Spotlight Series

Topic: Empowering Women’s Wellness through Personalized Acupuncture.

Guest Name: Isabel Hulkower

Guest Credentials: LAc

Discussion Details:

1. Isabel discusses how she supports women during their fertility treatment

2. She discusses how she supports prenatal and postpartum health through acupuncture and Chinese medicine

3. She discusses the benefits of acupuncture treatment during perimenopause and menopause as a natural way to support the body

Benefits of Watching:

1. Highlights her specialized passion for guiding clients through periods of deep change: fertility, pregnancy and perimenopause.

2. Gentle Whole Person Healing: Discusses her empathetic approach to managing chronic pain, stress and physical imbalances

3. Multi-Disciplinary Team: Learn how an interdisciplinary approach to healing can pave the way to ultimate whole-body healing.

Address of Guests’ Business:
Ashburn Natural Wellness
20915 Ashburn Road, Suite 235
Ashburn, VA 20147

Hi, I’m Viraj Chang, a physical therapist and owner of Accelerate Physical Therapy, and this is my professional spotlight series. Today, I’m so excited to feature Isabel Hulkower. She is a licensed acupuncturist working in Ashburn Natural Wellness.

Welcome, Isabel. Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to have you here.

Just a little intro about Isabel. She is a licensed acupuncturist who brings a deeply holistic, rounded approach to healing back to her hometown. With a bachelor’s from Oberlin College and a master’s from the Virginia University of Integrative Medicine, Isabel specializes in meeting patients exactly where they are, guiding them through everything from chronic pain to digestive issues and major life transitions like pregnancy and birth. Outside of the clinic, her passion for health extends directly into the soil. As an active organic vegetable farmer, Isabel blends her love for sustainable agriculture, food, and culture to offer patients thoughtful, real-world dietary and nutritional support. Welcome.

Thank you. Tell me a little bit about, I guess, talk to me a little bit about how you got into acupuncture, and then talk a little bit about what you do as far as agriculture and the farming as well, because that’s kind of very cool. Yeah, it’s a very holistic lifestyle.

Getting into acupuncture is the first woo-woo answer that you will receive on this podcast today, because I just woke up one morning in 2017, and I was like, I need to be an acupuncturist, and I don’t have any time to waste. And it actually kind of freaked me out when it happened, because I had never had something like that happen to me before. And I’d had acupuncture as a child, but I didn’t really know about the medicine or know about, I didn’t even know if it worked at that point.

So I spent a year researching it and looking into it, and learning all about the edges and the corners of the medicine. And I was like, this is incredible. So I started school a year later, and I’ve been practicing ever since. And sustainable agriculture has actually been in my life even longer. I started working growing organic vegetables when I was a teenager on the farm that I still am in collaboration with now. So I’ve worked there for many, many, many years. And it’s how I put myself through school. And then as my acupuncture practice got busier and busier, I was like, I actually never want to give this up. It’s such an important part of my practice, such a part of my way of being in the world. And it actually helps me really feel like I have something to give to my patients, because I feel like I’m charging under the sun and with the soil, instead of just like the same sort of recycled indoor air. It’s just been great. It’s been a very nutritive part of the work for me, and good balance between the inner world and the outer world.

And so do you actually offer nutritional support to your clients? Or is this just something on the side that just kind of comes out during your practice, just because they’re working with you? It’s so interesting. I do like Chinese medicine, nutritional advice, though I’m not a nutritionist by any means. The work that they do is so complicated and beautiful.

But I actually feel like what it has given me more is, I’m more of like a seasonality expert, and a lot more about being in tune with the movements of the earth through the year, and all of that time outside with growing crops, and harvesting them, and tending them, and then watching them wither and die in the winter, and being in touch with the wheel of the year, and how that reflects the reality of the body and of our internal worlds is more how that actually informs my acupuncture practice. Because what is good for you in July is not what’s good for you in December. And a big part of Western medicine, and a big part of what my patients bring in, is a belief that their body should be acting the same and feeling the same 365 days a year.

And the truth is, we are growing and changing, and there’s truly a time and a season for everything. And so that kind of sensitivity is really what I bring into the clinic. I love that.

I love that a lot. I think that’s definitely a piece of advice that people don’t normally get, like understanding how the shifts and the seasons change, and how to support your body through those shifts. It’s so true. You’re not the same 365. So what kind of patients do you, customers do you serve? So it’s a good question. Of course, as we all do, I see a great range.

But I work quite a bit with women, specifically of childbearing and perimenopause age. That’s my biggest demographic. But really what I see is people who are ready to put in the work, people who are ready for a deep change.

I mostly see patients who understand that they need to shift something and are looking for more of a transformative experience. I don’t see that many people who have just gotten a recent injury and they need acupuncture to rehab it. I’m not seeing people who are more for one-off issues.

I’m seeing people with issues that are more to do with their core, and more to do with how they’re showing up in the world. Okay. So give me an example of how you would support someone in pregnancy, and why they would need support during pregnancy.

Well, I’ll say, I’ll take it even a step back, which is I see quite a few people for fertility who are otherwise healthy, whose labs are coming back well. Maybe they had an easy first pregnancy, but are having trouble getting pregnant a second time. Or it just doesn’t really make sense why they are having issues getting pregnant.

And this medicine can really support the body in terms of helping your intentions and your mind get in line with what your body wants. Because sometimes there’s really a disconnect, and you’re like, I want this so badly, why isn’t my body ready? So that is a great deal of the kind of work that I do: sort of working on that inner alignment. And then once you are pregnant, I actually, once people, once we’ve done the fertility part, and they’re successfully pregnant, which is such an incredible time, specifically through the IVF process, if you’re considering acupuncture for fertility, if you can’t, if you don’t have the space to really go see an acupuncturist for months and months, go see them on the day of your egg retrieval and of your embryo transfer, because that will increase the effectiveness of those by over 50%.

And those are just like normal numbers. That’s any acupuncturist. That’s a plug.

It’s not me. That’s the medicine. So once you are pregnant, I actually tend- I mean, if people are struggling with morning sickness, if people are struggling with like different types of aches and pains, I’m happy to see them.

But usually if they’re having a healthy pregnancy, we minimize acupuncture during that time. And then they come back around 36 weeks for labor prep. And those are just like the juiciest, most wonderful appointments.

Truly, if you had to ask me my favorite, favorite time to work with any patients, it’s in the weeks before they give birth. Because it’s such a portal, you know, as anyone who’s been through it understands, it is really like a time like no other, where the body is really ready to receive and ready to switch gears and ready to go into deep time. So, and first of all, it’s like, just basically the body is needing support and rejuvenation because it’s just been through something so intense, and it’s about to go through something even more intense.

So those patients are like so fun to have on the acupuncture table because they are just chilling, like they’re receiving it in such a deep way. So that is great. And then acupuncture, if you start many weeks in advance, it leads to fewer epidurals, faster labor times, less of a chance of a C-section.

The results are great. And so, I mean, I guess I don’t want to make any, like, a strong claim, but my patients tend to be very appreciative of that work, and it tends to lead to really good outcomes for them. So is it more, when you have acupuncture, is it more because I know that the body needs to work on the relaxation?

Sometimes women think that it’s a lot of activation and, like, gripping and pushing and grunting, right? And so there, I do educate them that there is a component of this inhale and this relaxation that needs to happen for the delivery, the labor and delivery, to go as smoothly as possible. And so does acupuncture kind of work on that aspect, or why is it this? Yeah, absolutely. And people will come because acupuncture is famous, or like people know that you can do a quote, labor induction with acupuncture.

So people will come to me at like 41 weeks being like, can I get on your table for the first time? And it’s like, that’s really not. And it’s true that that is possible, but that’s not the way; you don’t want to wait that long because it is such a, like, the body needs to relax. We call it like the cat going into the closet before you’re ready to give birth.

So it’s really one of the ways that acupuncture in the weeks leading up to it, like setting that time aside for yourself, like reminding your body that it’s safe, that it’s calm, that as you can, it’s ready for, it’s ready to do something so vulnerable as giving birth. It’s very ancient in that way that it’s like, it was an unsafe time for our ancestors, and they needed to know that they could be left, left to their peace for a couple of hours. Yeah.

Well, that’s great that you’re a resource to women during pregnancy and during fertility. What a great resource there. And then tell me a little bit about how you would support women during shifts in perimenopause and going through menopause.

How, how would acupuncture work there? Incredible. It’s also one of my favorite times because it’s such a multifaceted experience. So first of all, just the physiological stuff: what is happening during perimenopause and menopause? We refer to it as yin deficiency.

So, you know, our bodies need to be in harmony with yin, like the nutritive sort of wet, the moon energy, and then yang, fire, the sun, everything hot. So our body needs to be in balance between those two things. And so as we age, we have less yin in our body.

So we have this empty fire, the yang is rising. So that’s why people are feeling things like hot flashes, they’re having trouble sleeping, they’re having more emotional variability. So that’s just to say we have language for it and we can treat it very easily.

So those just like annoying physiological things, we can really calm pretty quickly and at least reduce enough for day-to-day life to feel like it can continue. And then just like we were talking about before, like supporting people through major life changes, like perimenopause and menopause are a big change. Like, and one of the things that I love doing with my patients is really like treating it as such and helping work through things.

Because often people have already had kids, they have tons of stress in their lives. Everyone is doing everything, needing so much from them. And this is a time to recenter yourself and to remind yourself who you are at your core.

Because often some of that is had to have been put aside during these like very, very demanding times. So it’s another way that taking a step back and doing this work for yourself during that time that acupuncture can really be of service because, you know, you are changing, your body’s changing and acknowledging that is very important. So does it help with, you mentioned like, does it help manage the internal like stress response in your body? Because I know that’s a big, as your estrogen’s going down, cortisol’s rising up, you’ve got just a lot more of that inflammation and that stress response.

So this helps to actually offset that. Will acupuncture help to offset that? Absolutely. Even if you are not going and being like, I need to change my attitudes about things, like simply the act of lying on the table and having acupuncture needles put into you, it releases the whole cascade and will help your body begin to reset itself.

And just like the experience of that balancing and that rest and the hormones that the needles that your body releases as soon as needles are put into you will help offset all of those things. And that’s such, it’s so needed at that phase of your life. You don’t realize it because you’re on the go and it’s just taking some time to actually take that moment in time and get that reset is going to help you so much in other aspects of your life.

Like, perimetopause is a perfect time for it, you know, because it’s like often people are coming and it’s their first time experiencing stuff like this. They’re like, I felt healthy my whole life and what is going on? And it’s like, because what has worked for you for your whole life as to now? It’s like, yeah, the clocks run out on that. You need to do some external work, right? And you need some support.

Like you’re going to need more rest maybe than you’ve ever needed. And it’s not a shortcoming at all. So it is very special to work with people through that time and see them recalibrate and just be like, okay, I can totally be thriving through this.

I just need to and get to ask for a little more. So it’s great. Perfect.

I know that. So I do get acupuncture and I know that over time I have preferred acupuncture over like a massage sometimes because I will be on the table and I’ll have the acupuncture and I can just literally feel my body just melting into the mat and just weight lifted off. And I feel so relaxed so much so that I want to like almost like fall asleep.

And after the session, I mean, it literally feels like I had like a deep tissue massage or I had some kind of body work done and I was just lying there. And that’s like the response that maybe at this phase of my life, like had I gone it 20 years ago, maybe it wouldn’t have been so strong. But at this phase of my life, it’s just like, whew.

Yeah, it’s exactly like that. And I’m like, I know that I need it because of that response. So yeah.

I’m so glad that you’ve had such good experiences. And yeah, it really is like no other because no one has touched you, you know, but you do have like such a physical softening. And it’s really like you kind of have to feel it to be able to understand it.

Yes, I love it. I love it. Okay, well, great.

So tell me a little bit about you work at Ashburn Natural Wellness and you provide acupuncture services there and you work with a massage therapist and a chiropractor. And so how does this work? How does this integrative work kind of help with what you do? Oh, my gosh. Thank you for asking.

It has been so special to work at an interdisciplinary clinic, especially because what we do is overlapping but dovetailed. So it really feels good to refer between us and to know exactly who can treat what at different times. So Tiffany and Tommy, who are our chiropractors, first of all, made me believe in chiropractic because I’ve seen the incredible work they do, both of them working on pain of all kinds, just both incredibly sensitive and skilled practitioners.

And what’s been great is if they have patients where they’re like, this clearly has an emotional component, you know, like things are, their treatments aren’t sticking or they’re sticking for a little while, they’re not getting better, or it’s just like these guys are so stressed out, then they’ll send them right over to me. And it’s a great fit that way. And it’s the same thing where it’s like, if I’m working on someone but I can tell that they’re having a structural issue and the kind of thing that I can release the muscles over and over, but it’s like, it’s not, what I’m doing is not going to change that structural issue.

I send them over to Tiffany and Tommy. And then Christy, who is our massage therapist, is just, she is magic. Like she’s been doing it, I think for over, almost 10 or 15 years.

So everybody, everyone refers to Christy and she refers to all of us because like a massage with her is such a treat and so medical. And it’s been great. And we actually have a second acupuncturist now as well.

So we have, we’ve got a full house. I love that. I love that, you know, you’re able to refer to each other.

You’re also able to talk to each other about the patient. And I think that’s going to give you more, the patient more comprehensive care. I know that, I know exactly what you mean by sometimes needing something a little bit extra or different.

Like as far as if some, a patient of mine, maybe their muscles are a little too tense or their kind of their energy is vibrating a little bit too intensely. And they need to down train and calm down a little bit. And I can’t do it with my partial restoration work.

I definitely see how acupuncture could kind of come in there and help that situation to keep it, keep going. Well, it’s one of the reasons I love treating in Loudoun County because I feel like over the years, I’ve gotten to know so many of the practitioners here. And I feel like we all have such sort of a tight network of holistic work and really knowing that who to send where and trusting that there’ll be an incredible hands and knowing it’s going to amplify the work.

Yeah, it’s like within our practice, almost all of our patients use at least two of the modalities and it is like so great to just keep it in house. But yet like the rest of Ashburn, we have so many wonderful friends and neighbors. We have you so close.

We have Lakin at Greenlight and Caitlin doing PT also next door. It’s like, it’s really a special little zone. Yes, I love it.

I love it. Well, thank you so much. This has been great.

I feel like I get a better idea of what you offer and I think the community is going to get a better idea of the types of services that you have and how you work and what it’s like to work with you. What’s the best way to get in contact with you? The best way to get in contact with me is truly through calling Ashburn Natural Wellness or sending us an email. They get forwarded right to me or you can find me on Instagram.

I’m at with underscores America’s Next Top Herbalist, which is lots of fun. I love that. That’s a very powerful Instagram name.

Well, I’m, you know, a top model fan from way back. Yeah, this has been such a joy and such a pleasure. Oh, great.

Well, thank you so much, Isabel. Yes, thank you.