Episode 129 Unraveling The Healing Power Of Acupuncture & The Interconnectedness Of The Mind & Body: Interview with Zac Cormier

Chris McDonald: In our crazy, often stressful world, there's an ever increasing focus on pharmaceutical solutions. Acupuncture stands as a beacon of hope, providing a natural and holistic approach to mental wellbeing with few side effects with its roots and traditional Chinese medicine. Acupuncture has garnered attention for its ability to heal both the body and the mind.

In this episode, you learn how all systems in the body are interconnected and how this impacts mental and physical health. Let's go deeper into the holistic benefits of acupuncture today. On the Holistic Counseling Podcast, this is Holistic Counseling, the podcast for mental health therapists who want to deepen their knowledge of holistic modalities and build their practice with confidence.

I'm your host, Chris McDonald, licensed therapist. I am so glad you're here for the journey.

Welcome to today's episode of the Holistic Counseling Podcast. Are you ready to go beyond symptoms and find healing holistically for your overall physical and mental health? Or maybe you're looking at other holistic options for your clients? In today's episode, we'll be going deep into the holistic practice of acupuncture, how it works, and how it can be integrated with a new holistic tool called the me.

We'll also be discussing the remarkable benefits it offers for our wellbeing, as well as ideas of what you can do today to help alleviate stress and promote overall wellness. Today's guest is Zach Cormier. Zach is a holistic healthcare professional with a unique perspective on health and medicine. He is owner of Lucky Cat Acupuncture in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Welcome to the podcast,

Zac Cormier: Zach. Hey, thanks. I'm happy to

Chris McDonald: be here. Can you tell my listeners how you got started with acupuncture? Yeah,

Zac Cormier: absolutely. Uh, it was actually sort of a mistake when I, uh, a mistake. It was a mistake. I know a happy accident as Bob Ross would say, but I was, I was finishing up, uh, my undergraduate, uh, degrees and I was, uh, trying to figure out what I wanted to do next.

Originally, I was thinking chiropractic or something along the lines of somewhere in the field of medicine and just intuitively it didn't feel right to me. Then I was pretty lost at that point. I was trying to, That it, I wanted to do, so as I was looking up different kind of schools, what ended up popping up on my computer as an ad was an ad for an acupuncture school.

Uh, and I was Oh, cool. The universe spoke to you. I know. Was weird ads tailored to you. Right. Don't know anybody that's had acupuncture, don't know anything about it. I dunno if it works. It's pretty woowoo. It's far out there. I dunno. But, uh, it was my spring break, so I ended up gonna Florida and checking out some schools and, uh, I was really impressed and it just felt right.

So ended up moving there and paying a bunch of money, still not knowing really anything about acupuncture. And of course I went to the, the kinda the orientation where it's all the other students are there and we're supposed to stand up and share our stories about, uh, you know, why we're here and what we know about acupuncture.

And everyone's standing up saying, oh, this, this medicine's been in my family for generations, kind of thing. Uh, and I stand up like, yeah, I have no idea if it works. I've never had it. I dunno, anybody that's had it. So everyone had a good chuckle at that, but, uh, everyone was very welcoming and immediately I started through the program, got acupuncturist, saw some amazing things that just blew my mind, so I knew I was in the right place.

And then from there, just going through, uh, acupuncture school, learning a very different perspective than what I had learned from my undergraduate learning and all that. Uh, and also just me being a big nerd, I branch out on all kinds of different topics. That's kind of what's made me the medical practitioner I am now.

And even through school I kind of saw there was some missing pieces. It was told to us actually that uh, what was taught in schools was gonna give you an 80% success rate. And I was kind of like, 80 percent's good, but I'm kinda a perfectionist, so I want more than that. Uh, so me being greedy about it, I was kinda saying like, what are the missing pieces and why is that missing percent there?

And so that's when I was kinda like, okay, well there's a lot of people, lot smarter than mem knowledge. Found, uh, all the people who were smarter than me and was asking questions and reading as much as I could, trying to put together all the pieces. And this was in all kinds of different fields. So my undergraduate degree was kinesiology, so I was very familiar with all kinds of exercise, science and movement and all that kinda good stuff.

Uh, acupuncture for holistic perspectives. I was training in Qigong, uh, medical q, young, uh, all kinds of different things. And even biology, quantum biology, A list goes on, but, uh, As I got to a certain point, I realized that there was a lot of similarities and things to tie all these things together. So now, uh, yes I am an acupuncturist, but I carry that title and that's what initially people come to me for when they see, uh, my website or hear from other people, uh, they hear about acupuncture and you know, they come in and end up getting something a little bit different than the traditional acupuncturist.

I don't. Practice what it would be referred to as TCM or traditional Chinese medicine. Uh, I use some of the ideas and theories and ways of thinking, but I've kind of adapted it into a more, uh, what I consider a more holistic perspective. And we

Chris McDonald: love a holistic perspective here. Holistic on the

Zac Cormier: holistic counseling, that's the bread and butter.

So, uh, what I found to be lacking was when I was going through, uh, a lot of different, whether it was acupuncture school or undergraduate, or just working with other, uh, medical practitioners, was the lack of looking for root causes. And it was really bugging me that even people who were saying, oh, we're treating root causes, they really weren't.

And it just kinda got under my skin a little bit. So, uh, it's really important to me to focus, I mean, Something like at acupuncture school, even acupuncture is great, but I find that it doesn't necessarily address the root cause for why someone developed a disease or dysfunction in the first place. So if you have somebody come in with, uh, since this is the, uh, podcast related to mental health, um, someone coming in with something like anxiety or depression, a lot of the professors or students would say, oh, let's get them on this acupuncture and herbs.

And that would be like, that's, that's what's gonna fix it. And in my mind, I was there thinking like, okay, well this could help, but we could definitely see improvement. And it may even lead to a resolution, but it won't be, it'll be permanent. Why develop the anxiety depression in first place? Wasn't acupuncture deficiency, herbal deficiency?

There's something that caused that. So those were the kinda the questions that I kept asking over and over again.

Chris McDonald: So was it you were looking for like, like longer term solutions, not something that's kind of a bandaid

Zac Cormier: approach, right? Yeah, yeah. No band-aids, I wanted something permanent and something that would last exactly.

Hundred percent. None of this stuff where you're, you're stuck coming to me for acupuncture for the rest of your life. I know I've done my job. If you're out doing the fun shenanigans that you wanna do out in the world, uh, not as much fun as I have with all my clients. Cause I like to talk, I like to joke around.

Uh, but we get stuff done. You know, I want you out doing the things you wanna do and if you getting better and getting worse, and that was my experience initially with acupuncture, was people were coming in, they were getting better, and then a few months later I'd see their name pop up. Okay, well I hope this isn't the same thing.

I hope it's something else happened cause they were having fun or something. I dunno. But uh, you know, they'd come back and they'd say, no, just my anxiety depression came back. Something like that. So what I noticed with the acupuncture gets better, gets worse, gets better, get worse. Uh, and that's when I was really asking those questions about what is the root cause.

Uh, of this dysfunction that they're having, what's the root cause of that anxiety and depression? Um, so that was what really led me down the path to kind of stepping away from just being a pure acupuncturist. I think people get stuck on their tools sometimes and acupuncture herbalist, getting stuck on herbs.

A surgeon, uh, getting stuck on wanting to use his scalpel all the time, instead of seeing the kinda from a wider lens and saying, well, why is it really, you know, this anxiety, depression coming up in the first place? Kinda asking better questions. Where's that coming from? Exactly. Instead of just addressing the symptom, you're getting to the root cause of it.

So it's, and I find those things are often related to someone's lifestyle or environment that's actually causing those things. Yeah.

Chris McDonald: You know what? I, I had gone to a chiropractor once, I'll never forget it, and it just reminded me, like he talked about, he's the only person that ever talked about what you do outside of here matters.

Right. And you can't, you can't just come to, for me to adjust you. I need you to help when you lift things. I need you to, so, so that just makes me think like that's more of a wider lens too, isn't it? Just looking at all the lifestyle

Zac Cormier: factors. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I had a professor in acupuncture school, I remember she said, these clients are gonna come to see you for probably an hour.

Of the week. Think about all the other hours during the week. It's like you can do great during that hour, but you're going up against a mountain if what? They, they leave your office and then they're just all the, you're pieces to puzzle other than just using your tools. If. The education or your detective work isn't part of that, uh, you're gonna be kinda missing the, the thing, uh, the X marks the spot.

Uh, you'll just be kinda going in circles, um, and absolutely kinda get stuck there. And it, like you said, the, the wider lens, taking a bigger perspective on things, which is definitely the holistic perspective, holistic medicine is challenging in that you have to think about everything that's true. And to know a lot about everything.

Uh, versus some of our contemporary medicine is very, yeah. Cause

Chris McDonald: I think that, um, cuz you know, holistic therapists, a lot of times we think about too anxiety. I don't think of it as just, oh, they have a cognition that's negative and, right. Right. Or a trauma. It's just that, cuz it's not, sometimes there's physical causes, sometimes there's something else going on in their nervous system.

Who knows. So I think that, I think you're right that, that's just so helpful to really look at the, the bigger picture and how all these systems work together.

Zac Cormier: Exactly when it comes down to it, it's uh, I think that's where some of our contemporary medicine loses its oomph is if someone comes in with anxiety, depression, it's like you're looking just straight at one thing versus seeing how the pieces connect.

So it's just something as simple as something like depression. It's, we know dopamine's definitely involved. And where does dopamine come from? Not from the brain, it comes from other places or, you know, having serotonin or, uh, melatonin. All those other neurotransmitters and hormones, they come from different places in your body, different organs, which is what I really value from my acupuncture education is seeing the interconnectedness of everything.

Uh, yes. And seeing connections you didn't. See before and how the dots are so connected. And it just absolutely still blows my mind to this day, even though I've been doing it for years now. I can tell. Um, which is, yeah, exactly. Um, and uh, I think that's where even my perspective on it ha knowing acupuncture as well as studying all kinds of other things, um, from movement, uh, science to different biology and chemistry and quantum biology.

Those different pieces tied into acupuncture make it. Make a lot more sense. So I found that originally when I started with acupuncture, trying to explain what I was doing or what was going on from an acupuncture lens, people didn't get it. Maybe it was me, but I found that other acupuncturists also didn't necessarily weren't able to give somebody something solid to understand.

So I think by tying all these other things together now with kinda what I use and how I explain it, it makes a lot more sense and cause it's a lot more simple, which is why I developed. Uh, my, uh, Meridian Graham app, which helps to get an idea of, uh, a holistic perspective of someone's health to identify the root causes for why It's, like I said, they developed the diseases in the first place.

And then using that, I'm able to kind of guide people way better

Chris McDonald: after we, and can you give the website just so people, if they wanna look at this, if they're at home? Yeah, absolutely.

Zac Cormier: So, uh, meridia graham.com, uh, is the website. Uh, from there you can access the app. It's a web-based app, so not in the app store.

Uh, if you just type it in, in your, uh, search box, it'll come up. And if you go on there, there's a ton of great information. But essentially what Meridian Graham is an app that gives you a holistic assessment of your health. So when you open it up, it has a questionnaire, uh, that you answer. It's an adaptive questionnaire, which is pretty cool.

That means it only asks you questions that are relevant to you. Uh, so if you don't have any issues with sleep, you don't have to answer any issues, any questions about sleep. So that makes a little bit more concise. Um, but it gives you, you get, it's really is a holistic assessment. Some questions in there, people find very odd, but they're very important.

Something, uh, all kinds of very intricate things. I've studied some very non insignificant things, uh, can actually be very important.

Chris McDonald: What are the five systems? I'm looking at the little chart now, if everybody can listen, is listening, can look online. How it works is where you find there's a little chart on there.

So what are the five systems that it looks at?

Zac Cormier: Yeah, so the, the little pentagram that you're looking at with the five different colored circles on there, uh, is gonna be part of the report. After you complete that questionnaire, you get the holistic assessment. That's the report. Each of the circles is a different category, so you can also see in there that there's a list of different, uh, functions and organs and systems and a chart with the related muscles to it.

The idea being that any muscle or organ body system function can be grouped into one or more of those five circles. So as you go through the questionnaire and answer all the questions behind scenes, it. Spits out the system that is gonna be, or the circle that is the most deficient, um, meaning the most work.

So most oftentimes I see it's the yellow circle, is the one that is the most filled in, which it means it's gonna be the one that's the most deficient, as an example, what that includes would be the frontal lobe of your brain, the macula in your eye, your thyroid adrenals. The muscles on the front of your body, your intestines, your stomach, so, and there's some more stuff in there as well.

But the idea is that if one of those pieces of that system starts to degrade or some kind of dysfunction happens in it, the rest of it will also be damaged. So a good example, we can go with. Is something like, uh, someone is just burning the candle at both ends. They're tiring themselves out. Their adrenals are just getting burnt out.

The adrenals are part of that same system that includes your digestive system, it includes your thyroid, it includes your eyes, frontal lobe, your brain. So those other things will start to also create dysfunction. So what that looks like is at the very start of disease, you have just mild symptoms. You could have somebody with just some mild, you just feel tired, mild adrenal fatigue, trouble sleeping, frontal, low brain related, maybe some, uh, knee pain would be involved in that as well.

Maybe some slight hormonal things, uh, maybe irregular period, something like that. Uh, and then as things continue to decline, because the root causes are not, Resolved. You kind of think about that as a bucket with water in it. And the root cause punches a hole in it. So then the water's leaking out. So it doesn't matter how many good things you do to try to heal the systems, it's just leaking outta that bucket.

So that way it's, the system keeps getting more dysfunctional. You start having more digestive issues, you might start having anxieties, depressions, uh, that's, it's the beauty of the systems. It shows how these things are linked together. It shows you how it is that when your digestive health starts to decline.

All the certain hormones that are related in your frontal lobe that you need for prevent anxiety, depressions, uh, actually also will start decline. It's a way actually, you can predict where, see, it points your attention to where to look.

Chris McDonald: So I see the little arrows. Is that what you mean? Like with, um, it points to the kidneys

Zac Cormier: from that?

Well, the idea being that any symptom I say is like a teacher, it points your attention somewhere to pay attention. So if your knees hurt, it's okay, my knees are hurting, why are my knees hurting? Uh, and then you have to kind of look around. It's not necessarily the knees are gonna be the problem, like I just said.

It could be your adrenals, it could be your digestive system. It could be your thyroid, it could be frontal lobe, your brain, it could be your eyes. Some root causes damaging some peace along that system to drain the rest. Of the system. So then, uh, if you can find that leak in the bucket, patch it up, and then you're able to do kind of the healthy things that we all know to do, hopefully then that system will heal.

So what Gram does is it identifies the root cause for why it's, you'll also also in there, if you scroll further down that page, you'll see that it gives you a list of the root causes. I work with 13 different root causes. It'll identify specific to you based on how you answer the questionnaire. Which of those root causes is likely creating that, uh, slow leak in the bucket and creating that dysfunction.

So then the idea after you get your report, you know, the root causes. If you resolve the root causes, your body's able to reclaim its regenerative and healing ability. That's what acupuncture is really originally based on, is using your own body's ability to heal. So my question, my detective work is always, why?

Why is your body not healing? Or why, why, why? Why is the question I always ask? Getting as far back to the root as possible. Symptoms almost don't matter to me other than to get the kinda the root cause of what's going on.

Chris McDonald: So if you have this, do you then know what to do as far as acupuncture and.

Zac Cormier: Yeah.

Yeah. Absolute. Where to put the needles. Yeah. It tells me exact, yeah, that's, that's what I tell other acupuncturists is I say, it makes acupuncture so darn easy. It's crazy. So

Chris McDonald: it makes that little more

Zac Cormier: accurate. Yeah. Uh, just having someone complete that before they come see me. I already know my plan. I know exactly where I'm gonna put my needles.

I know exactly what I'm gonna tell them as far as their homework to resolve their root causes. I give everybody two to three things to do for homework that keeps it really easy to do, easy to remember, very simple stuff. And that way then they come back to me the following week. So I just keep updating the list and.

You, it's you just start by moving small rocks and over time by moving a bunch of small rocks, you've moved them mountain. And that's when those root causes start getting resolved. I know people just, it's, they're just healing machines. It's, I've had a lot of success with a lot of different, our modern chronic diseases that, you know, there's stu a lot of people, they're like, I know why this is happening.

Just, you know, diabetes, heart disease, ibs, you name it. That's right. Pretty sure, you know, can handle it.

Chris McDonald: So what is the. I see for each of the little circles there's fire, earth, metal, water, wood. So what does that

Zac Cormier: represent? Yeah, so, uh, originally I kind of got the idea to create the system based around one of the acupuncture theories.

It's called Five Element Theories. So each of the circles, there's fire, earth, metal, water, wood, uh, and they repeat in the circle and they also kind of cross, as you see, they have little arrows in there. All do different things, and they interact with each other. So it shows the interconnectedness of all the systems.

So that is just the idea that. Uh, that's it is the idea is showing the interconnectedness of all the different organs and functions and how they feed into each other. Just like how, uh, we mentioned that the digestive system feeds the proper hormones to the frontal lobe of your brain to affect mental health.

Uh, and I mean, we can take that step even further where the skin actually feeds the digestive system to feed the brain, the hormones and neurotransmitters. You know, we keep taking steps back and show how they're all interconnected. Exactly. It's one big loop. And, uh, for as far as acupuncture theory goes, if anybody knows about the acupuncture meridian system, it's basically, uh, a bunch of lines that traverse the body.

It kinda looks like a roadmap. If you just give it a quick Google acupuncture, meridians, uh, you'll see all these lines going all over the place, uh, and it looks like complete chaos. But really if you took the time to look at it, it's actually there. It's one line that just goes all over the body and it happens on both sides.

Uh, there's also one that happens down the middle. The idea is it's actually looping this energy all in one giant loop. So it is all connected. It flows through there. It can also Google organ clock showing how. The energy in certain organs is higher at certain times of the day, and you'll start to put together some connections for, oh, this is why this happens.

This is why this happens. So it's pretty cool to see how everything is so connected, not only from acupuncture, but as I started looking into connections and biology. They're all there. All these things can be explained very easily, just with a little bit of

Chris McDonald: research. So how does, can you just go back to how does acupuncture work for anyone who might not be sure?

Zac Cormier: Uh, yeah, absolutely. So acupuncture is based off of your own body's ability to heal. Uh, like I said, uh, someone comes in with any, uh, pain, internal organ issue, whatever it is, is the idea is. The body doesn't have that ability to heal. If you get a cut on your arm, you're usually not worried about it. You know, that's gonna heal and generate.

So if you're going into somebody with an issue, it's a matter of just getting that person to, um, which is really cool. It's not, there's nothing on the needles. There's, you know, it's just stainless steel needle, single use. And they're

Chris McDonald: very small. They're very small. Those small, those afraid of

Zac Cormier: needles. Yeah.

They're incredibly small. Uh, especially there's the average ones people use are incredibly small. And I personally use the thin ones. I could, they're you can barely see them. Your eye, they're crazy. But with how it works is. The idea is that the acupuncture meridian system is a collection of electrically active tissues, and acupuncture is based off of, uh, electricity.

Essentially, every cell in your body functions with electrical voltage. You can actually test the voltage of any cell to determine how healthy it's so you could test the cells of your liver, of your frontal lobe, your brain, of your finger, of your my office. To test that. Really? Yeah. It test me, tells me the electrical charge of any tissue.

So I know that's, that's so cool. If I test it and it's, this thing is beeping, just yelling at me. I know I need to do acupuncture for whatever that is, to be able to recharge and help it regenerate. But of course there's also the question of why is it not happening in the first place? So the root cause is in the back of my mind.

Uh, but as far as acupuncture goes, uh, that's the idea is that we wanna bring back that electrical charge to those cells. Uh, so when it comes to being able to make that travel throughout the body, people are always kind of like, why are you putting a needle in my foot when my shoulder hurts? That's the collection of all those connected tissues.

So the majority of them are fascia is the primary one. That's this voltage. And what the acupuncture meridians really are are fascial connections. The outer covering of nerves is another big one. Uh, these are ways that electricity travels throughout, throughout our body. As far as our cells go, they want 25 millivolts to function optimal.

If they are, if they test them and they're higher than that, what that tells me is that cell is healing. The body has rushed a bunch of electricity to that area to help it heal and regenerative, and that's what we see. And, uh, a guy, Robert O. Becker, he studied. Regeneration basically. And he found that when something got damaged and you test that area, you find just a ton of electricity go to that area.

He saw this and, you know, cutting lizards legs off and they're regenerating. He saw that that's how they're able to rero legs. Uh, so acupuncture works along the same idea. By putting a needle in a certain area, you're stimulating that electrical flow to that area. Or, or moving it along that connection. So that's why the foot, the needle in the foot can actually bring that, uh, energy further up, uh, into the shoulder.

Not always a story of electricity, but it's also a story of water and light. Uh, I say that's what, like, that's what acupuncture is based off of. And that's, to me, that's what health, all of medicine health. Uh, are the primary things to be looked at is light water and electromagnetism. Those are the three important things, and a lot of people are kind of like, well, that's different than what I normally hear.

Chris McDonald: Yeah. I saw your Instagram, I think you said the things you need a lot. Number one was light. Number two was light. Yeah, exactly. We need a lot of light. Is that

Zac Cormier: we've, yeah. My top 10 most important things. Yeah. People love that post. Yes. The top number one through three are all light. Two is water, three is electromagnetism.

And then after that, uh, is sleep, diet, exercise, uh, what goes on. And kinda what I was pointing out is the things at the end of the list don't work if the things at the start of the list aren't working. Meaning that diet doesn't work for you if your light environment isn't in place. So what do you mean by light environment?

Uh, yeah. Uh, so light environment, uh, I consider the difference between natural getting natural light. That's sunlight and artificial light. Those are the two sides of the coin. So when people are able to get that natural light, eliminate artificial light, it's, it's a good thing for them a hundred percent of the time, meaning that, uh, digestive health doesn't work if you are stuck in artificial environments all the time.

So if you're stuck indoors, uh, always on a computer, never getting your sunlight, You actually won't be able to use your digestive system. It's just, if you look at the biology, it's just, you can't, it just doesn't work. So, uh, same thing with exercise is exercise is, gives you a stimulus that creates a certain hormonal response and different temperature response.

All kinds of different responses. But again, your body isn't able to do that. If your light environment isn't in place. So it's, if somebody comes to me and say, I'm looking to lose weight or something like that, uh, I tell them, yeah, stop exercising. You can't use it properly anyway. And I'll tell them that, uh, right now diet is not really not that important to me cause I know you can't use it anyway, uh, most of the time.

And they're like, what? Well, well, most of the time they come in, they say, I'm trying all these different diets already. Uh, none of 'em are working. And I'm like, yeah, it's weight gain is not a food story. It's you're, you're kinda, uh, asking the wrong questions or looking in the wrong place, you know, and I'll give them kinda my example about, you know, I'll give an example of how it's light actually structures your digestive system to be able to work properly.

Kinda like the hormones I was talking about earlier, getting melatonin or serotonin, uh, those are all created through light. If you're not getting sunlight. Environment's full of artificial light. You actually cannot create serotonin or melatonin, really. Uh, yeah. Um, so right there, you know, uh, like I said, the basis for this podcast is mental health, right?

There is just a huge key right there. If yes, uh, you know, if that information gets out there that, you know, if you look in these, if you put together the pieces and this biology textbook over here, this book over here, it's. It makes sense that, you know, all these things, all the studies are out there too, you can see.

Chris McDonald: So is, is that a recommendation you have to get outside more and get

Zac Cormier: the sunlight? Yeah, that's the most often thing I find myself parroting is, uh, me too kinda getting, getting, uh, getting people outside. And I find it really does empower and inspire people when they kind of hear that their health is way more in control than they believe it is.

Kind of restructuring their thought process to see that their body really isn't working against them. It's giving 'em signs and signals through symptoms to pay attention to certain things. And when you address those through essentially the basics, and most people, what they mean by the basics is diet and exercise.

And that's eight, or that's, those are number seven and eight on most important things. Yeah. Uh, so I tell people, I don't even, I'm not even give you that recommendation for a long time. It's, you don't need those right now. That's not what, that's not the puzzle piece that you're missing. The puzzle piece that are most often missing is the story about light.

That is the really, the major piece to it. Uh, we're essentially just walking solar panels. And if you don't do it, yeah. I had, I

Chris McDonald: had a client tell me, she's like, I'm like a flower when it's, there's not a lot of sun. I just wilt. I'm like,

Zac Cormier: me too. I'm telling you, I think intuitively we, we know how important light is, but it's just not quite there enough for us to really put a, grab it and run with it or put enough faith in it.

Cause sometimes, especially with some pretty severe chronic diseases, is you've been in a bad environment for a long time. Like 40, 50 plus years for some people. Yeah, so it's sometimes it takes a little while to get back to it, not, you definitely should feel something pretty soon, but it's going outside for 15 minutes.

A gonna, you say

Chris McDonald: daily?

Zac Cormier: Hundred. It needs to be daily. A hundred percent.

Chris McDonald: Uh, what about if it's like today though, and it's dark and it's rain?

Zac Cormier: Yeah. S there's a lot of different things that, uh, and that's essentially a lot of, part of my acupuncture sessions is, yeah, I do acupuncture, but then the, it's, I stay with the person for the entire hour.

Many other acupuncturist will Oh yeah. Put in needles and leave the room. So

Chris McDonald: how, how do you do your sessions? What is it like with you?

Zac Cormier: Uh, yeah, so somebody will, initially, they'll complete the Meridian Graham assessment that gives me exactly what I need to know everything about them. I, I can tell you probably even stuff, they might not be on the form, I could probably guess, or the one that usually blows people away is dental health, how I can guess where their root canals are, or tooth extractions, or mercury or whatever it is.

Guess with a very high degree of certainty which teeth are involved. But, uh, after they complete that, I get the report of the root causes of, uh, and of that little chart, the pentagram, so I know exactly where to put my needles and what I'm gonna tell them for homework. So they'll come in, we'll chat for a little bit, just kind of getting to know each other.

So I think that's important. Can't forget people too. So I like that part of it. And then I get like, get people on the acupuncture table right away. Quickly as I can, um, that gives them the most amount of time to charge their batteries, is kinda what I call it. Uh, each acupuncture meridian is a battery that holds electrical charge and that is the cells and their ability to heal.

Uh, so they'll, uh, be able to, uh, lay on the table, get charged up, and depending on what they need that day, it'll be a little bit different. I have a lot of different tools that we can do, depending on what it is they need. But most of the time I find myself talking for the most part, and or just having conversations.

I'm just me talking at them. It's a conversation about understanding the root causes that got them to where they're at. That's not enough for me just to give them the homework and say, go out in the sunlight. No, I want them to understand why light is important and how they got there in the first place.

So that way they have that information. They're their own doctor first and foremost. And after they leave me, they'll need me. They, hopefully they won't need me cause they already have what I would say about, you know, this or that. It helps them navigate their other medical decisions that helps them make any kinda health related choice, understanding, uh, the things that I teach.

Uh, so I'm all about empowering people with that time that I have with them, uh, so they get the most value possible. And then, uh, at the very end, take the needles out an answer any last minute questions. Have them on their way to go get some sunlight. Yeah, there

Chris McDonald: you go. Cause that's what I was wondering.

Is there other lifestyle recommendations that you have for

Zac Cormier: people? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I, I, yeah. A lot of my time is kind of troubleshooting people's day-to-day lives because. We are people, we have jobs and other responsibilities and all kinds of things. So it's one thing to say, yeah, just go out in the sunlight all day, but it's like, you're good now.

Yeah, exactly. There's a lot of other things to consider. Yeah. So just the human aspect that, uh, people say, well, I have this going on, and I'll say, oh, well do this. A big one is just something like cracking your window just a half inch. A quarter inch. That's why I always, whatever room I'm in, uh, whether it's my acupuncture office right here, over here, I have the window cracked, uh, just a little bit that lets full spectrum sunlight in the room.

So when you have a window closed, that filters out at least 50%.

Chris McDonald: I have allergies.

Zac Cormier: I hear that a lot. That's me. Yeah, I mean, allergies are really prevalent. It seems like everyone. Seasonal allergies. What my response to that is, Probably a lack of sunlight. There we go. That's funny. So your, yeah, your immune system, its completely synced to light cycles.

That's why it blows my mind the interconnectedness for everything, especially how light seems to be the key factor that really ties everything together.

Chris McDonald: So I guess as far as like anxiety and depression, so, It sounds like all these might be similar recommendations that you have. Huh? Is it all?

Zac Cormier: Yeah. Well, it's as far as the, uh, so when you take the radiogram and get your root causes in there, and it's a combination of what are your root causes and the list of 10 most important things I have, that's why I always seem to start with the light one, because it's number one through three and no one seems to know about it or be doing it.

So that's why I'm on that so much. Uh, so I do end up giving a lot of the same recommendations off interconnect. Connectedness of everything and over and over again. When I just keep getting more and more experience, the story always comes back to light. And then if I don't know how it connects, I go and look.

And sure enough, I find something that's like, oh dang, there it is again. So it's uh, the more I learn, the more I realize that's what it is. Uh, I'm lucky enough to have been involved in acupuncture as my tool. Cause I see how that works with light. Actually putting an acupuncture needle in somebody actually creates light inside of their fascia.

Oh, does. Which is absolutely crazy. Ooh. Yeah, I mean, doing something like yoga, you had mentioned earlier that you were gonna do yoga, uh, even doing movement's really cool about fascia is that it, it creates a bunch of light. Um, if you look at it under microscope, it looks like this. Crystal spider web, and if it's healthy, you actually see water flowing through it.

It's really cool. And as water's flowing through it, you see these little sparks of light. And as somebody moves, the spiderweb moves around. And as it moves, you actually see more light. Just starts shooting sparks everywhere. I love this. Yeah,

Chris McDonald: it's cool. Oh my God. I'm just picturing like a meditation of like all this light being Yeah, it's from movement

Zac Cormier: with yoga.

Exactly. Uh, and what's the coolest part about it is the water in there isn't just regular water. It's actually something called structured water. And the structured water actually functions like a. Which is how we tie together the water, light, and magnetism. All three parts of the story are right in the fascia.

If you can understand the fascia, you understand a lot about how your cells and your body are gonna be able to heal. So this essentially what structured water is, is water, that the charges have been separated. And what that means, because that's really nerdy, is that, uh, bulk water, regular water, all the.

The positive and negatives are all jumbled up. Um, it's all the same, but when you're able to structure water, like the stuff in our fascia flowing through that crystal spider web, it actually pulls the positives to one side and the negatives to the other side. Just like in a battery, it has a positive terminal and a negative terminal.

So this creates actually electrical flow through that water. It creates free energy inside of you. So if you have healthy fascia and water flowing through structured water in your body, you're creating electrical charge all the time. That's a. Creating battery. So instead of having to go in and do acupuncture or do these other things, uh, that essentially give you quote unquote energy, you're getting free energy just cuz your body has that structured water flowing through it.

You actually do all kinds of things to actually structure that water even more. So it creates even more electrical charge, which means even more healing. Like we said before, the cells, it's all based off of voltage, how they heal. So if we can structure that water, uh, then we get more electric charge. The best way to do that.

Do you know what that is? No. Based off what we said already. Light. There you go. Oh, see, I'm learning bingo. I thought water too. I was like,

Chris McDonald: does water help if

Zac Cormier: you go swimming? Well that's, I tell, I tell people with that all the time. Uh, when they were looking at that list of top 10 things, they were reading water and they're like, oh, I drink plenty of water.

And uh, I'd be like, yeah, it's not what you think. It's not the water you drink. I have plenty of clients, they come in this, they say, I drink like a gallon of water a day and I'm still dehydrated. I still can't get enough. Yeah, that's not the water that hydrates you. The water that hydrates you is the water that happens.

Inside your cells, inside your fascia, and that's structured water. Basically. Your thirst is gonna be based off of how much structured water you have. You can drink as much water as you want. It's actually not getting into your cells or into your fascia. It's, it needs a certain catalyst, which we already talked about is light to actually, we're back to that again.

I'm telling you. It's over and over again. It keeps coming up. It blows my mind.

Chris McDonald: Yeah. So have you seen some success with helping people with anxiety or other mental health

Zac Cormier: issues? Oh, uh, yes. All the time. Uh, all the time. Acupuncture, they come in for acupuncture, uh, right away. They're able to get a lot of relief from it.

If, and kind of following through it with the, uh, recommendations I give is really the most important piece to it, to have that permanent resolution of it. So again, it's a big part of the life story.

Chris McDonald: That's the problem, isn't it? Getting people to do stuff

Zac Cormier: and that is the trick. It's Welcome, welcome to my world.

Yes. Oh, that's as a medical professional, I think we can all relate to just. That is the key. If someone could figure out that one thing is, uh, it's almost like we can't convince them. It's, they have to figure it out themselves. Yeah. So it's almost, you have to kind of guide them into to learning it themselves.

It's not, you can give them, it's like you can give them a fish, but it's way better to teach 'em how to fish. Uh, then they don't be coming back to you and they understand where it's not come back. Uh, and they'll also be able to then prevent other kinds of stuff That's. I know if someone has anxiety, I would bet just about anything.

I'd bet my car that they have digestive dysfunction, that they probably are going to end up as some kinda hypothyroid. They're probably gonna have not very good knees. They're probably, you know, have some sort of adrenal deficiency. You know, I, a list goes on, I can see it happen and I can probably predict way down the line, something like what kind cancer it's, and I see it over and over again.

Interconnectness. It's really cool to see, but at the same time it's not cool obviously, but it's uh, it's pretty amazing.

Chris McDonald: Yeah. So I'm wondering if, since most of the listeners are mental health therapists, so what do you think would be the kind of client they could refer to you and that would, or just in general, right, with acupuncture.

Zac Cormier: Yeah. Uh, I've had, I've all kinds, I, I tackle just about anything. Um, I've been ref all kinds of different, people have referred to me from massage therapists, MDs, you name it. It's, uh, they've referred to me. I, I like to ta I definitely specialize in more difficult, chronic, that's what I

Chris McDonald: wondered. Yeah. Cause if, cause I think that in mental health we do see cases where it's like, I gave 'em all my tools.

We had therapy for a year. Yeah. We're not seeing a lot of changes or we have changes and it's just, We're not moving very fast through

Zac Cormier: progress. Well, at the same time too, I'll get referred for like a very specific issue. It's like somebody's, I dunno, I'm having trouble with this person's shoulder pain, you know?

And they'll come in and it ends up not being about the shoulder. So it's something else. It's, it's, right, exactly. It's, I have to take the rodeo. You see just a slew of other health issues and you see, okay, the shoulder's just part as the one piece of the puzzle you just gave me through that murder game, all the other pieces of the puzzle.

And now I understand how to put 'em together and now I can see what that puzzle's. And then from there we, I can say, okay, well actually looks like it's your wisdom tooth being taken out that probably cause your shoulder pain. I know exactly. It's connections like that that people don't realize and that why sometimes you're using all the tools in your tool belt, you're like, wow, nothing's working.

This is weird. So it's, you know, there's some pretty wacky connections out there. That's good to know. Exactly. So, um, yeah, the dental health one's usually people's response just responded well. Wow.

Chris McDonald: So what's a takeaway you could share today for anybody that may be uncertain about starting acupuncture or even just referring clients?

Zac Cormier: Yeah, good question. So, as far as starting acupuncture is ask a lot of questions. Uh, always ask why. And, uh, like I said, um, trying to get to the very root cause of things is extremely important. Uh, so anytime you're learning anything, uh, in any profession, any, anything at all, get to the very bottom of it.

It's not enough to just address symptoms. Um, that was my experience. Pushed my professors a little more and actually asked the questions cause I didn't do that. I kind of just, Had 'em in my head, but uh, I felt like I was cha Yeah, I felt like I was challenging though, and I don't really, I rulebreaker in, but Exactly.

Definitely some different perspectives, things I studied that I don't think they would've been well versed in. So what's

Chris McDonald: the best way for our listeners to find you and learn more about you?

Zac Cormier: Uh, yeah. The best way to learn more and find me is, uh, me graham do com, which we mentioned earlier is my website as well as, uh, I'm on Instagram for me, Graham, which I share a lot of just, uh, fun facts and.

Things to know and uh, just some interesting things on there. So it's, I try to do something every week at least, and it's usually, uh, has some good response that people aren't aware of some of the things they talk about as well as, uh, for acupuncture, uh, I'm Lucky Cat acupuncture com, uh, as have a Instagram for that as well.

But it's, uh, usually just about the same stuff, uh, on my me

Chris McDonald: and we'll have all that in the show notes too, so everybody can access that. So, but thank you so much for coming on the podcast, Zach.

Zac Cormier: Absolutely. Thank you. That was a lot of fun.

Chris McDonald: Yes. And that brings us to the end of another episode. Just a reminder, I wanted to let you know that my intro to the Art of Breath, how to integrate Breathwork techniques for effective therapy is on Friday, June 30th at two 15.

So if you're listening to this, after that date, it will be available through a recording. But in this course, you'll discover the science behind conscious breathing and its impact on our physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing. We'll dive into breathwork techniques to enhance relaxation, release stress, and facilitate emotional release.

So don't miss out. Come join me. Go to HC podcast.org/breathwork today, and this will all be in the show notes as well. This is Chris McDonald bringing each one of you. Much light and love. Take care.

I hope you enjoyed Zach's episode today. He's got a special offer for you, so if you wanna go beyond symptoms and resolve the root cause of disease, he offers the ME Radiogram, which is a holistic system for personal use and health healthcare professionals that identifies the root cause of disease and provides guidance to better health.

So activate your natural healing ability today. Start your journey towards wellness and receive 10% off. If you go to www.meridiagraham.com, that's M E R I D I O, Graham and use code holistic for 10% off. This will also be on the show notes.

Chris McDonald: The information in this podcast is for general educational purposes only, and is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guest are giving legal, financial counseling, or any other kind of professional advice.

If you need a professional, please find the right one for you.