Events, Workshops, and Lectures

Have a group that could benefit from a lecture or workshop around topics of health and wellness? Prajna is an experienced speaker and facilitator who truly loves educating the public – see below for a sample of recent lectures and workshops she is offering or has offered, and feel free to contact her about offering an educational event for your community or work group!

Taking Care of Your Health Naturally: Home Remedies from a Licensed Acupuncturist

Interested in learning more about holistic medicine to improve the health and well-being of you and your family? Had acupuncture but know little about this system of medicine? This class will help you get a better understanding of your health and immediately apply what you learn to treat common ailments using common herbs, acupressure points, qi gong exercises, and nutritional and lifestyle recommendations.

Class 1: An introduction to a Traditional Chinese Medicine understanding of the body and health, including basic theories, balance of yin and yang, and the body as a microcosm of universal forces.
Class 2: Nutrition and digestive health
Class 3: Immune enhancement and alleviating allergies, colds and flus
Class 4: Emotional balance and well-being

Please visit the City of Emeryville Community Services Department and select the "Taking Care of Your Health Naturally" class on page 3 to register for this class online!

Past Events

Transforming the Pain: Healing from Trauma

As most survivors know, trauma can get stuck in our bodies/ minds/ spirits/ energy patterns. After the crisis, after dealing with the immediate effects of traumatic events on our lives – how do we move forward in wholeness? How do we transform our pain and suffering, to become mulch for our compassion and understanding, so that we can continue to work for a better world from a strong, centered place of health and well-being? In this workshop, we will discuss how trauma can manifest or get lodged in our bodies/ mind/ spirits, and ways in which we can move and transform this energy. Through large and small group discussion, self reflection exercises, qi-gong and guided meditation - healing methods, suggestions, and tools will be shared.

This event is a part of Community United Against Violence's (CUAV) SafetyFest. To support my fundraising efforts for CUAV, please visit www.firstgiving.com/prajna.

A New Year's Resolution for Optimal Health

One of the best things about living in a multi-cultural community is having a few different New Years to choose from – great when you need a do-over! Did 2010 not start off on the best foot for you? Or did it start off with a momentum that you'd like to keep going? Well, we have another opportunity to set intentions as we approach the Lunar New Year, bringing in the year of the Tiger.

“A New Year's Resolution for Optimal Health” will provide a supportive space for you to formulate and commit to your intentions for the health and well-being of your body/mind/spirit – a practice that also benefits those around you and the greater world. This workshop will involve discussion, exercises, and, back by popular demand, an Acupuncture-Enhanced Meditation Session, a great practice you can incorporate into your self-care practices in the new year.

Self-care is an important part of creating a better world: if we cannot be compassionate towards the one closest to us – our selves – how can we truly be compassionate to others?

We have already seen profound devastation to a part of our global body in the beginning of 2010. Just as the weakness of Haiti's infrastructure was a result of global factors, making it extremely vulnerable when a natural catastrophe occurred – the effects will also not be localized, and will affect other parts of the world community as well.

As in the macrocosm, so in the microcosm: what parts of our bodies/ minds/ spirits are vulnerable, what parts have lacked the attention and care needed to be healthy and well, what parts have we neglected or suppressed in order to move forward with our day-to-day lives? As we send the energy of loving kindness as well as needed resources to a part of our world recovering from major trauma – how can we too protect and strengthen vulnerable aspects of our selves?

Let's ponder and answer these questions together. The workshop fee is $20. Space is limited, so please RSVP to hold your space!

Workshop on Healing from Trauma with Acupuncture

Besides offering one of the safest, most time tested, effective, and completely natural treatments for just about all health and wellness concerns, Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine can be very effective in addressing the effects of trauma on our physical and energetic bodies. Stresses of all kinds are held in the body and manifest in physical ways. The purpose of TCM is to bring the body, mind, and spirit into alignment to promote optimal health and well-being.

At this event, I will lead a discussion on how trauma can manifest in our bodies, and ways in which we can move and transform this energy. We will start with an opening grounding exercise led by Rev. Ordona and conclude with acupuncture-enhanced meditation. Attendees may sign up for on-site discounted acupuncture treatment afterward. (Workshop fee will be applied towards discounted treatment cost, $95 for 1.5 hour session). Signing up for treatment along with attendance is recommended to guarantee availability.

Ear Acupuncture at Fundraiser for MUSAS Peru

I will be donating my services providing ear acupuncture treatments at a fundraiser for Women's Initiative for Sexual Health Peru, an organization that works on various sexual health education projects including teaching women how to conduct their own breast exams; providing educational workshops on patient empowerment and about homophobia, gender, and sexuality; producing educational sexual health videos; and educating and empowering indigenous rural women, incarcerated women, LGBT communities, as well as students and health care professionals.

Ear acupuncture is similar to reflexology, in that it is based on the concept of holism, or that the whole body is often mapped onto parts of the body. Our body can be likened to a hologram, where even the tiniest fragment of a hologram still contains the whole picture. While this may seem an unusual premise, you can think about it like DNA: every cell of our body contains a map of our entire genetic makeup. Systems based on this concept of holism include ear acupuncture, Korean hand acupuncture, and foot reflexology. Ear acupuncture can be a powerful treatment for stress, addiction, all kinds of pain, hormonal imbalances, depression, insomnia, and many other health and wellness issues.

Suggested donations for an ear acupuncture treatment is $40 - $60, and will be provided in a healing community setting. Appointments for massage, reiki, and transpersonal psychology sessions are also available. It will be a fun community event, with snacks and drinks provided in the garden, so please come out and support a great cause. Suggested donation is $60/hour (or $1/minute).

Free Talk: Traditional Chinese Medical Secrets of Health and Longevity

Friday, October 23, 6:00-7:00pm
at The Sacred Well
536 Grand Ave.
Oakland, CA 94610
Please RSVP to 510-444-WELL

Acupuncture-Enhanced Meditation Circle

We have all heard about the beneficial effects of meditation and qi gong, and I will be teaching a very simple internal qi-gong meditation exercise, called the microcosmic orbit, which can be practiced regularly at home for mind-body alignment and health. The microcosmic orbit meditation also helps to clear blockages in and harmonize the 7 chakras or energy centers of the body.

This practice will be enhanced with ear acupuncture, promoting relaxation and facilitating entering into the meditative state.

This meditation circle will be limited to eight participants, so please email me if you are interested. A full payment of $15 will reserve your space. This is a very feasible way to pamper yourself, enhance your health and well-being, and relieve and manage stress during these tough economic times!

A Little Background:

Acupuncture and Meditation go hand-in-hand. Meditation during an acupuncture treatment helps to promote the healing process. Those who have experienced the acupuncture 'high' also know that it is much easier to enter the meditative state while having acupuncture (sister practitioner Kirsten Cowan, L.Ac., one of the originators of AcuCircle in Los Angeles, calls it 'meditation for cheaters').

Both acupuncture and meditation have been shown to increase alpha brain waves, which calm the autonomic nervous system. The effect of this shift is to lower the amount of stress hormones in the body and calm the mind: this is the mind-body connection. Researchers believe that one of the mechanisms by which acupuncture 'works' is by altering brain chemicals that affect the body and mind. Combining the two practices makes each that much more powerful and effective in countering the negative effects of stress on our bodies.