Hello!  My name is Jennifer Growden and I am a licensed acupuncturist and massage therapist practicing in New Orleans.  I’d like to take a moment of your time to introduce myself and my approach to you as a potential patient. I was first trained as a massage therapist specializing in Asian modalities including acupressure and Chinese medical theory, Shiatsu, Tuina (Chinese medical massage), Thai Yoga, Swedish and Deep tissue.  I received additional education in pregnancy and fertility massage.  I have been in full-time practice, almost exclusively for myself, since I graduated in 2004 from the Atlanta School of Massage.  I have been registered in New Orleans since 2006.  

 

In 2013 I returned to school in Gainesville, FL to attend the Academy for Five Element Acupuncture.  I graduated in 2016 and was licensed in Louisiana in 2017 when I opened my own combination practice – New Orleans Five Element Acupuncture with Massage.  It’s a mouthful so I go by NOLA 5E.  Worsleyan Five Element acupuncture is sometimes described as a bit of a cult and in truth that can be a fair assessment.  There are currently only 3 schools in the US who teach this impressive style, and it is very difficult to find someone who practices it purely, though all acupuncturists are familiar with the Five Element energetics.  

 

To be very brief – 5E was brought to the West by a British man named JR Worsley after his travels in Asia just prior to the Cultural Revolution.  It is made up of traditions that were passed down within families of doctors/acupuncturists over centuries and was being pushed out by the incoming regime.  Worsley systematized those teachings for a Western audience and began treating and teaching in England.  

 

The primary difference between what he taught and what acupuncture became (TCM) is 5E’s singular focus on the spirit and/or psyche of the patient with the expectation that the bodily complaints will regulate with emotional and spiritual balance.  The influence of Communism stripped traditional techniques of their spiritual components and created the Barefoot Doctor school of acupuncture that pervades Chinese Medicine today.  In contrast to 5E, this system focuses on allopathic symptoms, treating the body and assuming that the psyche will follow.

 

There is no dogma associated with 5E.  Patients do not need to believe anything spiritually oriented or religious and their own faith is not pertinent to the treatment. Rather, 5E is based on Daoist ideas of cosmology and the natural world order and Confucian concepts of successful nation/community/family organizational structures.  Five Element patients need to recognize the validity of natural patterns: i.e. fire is hot, bright and rises; water is wet, cold, and sinks.  And they need to believe that they are no longer able to be their best selves and they are ready to be better.  

 

The precept behind 5E is that the world is made up of the five elements: Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Wood.  We, et al., are made up of an intricate balance of these elements and they give us our traits, emotions, physical incarnation, everything.  But in all of us we have one element that is OUR element.  It is our natural strength and therefore, weakness.  I liken it to our Achilles heel.  His heel allowed him to become the hero he did, and it brought him down in the end.  When our element is imbalanced or clouded from trauma or illness or heartbreak the rest of the system breaks down.  My job is to identify a person at their root nature, clear away any energetic debris and nourish them at their core. 

 

I have personally witnessed profound changes in people after their first treatment, and I can generally promise that people will know whether or not Five Element is benefitting them by the end of the first or second clearing treatments.  To be clear, Five Element does not work for everyone, but when it works, IT WORKS.  I recently asked a client how she was feeling after our second session.  She replied, “not much change…. oh, but I did come to accept that my marriage is over and we are moving forward with the separation.”  At another second session I was told “I ended up saying everything I’ve been holding back and I feel so much better.”   

 

I do not suggest that 5E is an appropriate substitution for psychotherapy, physical therapy, psychiatric treatment or any of the other amazing holistic options available. But it is a relatively unknown form of somatic therapy that works at the psychospiritual level and can rapidly facilitate a leveling up or breakthrough for a multitude of conditions.  I’ve been lucky enough to work with a huge variety of complaints including PTSD, anxiety and depression, infertility, chronic illnesses, heartbreak, brain trauma, marital dissolution and recommitment.  As the ad says “We’re here for your bad days.”  And we work to get you through to the good.  

 

If any of this sounds useful to you then please reach out and let us start your journey to wholeness.  Additional specifics are available throughout this website.  Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and I hope to hear from you today.  

 

With gratitude, Jennifer, Booker and Lil Bit