After cancer scare, a new career in acupuncture

NORTH CANAAN — Rebecca Schirber’s resume is lengthy. But whether working at her jobs in mental health services, as a personal chef for clients with health issues, or as an acupuncturist, she sees it all as part of the process of increasing her understanding of how the mind, body and spirit interact.

The Lenox, Mass., resident is now offering acupuncture at the Canaan Chiropractic Center. There, Dr. David Godwin promotes the benefits of whole life healing, and often recommends that patients try therapeutic massage and acupuncture.

Thousands of years ago, the Chinese began using a healing technique that involved the insertion of ultra thin needles into carefully charted points on the body, to restore balance in the body’s energy sources. That technique is now used around the world and is known as acupuncture.

Schirber also teaches her clients to listen to their bodies. An initial, two-hour session provides her a list of everything “out-of-whack� in a patient’s body.

“Whether someone is coming in for smoking cessation or back pain, I need to know what else is going on. Maybe they have digestive problems or headaches. We track these different things, looking every time to see what has gotten better. People tend to focus on one issue, but several may be related.

Often we find that as other problems improve, the problem they came in for also improves. You need to learn to be in your own body.�

Schirber exudes the sort of calm assuredness that comes with a high level of self-awareness. The 3,000 hours of training needed to become a licensed acupuncturist is only part of it. Life experiences count for a lot, too.

Widowed at 33, she had watched her quadriplegic husband, Clint, make powerful decisions about his life.

“It’s an incredible experience to be with someone at the end of their life. There was no cure for him, but he was healed. There is a difference.�

A few years later, Schirber was diagnosed with breast cancer. Assured by her oncologist that she could delay treatment, she spent nine months researching her options and exploring the alternative medicine her husband had endorsed.

She eventually had a mastectomy, but shunned chemotherapy in favor of approaches such as nutritional enzymes, which she said dissolve tumors.

She not only found a cure for her cancer, but also found the work she wants to devote her life to.

Schirber practices Five-Element acupuncture. It is based on the ancient Chinese belief that the five elements (fire, earth, metal, water and wood) are in everything and are essential for life. Illnesses of the body, mind and spirit are caused by an imbalance of the elements.

Schirber accepts appointments in North Canaan for Wednesdays and Thursdays. She can be reached at 410-868-5178.