Today we’d like to introduce you to Lisa Dunlevy.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Growing up I liked to cook and was a natural care taker type. Upon graduating high school, I enrolled in college as well as a massage therapy program. I worked at a health food store and learned a lot from an herbalist employed by the store. I loved all the books on healing and well being. I had an opportunity to do a trade for acupuncture from an acupuncture student who needed an extra patient to graduate. It was there I found myself transform some emotional upset as well as resolve some physical health problems and I knew I had to study acupuncture further. I continued to stay busy in my massage practice while I completed my undergraduate degree from University of Maryland, College Park. From there I went onto earn a Master of Acupuncture degree from Traditional Acupuncture Institute, TAI, that became the Maryland University of Integrative Healing MUIH. Upon graduating my husband and I were newly pregnant and headed to Charleston, South Carolina where some of our family was located. I have been practicing and serving the Mount Pleasant community for 21 years. It’s been a slow and steady journey from treating out of a doctor’s office, to a Chiropractor’s office, home office with a separate entrance, to my own office and then I eventually had other acupuncturists join Seaside Acupuncture. We are currently an office of four acupuncturists and one massage therapist with an office manager who helps keep everything going and provides assistance scheduling patients as well.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Of course, Covid was a challenging time to practice. But I stayed quite busy and it was probably the easiest time in my life to schedule people. Lot’s of flexibility. Hah! Fortunately, I love a challenging patient case as it makes me study deeper and enables me to help others. So, I constantly take continuing education classes and read and re/read reference material in the evenings. With such an old medicine and so many lineages I will be learning till the day I retire.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We offer comprehensive Chinese Medicine care which means we treat all aspects of the person. This can be emotional, mental, as well as physical. I think it’s worth mentioning the emotions were never separated from the body in Chinese Medicine. If we are embarrassed we blush, scared we have to pee, if we are stressed tension builds throughout our body. We pride ourselves on spending an abundant amount of time with our patients. Our patients sometimes ask if we are therapists or say we are their therapist because we have a deep understanding of the emotions and their effects on the body and spirit. And that part of what makes us so special is our relationship centered healing.
Our services include; cupping, gua sha, some massage, moxabustion (burning mugwort on needles or acupuncture points), Chinese herbs, dietary therapy, as well as acupuncture. We love supporting our patients toward increasing health and wellbeing. While many patients come in with a primary concerns like pain, often patients find they are sleeping better, have more energy, mood and digestion have also improved.
How do you define success?
I find success at the most simple level is patients finding resolution of their health ailments. I think at a broader level it’s about the patient becoming more self aware and finding agency in their emotional state, and lifestyle so they might not even ‘need’ acupuncture and it’s more about support and empowerment.
Pricing:
- Initial intake and first treatment is $170
- Follow up Acupuncture treatments are $125
Contact Info:
- Website: https://seasideacupuncture.com
- Instagram: seasideacupuncture.mt.p
