American woman promotes, practices acupuncture for 10 years

Sarah Wehner treats a patient. (Gao Shi/People's Daily)

Sarah Wehner, an American woman born in the 1980s, has been promoting Chinese acupuncture for 10 years in the state of Maryland, hoping that she can some day exchange views with real masters of acupuncture in China.

Wehner is from Baltimore, Maryland. She has been an experienced acupuncturist for 10 years though she has never been to China before. Her father is the one who introduced her to acupuncture. He was cured of a mental illness through acupuncture, after many other therapies failed.

“My father is an carpenter, he can create a lot of things with only simple tools. He enlightened me and I decided to learn acupuncture. I think I can help others with the needles,” explained Wehner.

Sarah Wehner treats a patient. (Gao Shi/People's Daily)

Wehner and her colleagues uploaded videos introducing different acupuncture therapies on social media in order to alleviate patients’ concerns. They also compiled a two-page guide to TCM terms. Wehner herself remembered hundreds of acupoints from when she was in college.

Since treatment fees for acupuncture are relatively high in the U.S., Wehner organized a group of medical students, acupuncturists, patients, community clinics and sponsors to set up an acupuncture community, hoping to help more people obtain the therapies, coordinate job opportunities for acupuncturists in the U.S., and significantly lower the price of the treatments in America by 2020.

“I treat 70 to 100 patients from different ethnic groups and aged from 2 to over 80 every week. They all like this traditional Chinese therapy and feel satisfied after treatment,” said Wehner. She added that she hopes to continue improving her medical skills and would love to speak with Chinese acupuncture masters in the future.