Aimee Ruiz is the owner and director of East Bay Acupuncture. She is a nationally certified and California licensed acupuncturist and herbalist. We sat down with her to learn a bit more about her background and are excited to share it with you!

What year did you start practicing?

I graduated from the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in San Francisco in 2011 and started my private practice shortly after. While I built my practice, I worked in many settings as an acupuncturist including community acupuncture clinics, an outpatient drug and alcohol rehab center in San Francisco, and a yoga and wellness studio in Walnut Creek.

Did you ever receive acupuncture before starting school?

Believe it or not, some people start acupuncture school without ever having received acupuncture. I had a very cool experience before becoming an acupuncturist. I had years of digestive issues (which I learned many years later were associated with endometriosis) that I was at a loss for solving. Someone suggested I try acupuncture and so I did. My acupuncturist treated me with acupuncture and herbs and with that, she helped to heal my digestive system. I wasn’t having the issues I came in for after a few months. How amazing and beautiful, I thought. Little did I know what an impact this experience would have a few years down the line.

Before you became an acupuncturist, you were on the road to becoming a social worker. How did that happen?

As a kid, I always wanted to help people. It sounds cliche but it’s true. I was a sensitive kid and felt things deeply including other people’s pain. In college, I chose psychology because the way people think and act always fascinated me. What is going on in people’s minds and emotions and in turn their behaviors is a huge curiosity for me to this day. I thought I would become a therapist and that was my trajectory with my Bachelor’s degree in Psychology; then I found social work and I pivoted to the idea of community mental health.

Once I started my Master’s in Social Work program, I quickly realized that my sensitive soul was not going to last too long in the social work field without getting burned out. I made the hard decision to leave my graduate program and do some soul-searching for what was next. Having moved across the country to attend Columbia University, I wasn’t ready to come back to California just yet. Through a series of coincidences, I found acupuncture as a career option. And when I found it, I thought, “YES! I can do that! Why didn’t I think of that?” I promptly found a school in New York and started there. The first class I attended, I had a sigh of relief realizing, “Yes, this is my path.” As an acupuncturist, I get to really help people and offer healing in a way that didn’t feel sustainable for me as a social worker.

What are your favorite things to treat?

I love supporting people toward emotional stability and wellness. Life can be hard. The whole world around us is suffering and everyone has experienced some type of grief. If I can help alleviate that suffering and provide healing for people, I feel like I’ve had a useful and meaningful day. In East Asian medicine, we believe that the mind, body, and spirit are interconnected and cannot be separated. On the spiritual side of acupuncture theory, there are emotions that are attributed to different organ systems. We are always working to relax the nervous system in acupuncture treatments because, within that restful space, our bodies are able to heal. And beyond that, acupuncture is a spiritual practice for me. The points we use have practical uses and also spiritual and emotional attributes.

Migraines are something I’ve had great success with. Headaches are too. Something interesting about acupuncture is that 10 people can come in with headaches and we might treat them all differently depending on their pattern and symptoms.

Acupuncture support for people who are going through chemotherapy is something I’m grateful to offer. Nausea, fatigue, body pain, and nerve pain are common symptoms that clients seek out acupuncture to help with as they work through their cancer treatment.

Tell us about your interest and experience with prenatal and postpartum care.

While in Chinese medicine school, one of my externships was in the Labor and Delivery department of a hospital in Brooklyn. I had always thought I would have a general health practice but when I saw that we could support birth and pregnancy with acupuncture and East Asian medicine, I wanted to know everything I could about both. That started me on a whole new path. So, starting in 2007, I found every training I could to educate myself while also being a graduate student. I went through doula training and attended many continuing education courses that you would usually wait to do until you graduated. I had found my passion.

During these years, I studied with a few people who are well-known in our field. Raven Lang is a midwife and acupuncturist who practiced for many years in Santa Cruz and specialized in prenatal, birth, and postpartum care. I had the opportunity to learn from her throughout many years. I trained with other well-known acupuncturists like Debra Betts and Randine Lewis. Recently, I spent a year deepening my knowledge by studying with Sharon Weizenbaum for herbal training for pregnancy and reproductive health. My favorite by far was my years of training with my beloved teacher Claudia Citkovitz, learning acupuncture for birth in hospital and homebirth settings. Birth acupuncture almost led me to become a midwife but I love my sleep too much to live an on-call life.

More recently, I became certified as a senior member of the OBAA, a small group of acupuncturists with extensive knowledge and training in the field of prenatal care. We continue to collaborate through research and community education.

How did you get interested in acupuncture for fertility and hormone health?

Once I started my practice, I started getting clients who were trying to conceive and dealing with fertility struggles. I loved supporting them but knew I needed more expertise. I found a mentor and worked toward certification with ABORM so that I could be the best support possible for my fertility clients. One huge joy for me is then getting to offer prenatal care to clients once they do conceive. I support my patients on the path as they meet the stress, anxiety, grief, and heartbreak of a difficult fertility journey. While most of my clients are hoping to carry a pregnancy, many clients come to me through their partners for sperm health and male-factor fertility issues.

I’m happy when I get to support people from my LGBTQ+ community who are trying to grow their families. I love that we have these tools to help people create families that they wouldn’t have been able to do many years ago.

I’ve also seen such amazing results for clients who are experiencing hormonal imbalance that manifests as painful or irregular cycles as well as those who are going through perimenopause. Knowing that acupuncture can help, makes me excited to offer these tools to others.

And then you started practicing Sports Medicine? How did that happen?

I see a lot of people for acute and chronic pain - most acupuncturists do. To keep it interesting and expand my skills, I trained with Whitfield Reaves, a leader in the field of sports medicine acupuncture. I learned some highly effective and straightforward ways to treat injuries and pain. I have also practiced Dr. Tan’s Balance Method for over a decade, which is a great way to treat a variety of ailments and for pain, especially acute pain, these techniques are extremely useful and long-lasting.

What is one thing you wish everyone knew about East Bay Acupuncture?

I want people to know that although we focus a lot of our practice on fertility and pregnancy, we can and do treat most ailments with acupuncture and herbal medicine! And if we don’t, we will find you someone who does.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions about how Aimee can support you!