Stop searching and just go. To say Steph is special would be limiting her magic to my minimal vocabulary.
She's a miracle worker that knows far too much for her young age and her commitment to continue learning for the betterment of her patients is just admiral, and beneficial. Sports medicine is her jam but a better question is what isn't she good at? It's not a widely known thing to go to acupuncture for a sprained ankle but her toe-milking magic made my black and blue swollen ankle almost fully functional within a week, and it was the size of a baby cow. How? I don't know magic, go see her.
How did my infatuation start? After many years of chronic hip, butt, inner knee, lower back, neck and shoulder pain, I was at the edge of my tolerance for my failing body. I went to chiro for years with no noticeable change. You know your problems are deeper when your chiro starts sweating and swearing when giving your ART. I tried PT and it helped a little but I still did not have my strength and range of motion back. Moving on to the rolfing 10-series, that was fun and painful but none of it stuck. Luckily an instructor at the gym I'm going to knows Steph and after my first session, I was surprisingly dumbfounded.
First session: we focused on my shoulder because it was again locked up. She tested my mobility at the beginning of the session, I tried to lift an empty trash can but couldn't, she looked and nodded, and began putting some needles in my shoulder, gave me a buzzer and patted my head to go to sleep. How does one sleep at 1pm? She comes back 20 mins later and I'm wiping drool off my face. I grab the trash can and holy, pardon my language, f*%k! I'm lifting it and my arm above my head. She pokes my shoulder again and says "hmmm there's some more here" needles me again and that trash can gets raised even higher! Ok look, after 3+ years of KT tape and zero movement, how in the world was I able to lift a trash can above my head after 20 mins, Again I don't know her magic, go see her.
Latest revelation!!! We've been working on the recurring tightness in my hip flexor/lower back, inner knee, and glutes on my right side which affects mobility and seemingly causes tightness in my left neck and shoulder. Cross sling body action as they call it. Through her constant research, she tried a new inner thigh point. Let me put it this way, when that needle went in, if my thigh movement was measured on the richter scale it would have broken it. Static electricity shot down to my knee and my entire quad almost smacked her in the face. After one day of soreness my body was relearning to walk on two sets of functioning legs and more balanced hips. And that neck pain went from a 9 to a 4 (I have to do the work to re-strengthen that muscle). One needle took away 4+ years of nagging pain after a 20 min nap! ART has got nothing on her skills and needles. My feelings of relief and joy are also coupled with annoyance and frustration because of years of going to the wrong providers and not really getting anywhere but broke! Don't be me, go see Steph.
List of things she's helped me with: quickly healing 2 sprained ankles and a swollen knee (walking is a sport I don't win at), inner knee pain, quad/hamstring tightness, quicker recovery from gym soreness, lower back pain, hip flexor tightness and mobility, tightness / radiating pain in my forearm, digestion regulation, calming stress and anxiety, better sleep, period relief, chi boosts, TMJ tightness/teeth grinding, shoulder impingement, trapezius knots, shoulder pain, awakening my obliques and the list goes on. I might sound like a broke human but I'd say these are typical ailments for most people living in the Bay (if you list them out). I just have a magical human that can take it all away so I keep piling on to her workload for my betterment.
She wants open and honest feedback of how you feel and makes adjustments to her treatment plan based on it. She listens well and explains enough. It's hard to make correlations from a science background because acupuncture hasn't been proven by western medicine but that doesn't mean it doesn't work, it just hasn't been proven by its' standards and may never well be, and that's ok. It's changed my life for the better. Any time I hear of an injury, I say "My acupuncturist can fix that", so much so that I'm pretty sure I've annoyed all my friends.
Knowing Steph is a little dangerous though. She gives you this sense of invisibility that if you I break myself she can Humpty Dumpty put me back together again. Not all acupuncturist are the same, and none so far are as magical. She's the greatest one stop shop for anything and everything that goes in your body. If you don't think acupuncture can relieve or fix it, I'd keep an open mind and give her a try.
Last time, go see Steph. read more