ABOUT

I'm Joelle Whitley, a practicing Acupuncturist in Nelson, BC.  I'm passionate about my children, health, the outdoors, and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).  My love for TCM began in 2005 when I chose to study Acupressure Therapy at Mount Royal University.  It was a step in the complete opposite direction of my occupation at the time; working in a pharmacy filling western medical prescriptions as a pharmacy assistant.  I was looking for a more holistic approach to health care and this Acupressure certificate was just the ticket to get me started!  The part-time program helped ignite a passion and I enrolled in the Alberta College of Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine that very next year.  In 2009 I was fortunate enough to spend part of my practicum studying in China at the Zhejiang Chinese Medical University.  I completed a 3 month Advanced Clinical Internship and worked in a number of different hospitals and clinics around the city of Hangzhou.  Upon finishing my internship, I traveled west to the beautiful Yunnan province and experienced life in the foothills of the Himalayas with minority mountain tribes.  Feeling very inspired by the rich culture of TCM, I began my professional practice in 2010 - first in Calgary for 2 years between a couple different chiropractic offices (at one point I had 4 jobs at the same time!) then back to my home-town of Nelson to live a slower, more balanced, and quality life.  Since moving my practice to Nelson, I've spent five years working in a spa, which really brought out my foundation of Acupressure and allowed it to shine through deep-tissue bodywork.  The spa setting also contributed to my Acupuncture treatment style with a gentle focus of relaxation, stress-relief, and pain related issues.  Now I'm very excited to be a part of the team at the Heritage Health Centre and to continue growing my practice.  I offer relaxing treatments of acupuncture, acupressure, tui na, massage, cupping, gua sha, moxibustion, and diet therapy and life-style counselling.  I'm especially interested in functional medicine and am slowly integrating that into my practice as well.  Please drop me a line if you have any questions or comments, I'd love to hear from you!