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Meet Alexandra Davis of Diamond Star Acupuncture in Boulder

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexandra Davis.

Alexandra, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
If someone had told my younger self that I would grow up to become an acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist, I wouldn’t have believed them (or even know what they were talking about). My story is one of surprising and challenging life circumstances and obstacles that led me to a very purposeful and gratifying path.

At age 15, as my friends were blossoming and feeling youthful, energetic and full of life’s possibilities, I was beginning to experience painful, scary and inexplicable physical symptoms that I had never had before. My teens were a miserable time for me. Fatigue, depression, joint pain, constant digestive discomfort and major menstrual pain became the prominent experiences of my daily life. These issues continued into my 20’s, without any diagnoses from our family doctors other than ‘growing pains’.

By age 24, while working as a medical assistant in a busy doctor’s office, I was rapidly losing weight, losing my hair, losing the full functioning of my fingers and hands and had ceased to have menstrual cycles at all. Enter Chinese Medicine. A well-known and beloved acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist here in Boulder was finally recommended to me by my own sister, who had found her way to see him. He was the first medical practitioner, after ten years of my life with these problems, who took my health history and did an exam and then presented me with a clear diagnosis and treatment plan. And he gave me my first acupuncture treatment which immediately yielded relief from the severity of some of my symptoms. Now, Chinese medicine is my passion and it is the foundation of tools and treatment protocols that I use to help others who are going through tough, complex, mysterious and mystifying health problems.

From teens to adults and from headaches to insomnia, or digestive problems, or chronic fatigue or even very strange symptoms like unexplained numbness or loss of voice – I love being able to use Chinese medicine to provide answers and support and tangible changes for others. By the time I graduated with a degree in Chinese medicine in 2013, my own health problems had resolved. In many ways, my life feels like it was put on pause at age 15 and revived in my late 20’s when my health problems were finally diagnosed and then treated. But those ten years of pain, fear, suffering and feeling very alone and worried about my future have informed me of what others are also facing and the type of support that they need to get back on track.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
The path that led to Chinese medicine for me, full of health challenges, was of course a VERY bumpy one. But there have been other challenges as well. Boulder can be a very challenging place to set up a holistic healing practice. The cost of living and maintaining a business here is very high, and reaching the right people who can really use your services can also take persistence. I had many frustrating moments in the first three years of my practice, of feeling like I had a lot to offer and knowing that there were people that I could be a helpful fit for, but not knowing how to effectively spread the word about my services. Fortunately, something inside of me felt sure that it was a matter of time, persistence and patience and I’m very glad to be in a place now where many people around the community know about what I have to offer and have been able to spread word to friends and family who are in need.

Diamond Star Acupuncture – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
I am a private practice in Boulder within a lovely healing center that offers many other types of holistic healing services from very talented and high-integrity practitioners. My healing work with patients includes traditional acupuncture, dry needling therapy, cupping, health counseling and customized herbal treatments. I am also a shamanic healing practitioner and I love to weave traditional shamanic healing techniques into treatments, and clients love them too. Shamanic healing is a natural fit and complement to Chinese medicine and it helps my patients to move through many types of blockages along their health journeys. I find that most complex and chronic health presentations include not only physical causes but also energetic and emotional components. Trauma is a huge part of complex health problems for many people – whether it is trauma that occurred before their symptoms developed or the trauma of living with pain or discomfort or the loss of control of their lives and bodies. Both acupuncture and shamanic healing are beautiful ways to support people to move through trauma that is stored in the body to help in the restoration of their health.

I am known for my work with complex and mysterious cases, but I also treat lots of cases of pain and injury!  Acupuncture, dry needling and cupping are, in general, great ways to treat pain and injury. Some examples of complex and mysterious cases are: Chronic digestive problems, unexplained headaches or migraines, chronic fatigue, unexplained fertility challenges or random-seeming and singular symptoms like urinary problems or an unexplained rash. I also treat a lot of patients who are living with Lyme’s disease or undergoing treatment for Lyme’s. Lyme’s has a very complex range of symptoms that people are living with or experiencing as they go through their treatment protocols, and acupuncture provides a ton of relief for those symptoms and helps people with Lyme’s to function and feel better in their daily lives.

What sets me apart is that I am extremely oriented towards solutions for my patients – the goal is to always be making strides and moving forward. However, I am also very experienced and comfortable with complexity when it comes to health challenges. I love being able to cut through the complexity in order to treat the root causes of symptoms and to help my patients orient and have clarity within what has probably felt complex and confusing (and scary) for them around their health. I track all levels of my patients’ journey – from their physical symptoms to their psychological orientation within their journey, to their emotional experience of it all. And I connect with people on all of these levels – the whole experience needs to be welcomed and witnessed for people to really receive the support that they need when they are dealing with these types of challenges.

I am really proud of my relationships with my patients. I feel so much love and care for the people that I work with and I get to know them on a very personal level. My patients and I are always happy to see one another and there is a lot of good-natured interaction that gets to happen while they are receiving their treatments and support in my office.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
For me, success is first and foremost that the people who are coming to see me are experiencing results and improvements in their health and therefore in their lives. I measure success through the very specific updates that I get from my patients every time that they come in and we always start with a very thorough check-in about which symptoms are improving, which ones have cleared up and which ones are still needing focus and resolution. In their first appointment, I always have my patients fill out a very long checklist of all of their symptoms, and then I will have them re-do the checklist at different points along their treatment journey. It is always such a pleasure for both of us to watch their checklist go down from 40 symptoms to 13 symptoms, and then it gives us really important information about what we still need to work on.

As many healing practitioners can probably relate to, success is also in visibly seeing my patients improve over time, in witnessing them with more energy, more color in their face, more range of motion, or more reports of great things happening in their lives as they are relieved of the burden of constant symptoms.

Pricing:

  • Initial Appointment – Intake and First Treatment – 90 Minutes – $150
  • Follow-up Acupuncture Treatments – 60 Minutes – $90
  • Follow-up Acupuncture Treatments with Shamanic Healing – 60 Minutes – $125

Contact Info:


Image Credit:
Chris DeCicco Photography

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