integrative medicine

Avoiding Bruising During IVF Injections: Tips from an Acupuncturist

Avoiding Bruising During IVF Injections: Tips from an Acupuncturist

I’m an acupuncturist who has been supporting fertility patients for the last several years and I recently finished my own first round of IVF. Having gone through the onslaught of multiple daily injections, I realized I may have an approach to injections that the average fertility patient may not know could help them. So here’s how I avoided bruising during my treatment and you can too.

The basics? Palpate, ice, alcohol swab, let the alcohol dry, distract, inject, sustained pressure, ice again.

Let’s go over this in more detail including why these steps are helpful:

Closing Office End of February 2020

Closing Office End of February 2020

It is with mixed emotions that I am announcing the closure of my acupuncture practice, Shawna Seth, L.Ac. After Friday February 21, 2020 I will no longer be seeing patients at my current office. It has been an honor and great pleasure providing for your health and wellness needs. My wish is that my departure be as easy on you as possible.

Why? I am so proud of what we've built together. I set out to create a space and experience that anticipated your needs and gave you a place to feel heard, relaxed, empowered, and restored so you could heal and understand why so you were more in charge of your own health. I believe we achieved that. And I have genuinely loved being your acupuncturist. The truth is that running a business is challenging and for that reason I have decided to take my career in a different direction.

Self Care Tips for Menstrual Cramps

Self Care Tips for Menstrual Cramps

Cramps are the worst. Among the common symptoms we complain about when we bleed, this one ranks among the highest. But just because painful periods are common doesn't mean we have to accept them.

Patients sometimes ask me about the most surprising thing I learned in acupuncture school. I was definitely the most blown away by learning that you don’t have to be in pain during your period. You don’t need to have any symptoms, in fact. Just bleed, stop bleeding. That’s it. “WHAT?!” I thought. “Why doesn’t everyone know that? What do I need to do? Sign me up!”

While I was in grad school I had acupuncture treatments every week and took a formula daily for a year. My periods shifted dramatically and my pelvic pain (pain with intercourse or what’s medically referred to as dyspareunia) disappeared. I was in awe. I felt I had been given a key and I wanted to share it SO badly.

Trying to Conceive: Is Your Lube Getting In Your Way?

Trying to Conceive: Is Your Lube Getting In Your Way?

When you’re trying to conceive (TTC) there are already so many things you’re told you can’t do. And things no one tells you that could be getting in your way. And then on top of that you’re not supposed to stress out about it!

If you’ve been diagnosed with unexplained infertility, you’re trying to figure out what you could do to improve your chances of conceiving. Whether you’re continuing to try naturally or as you add in assisted reproductive technologies like medicated cycles with Clomid or Letrozole, IUI, or IVF, make sure these simple tips are on your list:

Can Acupuncture Treat ...?

Can Acupuncture Treat ...?

It's a very common question: "Does acupuncture treat …?" The short answer is YES!, no matter the condition, because acupuncture is a complete medical system.

While it’s tempting to hear that as equivalent to a specific drug being touted as a panacea, it’s really like saying all of medicine can address a wide variety of ailments. We’re much more comfortable with that concept. Western or allopathic medicine can help with lots of things to varying degrees. It’s much the same with acupuncture. That’s one of the reasons it’s more accurately referred to as a complementary medicine, rather than alternative medicine.

Treating Stress, Anxiety, and Depression with Acupuncture

Treating Stress, Anxiety, and Depression with Acupuncture

Positive Vibes Only? Definitely not. Negative emotions are natural and can signal a need to change our relationships, environment, or behavior. It’s when negative emotions become chronic and feel like they arise without cause, that you turn to guiding practitioners like therapists and acupuncturists who can help you figure out what forest of feelings you've wandered into and how you can find your way back out again.

Whether your depression, anxiety, and stress are chronic or not, tamping down negative feelings or denying them in favor of only positive feelings is neither realistic nor helpful. What is helpful and what acupuncture helps facilitate is giving all your feelings a space and distance from yourself to be acknowledged, fully felt, and then allowed to pass. That can be an extended grieving period and or as short as a few minutes to recognize that you're getting frustrated and need to breathe deeper and take a walk.

Understanding what you're feeling, giving that feeling space, and then letting it go is essential in our modern world. With these skills, you can begin to move past the thicket of a bad stretch. And when you have one bad day, you'll realize that's part of being human, not a sign that you're broken.

Joyful Movement

Joyful Movement

For most of my life if you asked me to describe myself some of the first words out of my mouth would be, "I'm a dancer." I danced consistently from age 7 into my 30s, first jazz, then contemporary. As much as possible I arranged my work and graduate school schedules around dance. I joined a local company and performed to a paying audience. Then suddenly I couldn't anymore. Or not the way I had, anyway. Thanks to incorrect repetitive movements and a loss in the genetic lottery now sometimes dancing hurts (honestly, sometimes walking hurts too). And even though I've learned to adapt with better body mechanics and supportive footwear, even though most of the time it doesn't hurt anymore because of those changes (and of course regular acupuncture and moxibustion), I feel as though I'm always having to evaluate how I'm doing. I'm in my head instead of my body, thinking, "Is today an okay day? Should I be doing this step this way?" I can't just let go and move the way I used to.

The point of all of this is to say that I had to contend with the challenge of how to get enough exercise only in the last few years. And after trying a wide variety of activities I finally found my new movement obsession that I can complement with occasional yoga, dance, or weights: choreographed lightsaber combat.

Developments

Developments

I am so looking forward to new beginnings in the Bay Area. I have been working since Fall 2015 on setting up the East Bay portion of my practice in collaboration with a wonderful group of smart, caring, and talented women and am in discussion for a second location in San Francisco (it is so hard not to share details as it is going to be a very exciting partnership). Serving my entire community on both sides of the Bay was always my goal and I cannot wait to be of service to you all.

While I prepare, you may be interested in coverage of my work at UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, which was recently written up on the AIMC Berkeley website by my classmate Ra Adcock, a fellow intern at the hospital program:

The unique program at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital, possibly the first of its kind in the country, provides acupuncture directly to the hospital’s staff of approximately 1,200 doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers, teachers, and other administrative and support personnel. Each week, the program offers an average of forty-five acupuncture treatments in a community-style clinic located on the hospital’s campus. This special design creates the opportunity for staff to be treated during precious break times without ever having to leave the hospital, allowing many to remain on-call and available for their young patients.