Okanagan-Similkameen Community Acupuncture

Available Saturdays at Rise Wellness

Initial Visits are 75 mins, $120

Return visits are 60 mins, $95

​

Laurel is a Registered Acupuncturist with over 20 years’ combined education and experience in the field of Traditional Chinese (and East Asian) Medicine. She successfully undertook the 5 year TCM Doctorate Diploma program in 2000, through which she studied Eastern and Western principles of anatomy, physiology and pathology, and Chinese medical modalities including acupuncture, cupping, moxibustion, gua sha, tui na, qi gong, and herbal medicine. Her post graduate training includes Chinese medical philosophy and metaphysics, Japanese acupuncture and moxibustion, Balance Method (Tan) and Tung styles, auricular acupuncture, Koryo Hand Therapy, and NADA acupuncture for addictions.

 

Also a clinical herbalist, Laurel studied Western herbal medicine with Wild Seed School of Herbal Studies. She is a gardener, wildcrafter and medicine maker, incorporating traditional formulas, custom blends, and her own line of over the counter botanicals.

 

Laurel works in diverse settings and with a diversity of needs, including injury and pain, stress, emotional and sleep disturbances, addictions and smoking cessation, pre and post surgical support, cosmetic acupuncture, internal medicine - including digestive, respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological, hormonal and reproductive health - and community care.

 

Alongside her private practice, Laurel has worked with hospitals, public health clinics, non-profit organizations, grassroots groups, and Indigenous communities, and has created dozens of acupuncture outreach programs in the Lower Mainland and Southern Interior. With a background in front line support work, social justice, and environmental stewardship, she advocates for accessible, intersectional, resilience-based, and community centred health care. 

 

Laurel loves the outdoors, traveling, learning, and time with her family. After many years in Vancouver and around BC, she is happy to be back in the Okanagan, her first home.

 

She is owner, acupuncturist, herbalist and educator at Okanagan-Similkameen Community Acupuncture, on unceded syilx territories. She serves the South Okanagan and Similkameen Valley, and is available by invitation throughout BC.

 

Diplomas & Certifications

 

• Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine Diploma - ICTCM Vancouver & PCU College of Holistic Medicine

• Registered Acupuncturist - College of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncturists of British Columbia 

• Acupuncture Detoxification Specialist - National Acupuncture Detoxification Association 

• Balance System Acupuncture Practitioner - Tan Academy of Balance

• Intermediate & Clinical Programs - Wild Seed School of Herbal Studies

• San'yas Indigenous Cultural Safety - Provincial Health Services Authority

• Business Management Diploma - College of New Caledonia

 

Affiliations

 

• British Columbia Association of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture Practitioners

• National Acupuncture Detoxification Association

• People's Organization of Community Acupuncture

• Acupuncturists Without Borders

• Herbalists Without Borders

• Similkameen Country Chamber of Commerce (Director, 2018 - 2021)