Your Face, Your Skin and Your Spirit
What would you look like if all strain and stress was removed from your face?
This is what facial (cosmetic) acupuncture is meant to do! Facial acupuncture is not just acupuncture in the face. It is specific techniques that direct circulation and fluids, while also lifting skin, relaxing muscles and boosting collagen production. This is very different from when you might receive a few acupuncture points in the face for your sinuses, jaw or that point you love between your eye brows.
Cosmetic or Facial Acupuncture has been around for centuries. It uses the gifts and principles of Chinese Medicine in order to improve the health and appearance of your skin, complexion and face. Facial Acupuncture involves a lot of acupuncture in your face as well as acupuncture on your body. Facial acupuncture works to draw circulation up to the head and face in order to improve the circulation to the skin and upper body while also relaxing certain muscles and reducing lines and wrinkles. Points on the body in a cosmetic treatment work to balance the body’s circulation and energy. In many facial treatments, I work on digestive and metabolic function because it often relates so much to the skin and the face.
We can’t talk about beauty in Chinese Medicine without talking about the Shen.
The Shen can refer to many concepts in Chinese Medicine. It is often interchanged with the word ‘spirit’ in English translation. In TCM, it also refers to your complex mental faculties as well as the expression of a person’s vitality. It can be thought of the expression of a person’s consciousness. The Shen corresponds to the mind and the heart as they are thought of as one in the same —the mental and spiritual aspects of a person.
This is what makes a persons face look animated when they speak. It’s what makes your eyes sparkle and light up when you’re excited. It’s the thing that let’s your loved ones know you care just by looking into your eyes.
In Chinese Medicine we often talk about the Shen as a part of your health and well being because Chinese Medicine does not just look at the part of the body you’ve come in to address but instead it looks at all your conditions or complaints in the context of your whole body’s health as well as your relationship to the things, people and environment around you. This is what we mean when we call Chinese Medicine, ‘holistic’. The can be seen in your demeanor, the energy that surrounds you, how you move through life and very often it is detected in your eyes and face. I work with so many people for facial acupuncture who are not necessarily looking to erase wrinkles or lift sagging skin, but they really want to look more relaxed and brighter. They want their jaw to feel soft and their forehead to unwind. They want to melt that stress off their faces and they feel it after a treatment.
Facial Acupuncture has the power to improve your physical appearance, but internally, it relaxes and softens your nervous system. It removes strain. It opens you to dream and manifest. It allows you to be the person you are meant to be in this world. All of this can help boost confidence and brighten your spirit. This is the type of beauty that Chinese Medicine tries to achieve.
Use the code FACIAL50 for $50 off a facial treatment
You might also be interested in reading: Benefits of Red Light, Benefits of Microneedling, Balancing the 5 Spirits and 7 Emotions
Written by Dr. Emily Siy, DACM on 8/2/26 posted on 9/7/26
Liang, Shou-Yu & Wu, Wen-Ching (1997) Qi Gong Empowerment Guide to Medical Taoist Buddhist Wushu Energy Cultivation The Way of The Dragon Publishing p. 328
Maciocia, Giovanni (2005)The Foundations of Chinese Medicine Churchill Livingston pg 109