About
My focus is on health and wellness, not illness and disease.
The approach I use focuses on health and wellness and enhances the body’s natural ability to heal itself – rather than focusing on illness and disease. The body has incredible self-healing abilities. If you are ready to improve your current level of health, you have arrived at the right place.
I prefer to spend my life associating with the ‘good’– that being health – rather than associating with the ‘bad’ – or the disease. My ongoing learning is about how to be healthy – and then sharing that information with my clients, rather than educating them on the details of some grim disease.
During the first visit to my office, we focus on your current health status and health history. More importantly, we will talk about your health goals. Where do you want your health to be three months from now and in one year from now? What do you believe is possible for yourself?
I believe the body can heal itself. It does all the time. For example, a cut on your finger heals quickly.
Sometimes, the body needs a boost to reawaken and enhance its incredible self-healing abilities.
Acupuncture and modalities of Chinese Medicine provide that boost.
Getting the body to relax is a great way to achieve healing.
On one level, a simple explanation is that acupuncture helps you relax; this is a win-win situation. When the body is relaxed, it gets out of its own way and healing occurs.
Over 80% of doctor visits are stress-related! No matter why people come to see me at my office, one benefit they always notice immediately is less stress. I always focus on stress management as part of my treatment approach because stress is a common root cause of illness in today’s world.
Less stress = Better health.
Hi, I’m Orla.
I received my Master’s degree in Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine from the New England School of Acupuncture, Newton, MA, in 2008, and I am licensed by the Massachusetts Board of Medicine.
After a few years in an Engineering corporate role, I turned to my real passion – Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. While many people see these two paths as very far apart, I find many similarities. For example – My engineering job was a consulting role where our company worked with businesses that were not performing well. (Similar to a body that is sick). An important part of my job was facilitating regular meetings with the heads of different groups – example – the head of process engineering, the head of research, the head of operations etc. Many times, a big part of the problem was that these guys didn’t get along very well and so communication was terrible and that was reflected in the bottom line results. Now, shifting to Chinese Medicine for a moment, it’s the same thing! One way to think about Chinese Medicine is that it is all about relationships. Relationships within the body; for example, the Liver is CEO, the Stomach is CFO… First they must function well within themselves, then they must function well with each other. More details on that coming in a blog post. It is important that these two organs and meridians get along and work together in order for the whole body to function smoothly. There are also external relationships – your personal relationships, your job, your living environment. It helps explain one of the basic concepts of this medicine which is that everything is connected.
Taoist Qigong is my regular practice for self healing and prevention. I show patients appropriate movements to enhance the office treatment’s healing effect. I also teach Qigong classes for those interested in exploring this self-healing modality. The Lineage I belong to is called Wu Wei Qigong. It has a short path to the the founders of Taoism:
Me, and my fellow students —> Dr. Lu (NYC) —> the late Tai Master Xu (China) —> Lao Tzu and Zhuang Zi, the founders of Taoism
In my spare time, I love to be outdoors in nature, especially by the ocean or on the mountains. I love space travel – a favorite book from my college days is The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I love traveling to places with natural beauty and I always love spending time with family and friends in Ireland – where I was born and lived until my mid-twenties. Mostly, however, I enjoy time with my husband, our son, and our dog Pickles!
My office is in Natick, and many of my patients also come from surrounding towns, including Wellesley, Sherborn, Dover, Framingham, Wayland, Weston, Medway, Medfield, Sudbury and Holliston.