image depicts erin mckelvy, in a blue sweater and green hat and hoodie the color of their eyes. erin is in the fall woods, and looking slightly away from the viewer. she has long brown braided hair and is smiling slightly.


  • she/her/they/them

    erin can be reached at erin@migrantsrestacupuncture.com

 

Meet your acupuncturists

About erin and noah

image depicts Noah Morris, in the desert, holding a white barn owl standing on his leather-gloved hand. noah is looking at the owl and grinning. he has a beard, glasses, a grey hoodie, and an orange hat. there are saguaro cacti in the background.

  • he/him

    Noah can be reached at Noah@migrantsrestacupuncture.com

 

About our practice.

Image depicts a late summer day in Appalachia: yellow stickweed wildflowers in the foreground, a hill of young cedars and a mature walnut in the middle ground, and round tree-covered mountains in the distance, all under a blue sky and white clouds.
 
 

Why “Migrants’ Rest” ACupuncture?

With our name, we honor the long history of the place where we practice. These beautiful mountains and valleys have been home to human migration for milennia, with deer trails becoming foot paths for the first peoples of Turtle Island to trade and exchange with one another from as far away as the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. This thoroughfare of connection became “The Great Road,” during colonization and saw waves of folks from all over the world making their way deeper into the continent. We refer to this long, layered history. Today the New River Valley is home to folks with deep Appalachian roots, as well as immigrants from far and wide, coming to learn, teach, and spend time in this beautiful region. We also acknowledge this present human constellation with our name.

East Asian Energetic Medicine is based around the understanding that, “Bu tong zi tong. Tong zi bu tong.” In English: Where there is no free flow, there is pain. Where there is free flow, there is no pain. Central to this medicine is identifying where stagnation or tension is occurring in the body/the mind, and helping to bring circulation, movement, or flow to release the blockage, address the pain, and restore homeostasis.

不通這痛,痛則不通

Where there is No free flow, there is pain

Where there is Free Flow, there is no pain.

About our Logo

five colorful birds appear around a five-pointed star: a green hummingbird, a bright red scarlet tananger, a golden meadowlark, a great blue heron, and a black vulture.

Wood-fire-earth-metal-water

The five birds depicted on our logo correspond to the five elements, or five phases, that underpin the system of East Asian Energetic medicine that we practice.

  • The wood phase is the beginning of the cycle: springtime, birth, upward movement, creative ideas and planning. The Hummingbird winters in Central America, and travels to the NRV when spring arrives and brings flowers and new growth.

  • The Fire Phase represents expansion, upward and outward movement, summertime, and passion. The Scarlet Tananger arrives from South America at the height of our summer. They feast on insects in the leafy treetops of the forest canopy, and feed on the red berries fruiting in summer.

  • The Earth Phase is the center of the cycle: late summer, ripening, transformation, and the yellows of ripening grains and long afternoons. The Eastern Meadowlark may winter in the American Southwest, or spend its whole year in the NRV, singing its sweet songs in our fields and reminding us to make hay while the sun shines.

  • Metal Phase is the decline of the cycle: the crisp arrival of fall, downward motion, the boundary between seasons with a release of things ready to be let go of. The Great Blue Heron spends time on the boundary between land and water, and moves from Alaska and the North through our area to Florida and the Carribean.

  • The Water Phase is the end of the cycle: Death, Winter, cold, and the consolidation required for rebirth and renewal. The Black Vulture is an agent of this renewal, tending to the dead to enact the beginning of decomposition.