Acupuncture therapist offers a different kind of care for trauma

With natural light filling the room, the smell of patchouli wafting through the air and serene music playing, Kim Calandra’s studio allows a wave of tranquility to wash over those who enter.

Calandra, an acupuncture therapist in Carrboro, helps patients deal with the emotional and physical trauma associated with sexual assault.

As a sexual assault survivor, Calandra discovered the benefits of acupuncture therapy for herself and decided to open her own practice. She opened her practice about seven months ago and hopes survivors will reach out to her for help.

“I use acupuncture as a therapy to heal from sexual violence and that inspired me to do that specifically,” Calandra said. “I already treat people for (post-traumatic stress disorder) on a regular basis but I wanted to be more specific and defined, and I felt like it was important to specifically say that I treat symptoms of rape trauma and to use that word so that people felt comfortable with me being able to talk about it and coming to me.”

Acupuncture therapy is an invasive therapy that can help patients process trauma that happens to their body.

“Acupuncture is primarily a neurological intervention,” said Jacob Godwin, a director for the American Association of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. “It has several mechanisms of action that affect the central and peripheral nervous systems, so primarily acupuncture is most commonly used for pain conditions, but it is also highly effective for neurological and psychological conditions because it does affect the nervous system and how it functions.”

Although not widely known, acupuncture can be a helpful therapy for many conditions.

“So basically it kind of tricks the nervous system into doing a lot of the self healing, pain management, self repair things that the body is already prepared to do,” Godwin said.

This type of therapy accesses many different parts of the mind and body and can help patients deal with different conditions.

“Acupuncture (works) endogenously because it triggers these responses in the brain itself — it typically has a quicker and sometimes longer lasting effect (than medication),” Godwin said.

Calandra explained that although acupuncture worked for her, it is not for everyone and it is not a stand-alone therapy. Other types of therapy such as psychotherapy can be helpful to survivors.

“I don’t think it’s important for everybody,” said Emily Berman, a psychotherapist located in Carrboro. “It’s one of those things that building relationships is important, that can happen in a therapeutic relationship in terms of building trust and how people have learned to attach to other people.”

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