Healing children with acupuncture

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Robin Ray Green finally felt the relief she was looking for. Plagued with headaches for a year, Green looked to traditional Chinese medicine for help. In just six visits to an acupuncturist, Green’s headaches were 50 percent improved. After 12 visits, the headaches were gone completely.

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The experience profoundly affected Green and prompted her to obtain a master’s in Traditional Chinese Medicine. In 2003 Green completed her degree from Five Branches University in Santa Cruz and began practicing in Morgan Hill in 2004.

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Green’s practice comprises mostly families, specifically mothers and children. Green hadn’t initially set out to treat children, but when her son Noah was an infant, he had a severe case of eczema that Green says Western medicine was unable to treat. She was told he would just have to outgrow it and she says watching him suffer everyday was not an option. She began taking every pediatric training offered in Chinese medicine to help heal her son.

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At the foundation of Chinese medicine is the idea that we have an energetic system in our body, with pathways called meridians. When our bodies become out of balance, the first place this happens is in our energetic system. In Chinese medicine these imbalances show up in our meridian system as blockages in our qi (pronounced “chee”), or life energy.

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Acupuncture works by engaging the qi, using special needles that are inserted at specific points along the meridians in the energetic system. The intent is to help the body regain its natural equilibrium and well-being by restoring the flow of qi.

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When we are not feeling our best, where we are not fully sick and yet, not fully well, but our condition doesn’t quite warrant a visit to the doctor is what Green terms the “unwellness gap.”

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It’s in this place, Green says, that Chinese medicine thrives. She can look at the Chinese medicine wheel to determine what will support healing and also determine what is hindering healing. Using this method, Green creates a custom healing program for each person she sees.

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Green takes a holistic approach, using a combination of acupuncture, herbs and dietary advice, including gut health and other home-based care that fits into each family’s lifestyle.

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Unlike adults, where needles are applied and the patient rests with the needles for 20-30 minutes, pediatric treatments are very different. Smaller, pediatric needles, which are virtually painless, are used with a special technique where the needles are tapped and quickly removed. Children are not required to sit with the needles. Also often used as part of the treatment are herbs, which typically have different formulas and dosages for children.

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Green helps her patients find relief for all different types of ailments. For many families that come in with ear infections, runny noses, asthma or digestive issues, Green’s treatments have been life-changing.

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Dealing with chronic ear infections and facing the possibility of getting tubes placed in his ears, Mary Pat Fernald brought her two-year-old son, Lewis, to Green. With Green’s help, the family discovered that a dairy allergy was the root of the problem. For Lewis, dairy creates excess mucus production that causes an infection.

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Asked how she felt about seeing an acupuncturist, Fernald admits, “The idea of taking our son into somebody poking needles into him was a little bit scary at first, but Robin just has phenomenal bedside manner.”

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Another patient, Audrey Renzulli, was brought in by mom Kellie to address a persistent cough that had been going on for nearly a month. Green reports Audrey is doing much better after only two visits.

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Shannon Fiorello and her family have been seeing Green since 2009. Fiorello says Green respects that the parents know their child best and her desire is to partner with parents to determine the best course of treatment.

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“My kids adore her,” Fiorello says. “She is like an old-fashioned family doctor that knows her patients well and cares for them like they are family, but the care she provides is the best and most cutting-edge care available in her field.”

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One of Green’s favorite parts of her job is connecting thoroughly with patients. “I want to hear and honor their story and their struggle as much as I want to help their body heal,” she says.

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Part of Green’s philosophy is to figure out how to best meet each patient’s needs. She works with parents to really understand their child’s personality and temperament using a five-element system, where each element has a parallel color, sound or emotion and further corresponds to a particular body part, which can help to reveal imbalances in the body, mind or spirit.

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Green runs the Center for Advanced Acupuncture Pediatrics and teaches practitioners all over the world to treat children. She also seeks to empower patients to heal themselves. Whether it’s through one of her many websites, her Facebook page or her upcoming book Heal Your Child from the Inside Out: The 5 Element Way to Nurturing Healthy, Happy Kids, Green encourages them to trust that even simple remedies can be powerful. She says, she gives them “the steps to create their own healing program through nutrition, acupressure, meditation, gratitude practices and things like that to really help children heal no matter what is going on.”
For more information about Robin Green Acupuncture contact her offices at:15585 Monterey Rd. Ste.C, Morgan Hill, (408) 776-0420, or visit robinraygreen.com.

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She is like an old-fashioned family doctor that knows her patients well and cares for them like they are family, but the care she provides is the best and most cutting-edge care available in her field.