acupuncture sea Δ
+ massage therapist at Abalone
open appointments with Alison: book here
new! massage appointments with Adela on Thursdays
book here: 60 min or 90 min
New! Massage Offered at Abalone on Thursdays
Regular incredible, deep, intuitive full-body massage can change your life. People are always asking me if I know of someone out in Point Reyes… yes! Adela Rockwell! is now offering massage on Thursdays at Abalone. She’s been getting rave reviews and already has returning clients… she blends deep tissue work with acupressure, shiatsu, and her own intuition. This is not a “meh spa” massage. She’s got depth, and will get you into your body to the bones, and help you heal what is stuck and sore. She and I have been trading, and I am so excited to share her with you all. Thursdays at Abalone.
Some of you might know Adela. She’s been out in West Marin for decades, raising two amazing children, making art, speaking out for human rights, jumping into wild water, thinking creatively and critically, healing herself & others naturally.
You can book with her through my online system - choose 60 or 90 minutes, and enjoy a massage that relaxes you into a puddle of bliss.
acupuncture as sea change 🌊 Δ
For the past three years, not once have I written about acupuncture, though it is one my the core offerings. I am not going to try to explain how acupuncture works… but I will tell you what I witness when it does.
My practice is filled with people who I adore spending quality time with, and a good acupuncture session is definitely quality time - a deep and transformational experience, if the treatment is on point and the person is ready to heal.
Lately I have been perceiving body, health, relationships, nature, everything, as energy. Someone described qi as “esoteric” to me recently, and I was surprised. I was recently helping one of my favorite teens study for physics finals, all about electromagnetism, and the wave qualities of light and sound… and so don’t we socially agree at this point that energy is a real non-woo thing? Why would our bodies be any different? Has this crusty model of body-as-machine really wormed its way so deep into our consciousness, that we forget how energy can shift all of everything in our living, electrical, resonant body & spirit?
After a good acupuncture session, a headache can disappear. Pain can be released from the muscles and joints and ligaments. Bowel movements can be corrected, nausea can dissipate, sinuses can clear, a delayed menstrual flow can kick in. It is never guaranteed - the body has its own timeline, and sometimes the diagnosis is layers deep - but I see these results regularly in my clinic, it always delights me, I never take it for granted. Better even is the wonder and relief of the patient who got real results without having to go through some medieval-type ritual poisoning with legal drugs, or precision flesh-ripping under a sterile florescent light bath. (I know, sometimes it’s unavoidable… but not always)
Lately in clinic I’ve been even more enamored as you dive into healing more than just the physical stuff. You are arriving to your sessions in full vulnerability, strong, capable, frayed, souls bared, in the throes of life passages. Sick children, loss of home or job, single parent marathon, discordant relationships, panic-attack-level anxiety, financial struggles, or other initiations… your body may be clenched, fight-or-flight hyper-vigilance is running the show, your eyes are temporarily dull with shut-down and exhaustion, or a bit wild, like a frightened animal. Your pulses are hidden, fine as a thread, lush tunnels of blood clamped down so you can power through on will and fight and muscle. I’ve been there. We do this. “Civilized” humans override our bodies to make shit happen. It is an endless source of medical malady and psychospiritual distress. And you who come to clinic know that we can also un-do it.
You come in with palms up, open to getting help, already healing the first of these modern imperial wounds - the idea that we need to do everything ourselves. These grinding life passages are initiations. We need support, we need to be held. When people get on the treatment table like this, a sea change can happen in just over an hour. The needles can invite a release of seized musculature and inspire flow that was locked up in panicked stiff layers of frozen fascia, holding patterns of resonant chaos. I step in as midwife, to help you move the energy through, and what is on the other side is your empowerment, your softness, a vitality that reverses age and defies circumstance.
I’ve started bringing more varied tools as I let myself out of the box and use my creativity to sense what is needed. Salt moxa. Cups. Hot stones. Incense. Tuning forks and ancient songs to reorder vibrations. Owl wing to lighten and clear heavy energy. Dense shells to ground and anchor the yin. I am now using medical qigong in almost every session, for diagnosis. A thousand-year-old Chinese healing art that seems fake until you see it working…. a bit like Reiki, a simplified but beautiful version from Japan in the 1920s. I have only basic ability with medical qigong, and still it is incredibly powerful to guide me to what is blocked, and where; whether it is cold, hot, empty, full... I have heard stories of masters who can make someone physically feel their touch from across the room.
All of that said, it is you who heals yourself. We are never a broken machine. Time can flow backwards. Just as we can regenerate a garden, if you are breathing, you can regenerate your ecosystem. Acupuncture leads you out of the default mental realm of scattered attention across past and future, back into the body, where all the best things happen. As you slowly peek out from behind the mind - like my wild little easy-startle bengal kitty - the hair-thin needles gently open the way for your qi to inhabit its natural rhythm and flow, and tend what is needed to heal.
Energy. Is. Real.
On the table, you might help move the energy with deep breathing, making sounds, shedding tears or laughing. Other times, everything shifts in silence and stillness. When you get up, your eyes are bright and open. There is color in your cheeks where before there was none. Your pulse is flowing freely, continuously. You’re relaxed, more fully in your body and on the earth. There is excitement, to feel so better so quickly. I might hear that the panic attacks did not return all week; there have been peaceful and empowered interactions with a normally troublesome co-worker or ex; sleep was deeper; creativity flowing.
This is not always what happens on the table - it depends on so many things. There has to be an alchemy between us, practitioner and patient. But more and more, people are walking through my door who are resonant, brave, and ready for a shift. It is truly a blessing and an honor to support you.
It was just the new moon, the first day of the lunar new year, time to shed that last snake skin as we move into a firey Yang year. My path this year, is to listen deeply to my body, to stay at her pace, no reckless galloping, just wild ecstatic alignment. Feel free to call on me to help you stay on the horse and get where you dream to be. I hope to see you soon.
yours always
Alison
❤️
p.s. for feral women…
my new publication, woodnymph electric⚡∞, is flowing with rough-journal-style posts. I’m trying to overthrow the empire by unlocking the power of our infinite bodies. If the cost is preventative but you want to read, reach out, I’ll add you.