I Learned About Stress and the Body the Hard Way…
…when my first Chinese medicine practitioner fired me.
I’d been seeing him for a few months for stomach pain, but the acupuncture and herbal medicine didn’t help. Eventually he said “There’s something in you that isn’t ready to heal, and you need to figure out what that is.”
That shook me up. I realized he repeatedly asked me about whether I was stressed, and I always said “I’m fine.”
The reality is that I was dealing with frequent anxiety and unacknowledged trauma. But I didn’t share that with him, because . . . what did that have to do with digestion?
I didn’t yet understand how deeply linked mind and body are (and didn’t realize my unwillingness to share meant my practitioner was missing crucial information).
Eventually I got honest. I began working through my history. And the pain got better.
It was the beginning of a giant shift in what I understood about being human. My body and mind weren’t separate, and my pain (this may not be true for yours!) was driven by my unprocessed emotions.
Years later, during and after pregnancy, I developed hypertension and postpartum anxiety, and my doctors had no help to offer.
So I went back to acupuncture, and this time it worked. Not only did that, but during a prenatal treatment, I felt a deep and accurate intuition about who our baby would be. It was a profound moment.
It took time for everything to click, but eventually I realized that my experiences were leading me down a new path to study acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine.
The Rest of The Story
I’m Arden Yingling, MAcOM, L.Ac., a licensed and board-certified acupuncturist and Chinese herbalist in the state of Vermont. My pronouns are she/her/hers.
I received a Master’s Degree from AOMA Graduate School of Integrative Medicine in 2014, and have post-graduate training in perimenopause and menopause, menstrual health, pregnancy, postpartum, stress, trauma and pediatrics.
I opened Songbird Acupuncture in 2014 to offer the kind of medicine I needed.
I was raised in a family of scientists and strive to offer care grounded in evidence, while respecting that there are mysteries we don’t fully understand. I focus on kindness, humor, and a non-judgmental attitude.
Currently I live in the Burlington area with my husband and our elderly cat. When I’m not in the clinic, I love to read, cook, knit, watch birds, and hang out at lakes, mountains, and forests.