For Jade Fang, her profession is a real gift.

Born in Taiwan, Fang is a second-generation acupuncturist who followed her parents footsteps and has been helping people heal in Winona for almost a decade.

Fang hasnt always been around the Midwest. When she was 6, she moved to Florida from Taiwan and grew up there, watching her mom curing people at her acupuncture clinic. By being exposed to the techniques from her family, she decided to go into the same field as well.

She then attended college and kept pursuing her education goal through a master program in acupuncture at the Atlantic Institute of Oriental Medicine. Afterwards, she took up an internship in Shanghai that gave her the practical knowledge she needed to start her own business.

In 2009, love brought her to Minnesota, and Fang opened up her acupuncture clinic in downtown Winona.

I was scared at first, Fang said. It wasnt easy to move from Shanghai to Minnesota.

At her clinic, Fang wants to make sure her patients experience complete relaxation in a cozy and warm environment. Her meditation room features a welcoming space that provides enough seats for a group of people.

As the clients walk in, she turns on healing music and asks them to point out the location of their swelling. She then inserts a few needles in a patients ear, calf or knee, asks them to lie on the chair and relax for 20 to 25 minutes.

To relieve pain, Fang has a unique style of acupuncture that consists in placing the needles on the opposite side of the swelling.

Community member Betty Dennis said she was surprised Fang would insert the needles on the opposite side of her calf. She said she had acute back problems, and Jade has helped her make remarkable progress over time. Before trying acupuncture, she could not vacuum or dance with her husband, but she is now able to do so, with small movements.

I feel refreshed, Dennis said. This is the place to come.

While Dennis visited Jade for back problems, community member Rita Hanson went in Jades clinic the first time in 2010, when she had sciatica. Hanson said she used the clinics services frequently and felt a lot better. During the first treatment, she recalled falling asleep from the deep relaxation her body was experiencing.

At the end of each session, I have much more energy for the rest of the day, Hanson said.

Fang said she considers her duties to be different from a doctors. While a doctor prescribes a medication for a patient, she provides the treatment right away. Most people will relax no matter their pain or swelling.

Its like a deep meditation, Fang said. When patients leave, they are immediately calmer; its instant gratification.

For Julie Johnston, acupuncture became an answer to her hand injury. Before coming across Fangs clinic, she used to drive to La Crosse for an expensive private session, and would not sit on the chair long enough to feel relaxed. Fangs technique saved her situation when any other option was working. Treatment after treatment, she healed slowly and was able to use her hand again.

It would surprise me because the swelling would go down, Johnston said.

At the end of her sessions, Fang said people heal in different ways, and their experience is very personalized. Through her technique, she can cure people of all ages for allergies, headaches, dizziness, asthma, colds, and other illnesses. Usually, those who walk in with anxiety or depression, benefit a lot from a group setting, she said.

However, progress is gradual.

Its not a miracle cure. It works with your body and its very gentle, Fang said.

Dennis, Hanson and Johnston said Fangs clinic is very affordable for them; one of the reasons they have been able to visit her many times and heal gradually.

Some acupuncturists choose individual acupuncture, but Fang calls her style a community acupuncture, aimed to make her service more accessible and easier for the community. Fang is also a member of Peoples Organization of Community Acupuncture, and receives support from other acupuncturists who share the same goal as her: to work cooperatively to increase affordability and make community acupuncture as widely available as possible.

As a new alternative medicine in the Midwest, when Fang first opened up her office, she said people were afraid of its side effects and had a poor knowledge of the medicine, but then they realized how effective it could be and made her feel more accepted. Most people share with Fang that they are afraid of the needles, and she tells them they are not ejection needles, but they are applied on the outermost layer of the skin.

After I opened, there has been a lot more openness, Fang said. Its becoming more commonplace.

Today, more hospitals and clinics are starting to have their own staff acupuncturists, Fang said. Through POCA, Fang wishes to create social change in health care, as many people cannot get the health they need because they cannot afford it. Moreover, she would like to help open up and recommend even more affordable clinics in other towns, cities, and states, for those who drive far away to reach their closest clinic.

We want to be available and accessible, Fang said. We all help each other. We are like a resource.

In her community, Fangs goal is to educate people on the benefits of acupuncture and to help them understand alternative medicine is not scary, but simple and effective. Sometimes, people visit her as their last choice of treatment, but she hopes to make acupuncture part of an everyday cure.

She mentors new acupuncturists and shares with them the secrets of running a business. What she enjoyed the most as an acupuncturist in Winona has been charging a price everybody can afford, and seeing people gradually get better.

Its really meaningful work, Fang said. I feel like its a gift to do what I do.

Originally posted here:

Healing through alternative medicine: Winona locals choose acupuncture as a cure - Winona Daily News