Chi-Akra Center founder Mary Elizabeth Wakefield is one of the leading proponents of facial renewal techniques in the world today, and has been awarded with the title of Educator of the Year by the American Association of Oriental Medicine (AAAOM) for her contributions to the field of Oriental medicine as a teacher, creator of innovative treatment protocols, writer for acupuncture periodicals, and advocate of acupuncture in the national media.
Ms. Wakefield appeared on national television on the FOX network as a spokesperson for facial acupuncture on The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet; click here to watch: MEW on The Morning Show.
During the summer months of 2007, Ms. Wakefield supervised the installation of a 10-week elective in her treatment protocols in Constitutional Facial Acupuncture Renewal™ at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in New York, and appeared as a guest lecturer. This pilot elective in facial acupuncture has run successfully at PCOM-NYC for 6 consecutive semesters, and the associated speciality acupuncture clinic has a waiting list.
She has personally trained close to 3,000 acupuncturists, bodyworkers and estheticians from 5 continents - North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australasia - in her protocols, and maintains a private practice on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in New York City.
She has 28 years of clinical professional experience as a healing practitioner, and is a licensed acupuncturist, certified by the NCCAOM, a Zen Shiatsu practitioner, massage therapist, a cranio-sacral therapist, Acutonics® practitioner, opera singer, herbalist and Interfaith minister.
Background
Mary Elizabeth is a graduate of Tri-State College of Acupuncture in New York City, and has studied with such notable acupuncturists as Carolyn Bengston, Kiiko Matsumoto, Dr. Mark Seem, Arya Nielson, Jeffrey Yuen, Dr. Richard Tan, Fabien Maman, Yitian Ni and Donna Carey.
Her knowledge of facial acupuncture and acupressure is based on the work of Jacques Lavier, the "Father of French Acupuncture." She has also studied extensively with her teacher Carolyn Bengston, who is a master of interdermal needling for the face.
Ms. Wakefield has synergized the knowledge gleaned from her formal and personal studies into an expanded 3-tiered program in Constitutional Facial Renewal™; each level of certification includes two distinct modules, both of which are required to complete the certification requirements (for more information, see the Practitioner Certification page); she has given her innovative seminars at AZ Acupuncture School and the Desert Healing Center in Tucson, AZ, NESA in Watertown, MA, NWHSU in Minneapolis, MN, SBCOM in Santa Barbara, ACTCM in San Francisco, AIMC in Berkeley, and in Orange, Laguna Hills and Oakland, CA, Mercy College, PCOM and Swedish Institute in New York, NY, in Hawaii, Orlando, FL, Santa Fe and Albuquerque, NM, Bastyr University in Seattle, WA, Michener Institute in Toronto and in Vancouver, CANADA and elsewhere.
2008: The Year of Traveling Internationally
Ms. Wakefield was the only North American acupuncturist invited to appear in November 2008 in Shanghai, CHINA at an international TCM forum sponsored by Shanghai Shuguang Hospital, associated with the Shanghai University of TCM. Continuing to expand her educational reach beyond North America, she taught her first Japanese facial acupuncture seminar in Yoyogi-ku, Tokyo, JAPAN, at the Tokyo Therapeutic Institute, under the auspices of the Japanese facial acupuncture organization, JFACe, for which she functions in an advisory capacity. Prior to that she made her Australian teaching debut in Brisbane, QLD, and then appeared as an Invited Speaker at the 2008 AACMAC acupuncture conference in Sydney, NSW.
Teaching Highlights: 2009
A busy 2009 teaching schedule included seminars at New England School of Acupuncture (NESA) in May, Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, New York (PCOM), in May and June, Northwestern Health Sciences University (NWHSU), Bloomington, MN, also in June, and Yo San University, Los Angeles, in August. She also taught successful private certification series seminars in Boulder, CO and Santa Barbara, CA, the latter under the auspices of Healing Opportunities, www.healingopportunities.org.
International teaching engagements in 2009 included 5 certification series offerings in AUSTRALIA and NEW ZEALAND (Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Auckland) in February and March, a return to Vancouver, BC, CANADA in September, and an expanded series of certification series seminars in Tokyo, JAPAN in November, including her first Japanese master class.
Looking Ahead: 2010
After returning from Tokyo, Ms. Wakefield will be putting the finishing touches on her facial acupuncture book, which is to be published simultaneously in both English and Japanese later in 2010.
A return to Australia is planned for mid-March to early May, with the presentation of 2 certification series, Advanced Constitutional Facial Acupuncture (in Melbourne; March 19-21 and 26-28, 2010) and the very first complete certification series in Alchemical Facial Acupuncture Renewal (in Brisbane; April 9-11 and 16-18, 2010). They will also offer a single module of Facial Soundscapes training in Crows Nest, NSW, April 23-25, 2010.
A single module of Constitututional Facial Acupuncture Renewal has been scheduled for London, UNITED KINGDOM, May 29-30, 2010; please see the Seminars page for more details and updates regarding these certification series offerings.
Conferences and other PR Highlights
Mary Elizabeth returned to the CSOMA 2009 Conference & Expo in San Francisco, September 26, 2009, where she presented a well-attended and enthusiasticallyh received 3 hour presentation on Constitutional Facial Acupuncture Renewal.
In November, she appeared as an invited speaker for the first time at the prestigious Pacific Symposium, sponsored by Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, in San Diego; her topic will be The Alchemy of Facial Renewal™: A Constitutional Integrative Approach. This topic is presented both in conjunction with her certification series in Alchemical Facial Acupuncture Renewal, and a 3-part series of articles that has been appearing in her column in Acupuncture Today (see links to the first two on this page). Ms. Wakefield also taught a sold-out post-conference seminar, Constitutional Facial Acupuncture Renewal™: "Catching a Wrinkle in Time."
Ms. Wakefield debuted as a presenter at the 2nd International Sound Healing Conference in November, 2007; the topic was her innovative tuning fork facial, Facial Soundscapes: Harmonic Renewal. She shared the stage with the co-creator of the Facial Soundscapes teaching and treatment protocols, MichelAngelo, Advisor, Astrological Medicine & Musical Studies, Kairos Institute of Sound Healing, LLC (Acutonics).
In 2005, she appeared at the AOMA Southwest Symposium in Austin, TX, shared top billing with Jeffrey Yuen and Miki Shima at the Conference of the AAOM in Chicago, IL, where she was named Educator of the Year, and also was a presenter at the 12th annual Symposium of the AOMAlliance in Newport, RI, in May, 2005. In March, she lectured at the Canadian Oriental Medical Symposium, sponsored by Eastern Currents, Ltd., in Vancouver, BC, CANADA. She has been a presenter at 4 consecutive CSOMA Expos, the most recent in April 2005.
Ms. Wakefield was highlighted in an article on facial acupuncture that appeared in the Style section of the December 13, 2007 issue of the New York Times. She contributes an ongoing column on facial acupuncture and related topics to Acupuncture Today magazine, and has also written articles for the California Journal of Oriental Medicine and Oriental Medicine Journal.
Ms. Wakefield was invited to custom design a Diamond Acupuncture Facial™ in conjunction with the 2005 Academy Awards, and traveled to Los Angeles to debut it at the Soho Mansion Diamond Aquifer Suite. In July 2005, she appeared nationally on Fit TV (Discovery Channel), demonstrating the facial on host Gina Lombardi, in a segment entitled "Buying Beauty."
Mary Elizabeth's system of Constitutional Facial Acupuncture Renewal™ has been featured during a segment on FOX News that aired nationally; in December 2004 she demonstrated her techniques in an interview on EyeWitness News, WABC-TV, in New York.
Her practice and treatment protocols have been highlighted or featured in interviews in a number of prominent magazines - Oriental Medicine Journal, Qi Magazine, Alternative Medicine, American Spa, Luxury Spa Finder, Les Nouvelles Esthetique, Spa Asia (Singapore) and Spa Arabia (Dubai).
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