A Time To Reflect and A Time To Sow.
As we approach the spring, we begin planting our seeds of intention.
To Our Practice & Community,
We are filled with gratitude for our clients and for the wisdom of our craft. We are also grateful for our amazing team. Looking back, now having been part of our Brooklyn community for 10 years, we realize how far we have come. It is truly a gift to be able to support our clients, staff & community with our dream. This work is so close to our hearts. It is our passion, our medicine.
Reaffirming our mission, our commitment to our community, and re-igniting our love for providing information, education and support - these are our commitments that we are speaking into the universe.
We hope that our dedication and passion for our craft inspires you - and perhaps that it could be the small spark in your consciousness that sets you on your own path toward balance. Or if you have taken a break from the path of health, which we all sometimes do - that this brings you back to it.
Too many people don't feel good and they don't know where to start. Too many people don’t have access to care. Too many people reach a place where they feel great, but then stop the good work and positive habits that got them there.
Too much of anything, even being obsessed with being healthy, is not healthy. We truly believe in WS-TCM and live by the principles. Real talk, we also aren't always 100% great about following them 100% of the time. It is the human way of wandering from the path and finding your way back. We are on this journey together and we will learn and grow together!
Wisdom is knowing when to move forward, when to step back and when to be still.
If you are not feeling 100% physically, emotionally and spiritually healthy
If you have fallen off your self-care routine
If you are ready to create positive intent and shift your body, mind & spirit toward a place of balance and wellness
Let this be your call. Take a moment and take stock of where you are in your health and where you would like to be. Our experience can help guide you.
We are also putting out a call for your help in teaching us! Wisdom is knowing you must continue to learn.
We’re excited to continue improving our intake forms, our language and awareness and improving our inclusiveness & understanding in our very diverse community. And as always, we embrace all thoughts, views and opinions. We invite you to feel open in sharing with us. Our door is always open to you.
Our deepest gratitude, love & healing.
Set Your Qi Free!
Alex & Lisa
Our Story. Our Mission.
In 2009, co-founders Alex Goldberg and Lisa Metzger began practicing Whole System-Traditional Chinese Medicine on Union Street in Park Slope. Together, with a shared vision, upon welcoming the enthusiasm from the community and feeling the need and desire for this type of healing to be available in Brooklyn, Garden Acupuncture was officially born in 2010. Recently they checked in with themselves to ask, “Is our mission still the same?”
The answer is yes, yes, yes!
More than anything, we hope the Garden Acu mission becomes your mission too.
Eastern philosophy is based on finding balance in our lives; balance within our body, mind, spirit and environment. We aim to provide our community with the tools, care and ancient wisdom of Traditional Chinese Medicine, to help guide each person on their own personal journey toward finding balance & health.
OUR BALANCE IS A COLLECTIVE BALANCE.
Let's all, in an act of love, be mindful each day of how we:
Respect our body and the bodies of others.
Respect our mind and the minds of others.
Respect our environment and the environments of others.
We aren't in any way demanding that acupuncture is the only path.
The principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine can be a powerful tool and help guide you through the everyday choices. This system of medicine has well over 2000 years of observation and testimony which cannot be disregarded. We have seen this medicine work for our own health, the health of our families and within our practice. Our vast experience - including tens of thousands of treatments and success stories of our patients - has shown us just how powerful this system of medicine can be.
No matter the path of medicine you choose, take this lesson with you. You have an innate inner wisdom.
What you eat, drink, feel, how you move your body and move through spaces, how you interact with others and your environment; We Challenge You To simply Observe.
Notice excess and deficiency in your life, diet and choices. Notice when you see, feel or hear things that are stagnant or feel stuck. Notice how your mind & body respond to stress, "mistakes", and choices. And then, ask yourself:
Have I taken care of my body and mind today? Am I doing too little or too much of anything? Have I taken care of others? Have I taken care of my environment, both my personal space and the space we all occupy?
The simple act of honest observation and acknowledgment can be a powerful first step in the healing and balancing process.
The ancient workings, philosophies, and principles of TCM certainly can help you, but you also have an inner wisdom to help guide you and to answer questions like these; it is the skill of learning how to ask yourself the questions. And this is where we can help.
Our mission is to help you learn how to understand when your body speaks to you - and then how to listen. We assist The WHOLE you along the way with bodywork like acupuncture, medicinal food & nutritional counseling, lifetstyle/environment recommendations & Chinese herbs.
The boroughs of New York City all have their advantages but life here consistently challenges us all physically, emotionally and financially. Not only are we confronted with challenges from living in this city, many of us also have family, friend, relationship and work pressures. Our own personal histories, stories & traumas can sometimes cause internal conflict...not to mention the level of social injustice and intolerance, political uncertainty and the news cycles that go with it all.
This consistent bombardment of stress can upset our delicate system of balance if it is not addressed *every *single *day. We want to help in any small way we can.
Signs and symptoms of imbalance can become a seemingly normal part of life. You adjust. Your body attempts to adjust (and not always in ways you expect or want). Instead of acknowledging and fixing the root issues we look to small mends and practice avoidance. Why? Because sometimes we think we don't have the means or the tools. Our desire is to help you acquire these tools, to develop the skills you need for balance, to encourage better dietary and lifestyle choices that you can carry with you even if you aren't able to maintain a long-term acupuncture practice.
We believe that Whole System-Traditional Chinese Medicine, which includes acupuncture, herbs, nutritional counseling and lifestyle changes, can be the path to a better self-understanding and to achieve your own complete health. Starting with our local neighborhood of Park Slope, and our larger community of Brooklyn and NYC, our mission is to help you become empowered with the knowledge of how to improve & maintain your health and gain inner strength utilizing this unique, complete and beautiful system of medicine - Whole System-TCM.