Acupuncture and  Chinese medicine is my specialty! Trained locally in Portland at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine (OCOM), I have over 8 years of clinical experience.

I strive to make your care my primary focus, and each patient will be given a treatment unique to their needs.

My mission is to provide more than just acupuncture treatment. I want to be a resource for our community when it comes to patient care management, education, and referrals. It is important to me that St. Johns residents have someone who is going to listen and properly advise them when it comes to making informed health care decisions.

-Justin Janicki, Licensed Acupuncturist

Below are a list of the various Traditional East Asian Medicine modalities that I use clinically.

  • Acupuncture: The paramount technique in traditional East Asian medicine and it involves the insertion of thin filaform needles into the skin to stimulate very specific points that produce a predictable physiological effect in the body. There are more than 365 acupuncture points and when needled can have different effects on the structure and function of the body. Over the thousands of years that acupuncture has been practiced, variations of needling approach and philosophies have been developed and some have been passed down through lineages. I have personally studied and practiced a few of these advanced techniques and methods and the two that most resonate with me are Dr. Richard Tan’s Balance Method and Master Tong’s style. Each have their individual thought processes, but are similar in treating according to Jing-Luo theory. These methods are popular within the acupuncture community for their nearly instantaneous reductions and alleviations of pain after the insertion of the needles. Master Tong’s approach is similar, but he also utilizes a simple bleeding approach that is very effective in injuries with severe stabbing pain in a specific location. It is a fairly simple technique that uses a three-edge needle to puncture the skin and allows Qi and blood to evacuate the Jing-Luo, which eliminates stagnation and thereby alleviates the musculoskeletal pain.
  • Electro-Acupuncture: Another acupuncture technique that is growing in popularity and uses low current electricity at acupuncture points. Recently more medical research is being done on electro-acupuncture, and these preliminary studies coming out of the West are reporting very effective results in both the treatment of pain and the ability to increase muscle strength. This approach involves simulation of the inserted acupuncture needles with electricity, and is technique is similar to transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulator or TENS machine approach which actives the nerve pathways through the surface of the skin. The medical science behind the effectiveness of electro-acupuncture has to do with the release of multiple endorphins and other neurochemistry that play a significant role in management of pain.
  • Tuina: A type of Chinese medical massage and is practiced with the purpose of promoting circulation and clearing the obstruction in channels and collaterals that cause pain. Using various massage, manipulation, ROM and stretching techniques, Tuina is an important therapeutic practice for treatment of acute and chronic pains caused by traumas. Tuina is gaining popularity in the United States as a stand-alone treatment or paired with acupuncture, and can be a highly effective treatment for sprains, strains, contusions or bruising injuries. Tuina is a good alternative to Swedish or deep tissue massage, however treatments are typically given for a shorter duration of time.
  • Chinese Herbal Medicine: In the West, the contribution of Chinese herbal medicine has gone underutilized. However, like most of the practices of East Asian medicine, as a better understanding and familiarity to Chinese herbal medicine becomes apparent in the West, so too will its further integration into medical practice. Herbal medicine has a tremendous upside and minimal downside when practiced by a well trained, board certified Chinese herbalist. Modern era research in the Chinese medicinal field has been on going simultaneously with biomedicine’s developments in prescription medicine research over the past seventy-five years (Porter, 1997). As a result, the dedication to the Western reductionism paradigm ha s lead research practices in the direction of identification and isolation of active ingredients in substances to understand and utilize their therapeutic effects on specific biological processes or tissues. This reductionism approach is very different to that of Chinese medicine, which uses techniques of combining whole herbal substances for clinical purposes to increase therapeutic effectiveness. The mixing of these various herbs from the Chinese pharmacopoeia bring about different effects then by using them individually. Terms like accentuation, enhancement, counteraction, suppression, antagonism, etc are all used to describe ways that this combining of herbs changes their therapeutic effects (Bensky, 2004). These Chinese practices will continue to be adopted in the West as further investigation and research begins to validate its practice.
  • Herbal Liniments & Plasters: Used for external application, this variation of Chinese herbal medicine have been a main stay of East Asian practices for thousands of years. However, the closely guarded secret of these topical pain-relieving formulas have only recently become available to practitioners in our country (Bisio, 2004). Now entire chapters of books are dedicated to the numerous herbal formulas and the specificity of how to use them therapeutically. The book A Tooth from the Tiger’s Mouth, by Tom Bisio, is a terrific resource on this topic. Liniments and plasters combine the medicinal properties of herbs to relieve pain and promote healing. They are safe and very effective for acute and chronic musculoskeletal pain conditions (Bisio, 2004).
  • Moxibustion: An effective technique that involves the burning of the herb Artemisia vulgaris, commonly known as Mugwort. It is an excellent therapy for various areas of the body as the therapeutic functions are numerous. From a Western medical perspective, moxibustion has a thermal effect from infrared light, and this application of heat results in chemical effects from a release of Histotoxins as proteins in the body denature (Mizutani, 2007). The chemical changes increase platelets, red and white blood cells, regulates blood sugar, stimulates blood vessel circulation, and promotes adrenal gland function. In turn, moxibustion can strengthen the activity of the body’s cells, promote the activity of the adrenal glands, stimulate heart function, support the immune system, stop bleeding, reduce inflammation and absorb bruises, relieve pain and reduce stress (Mizutani, 2007). Think of a bruise. It is the result of extravasation and accumulation of blood in the surrounding tissue. Things not moving are considered stagnation and this leads to pain. From an East Asian medical perspective, moxibustion is effective at moving stagnant Qi and blood that becomes congested in the injured area (Mizutani, 2007).
  • Cupping: Another alternative treatment in the practice of East Asian medicine that has been garnering attention. This practice acts to release toxins that cause aches, pains and irregularity in the body. Using a glass, bell-shaped cup, an open flame is used to create a vacuum inside the cup that is then immediately put on the body. The suction within the cup placed on the skin causes blood vessels to expand and draws toxins from beneath the skin to the surface. The cup stays on the skin for five to fifteen minutes and leaves behind obvious red or purple marks that can last a week or more. Excreting toxins and moving blood stagnation from an area of the body promotes an increased blood flow and circulation to the area, and the soreness, stiffness and pain that had been experienced by the patient is relieved. This maybe an effective treatment for old injuries and chronic pain of long duration.
  • Gua Sha: Like cupping, is used to eliminate pains caused by stagnation of blood and/or toxins in an area of the body. Instead of using the vacuum approach of the cup, Gua Sha simply scrapes the surface of the skin to accomplish its therapeutic effect. It too leaves marking on the skin that can last as long as a week or more, but the muscular pain relief in an area is often dramatic.