Guelph Community Acupuncture

Guelph Community Acupuncture We are Guelph's community acupuncture clinic.(www.gca.janeapp.com/ /1) Acupuncture does not have to be expensive in order to be effective.

We charge on a sliding scale of $25-$50. You choose what you want to pay, no questions asked.

Thanks to some generous arts grants, Lisa will be taking June to focus on writing, so the clinic will be closed for the ...
05/26/2026

Thanks to some generous arts grants, Lisa will be taking June to focus on writing, so the clinic will be closed for the month of June. We've still got some spots left this week! Call or text us at (519)829-3000 or book online through the link in our bio.

Hot flashes are another symptom that, while being really common, are not inevitable. That sudden warmth rising through y...
05/22/2026

Hot flashes are another symptom that, while being really common, are not inevitable. That sudden warmth rising through your chest, face flushing mid-conversation, night sweats wrecking your sleep and irritability riding alongside it all – it’s not inescapable.

In Chinese Medicine, hot flashes can reflect hormonal volatility, cortisol rhythm disruptoin, thyroid shifts, Liver/Gallbladder heat, Kidney depletion, lingering inflammation, or some combination. We work to identify the pattern and then regulate it. Hot flashes are one of my favourite things to treat, because acupuncture excels at reducing them or eliminating them entirely. Sleep improves, heat decreases, reactivity settles.

If you’re ready to cool things down, call or text us at (519)829-3000 for a free 15-minute consultation, or book online through the link in our bio.

Photo by Jacob Mitani on Unsplash

Your digestion and your vagus nerve are in a relationship. If your digestion is unpredictable, it might not be your food...
05/19/2026

Your digestion and your vagus nerve are in a relationship. If your digestion is unpredictable, it might not be your food. It might be your nervous system. If you experience:

* Low appetite when stressed
* Nausea out of nowhere
* Constipation one week, loose stools the next
* Bloating that makes you unbutton your jeans at 3pm

That might be a vagus nerve issue.

The vagus nerve regulates stomach acid, enzyme release, gut motility, inflammatory signaling, and heart rate, among other things. When you’re chronically “on,” digestion is the first thing to downshift, because survival is more immediately important than processing lunch.

Acupuncture directly influences autonomic tone. We pay a lot of attention to it in the clinic: pulse quality, temperature patterns, muscle tension, breath depth. When vagal tone improves, appetite stabilises, bowels regulated, bloating decreases, headaches recede, and calm returns.

If your gut has been unpredictable and your labs are normal, that might be dysregulation. And it’s treatable.

Call or text us at (519)829-3000 for a free 15-minute consultation, or book online through the link in our bio.

I hear from a lot of people that they used to handle stress better, but now it lingers. Small setbacks feel heavier, rec...
05/17/2026

I hear from a lot of people that they used to handle stress better, but now it lingers. Small setbacks feel heavier, recovery takes longer. There are a lot of reasons why this might be happening and I don’t think that a better mindset or a series of acupuncture is going to fix the polycrisis. BUT, it’s worth noting that in Chinese Medicine, the Liver governs adaptability — your ability to pivot without snapping.

When that system is strained, you feel:

• Reactive instead of steady
• Mentally rigid
• Physically tight
• More drained after conflict

Spring is the time of the Liver. So it’s a great time to address Liver issues. If you feel less flexible physically or emotionally than you did two years ago, that’s a pattern worth addressing now. It won’t fix everything. But it might help a lot.

Call or text us at (519)829-3000 for a free 15-minute consultation, or book online through the link in our bio.

Photo by John Junkin on Unsplash

Endometriosis is the most common cause of severe period pain, but it’s not just “bad cramps.” It’s systemic, and often m...
05/16/2026

Endometriosis is the most common cause of severe period pain, but it’s not just “bad cramps.” It’s systemic, and often misunderstood.

It can look like:

• Pelvic pain that radiates
• Pain with bowel movements during your period
• Severe PMS with anxiety, rage, or depression
• IBS that worsens around your cycle
• Painful ovulation
• Heavy, clotty cycles (bleeding through everything
• Missing a few days of work/school every month
• Throwing up from the cramps
• Being unable to stand up straight on day one
• Exhaustion

Too many people are told to tolerate it – they’re offered birth control and painkillers and that’s it.

Debilitating period pain may be common, but that doesn’t make it *normal.* If your period regularly disrupts your ability to function, that’s not “just cycling”.

Endometriosis is a systemic inflammatory condition driven by inflammatory prostaglandins, immune signaling, and often mast cell activity. Which is why so many people with endometriosis also have histamine intolerance, autoimmune patterns, migraines and POTS.

Acupuncture doesn't erase anatomy. But we do reduce inflammatory load, improve pelvic blood flow, and regulate stress signaling.

Many patients report a decrease in intensity and duration of pain, shorter flares of symptoms associated with their periods, more energy, and more control over their month.

If pain and illness are shaping your calendar, it’s time for a plan.

Call or text us at (519)829-3000 for a free 15-minute consultation, or book online through the link in our bio.

“Something is off.” That’s a common thing I hear. “My labs are normal, but I don’t feel normal.” Low appetite, mild naus...
05/14/2026

“Something is off.” That’s a common thing I hear. “My labs are normal, but I don’t feel normal.”

Low appetite, mild nausea, temperature swings, headachy, constipated one week, loose stool the next, bitter or metallic taste in the mouth, irritable – but not at anything specific. Still functioning, but not feeling steady.

This pattern often gets dismissed because nothing is wildly abnormal. In Chinese Medicine, this often maps to a Liver/Gallbladder pattern. When bile flow is sluggish, stress is high, digestion is inconsistent, and hormones are fluctuating, you don’t get a dramatic diagnosis. You do get weird mood, weird digestion, weird temperature shifts, weird taste in your mouth, weird headaches.

Subclinical doesn’t mean insignificant. If it continues for months, it can escalate – more cycle disruption, headaches, fatigue, and maybe some low-grade resentment towards your body.

You don’t need a red flag on a lab result to justify intervention. You need pattern recognition.
If you feel “off” and can’t explain it, that’s reason enough.

Call or text us at (519)829-3000 for a free 15-minute consultation, or book online through the link in our bio.

Photo by kevin turcios on Unsplash

More and more people are discovering in perimenopause that they have ADHD. I'm meeting many of them in clinic. They’ve a...
05/12/2026

More and more people are discovering in perimenopause that they have ADHD. I'm meeting many of them in clinic. They’ve always been quick, creative, idea-heavy, a little scattered but high capacity. They’ve built systems around it – deadlines, lists, movement, coffee. And it all worked, until it didn’t.

Now they feel more foggy than fast, more overwhelmed than creative. Their cycles are shifting and suddenly patience evaporates, sleep is fragile, heat feels hotter, noise feels louder and small decisions are impossible.

It makes a lot of sense that perimenopausal people are increasingly discovering that they have ADHD. For one thing, it’s extremely underdiagnosed in women, though this is changing. But also, perimenopause amplifies nervous system sensitivity. Estrogen affects dopamine, and dopamine affects focus, and stress affects both.

When hormones fluctuate during perimenopause, your coping systems don’t work the same.

“Why can’t I handle what I used to?”
“Why am I so irritable?”
“Why does everything feel louder?”

None of this indicates a character flaw. It’s just physiology.

From what I’ve observed, people who accept their shifting capacities and get curious about what new supports they need at this stage in life are the folks who suffer the least on the “OMG I’m in perimenopause and suddenly I realise I have ADHD” ride. That might mean medication, or not. It definitely means dropping self-judgement and probably means some honest conversations with people around you about what you are no longer capable of carrying anymore. And it might include regular acupuncture for a while. I’ve seen it help a lot of people going through this.

We use acupuncture to dial down the stress response, increase sleep depth, and restore cognitive clarity so people can feel sharp and grounded again.

This transition is intense, there’s no way around it. But it doesn’t have to be hellish. Call or text us at (519)829-3000 for a free 15-minute consultation, or book online through the link in our bio.

Photo by Davide Aracri on Unsplash

In Chinese Medicine, spring belongs to the Liver and Gallbladder systems – the regulators of flow, detoxification, decis...
05/10/2026

In Chinese Medicine, spring belongs to the Liver and Gallbladder systems – the regulators of flow, detoxification, decisiveness, and emotional pressure. The Liver filters what you don’t need, metabolizes hormones, produces bile, stores backup fuel, and keeps things moving. When it gets overwhelmed, you feel it physically:

• Headaches behind the eyes
• PMS that wasn’t this bad last year
• Breast tenderness
• Bloating after normal meals
• Brain fog by 3pm
• Snapping faster than you used to
• That quiet “I feel stuck” feeling

Acupuncture can be incredibly effective at getting the Liver qi moving again so that those symptoms ease. If your body feels tight, reactive or congested this season, call or text us at (519)829-3000 for a free 15-minute consultation, or book online through the link in our bio.

If your hands tingle at night and you need to shake them out in the morning, if your grip on your coffee mug is weaker t...
05/09/2026

If your hands tingle at night and you need to shake them out in the morning, if your grip on your coffee mug is weaker than it used to be, that’s not “just from typing.” That’s nerve compression and inflammation.

Carpal tunnel often shows up in people who:

• Work long hours on devices
• Grip tightly under stress
• Sleep poorly
• Are going through big hormonal shifts (especially perimenopause)
• Carry upper body tension constantly

The median nerve doesn’t get irritated in isolation. It gets compressed when tissue swells, circulation stagnates, and stress increases inflammatory tone.

You might feel numb fingers, burning in the palms, forearm tension. You might drop things more often and wake up with “dead” hands. Left untreated, this progresses and strength decreases, fine motor control drops, and surgery becomes a conversation topic.

Acupuncture improves circulation through the wrist, inflammatory load, nerve signaling, and upstream neck and shoulder tension. Your wrists are part of a chain.

If your hands are warning you, listen. Call or text us at (519)829-3000 for a free 15-minute consultation, or book online through the link in our bio.

If you wake up clenching your teeth, if your dentist keeps asking you about grinding, if your jaw clicks, locks or aches...
05/08/2026

If you wake up clenching your teeth, if your dentist keeps asking you about grinding, if your jaw clicks, locks or aches by 3PM, that’s pressure building up with nowhere to go. When stress builds and expression gets swallowed, tension often lands there.

Some common overlaps we see in clinic:

• Temple headaches
• Neck stiffness
• Shoulder tightness
• Irritability you don’t fully express
• Digestive sluggishness

Jaw pain is often a pattern of high-performing people – those who are holding it together, keeping things moving, not making it anyone else’s problem … until your body lets you know there’s a problem. Nightguards can protect your teeth, but they don’t regulate stress, calm inflammation or support the nervous system.

Unaddressed jaw tension can evolve into: chronic headaches, facial nerve irritation, neck instability, poor sleep.

If your jaw feels like it’s carrying something unsaid, let’s evaluate the pattern. Call or text us at (519)829-3000 for a free 15-minute consultation, or book online through the link in our bio.

Photo by Jordan González on Unsplash.

Address

85 Norfolk Street, Suite 103
Guelph, ON
N1H4J4

Opening Hours

Monday 2pm - 7pm
Tuesday 9am - 2pm
Wednesday 9am - 2pm
Thursday 2pm - 7pm
Friday 9am - 2pm

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