Pediatric & Teen Acupuncture in Oakland
Support your child's growing body & mind
Kids can get acupuncture and hypnotherapy for everything adults do, and the cool part is that they tend to respond swiftly and significantly! We love treating kids, especially teenagers, it's a time of life that's full of big emotions, lots of firsts and a ton of confusion. Kids need a care team to help them navigate their changing bodies and minds, and we love being able to help kids not just feel good but learn about themselves and how to manage emotions and new bodily functions when they arise.
Pediatric and Teen Acupuncture & Hypnotherapy Oakland
We can treat kids of any age from babies to young adults. Pediatric treatments are shorter to account for body size and development and we use a range of modalities in addition to or instead of needles.
Children under 13 or pre-puberty are the appropriate age for Pediatric Acutherapy appointments, teens over 13 (post-puberty) are considered general patients.
Sports Medicine & Performance
Is your child an athlete? Acutherapy helps kids play their best and recover from tough workouts easily. Our combination of hypnosis helps kids work through performance anxiety and focus too. From football,to rowing, to gymnastics, we've seen athletes of all kinds!
Stress, Anxiety, Depression & PTSD
The constant changes and big emotions of teen life can be hard to manage. Acupuncture and hypnotherapy gives kids the tools to let go and develop resiliency & confidence.
Chronic Pain
Not all issues are solvable, but they can be manageable. We treat kids with ongoing chronic pain and complex conditions like Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) and Amplified Musculoskeletal Pain Syndrome (AMPS)
Injury Rehabilitation
One of our favorite application of acupuncture is for injury rehabilitation. Whether it's joint, bone or muscle related, or even post-surgical, we can support your child's full spectrum healing process.
PMS & Menstrual Pain
Not all issues are solvable, but they can be manageable. We treat kids with ongoing health conditions like menstrual pain, asthma, allergies and more.
Disordered Eating
Kids today face excess pressure to fit in and look like the people they see online. Add in fad-diets and social media trends and we have a potentially dangerous mindset toward food and eating. Acutherapy helps kids in every stage of disordered eating.
Ear Pain & Infections
Ear pain can be debilitating, especially when it becomes chronic. Acutherapy can support kids experiencing ear pain, stifled hearing, ear fullness, excesss ear wax and frewuent ear infections.
Long COVID
Long COVID is quickly replacing Asthma as the number one chronic childhood illness. It's a complex, multi-system condition that can be disabling in its most severe presentations. Acupuncture can support kids with POTS, ME/CFS, MCAS, pain and more.
Asthma & Allergies
Asthma and chronic allergies are one of the top researched areas for acupuncture. Due to the histamine modulation that occurs in the body with acupuncture treatment, patients often expereince less severe reactions, less reliance on rescue inhalers and improved skin conditions like eczema.
Sleep Disorders
Working with the body's natural rythms, acupuncture can support kids with regulating the circadian rythm, learning better sleep techniques to combat anxiety, reduce nightmares and sleep terrors and improving sleep quality.
Bed-Wetting
Bed-wetting can be an extremely disruptive issue that isolates children and causes immense amounts of shame. Acutherapy supports kids across the body-mind connection to reduce incidents and improve the body-mind connection as it relates to bed-wetting.
Migraine
Migraine in kids isn't always like it is in adults, for some the symptoms of the aura go beyond visual issues to stomach and GI pain, fatigue, mood swings and the typical headache. Acutherapy supports kids to understand their bodies, mediate triggers and reduce migraine attacks.
Pediatric Acupuncture • Shonishin • Manual Therapies • Gua Sha • Cupping • Laser Acupuncture • Neuro-Emotional Technique • Pediatric Hypnotherapy
School
When pain & illness is managed kids miss less days at school, pay attention better & get better grades!
Social
Friendships are at the core of a healthy life, kids who feel better & manage their emotions well have better quality friendships.
Sports
Whether for competition or recreation, sports are a skill building experience on many levels, from resilience to follow through, acutherapy helps your kid get back out there again!
Sleep
Quality sleep is the foundation for health. Acutherapy helps kids get to sleep more easily, stay asleep through the night and so much more.
Sustenance
Proper nutrition and mindfulness around eating are another foundation for good health. Our health at every size and all-foods-fit approach helps kids approach nutrition with a new sense of joy.
How Can Acutherapy Help Kids?
What f my Child is Scared?
It’s understandable that experiencing a new environment and procedure can be scary to children. We think it’s important to talk to them about it conveying the intention that they are getting to experience something new and exciting, this isn’t your typical Pediatrician’s office. If your child is usually anxious about seeing the doctor or dentist it’s important to convey to them that this experience is not like that at all, but it will be new and different.
Dr. Kim has an innate ability to make her patients feel calm and at ease, many pediatric patients come in crying about the prospect of needles and once experiencing the treatment are fascinated and asking for more. In addition, needles aren’t required for these treatments, and we want to work to make your child feel comfortable and at ease, not anxious or scared.
"My daughters both love seeing Dr. Kim. They are avid athletes and occasionally experience injuries compounded by growth spurts. Dr. Kim is thorough, kind, and gentle; her way of working with them is kind of astonishing; she easily builds trust and rapport and helps them feel at ease and in control." MG