Acupuncture is a therapeutic technique originating in traditional Chinese medicine in which a practitioner stimulates specific points on the body, usually by inserting thin needles through the skin.
In its traditional framework, illness is understood as an imbalance that blocks the flow of qi — the vital energy held to regulate spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical health — and needling acupoints is intended to clear that blockage and restore balance. Practitioners typically pair the needling with diagnostic methods drawn from the same tradition, most commonly pulse and tongue reading, and frequently deliver it alongside adjacent modalities rather than on its own.
How acupuncture works is not fully understood. The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health attributes observed effects to some combination of action on the nervous system, effects on other body tissues, and nonspecific placebo response. Evidence-based reviews support its use for chronic low-back pain and for migraine and tension headache, and an NIH consensus panel found it efficacious for adult post-operative and chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. The World Health Organization reports acupuncture in use in 103 of the 129 countries that reported data on it.
My first time was probably 2019, after I over-rotated a backflip off the flying rings and came down on my wrist. I came back to it in August 2026, paired with 📝BodyTalk in the same appointment — pulse work first, then an anchor held while the needles were in: I give my body permission to heal.