Acupuncturist Linda gets to the point of the problem

It’s nearly 30 years since Linda Heffernan opened her acupuncture clinic in Galway City, becoming one of the first people to bring this ancient form of Chinese medicine to the West of Ireland. At the time, most people didn’t know much about it, and there was a lot of scepticism. But acupuncture has proven successful for treating a variety of problems and Linda is one of the country’s best-known practitioners.

She is also a teacher, who has trained hundreds of people in acupuncture since she established a college in Galway 16 years ago. She has long had a clinic in the city, but six years ago Linda bought a Georgian house in Loughrea with the intention of basing her college there. Now that dream is about to be realised, as the once-dilapidated building has been carefully restored and modernised, using mostly traditional materials and techniques.

Linda was always destined to work in the healing profession. Born in Cork she initially began training as a medical doctor after finishing her Leaving Cert, but quickly realised it wasn’t the route she wanted to take.

She knew people who had been successfully treated with acupuncture for various problems and it piqued her interest. “I knew it helped people and was good,” she says simply about her decision to train in that area. She went to the UK and attended the Royal College of Traditional Acupuncture in Leamington Spa for three and a half years. Then she went onto further study in London, to qualify in Chinese Herbalism. Eventually, she returned to Ireland and began practising.

“There was very little talk about acupuncture in 1984,” she recalls of her early years in Galway. Linda was one of the people who helped to create an awareness of this healing practice that treats a person on many levels; physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.

“It’s about balancing energy and knowing what needs to be treated,” she says.

Her reputation spread mainly by word of mouth and continues to do so, making her one of the busiest acupuncturists in the West of Ireland.

And then there’s the College of Integrative Acupuncture. When she established it in in 1996, Linda decided that it would offer the most comprehensive training in Chinese medicine possible.

There are two types of Chinese acupuncture, she explains, the Five Element and the Eight Principle, and she studied both.

The five element theory holds that everything in nature is governed by five elements – water, wood, fire, earth and metal. These elements relate to the organs of the body and also connect with the seasons. The elements are all interconnected and in a healthy person, are in harmony.

Another approach is the Eight Principle method, where eight particular principles are used to discover the location and nature of a person’s illness and to correct imbalances in the body.

Linda teaches both approaches, and that’s why she called her school the College of Integrative Acupuncture.

Over the three years, students at the college learn about western conditions and how they can be treated using traditional Chinese medicine – these include asthma and sinus, gynaecological issues, infertility, fungal conditions, multiple sclerosis and many more.

Linda teaches how to diagnose a person’s health by the state of their tongue and by taking their pulse. She also teaches hand morphology, showing how the shape and condition of a person’s hand can be used in diagnosis.

“We also use our sense of smell,” she explains, adding that this is a very important technique in Chinese medicine. It’s not to do with breath or perspiration, but instead reflects the state of internal organs.“For instance, there is a specific smell for the liver and gall bladder, which is rancid,” she says.

In Chinese medicine, the internal organs are more than flesh and blood. They also perform tasks involving the qi, or vital energy.

According to aupuncture, the body’s organs follow cycles in which the energy goes through 12 internal organs in a sequence.

At various points of the day and the year, the energy of organs is high and, at others, it is low.

For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.