I’m Lisa Mae, I use she/her pronouns and identify as a queer, white-reading, able-bodied, middle class, education-privileged, menopausal, cisgender woman living with chronic pain and autoimmune illness.

I’ve been practicing Acupuncture since 2000, and my skills are founded on the holistic and person-centered principles of Japanese Meridian Energetics, Acupuncture Physical Medicine, myofascial release via soft-tissue constrictions and trigger point techniques (erroneously called dry needling) alongside my 30+ years of movement, nervous system and pain science research. Through this kaleidoscope, I bring you decades of experience, compassion, and hands-on, trauma-informed body wisdom with a deep sense of intuitive, embodied connection. These studies along with my own chronic pain and autoimmune disease history have given me unique insights into the nature of bodies, both predictable and surprising, and to physical holding patterns of pain in the physical body as well as energetic holding patterns in the emotional body. I studied East Asian Medicine directly for many years with master practitioners Dr. Mark Seem, Arya Nielsen, Margaret Rita McMeekin, and Kiiko Matsumoto in New York City beginning in 1997, and earned both an M.S., L.Ac. in Acupuncture Physical Medicine from TSCA in 2000 and eventually a Master’s Certificate in Japanese Acupuncture directly from Kiiko Matsumoto through her ongoing work with Master Nagano, her teacher.

I love bodies and I am here to really see you and listen to you, and believe that movement and ease are everyone’s right. I love working with other queer and trans people, with disabled and low-mobility folks, with people that identify as fat, with neurodivergent folks, weekend warriors, professional athletes, regular desk job folks, your elderly mom or cranky teenager and really, all manner of folks that want to move their bodies with more ease.

Helping enhance athletic performance and recovery is a real passion, and I have a particular interest in tendon rehabilitation and overuse injuries. I have worked with all kinds of Olympic, Professional and performance athletes individually (dance, triathlon, basketball, volleyball, rugby, roller-derby, yoga, rock climbing, running, power/weightlifting, racquetball, swimming, cycling, gymnastics, soccer, tennis…) in training camps and with teams. I’ll even treat your cranky, injured teenage athlete; like a kooky, child-free Auntie, teenagers seem to love me. I want to help you avoid surgery and get off pain medication if that is your goal, and if you can’t avoid it, I can help you with pre- and post-surgical rehab work.

I am endlessly curious about bodies and experiences, and I ask a lot of questions; my patient-centered style of acupuncture is well suited for many chronic or complex disorders that often fall outside the mainstream medical care approaches—I love a challenge and there is a lot of misinformation about pain out there, so I work hard to educate folks about their bodies and also about sometimes scary medical diagnoses they receive without context or explanation. I think it’s important to note that acupuncture’s effect on stress management, PTSD and trauma is immeasurable, and most pain has some component of these neurobiological aspects.[/read]