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Pelvic Floor and Pregnancy – Dr. Krystal Couture

In today’s vlog, we’re going to be talking about one of my favorite topics. The pelvic floor and pregnancy.

Click here to download the transcript.

Disclaimer: The following is an actual transcript. We do our best to make sure the transcript is as accurate as possible, however, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors. Due to the unique language of acupuncture, there will be errors, so we suggest you watch the video while reading the transcript.

Hello everyone, and welcome back. I’m Dr. Krystal Lynn Couture, the Pelvic Accu, and I’m here for another blog. Brought to you by the American Acupuncture Council. If you haven’t popped over to the American Acupuncture Council website, you absolutely should because they sponsor amazing vlogs throughout the month.

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In today’s vlog, we’re going to be talking about one of my favorite topics. The pelvic floor and pregnancy.

In order to really understand what’s happening with the body through pregnancy, I want to talk about the energetics of pregnancy and conception, as well as talk about a little bit of the spirit of the Po, evolution, hormones during pregnancy, the Yuan Chi, Teeny bit about pathologies during pregnancy bodily changes and then the restoration and repair process of The body that it goes through during that pregnancy experience so in the simplest terms when we’re talking about conception is going to be the addition of Yin, and yang Right?

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Yin is going to serve us as those prenatal qi energies and the postnatal qi energies. So therefore we’re going to have the connection of essence and blood. Yang is going to serve as the minister fire. As we go deeper into conception, the mum is going to provide different things. Then the father is going to provide, right?

And in order for them to provide these in balance and harmony, they have to be balanced and harmonized within each of the individuals prior to conception. This is going to lead to the healthiest form of. pregnancy and for the fetus, right? So we want the mom to have the spleen, the liver and the heart in good communication with each other, and also in the perfect balance, not in excess.

Not in deficiency, and this is so that making, storing, and the governing of blood will be harmonized for the pregnancy and for the fetus. The chong and the ren also need to be in balance, and they need to be open for pregnancy. to occur. The chang is going to be that mover of the blood and the ren is going to provide us with that yin.

So we want to see harmonization there. We also want to see the kidney jing in a state of vitality, right? We need the mom to be vital when she comes into pregnancy in order for her to remain vital throughout the pregnancy and after the pregnancy because that takes so much. energy. I also need her to be vital because she’s going to be providing that energy to the baby as well.

I want the minister fire again to not be in excess and not be in deficiency. We need the perfect amount of fire. We want the postnatal chi and blood to be in harmony. Which of course is determined by so many life factors and how one is choosing to exist within their life along the path of their Tao.

And then finally the spirit of the Po is going to come in. From the dad, we need the liver to be in harmony. We also need that vitality from the kidney Jing and of course the postnatal Qi and blood. All of these in harmony and balance are going to contribute to a better life. Successful and bountiful, abundant pregnancy that serves the fetus to the highest and best.

So let’s talk a little bit about the spirit of the Po here. So the Po, as we know, is the corporeal soul. It is the tangible. It is the spirit of the lungs and it resides within the lungs. It is a physical soul. So it has a yin nature to it. It is going to be transferred from the mom. To the fetus, the PO, as we know, is the soul that comes in with the body at birth and it dies at death.

So it does not extend its spiritual journey. It’s corporeal. Thus, the constitution of the baby is reflective, not only of the kidney energy of the mom and dad, but also the mother’s lung energy, right? Spiritual access. Chapter eight says the corporeal soul is the entering and exiting. of essence. And I really love that quote.

And I really think working with the Po is so helpful in the journey to working with moms in their fertility phases. So let’s look at the Kinney Jing evolution. Okay. So during menstruation versus pregnancy that we’re going to have a different experience here. So during menstruation, we know that the kidney gin, it links to the Tian Gui, right?

The heavenly waters, the minister fire acts upon that. And then we have menstruation, right? During pregnancy, that kidney gin is going to nourish the fetus and it’s going to replenish and recycle. The Tian Gui is going to replenish and recycle to Restore and serve that kidney jing. So we have two different pathways of what’s happening with the kidney jing here.

Now we’re going to have abundant yin, right? We’re going to have an increase in fluids with that tian gui replenishing and nourishing the fetus. We’re also going to have abundant yang because there’s no release of that minister fire. So there’s a significant abundance within the body, within the pregnant body.

Also, we’re going to have the component of the energy that travels up the chong. To the breasts also with the stomach chi as well. That’s going to transform blood to milk on an energetic level So this kidney gene evolution is two different stories two very different stories of what’s happening in the body And I think that’s important for us to understand as well as to be able to share with our clients What’s happening on an energetic level in their body when their monthly bleed?

is no longer. Let’s talk also about hormones during pregnancy. So we’ll see that at the beginning of the pregnancy, HCG is going to spike and then it will drop the rest of our hormones. So progesterone, estrogen, estradiol cortisol, and of course our placental actogen, they’re all going to gradually increase to the birth.

And then they’re going to quickly drop off. This is why there are so many Different emotions, different feelings, different experiences throughout the pregnancy process and after the birth, there is a drastic change in hormones. We’ll also see just at the birth, we’ll also see oxytocin spike.

And then we’ll see oxytocin and prolactin spiking and cycling. So highs and lows. And that is when the fetus will be, the baby will be suckling, right? So there are those increases if the mom is going to be breastfeeding. So there are continuous changes of what is happening through the hormone cycle.

Now, if the mom is breastfeeding, there is a chance that the progesterone and estradiol, and even the cortisol are going to stay low, which is going to lead to more emotions as well, which are important to consider. So now Yuanqi in the fetus. Yuanqi is derived from prenatal Jing from the parents at conception and stored in the kidneys responsible for growth development and maintenance of life.

Now I really like this quote that I found in the Shilin Temple blog which describes kind of Yuanqi and the cellular nature. So cell division requires a fixed liquid base of Yuanqi which allows the cell which compromises the yin or essence of life to divide. Weakness in the yang qi, or yuan qi, or weakness of the yin causes the cells to lose its true identity, its dao, and to create chromosomal changes which cause the fetus not to develop in a way that is consistent with the laws of nature which desire harmony.

So basically what this is saying is that even at The basic, most simplest cellular level, the body, the fetus is seeking harmony. It is seeking homeostasis, and it is seeking that in alignment with the Tao, with the purpose. And there’s so much power in that, there’s so much understanding in that, and there’s so much energy that is required during that phase.

Very briefly, let’s touch on pathologies of pregnancy. The first that we’re going to talk about is going to be a deficiency which could be of blood and yin as well as kidney deficiency. Now this is going to be particularly seen in those who have a tendency toward overwork and thus may have a pre existing kidney deficiency.

Could be kidney yang or kidney yin depending on other factors, right? It’s really important for us to understand our clients that are over workers. If they are coming in with these types of deficiencies that likely, unless they make major lifestyle changes, they aren’t going to change during the pregnancy.

So we want to address that. We want to be aware of that so that they can have a successful fertility into pregnancy journey. Another thing that we’re going to see. is rebellious chi and rebellious chi is, it makes sense, right? Because of the physiological process that’s happening within the abdomen, that there’s going to be this upward rising energy where there’s meant to be a downward rising energy.

Now, this rebellious chi is going to impact the stomach channel as well as the Chiang Mai. And these are particularly related to emotional stress. So while there is that physiological component, emotional stress is going to compound rebellious chi. There’s also, again, with what’s happening in the middle here, that middle jiao can be obstructed and cause some spleen chi deficiency.

And the buildup of phlegm again, sounds obvious during pregnancy, but important for us to be really aware of. This is also going to be something that can create some disharmony between the Ren and the Chong channel, which we want the Ren and the Chong to be strong for fertility and strong throughout the pregnancy and afterwards.

So why are we bringing up pathology in this workshop? Really the key here is because I want you to be aware of the contributing factors. that can impact pregnancy and also that might impact the pelvic floor. So we start to think about kidney deficiency, right? And if this leads to our liver yang rising, or it liver win rising, that kind of thing, or An ultimate a deficiency in that Yuan qi that’s going to be an impact on the pelvic floor because of its connection with the kidneys, right?

And the reproductive system, that rebellious qi, that confusion, proprioceptive confusion of upward versus downward energy is going to be difficult for the pelvic floor. rises and falls as well, right? With contraction and relaxation. And so if there’s proprioceptive congestion or confusion in the energy channels, there’s going to be physiological proprioceptive confusion.

So want to be really aware of these pathologies and to advise our clients that are coming in for fertility in. The manifestation of overwork in the manifestation of over stress, right? And how they can really focus on this fertility time, focus on this pregnancy time to be with themselves and to be nourishing their own bodies and their babies.

Speaking of, let’s talk about the body. I’m really excited for this section. So in ideal circumstances before pregnancy, what we’re going to see is that the internal organs and the pelvic organs of the abdomen all share space. There’s no major distinction or separation between the organs of the pelvis and the organs of the abdomen.

The organs of the pelvis and the organs of the abdomen, they work in harmony with each other, and there’s enough space. So there’s no crowding within the body kingdom on a physiological level and an energetic level. Now again, this is an ideal situation, right? If we have a client that has endometriosis or has inflammatory bowel disease or something like that, we’re going to see something that looks a little different.

But for our purposes today, this is an ideal situation. At six to seven weeks of pregnancy, things start to grow a little bit. The uterus starts its growth process and the uterus actually within the pelvis starts to put some pressure onto the bladder. This is why we can see the need for increased urination, increased frequency of urination and urgency of urination.

early on in a pregnancy. The placenta is also developing in this six to seven week phase. At 10 weeks, things begin to change. The ligaments of the pelvis actually start to relax just a little bit and the pelvic joints loosen. So this is going to be the sacroiliac joints, the pubic joints, and the hip joints.

And this can actually lead to some of that. early on discomfort within the joints at the very beginning of a pregnancy. So it’s important for us to be aware of. Now, of course, we can also posit that as the ligaments are beginning to change, as they’re relaxing just a little, as the joints have more space, guess what?

The pelvic floor is going to be impacted as well because there’s going to be a little bit of a stretch on the pelvic floor already. So the tension within the pelvic floor is already starting to change at 10 weeks. At 12 weeks of pregnancy, things really begin to move, right? So the uterus is now the size of a grapefruit and it fills the pelvic bowl.

The uterus rises during this 12 week phase. It starts to rise into the abdomen because it’s too big to just stay within the pelvis. the pelvic bowl itself with all the other organs that are there, right? The anterior part of the pelvis sits upon the pubic, I’m sorry, the anterior part of the uterus sits upon the pubic symphysis.

So the bladder here, good news, yay, gets a little bit of relief. But the pubic symphysis is now going to be carrying the load, which progresses over time, right? So we can start to see this shift into pubic symphysis pain at around 12 weeks or a little bit later. Now, between 12 and 36 weeks, the pelvis starts to shift anteriorly.

So it’s neutral position is here and it starts to tilt forward, right? So that starts to begin at 12 weeks of pregnancy. Now there’s an automatic implication to the pelvic floor here, right? Because that pelvic tilt is changing the balance and the position of the ligaments, the tendons, and the muscles within the pelvic floor.

At 20 weeks of pregnancy, things begin to get squished. The rectum, the sigmoid colon, and the small intestine get pushed up and back. The ascending and the descending colon aren’t generally affected during this phase. The uterus continues to move up and push on that lower abdominal And at this point in time, abdominal strength and muscle tautness really impacted the position of the uterus being more anterior posterior.

So someone that has very tight, either fascia or musculature, or has strong abdominal contraction, the. Uterus is going to sit further back, whereas if the abdomen is weak or it’s slack for whatever reason, then the abdomen is going to push forward a bit more. Of course, there is that play with the abdominal muscles and the pelvic floor as well.

They are so deeply connected. I can’t tell you the number of times, not with pregnant clients, but in general with clients postpartum. Or clients unrelated to pregnancy that I work with the abdominal muscles and we can make a shift in the pelvic floor. Such a cool experience. But moving on without getting a ton of tangent at 21, 28 weeks of pregnancy, things really.

get compressed and the weight distribution actually starts to shift at this point. So uterus expands into the mid abdomen. So it keeps expanding upward and it’s pressing now against the stomach. The load is increased upon the pelvic floor and the posture shifts posteriorly. to carry that load.

So the body literally is shifting back into the heels. Now at this point you may actually have clients that are complaining about posterior fascial chain pain. They’re also maybe talking about pelvic floor pain at this point as well because the pelvic floor is really holding a lot of the load here.

At 36 weeks, things really change. The uterus expands to fill the abdomen. It generally meets up to the xiphoid process and there’s pressure upon the diaphragm. That increased load on the aorta, the heart, and the lungs starts to show up at this point. And the abdominal muscles are really supporting the weight.

They’re working really hard to support the weight of the fetus. The vagina. and urethra at this point start to elongate. And then the perineum actually is stretched and enlarged and it begins to protrude outward. So once again, if we’re talking about the perineum, that’s the space between the external anal sphincter and the opening to the vagina in females.

Now, As that starts to expand, we can obviously make the correlation that the pelvic floor muscles are going to be stretched during this time. They’re going to be stretched to uncomfortable limits. At 40 weeks of pregnancy, the body is preparing for birth, and the head of the fetus lowers into that pelvic bowl.

The bladder, again, is compressed, and the colon is compressed. So this leads to all sorts of dysfunction within the excretory phases. If you’ve been pregnant, you know this. If you’ve been married to someone who’s pregnant, you know this. If you work in pregnancy, You know this, right? The round ligament, the utosacral ligament and the broad ligament are stretched.

So now these deep ligaments of the pelvis are beginning to stretch. Ligaments don’t have the same recoil that muscles do or tendons because they don’t have as good of blood flow. So this is important for us to be aware of because this is also going to contribute to what’s happening in the pelvis and the pelvic floor during the recovery process.

Now, postpartum, the body is going to be seeking recovery. The body, generally speaking, is going to be fatigued. It has just worked really hard for ten moons, right? In order to grow. a baby. So it’s going to be fatigued. It is also going to be stretched. The abdomen is going to be stretched. The ligaments are going to be stretched of the pelvis.

The pelvic floor muscles are going to be stretched. The back may actually be tighter from that weight distribution and that anterior pelvic tilt. The uterus, the vagina, the perineum, and the pelvic floor are going to be expanded, stretched, and potentially weakened, right? If we think about it, if a muscle is at its maximum stretch, it’s pretty hard from its maximum stretch to get contraction, right?

Whereas if it’s at a comfortable place in elasticity, getting contraction and relaxation is a lot easier. So there’s going to be some proprioceptive and kinesthetic changes that are occurring as well. Ligaments in the joints are going to be unstable initially. Everything is open and the organs are in a new alignment, which can lead to a lot of body and energy confusion and hormones.

Guess what? They’re all over the place. They are changing frequently and they’re changing differently in different people. So there are a lot of things going on with that body postpartum. In order to restore and repair postpartum, the organs have to return to alignment and function. The uterus size and position all has to return to its, pre pregnancy stage.

The perineum needs to heal. There’s going to be a ligamentous and joint recoil and repositioning that occurs. There’s going to be the fascia, the diaphragms, and the posture are all going to Balance or not balance. If the proper work and attention isn’t done or if the body is in severe depletion beforehand, the muscles of the abdomen, the back and the pelvic floor are all going to change.

The blood and the fluid will level out. And the energy and the meridian flow also hopefully will realign. And then there’s the emotional harmony. All this to say, and we have a whole talk coming up on postpartum, which is really exciting. But all of this to say, the body is going to try to do all of these things on its own.

Why? Because it is always seeking homeostasis. The body wants balance with the body. The Dow, the body wants to be in balance with your purpose here on earth. So it wants to do these things. Now as acupuncturists, we can help clients to intervene in this process and to facilitate the healing in all of these, in all of these phases, right?

There’s more than nine, but I just listed nine out so we can really do an amazing job to support our clients with the. Restoration, the recoil, and the return to their pre pregnancy state. Now, if you’ve been with me and the American Acupuncture Council before, you know that I have previously recorded a pelvic floor intro, a chat on menstruation in the pelvic floor, a chat on fertility in the pelvic floor, and this, of course, is our pregnancy and the pelvic floor chat.

We’ll also be doing a postpartum chat. And a menopause in the pelvic floor chat. So I can’t wait for more time with you. And I really hope you enjoyed our time today. Once again, I want to thank the American acupuncture council for sharing this space and sharing this vlog with acupuncturists around the globe so that we can share these teeny tiny little nuggets of wisdom that hopefully impact you, your practice and your clients.

In a positive way. Here’s some references. Once again, I’m Dr. Krystal Lynn Couture, the Pelvic Accu, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time with you today.

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Research on Effectiveness of Pediatric Acupuncture for Pain

Dues research support the effectiveness of acupuncture help with pediatric pain?

Pain is a condition most commonly treated with acupuncture in people of all ages.

Nearly 31% of children suffer from chronic pain including migraines and tension-type headaches, abdominal pain, acute post-operative pain, and dysmenorrhea in adolescent girls.

A study found children receiving acupuncture treatment experienced significant improvements in various types of pain including headaches and migraines, back pain, and painful extremities. 40% of the pediatric patients reported a complete resolution of symptoms.

Healthcare continues evolving to less-invasive, natural, and drug-free methods, with acupuncture now a first-line complementary healthcare choice.

Remember, the American Acupuncture Council (AAC) offers an unparalleled track record in acupuncture risk management.

There is a reason acupuncturists have trusted AAC with their business for 50 years.

Not an American Acupuncture Council member? Get a Quick Quote and find out how much you will save! Click here!

Treating TMJ with a Multifaceted Approach Part 1

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Hi, my name is Michelle Gellis. I’m an acupuncture physician and I teach cosmetic and neuromuscular facial acupuncture classes internationally. I just completed my first book. It is called Treating the Face and it is a comprehensive guide. It’s a hardcover book. It’s a comprehensive guide to treating the face, both for cosmetic and neuromuscular Conditions.

I’m currently on the faculty at Yosan University on the doctoral faculty. And prior to that, I worked at, I was on faculty at the Maryland University of integrative health from 2003 until 2021.

Sorry, I having trouble getting going to the next slide. There we go. So these are the different chapters in my. book and it’s a full color book and some of the images that will be in today’s presentation are from my book. So today we’re going to talk about this is part one of a two part lecture on treating TMJ.

And today I’m going to go over the definition, the etiology, and using facial motor points to treat TMJ. And then in part two, I will go over using scalp acupuncture and submuscular needling to treat TMJ. So what is TMJ? TMJ is short for temporomandibular joint pain. It is also kind of part of TMD is another way of referring to it for temporomandibular disorders, and these are any issues that arise from any jaw pain, jaw problems that come from the muscles surrounding the jaw and can cause problems opening and closing the jaw.

And the temporomandibular joint, or TMJ. for short, is the actual hinge joint that connects the mandible to the temporal bone of the skull. So we’re going to go through, as I mentioned, the definition, and then we’re going to talk about motor points. is the temporal bone right here, and this is the mandible.

And here is the joint that we were discussing. And here’s a blow up of that. So you can see where this condyle goes into the temporal bone and there’s a disc here and there’s various nerves that are attached to it. What can happen through grinding the teeth? or injury or stress, which can cause tension.

People can develop temporomandibular joint pain or TMJ for short.

TMJ can manifest as many different things, not just in the jaw area. People can have pain behind their eyes, different issues with their eyes. They can have limited ability to open their mouth, clenching, grinding. They can have sore teeth. They can get headaches because of the location of the temporal muscle.

They can have issues with their ears, vertigo, dizziness, ear pain neck pain, and of course pain in the jaw and clicking and popping of the jaw. So as acupuncturists, we can do some local treatments with acupuncture and treat the channels that are involved. And so some local points might be stomach five, stomach six, you might treat gallbladder four, SI 19, Sangio 17, Tai Yang.

And then using some distal points, like large intestine 4, which is a command point for the face and jaw. Sand jaw 5, gallbladder 41, which are the master couple point of the young way my. And if they have constrained liver qi and they’re grinding their teeth, you could do liver three and liver four and you can combine some other points such as gallbladder 34, which can help to supplement liver three.

But one of the things that I have found in my practice to be really beneficial when treating TMJ are facial motor points. Facial motor, what facial motor points are, they are the most elect, they’re located in the muscle. They’re the most electrically excitable part of the muscle where the motor nerve bundle is attached.

And specifically, it’s the skin region where the muscle is most accessible to electrical activity. excitement at the lowest intensity. So you can actually measure them. Motor points are not trigger points, trigger points, or tender points, or ashi points, that when you press on them the person is tender.

And fortunately for us, when we’re looking at the face, many motor points are also acupuncture points. When you’re trying to figure out what motor point to use when treating the face, you have to determine what muscles are affected, and then you would look at the motor point on the face. That muscle.

When needling motor points on the face, it’s a good idea to use some ornicogel and a very thin needle. You don’t want to be using a really heavy gauge needle because stimulating the needle could possibly cause some bruising.

Here is an image I took from an old this is an old medical text and they actually outlined all the different motor points on the face and neck. This is from the late 1800s, which I thought was very interesting. Motor points have been used for quite some time. Here is a picture of a nerve and going into the muscles.

So we have the sensory nerve and then we have the motor nerve and the motor point. is, as I mentioned, the most electrically excitable part of that muscle.

There are many motor points on the face. We’re not going to talk about all of them. We’ll just be focusing on a couple, because when we’re thinking about TMJ, the muscles that are involved are going to be the masseter. and the temporalis.

So here’s the temporalis muscle as you can see, and here is the acupuncture point gallbladder A. The motor point for the temporalis is just anterior, it’s one cun anterior to gallbladder A, and you would use a perpendicular insertion. The goal is to go into the muscle, but not through the muscle. The temporalis works with the massetere.

Here’s the massetere to move the mandible up and down and by when a person has TMJ, the temporalis can get very tight and by releasing this motor point, it can relax the entire side of the head and face. and jaw.

Another muscle with motor points that we would use for TMJ is the masseter and here is an image from my book of the masseter and then the it has two motor points and one of them is small intestine, six. And the other one is just below stomach seven, it’s just inferior to stomach seven, and it is level with the earlobe, and you would needle this about a half to one soon deep, because you’re going through the flesh and the fatty area of the face right here.

And this is really wonderful for jaw pain as well. Now this is demonstration of what can happen when you needle a motor point properly. This is not the masseteer or the temporalis, but it was a good display of what happens when you needle a motor point. So, I wanted to show this. Where’s my Ah, there we go.

So this person had had Bell’s palsy and they had a lot of trouble pursing their lips and so this is actually muscle on the chin and you can see when I stimulate the needle, see if I can get that to go again, when I stimulate the needle This is in the mentalis. When I stimulate the needle, how it really jumps, it’s already moving on its own.

And then once I stimulate it, it really causes the muscle to jump.

So next time we are going to talk about other ways of treating TMJ using scalp acupuncture and submuscular needling. And I want to thank the American Acupuncture Council for this opportunity. You can go to facialacupunctureclasses. com and let’s see, I have a slide here. Sorry. You can go to facialacupunctureclasses.

com and you can learn more about some of the classes. That I teach. Thank you so much.

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Facial Cosmetic Acupuncture and Skin Elasticity

Does facial cosmetic acupuncture improve skin elasticity?

Research now supports the effectiveness of facial cosmetic acupuncture on facial elasticity.

Facial cosmetic acupuncture is applied to the head, face, and neck as an intervention for skin rejuvenation.

A study of 27 women (ages 40-59) found significant improvement in skin elasticity after 5 facial cosmetic acupuncture treatments.

Facial acupuncture is not just a safer option, but also more affordable than surgery.

Healthcare continues evolving to less-invasive, natural, and drug-free methods, with acupuncture now a first-line complementary healthcare choice.

Remember, the American Acupuncture Council (AAC) offers an unparalleled track record in acupuncture risk management.

There is a reason acupuncturists have trusted AAC with their business for 50 years.

Not an American Acupuncture Council member? Get a Quick Quote and find out how much you will save! Click here!

Research Confirms Acupuncture for Chronic Neck Pain

Is acupuncture an effective treatment for chronic neck pain?

Among adults in the US, neck pain has an annual prevalence rate exceeding 30% with close to 50% experiencing continued degrees of chronic neck pain or frequent occurrences.

A study published in the American Journal of Chinese Medicine showed the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture and electroacupuncture in patients with chronic neck pain.

The study revealed when acupuncture was added to conventional treatment it relieved pain better, and electroacupuncture relieved pain even more.

Healthcare continues evolving to less-invasive, natural, and drug-free methods, with acupuncture now being a first-line complementary healthcare choice.

Remember, the American Acupuncture Council (AAC) offers an unparalleled track record in acupuncture risk management.

There is a reason acupuncturists have trusted AAC with their business for 50 years.

Not an American Acupuncture Council member? Get a Quick Quote and find out how much you will save! Click here!

Take a Break Content Creation: Using Instagram – Michelle Grasek

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Hi there, my name is Michelle Grasek. I’m an acupuncturist and a marketing strategist and the host of the Acupuncture Marketing And today we’ll be talking about a new way to think about using Instagram that does not require any new content creation. It is specifically using Instagram for business to business networking so that you can build real connections with other local business owners and expand your Visibility in your community.

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And before we get started today, I’d like to thank the American Acupuncture Council for the opportunity to be here with you. All right, let’s get into the slides. Using Instagram for business to business networking. Today we are going to briefly cover why would we do this, why use this approach, why does it work, and then two specific strategies for building these relationships with other local business owners and collaborating with them.

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So why would we take this approach to Instagram? I don’t know about you, but most of the people I know are generally a little burnt out by content creation for social media. As you know, content creation takes time, it takes energy and creativity. And over and over again, that kind of feels like a hamster wheel.

Yes. So if you are feeling kind of worn out by content creation, this is a great strategy. And you have probably noticed in the past year or year and a half that your engagement on your account has gone down. I know that for my own business, Instagram accounts, and for my marketing clients and students, they are reporting that their likes on their posts and their reels has gone way down and so have their views, right?

They are being exposed to way fewer new accounts and even the people who follow them on Instagram are not seeing their posts that often. Okay, so big picture, if you’re experiencing this, you are not alone. It is pretty much across the board. For example, people who were previously getting 50 to 60 likes per reel or post are now kind of struggling to get 5 to 15 likes.

So again, if this is you, you are in good company, but it can be very frustrating to spend time creating content that you feel like No one gets to see, right? Is it effective? So if you need a break from all of that, then this strategy can be a really nice choice. Business to business networking on Instagram is is both a refreshing approach to using Instagram and a refreshing approach to networking.

So why is that? So first of all, it’s a nice approach to Instagram because you can either take a break from content creation or you can scale back the volume of content that you are creating. I know that some of my marketing clients are concerned about stopping content creation altogether for Instagram or any social platform because they’re worried about getting dinged by the algorithm if they don’t create content.

publish new content. So I understand that. If that’s how you feel, it’s all good. You could think about maybe using this strategy and cutting your content creation in half. So if you usually produce two reels a week on Instagram, maybe just do one and then use the time that you would have used to create that other reel for this strategy, for networking, for building connections and collaborations.

So that’s one option. And, or, forgive me. So the other reason that this is a nice approach to using Instagram is that it does leverage all of the content that you’ve created for Instagram in the past. So you’ve probably been creating Posts and Reels for years on your account and when someone lands on your account homepage, they get a really good idea of what your business is about, who you serve, you know, what your values and priorities are, how you can help them just by scrolling through all of your recent posts and reels.

Right? They can get a really good idea of what you’re all about. And so this is really helpful for business to business networking because you are going to engage with other business owners and ask them to collaborate, and they can simply pop over to your account homepage and look through the content you’ve created, and that will give them a great idea of whether you are a good fit to collaborate with them.

Do you match their own values, ideals, and goals, etc. Right? Do they think you’d be good? Partners in this endeavor, whatever it is you’re asking them for, whether it’s an acu yoga collaboration or something totally different. Okay. And this is also a really nice way to think about networking because it’s much lower pressure than traditional networking meetings.

I do find that many, many acupuncturists Of course, not all, but many are introverts, myself included, many of my marketing clients and students are introverts. And for, for the most part, people tend to not like traditional networking meetings where you go and you don’t know anyone and you sort of stand around awkwardly with a drink waiting for someone to talk to you, or you have to insert yourself into a conversation and then introduce yourself.

So, Doing this kind of networking obviously doesn’t require any of that. It simply allows you to build relationships that are genuine at your own pace. So, this is a way to connect with people, potentially in your pajamas from your home. And it’s just much more comfortable for many people, but it’s still equally effective.

And I also like to point out that this approach to networking can be very specific. You get to choose the best business owners or influencers that you’re interested in working with because you’ve, you’ve vetted them and you think a collaboration would be beneficial to both of you. And you can spend your time and energy building a connection with them on Instagram, as opposed to when you go to a traditional networking meeting, you might meet a dozen new people and it could be very varied, right?

Like maybe an insurance salesperson or a real estate agent. And. It’s not that you would never collaborate with those people, but you sort of have to sift through the people that you think would be open to a collaboration and would be a good fit if you’re doing traditional networking, whereas This type of networking is very specific and I think everyone is very busy and if you can fit Instagram networking into your schedule whenever you have a free moment and have it build into Meaningful relationships with a few people instead of superficial relationships with a dozen.

I think most people really appreciate that. So what are these strategies that I keep talking about? It’s actually very simple. Your goal is to connect with real life local business owners. Who you think have an audience who would be a good fit to become your patients. And when I say business owners, I’m also including influencers in this.

It’s sort of interchangeable in some ways. Like some local business owners, they actually have a brick and mortar business. Others are influencers. They might sell something, but really the The main point here is they have a following that you think would be a great fit to eventually become your patients.

They, their following is your target market. Okay. And your goals here are once you’ve made a connection with them to pitch them an idea to collaborate on an event together, or it doesn’t have to be an in person event, whatever ideas you have that are mutually beneficial for the both of you. Or, You can ask someone to come into your office for treatment and do a trade for the treatment and social media exposure.

Okay, so we’ll go more into these strategies, but big picture, this is our goal. And honestly, it works very well. My marketing clients and myself for my practice, we have All countless examples of relationships that we have built with small business owners locally who we never would have met or bumped into in real life, but connected through Instagram and now have these long term, very supportive, collaborative business partnerships or relationships.

Okay, so that’s, that’s what we’re going for here. So I recommend if you don’t have anyone in mind already, and you may, someone that you follow on Instagram, you might say, gosh, I’d love to work with so and so at that yoga studio. We could host this event. It would be fabulous. That’s a great place to start.

Just think about who are the business owners that you admire. Someone where you can genuinely say, I love what you’re doing in the community and I’d love to work together. I think that we have you know, a shared vision or shared goals for our communities and I’d love to work together. If you can say that for real, then you are on the right track and this is probably a good person to try to connect with.

And of course, you also want to make sure that you are choosing people who are local because you want people who can actually come to your clinic, right? So within maybe 45 minutes of your clinic, it’s not that useful to connect with influencers or business owners who are pretty far away because you like, what are the chances that someone who’s five hours away is actually going to come see you for treatment, right?

So that’s not what we’re interested in. We want these people to have followers who are local and who are in your target market. They’d be a great fit to become your patients. Okay. So just thinking about that when you’re trying to decide who are four or five people I’d like to connect with on Instagram.

to build a collaboration. And let’s talk a little bit about influencers. I think we get a bad taste in our mouth when I talk about influencers. I’m talking about nano and micro influencers. So not people with like a million followers. Nano is up to 10, 000 followers. And micro is 10, 000 If you can believe that, they’re still considered micro if they only have 100, 000 followers.

But the idea here is that smaller local accounts, as long as they have an audience who really listens to them, takes their advice, gets good engagement on their account. That’s what you’re looking for, right? And they also are people who would be a great fit to become your patients. So if someone has 6, 000 followers, that’s great, right?

They don’t, they don’t have to have 100, 000. In fact, smaller influencers are more likely to work with you because they have that local connection. And we’ll talk about this in a moment, but I recommend doing a trade for the influencers. Sharing you and your business on their account. Okay. Instead of paying them money to do that.

And again, that’s up to you, but I think that smaller influencers are more likely to accept the gift of a treatment for a trade, than instead of being paid cash, as opposed to like larger influencers are looking for quote brand deals on something much more formal and more money. Okay, so again, you’re just thinking about who would you be proud to work with, whose account would you be proud to be represented on, and who has an audience that is a good fit as your target market.

So some ideas. Who might these people be? Okay, yoga studios are a great fit. I have done some beautiful collaborations with the owner of a low waste specialty shop near me. She only sells things that are plastic free, for example, but she is really into alternative medicine. She’s very supportive of natural health approaches.

So the more you get to know people on Instagram, the Better awareness you have of who’s a great fit to work with and collaborate with, even if they’re not health care providers, right? So don’t limit yourself to just health care providers. Photographers can be fabulous. Photography tends to do really well on Instagram, and so their followers They tend to have a lot of followers and be very engaged.

Lash specialists, artists of all kinds. At my office, we have a wonderful collaboration with a collage artist and some watercolor artists. And then of course you could think about chiropractors, therapists physical therapists, nutritionists, hair salons and estheticians, makeup artists. Those are great choices.

Med spas, they tend to do very well on Instagram. They get a lot of engagement. So try to think outside the box. Again, it’s just, who would you be proud to be associated with? Like who you’d be pleased to be featured on their account and who’s got your target market. So how do you do this? This outreach thing, it’s actually very simple.

There’s two approaches you can take and both, both work well. It sort of depends on your. Maybe your personality and your comfort level with each. So the one approach is what I consider dating before proposing to someone. So I often think of marketing this way that you give your audience the opportunity to get to know you before you say, do you want to buy my stuff?

Right? So in this case, it would look like You know, you would pick a business owner that you’d love to collaborate with, you would follow their account, you would regularly check in on their account for new posts or reels or stories, and you would like all of them and try to comment. So whenever they publish a new reel, for example, you’re liking and you’re commenting.

And I would say try to Ask questions of the business owner in your comments so that you can engage with them right away and they will start noticing if you’re doing this repeatedly. So over time you’ll become pretty familiar to them as someone who enjoys their work and engages with their account and when you’re ready, when you feel comfortable basically, you can shoot them a direct message or private message and then you can more formally introduce yourself and pitch your idea for collaboration like, Hey, my name is Michelle.

I run Ageless Acupuncture in Seneca Falls. I absolutely love what you’re doing and I was wondering if you’d be interested in collaborating. I have a couple ideas. Let me know what you think. I’m so excited to hear from you. Right? So just cheerful, positive. They’re already familiar with you. By and large, people are going to say yes.

And then you can have a conversation and see what sort of collaboration might work well for you. And we’ll talk about collaboration suggestions in just a moment. There’s a million different things you can do. It’s really, the sky’s the limit. It’s up to your creativity. Creativity with this other person.

Okay. And then the other option is just to go right in to their direct messages and introduce yourself and share your pitch. And I have seen this work as well. You know, if your idea is strong enough and beneficial enough for the other business owner, they’re probably going to be interested in answer you because Because it’s interesting, right?

Because they are willing to have a conversation about it. You know, especially if you go about it in a really nice way, where you emphasize how much you, you do enjoy their account and, and the work that they’re doing in the community. And maybe give them some extra reasons why you think working together would, would go well and benefit both of your audiences if you are just diving in with that DM and they don’t know you that well.

But again, I think either of these methods can be very successful. It’s just up to you and your personal preference, how you’d like to connect with them. Regardless of how you go about this, when you are making your pitch for collaborating, make sure you focus your collaboration request on the benefit to the business and their clients or patients and the community that you mutually serve because you’re very likely to have some overlap between the people that you serve, but just angle your collaboration idea from the perspective of all the ways it would be great for them, okay?

For example, you could mention that if you did acu yoga, you would be thrilled to share the class on your, all of your social media and in your email newsletter, so that you’d be exposing them in their business to all of your audience. Naturally, they are going to do the same for you, right? But when you are approaching them, you want to emphasize this aspect of why would this be so great for your business for this reason, or this is one reason.

So really quickly, some collaboration ideas. There’s a lot here. You can take a screenshot if you’d like. Accu Yoga is very, very common. If you wanna collaborate with a yoga studio, you could. Teach a class together, maybe at the community center. You could host a class where they teach something at your office, so you’re giving them a platform to share their expertise with your audience, and they could do the same for you.

You could host a book club together, maybe wellness books, whatever it is that fits for both of your audiences. You could host a pop up event for them or vice versa. I have seen people host weekend wellness retreats because of collaborations that started on Instagram. I mean, some of these ideas make the business owners thousands of dollars because they really get creative and passionate about it and build it out into something so much bigger than they initially imagined.

You could host a fundraiser together for a charity that you mutually support. Themed wellness nights, Valentine’s Day is coming up. It’s a really good opportunity for a themed wellness night. You could do giveaways where you collaborate across both of your Instagram accounts. You could host a networking event together for other wellness people in your area.

The list goes on.

Okay, thank you so much for being here with me today. I hope that you find this Kind of invigorating. Hopefully it is a really refreshing way to look at Instagram and networking. If you have any questions about this, these strategies or marketing in general, you’re always welcome to email me michelle or michelleGrasek.

com. I hope you’ll listen to the podcast, Acupuncture Marketing School, and check out my website for free marketing resources for acupuncturists. Before I go, one last to the American Acupuncture Council. I’m very grateful to be here with all of you today. Thank you.