Battle Ground Healing Arts, a natural and alternative medicine practice on Main Street, added a new physician to its team earlier this year.
Alyssa Li joined Battle Ground Healing Arts in February and specializes in acupuncture and other Chinese medicines, such as cupping, Chinese herbal remedies and moxibustion (the act of burning dried mugwort on particular parts of the body). Many of Li’s remedies are natural alternatives to helping clients deal with pain, stress and more and work by changing blood flow in the body.
“It helps balance out your system and helps with your blood flow,” Li said about the effect acupuncture has on the body. “If you’re having a problem that is tied with decreased blood flow and energy flow, acupuncture could help. It will help with blood flow and bring nutrients into an area.”
Li grew up in the Pacific Northwest and graduated from the National University of Natural Medicine in Portland in 2011. During her time in post-high school education, Li focused her education on psychology and the Chinese language. Growing up, Li spoke Cantonese and studied Mandarin in college.
She said she began getting interested in natural remedies and acupuncture in high school after she and her father began seeing an acupuncturist.
“I knew I wanted to do something involved with health sciences,” Li said about her college aspirations. “After getting acupuncture treatments and learning more about the philosophy, I got more interested and started looking into it.”
Li said the act of acupuncture and natural therapies like it are “empowering” because the remedy “uses someone’s own strength” as a way to heal. Because everyone is unique, their natural treatment and remedy could be very different. Li explained that two people could come in for treatment of anxiety and her treatment for the problem could be “completely different” for each patient, despite having the same problem.
“It all depends on what is needed at that particular moment,” she said.
While the act of acupuncture and other remedies is important, Li said the environment around the procedure is also part of it. However, the act of acupuncture and natural remedy itself plays into creating the environment, according to Li. When she was in school and doing an internship, Li said she would create and set-up acupuncture spaces in conference rooms and more.
“The act of doing the treatment can help create the environment itself,” she said. “It helps to have a nice environment already, but you can create one if you need to.”
Because acupuncture uses needles as a part of its therapy, many people could be turned off by the process. However, Li was quick to mention that she uses thin needles and a less aggressive “needling style” that doesn’t push the needles far into the skin. Along with this, Li mentioned that natural remedies don’t end at acupuncture, and those with trypanophobia can still benefit from remedies such as cupping, herbal and non-insertive needle treatment.
As for why she decided to join the team at Battle Ground Healing Arts, Li said she really liked the space there.
“I like that there is an apothecary there and that it is an established natural health presence in town,” she explained.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Li has seen a lower number of patients than she expected. However, she believes that the number of patients will grow over time, especially after the pandemic is over. Li has been working to make her treatment space as safe as possible and has implemented all the guidelines recommended by the health department such as social distancing and mask requirements. Along with this, Li opens up the windows to her room to air it out between each guest and has an air filter in the room.
“We’re working to make treatments as safe as possible,” Li said.
Paying for treatment with Li is also quite easy as her services are covered by most major insurance carriers. For more information or to schedule an appointment, she can be reached at (541) 803-8970, alyssa@alyssaliacupuncture.com or alyssaliacupuncture.com.
