Lela C. Carney, Licensed Acupuncturist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner

Welcome to my home website where I tie it all together – my practice of acupuncture, Chinese and functional medicine (natural, herbal and nutritional) with mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and Somatic Experiencing (SE) trauma support.

I was licensed in 1983 and have been practicing in Santa Cruz since 1986. For detailed information about my practice, my qualifications and what I offer, please visit http://santacruzacupuncturelc.com/

Health in our Own Hands: www.healthinourownhands.info is my web resource site for staying (or getting) healthy in this challenging, rapidly changing world. It contains the best self-care information I’ve gathered in my 28 years of practice.

As you will see at my thyroid treatment website: http://alternativethyroidtherapy.com/ , I specialize in treating thyroid issues, especially autoimmune thyroid problems like Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. This is a major focus of my practice because autoimmune diseases and thyroid problems are currently at ‘epidemic’ levels and also because  I have this condition myself, so I know it inside and out.

One of the most important things I’ve learned is that many of us with autoimmune issues, hypothyroid and adrenal exhaustion have had long-term stress and we’ve been dealing with a tendency to quickly go into hyper-vigilance, fight or flight (or freeze).

For this reason, I’ve committed to learning to work with trauma, especially the more ongoing, subtle early developmental types that are often missed by health care providers and which underlie many chronic disease/dis-ease states.

Together, my websites explain how I combine stress/trauma work with functional medicine for autoimmune conditions, leaky gut and food sensitivities, food allergies and food intolerance.

If you decide to become a new patient, please copy the assessment forms  available at alternativethyroidtherapy.com/patient-forms/, fill them out and bring them with you to our first session.

You will find my contact information by clicking Contact on the menu bar at the top.

I look forward to supporting you in reclaiming your own health – ultimately, our health is truly “in our own hands”.

Lela