder pain for over ten years. I have also had depression and anxiety since I was 14 (age 27 now). After all of the treatments and medications I have tried, I never thought that maybe I was holding onto a lot of negativity and pain from the past in various parts of my body (which can manifest as inflammation). So by telling Paul in detail what is going on in my life, he will customize the acupuncture to fit my current needs. I have experienced improvement with digestion, shoulder and neck pain, my headaches and migraines have reduced drastically, and my depression and anxiety are starting to melt away. I think this is both due to the acupuncture and also incorporating tools such as meditation into my life (which has been such a blessing that I now meditate for 20 minutes twice a day). He also provides cupping therapy which I am interested in trying when my body's inflammation starts to subside a little more.
I was in a place in life where I needed to start making changes or everything I was feeling would eventually swallow me whole. Paul has really challenged me to be very honest with myself. Before I met him I didn't even realize how badly my anxiety was affecting my mindset, my energy, my attitude, and even other people. I was constantly either reliving and resenting my past or conjuring up horrible scenarios or worrying about my future. I was never in the present. And I mean never. I remember one particularly challenging conversation that I believe now to be a turning point in my healing journey. Paul pointed me in the direction to some blog posts he had written about reframing, self-depreciating humor, and how inner speak can affect our health. Almost everything that poured out of my mouth had a negative spin on it, and I just wasn't being kind to myself. Becoming present and living in the moment is something I have worked on every minute since I met Paul. I'm not sure I would have made some of these connections without his help. I am feeling the changes and I am being the change that I have wanted and needed in my life for years. I originally bought a 5-week package of treatments and just finished today, but I will be seeing him next week to start our next 5-weeks. I still feel like I have much to learn from him, and having someone's help to this degree is transforming my life into something wonderful. And to experience SO much healing in just five weeks when my depression, anxiety, and joint problems have been lifelong just amazes me. I used to view life in black and white. But now I'm seeing in color. :)