Vanessa Mahoney is a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist in Colorado and a nationally board certified Diplomat of Oriental Medicine by the NCCAOM. She graduated AOMA Graduate School of Integrative Medicine in Austin, Texas. After graduation, she trained with Mikio Sankey in Esoteric Acupuncture and uses an intuitive approach, incorporating her knowledge of the chakra system, psychology, and energy healing in her treatments.

Vanessa’s journey to acupuncture began through a time of transition in her life. The stresses of life, being a teacher, and going through a divorce created multiple health concerns…migraines, depression, and anxiety. Her intuition led her to energy healing treatments…Reiki and Healing Touch. While working with an energy practitioner in Chicago, it was suggested that acupuncture be added to her healing regiment. After years of seeing Western doctors who disregarded her holistic approach to reporting symptoms, Vanessa found someone who asked questions about her health in the way she thought about illness and disease. Acupuncture so dramatically changed her life and health, she knew that being an acupuncturist and healer was the path her life was destined to take.

Growing up in a family of doctors and nurses, Vanessa wanted to be a doctor from a very early age. The type of doctor she wanted to be changed through the years…baby doctor, veterinarian, and pediatrician…so becoming being an acupuncturist brought her back to those early aspirations which were lost when she became a US Marine and then a teacher. Through her many life experiences she gained valuable insight into the human experience. Paired with her compassionate, empathetic approach, her goal is to help people through their transitions in life. We’re all just trying to be ok with where we’re at in life, and Vanessa tries to make the journey a little less painful.

Acupuncturists are trained as general practitioners and treat many ailments. While Vanessa can treat most anything, she is drawn to treating mental health issues, trauma, women’s health issues, stress, pain, & spiritual issues, helping people through transitions, and assisting people to find balance and heal naturally.

Vanessa lives with her rescued Doberman, Frieda, in Denver. She is active with veteran organizations Team RWB, Team Rubicon, and Mission Continues and will complete yoga teacher training the Summer 2016 to become a trauma informed yoga teacher for Comeback Yoga. She enjoys traveling the world, and two of her life changing trips include walking across Tanzania to visit rural schools as she retraced Henry Morton Stanley’s search for the Nile and volunteering in Bir, Himachal Pradesh, India with Tibetian refugees.