January is always a time for reflection, reset, and refinement. While New Year’s resolutions are notoriously abandoned, this season can still be an opportunity to explore practices that help the whole you.
Cosmetic acupuncture has been taught for decades, Claudia Ward of Beyond Acupuncture reminds me. But it’s having a resurgence with local L.Ac. practitioners who focus on the whole body. Meet a few of them.
Dr. Sophie Harris, Lolee Wellness
Dr. Sophie Harris has been a fan of acupuncture since she was seven. Drawn to helping women look and feel their best, cosmetic acupuncture was one of the first things she offered when she opened her Santa Barbara practice in 2020.
Fascinated by the natural aging process and how best to support patients at every stage of womanhood, her treatment goes beyond the surface to focus on overall wellness. “We’re enhancing what you already have and making you feel more like yourself," she says.
Each patient receives a curated, personalized plan that addresses diet, lifestyle, and nervous system regulation to treat the body from the inside out. “Our health shines through our skin,” she says. “If other areas are depleted, it’s going to show up somewhere.”
Sessions begin with gua sha, followed by needle insertion, red light therapy, and cupping. Sophie recommends a 10-week course of treatment, once a week, then monthly maintenance for a year.
loleewellness.com
Jetta Harris, L.Ac., Santa Barbara Family Wellness
A Santa Barbara Independent Best of Acupuncture, Jetta Harris, L.Ac., has been practicing in the region for over a decade and introduced facial acupuncture last year. An advocate of women’s health, Harris incorporates gua sha on the neck, face, and scalp in each of her facial appointments. “We can’t just do needles on the face, we need to support the body from the inside out,” she says. “I really believe that if you’re balanced, it’s going to show in your skin.”
Facial appointments are full-body treatments that cover the entire system to ground energy. Each micro-trauma helps stimulate collagen and elastin production and relaxes tension that might cause pulling or sagging in the skin. The caveat, Harris emphasises, is that in order to see results with facial acupuncture, consistency is key. She recommended 10-12 visits for a course of treatment.
sbfamilywellness.com
Dresden Holden, L.Ac., Dresden Body and Wellness
Dresden has been practicing acupuncture since 2018 and offers microneedling, herbs, and skincare in addition to her practice that focuses on fertility, women’s health, and orthopedic injuries.
Her facial rejuvenation includes body and facial acupuncture, red light therapy, and facial massage to support lymphatic drainage. While she knows that interest may be piqued for those seeking alternatives to potentially toxic fillers, she wants to remind patients that her role is to treat the whole body. “Acupuncture is not going to be a facelift,” she says. “But [it] reduces the stress in the face to help support fewer lines and increase blood flow [and] to increase overall health.”
“In a perfect world, someone is doing both acupuncture for body alignment, muscle health, and balance, and throwing in microneedling for skin health and building up the layers of the skin.”
dresdenholden.com
We can’t just do needles on the face, we need to support the body from the inside out.