AWB’s mission is to provide immediate relief and recovery acupuncture services to global communities that are in crisis from disaster or human conflict. AWB also seeks to provide training and services to global communities that promote and sustain local self-directed, self-sufficient, proactive and long-term recovery, rebuilding and trauma resolution.
AWB was established after the devastating hurricanes of 2005 to help those in Louisiana suffering from stress and trauma. At this time, the work of AWB in New Orleans has come to a close. During our time in Louisiana AWB volunteers treated everyone from relief workers to survivors of the storms to emergency responders, and more. We treated in the Black, White, Vietnamese, and Latino communities and worked with grassroots organizations, churches, free medical clinics, shelters, civil servants, government organizations and the military. We brought over 80 acupuncturists to New Orleans to do this work, and many said that it changed their lives; many came back and opened up various types of community-oriented treatment centers in their own communities.
To see a complete listing of AWB venues in Louisiana click here.
If funding and community support surfaces, we may return to New Orleans to hold trainings for local community health care workers in how to use ear beads to treat stress and trauma, and in how to incorporate simple qigong practices into everyday life.
AWB is now engaged in a project to treat veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and their families with free community acupuncture. Guided by our experience gained in New Orleans and the pilot veterans clinic in Albuquerque, New Mexico which started in October of 2006, this project is developing in cities around the country. Our intention is to help in the recovery process from the enormous impact of war, thereby helping veterans as well as their families, communities, the country, and the world by intervening in the cycle of trauma. New clinic locations are currently being initiated in cities across the United States and AWB is providing regular training and support to the leaders of these unique free clinics.
Please click here for more information about the Military Stress Recovery (formerly Veterans) Project
In addition, over 500 acupuncturists have been trained at Acupuncturists Without Borders Healing Community Trauma Trainings held around the country and hundreds of others have applied to work with AWB in the field. AWB is building a nationwide network of acupuncturists trained to respond to trauma and disaster and who are bringing information from AWB’s trainings back into their communities.
We are currently working on making community acupuncture part of the standard of care in the immediate aftermath of disasters, alongside traditional medical interventions. In the future, we will be developing programs in communities to respond to disasters and to facilitate training of local health promoters in basic Chinese Medicine techniques.
AWB is committed to treating all who have been affected by disaster and conflict including survivors, first responders, emergency personnel and other care providers. The community model for treatment allows those treated to experience relief together from stress and trauma. When the whole group feels calm and quiet, hope, determination and resiliency rises powerfully within it.
The community acupuncture method that we use is well-suited to conditions faced in a disaster or after traumatic events. We can set up our treatments almost anywhere and we can immediately treat large groups of people.
Treatments last from 30-60 minutes with people receiving treatment while sitting in a chair fully clothed. Under the NADA protocol needles go on the ears. The treatments done by AWB acupuncturists are effective for helping people facing enormous stress, anger, frustration, depression, fatigue and other emotional and physical pain.
The therapeutic effects happen quickly and can last a long time. These simple acupuncture treatments can have a transformative effect without requiring the traumatized client to talk.
Done in groups, community acupuncture can help break the isolation often felt after traumatic events. Even those who resist traditional treatment for Acute Stress Disorder are often willing to receive acupuncture. Treatments support rebuilding strength and resiliency, essential for the recovery process. Acupuncture treatments have a calming effect and help those struggling with anger, hostility and frustration.
Our treatments are free and available to all who need them. We are committed to helping the primary survivors of traumatic events, as well as emergency responders, relief workers and others affected by the emergency. The actual cost of these treatments is extremely low compared to other forms of treatment.
