Classical acupuncture for anxiety & depression.

When the mind cannot get out from under it.

For some people it runs hot. The chest that will not loosen, the three a.m. waking, the mind scanning for the next thing to brace against. For others it runs low. The weight of getting out of bed, the flatness where interest used to be, the fog that sits between you and your own life. Often it is both, trading places, the racing and the heaviness taking turns. You have likely tried therapy, an app, a prescription, an adjustment or two. Something underneath stays in place.

Anxiety and depression are not character flaws, and they are not a chemical story that needs permanent suppression. They are what a system shows when it has carried more than its reserves allow. Classical acupuncture treats that body directly, and reads anxiety and depression as two faces of a single root.

This page is the broad view. For the focused work on each, see acupuncture for anxiety and acupuncture for depression.

The shared root underneath both.

Anxiety and depression look like opposites, the one wired and the other shut down, but in this medicine they grow from the same ground. Two things tend to be happening at once.

The first is stored charge. Emotion is a physical event, and an event the body cannot fully discharge in the moment gets packed away into the small vessels, the Luo channels, rather than left to disturb the deeper organs. The hard conversation you never finished, the years of holding it together, the grief that had nowhere to go: the body files it there and keeps the door shut. That stored charge is the static under the present, the dread with no cause, the low mood that colors a good day.

The second is thinning reserves. A settled awareness, what this medicine calls the Shen, the part of you that feels at home in your own skin, needs deep reserves to rest on. When those reserves run thin, from chronic stress, overwork, suppressed emotion, or simply years of carrying too much, the Shen loses its footing and gets flung out of the present. Flung up, it races and scans, and you get the alarm and vigilance of anxiety. Left without enough fuel to lift, it sinks, and you get the heaviness and withdrawal of depression. Same unhoused spirit, two directions.

How I work with it.

The work is two-fold, matched to the two halves of the root.

• Release the stored charge. Worked through the Luo channels, the small vessels that hold the packed-away emotion, treatment lets what has been stored move again. Patients sometimes feel it happen: a long exhale, unexpected tears, a quiet that arrives on its own. This is the half people are describing when they say something shifted that they could not have talked their way to.
• Rebuild the deep reserves. Worked through the Divergent channels, treatment rebuilds the body's deep reserves, what this medicine calls the mediumship, so the Shen has ground to settle on and stops slipping out of the present. This is the half that makes the change hold, rather than resetting visit to visit.
• One patient at a time. A private room, my undivided attention, the entire session.

The Luo and the Divergent channels are where this work lives, and both are largely absent from the standardized acupuncture most people have had before. Reaching them is the difference.

"Diego is an extraordinarily gifted practitioner. His generosity of spirit combined with technical expertise and depth of knowledge are a rare combination. He will stand with you all the way." — Josie J.

Individual results vary; testimonials reflect personal experiences and do not represent typical outcomes.

Is this right for you?

A good fit if:

• You experience anxiety and depression alongside physical symptoms
• You've tried medication with limited results or unwanted side effects
• You feel stuck despite therapy, lifestyle changes, or other interventions
• Your anxiety or depression seems to come from nowhere, with no clear trigger
• You carry unresolved grief, trauma, or emotional patterns from the past (see also trauma and PTSD)

Not the right fit if:

• You're in a mental health crisis right now: please reach emergency care, or call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, first
• You're not open to showing up consistently and staying with the process
• You're not open to the possibility of emotional releases during treatment

If minority stress, shame, or the long work of identity sit beneath what you carry, I write about that on the acupuncture and Daoist alchemy for gay men page.

You do not need to know which side you fall on to begin. If the wired, racing side runs louder, start with acupuncture for anxiety. If the heaviness is what weighs most, start with acupuncture for depression. Or begin with a consultation, and we will read what your body is carrying and find the way in together. This work sits alongside your therapy and your medical care.