Acupuncture in Portland, Maine
Targeted support for everyday stressors. Acupuncture that feels good.
Our treatments focus on pain relief, nervous system support, hormonal health, digestion, sleep, and skin conditions. If you don’t see what you’re looking for, please reach out. We’re always happy to talk through what you’re experiencing and how acupuncture may be able to help. Our goal is to build trust, offer thoughtful guidance, and help you feel confident in your care.
Visit us in Portland, Maine’s charming West End neighborhood. We look forward to meeting you!
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Pain Management
Improve circulation, ease muscle tension, and stimulate your body’s natural pain-relief mechanisms. We treat acute and chronic pain, including back pain, neck pain, joint pain, migraines, and more.
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Stress & Mental Health
Support your mental health with acupuncture treatments designed to regulate the nervous system. Acupuncture can help with stress and anxiety, improved mood, better sleep, mental clarity and fatigue recovery.
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Skin & Dermatology
Address the root causes of breakouts, redness, signs of aging, and inflammation, including factors like hormonal shifts, digestion, immune response, and detoxification.
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Sports Injuries
Accelerate healing, reduce inflammation and pain, and improve mobility. Acupuncture supports athletes and active individuals in recovering from sports injuries and maintaining peak performance.
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Women’s Health
Support menstrual health, fertility, and peri/menopause symptoms with acupuncture treatments that promote hormonal balance and reduce stress.
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Gut Health & Digestion
Balance the gut-brain connection and support a healthy microbiome. Acupuncture can help common symptoms such as heartburn, indigestion, bloating, nausea, and more.
Acupuncture for Pain
in Portland, Maine
Acupuncture for Pain in Portland, Maine
West End Acupuncture provides individualized acupuncture for pain at our clinic in Portland’s West End.
We regularly treat patients from Portland and the surrounding Greater Portland area for back pain, neck pain, sciatica, shoulder pain, headaches and migraines, TMJ, arthritis, sports injuries, nerve pain, and chronic muscle tension.
If pain is keeping you from sleeping comfortably, exercising, working, or doing the activities you enjoy, acupuncture may be a useful addition to your care.
Our goal isn’t simply to make you feel better on the treatment table. It’s to help you move and feel better in your everyday life.
Pain is one of the most common reasons people seek acupuncture. From a new injury or stubborn muscle tension to chronic back pain, headaches, arthritis, or nerve pain, treatment is tailored to what is limiting you and what you want to get back to doing.
At West End Acupuncture in Portland, Maine, we take a targeted approach to pain. We look at where you hurt, how you move, what may be contributing to the problem, and how pain is affecting your work, sleep, exercise, and everyday life.
Our goal is simple: reduce pain, restore comfortable movement, and help you get back to the activities you love.
Common Pain Conditions We Treat
Back Pain + Sciatica
Acupuncture can help with acute and chronic low back pain, muscle spasms, stiffness, sciatica, and radiating pain into the hip or leg. We also work with patients managing disc-related pain and recurring back pain associated with work, exercise, posture, or everyday movement.
Neck + Shoulder Pain
Neck and shoulder tension can develop from desk work, stress, sports, repetitive movement, injury, or changes in the cervical spine. Treatment may address stiff neck, upper-back tension, shoulder pain, rotator cuff injuries, frozen shoulder, and pain that travels into the arm or contributes to headaches.
Joint Pain + Arthritis
Acupuncture can provide supportive care for painful, stiff, or irritated joints, including knee, hip, shoulder, elbow, hand, and foot pain. We commonly work with osteoarthritis, overuse injuries, and joint pain that makes walking, exercise, work, or sleep uncomfortable.
Headaches, Migraines + TMJ
Headaches are often connected to more than the head itself. Neck tension, jaw clenching, stress, sleep, hormones, and muscle tension can all contribute. Acupuncture may help reduce the frequency and intensity of migraines, tension headaches, neck-related headaches, and TMJ or jaw pain.
Sports Injuries + Overuse
Running, cycling, skiing, surfing, golf, tennis, pickleball, strength training, and other activities can create their own patterns of strain and overuse. We treat tendon and muscle injuries, plantar fasciitis, knee pain, hip pain, shoulder pain, and other musculoskeletal conditions with the goal of keeping you active while supporting recovery.
Stress-Related Muscle Tension
Stress can show up physically as tight shoulders, jaw clenching, headaches, back pain, muscle guarding, and persistent tension. Acupuncture addresses both the painful tissue and the nervous system patterns that may be keeping muscles tense and sensitive.
Peripheral Neuropathy + Nerve Pain
Nerve-related symptoms can include numbness, tingling, burning, hypersensitivity, or radiating pain. Acupuncture and electroacupuncture may be incorporated into care for certain types of neuropathy and nerve-related pain, depending on the underlying cause.
Our Approach to Acupuncture for Pain
Pain treatment should be specific to the person and the problem.
We combine targeted acupuncture with complementary techniques such as dry needling, electroacupuncture, cupping, gua sha, heat therapy, and manual techniques when appropriate.
Treatment is designed to:
Reduce pain and muscle tension
Improve mobility and range of motion
Support circulation and tissue recovery
Calm irritated or sensitized pain pathways
Reduce nervous system guarding
Help you return to normal movement and activity
For a recent injury or acute flare, treatment may be focused and relatively short-term. Chronic or recurring pain may benefit from a longer series of treatments followed by occasional maintenance or tune-ups.
Many patients begin to notice changes in pain, tension, or mobility within the first few sessions. We reassess regularly rather than prescribing the same treatment plan indefinitely.
When appropriate, we also work alongside physicians, physical therapists, chiropractors, trainers, and other providers to support comprehensive care.
Acupuncture for Injury Recovery
Common injury-related conditions we treat
Sprains and Strains
Reduce pain and swelling, improve circulation, and support faster tissue repair.
Tendon and Joint Injuries
Relief for conditions such as tennis elbow, golfer’s elbow, Achilles tendonitis, and rotator cuff injuries.
Overuse and Repetitive Strain
Treatment for shin splints, IT band syndrome, plantar fasciitis, knee pain, and hip discomfort related to overtraining or repetitive motion.
Post-Surgical Recovery
Boost circulation, minimize scar tissue formation, and improve strength and mobility after surgery.
How Acupuncture Supports Recovery
Acupuncture helps regulate the body’s inflammatory and repair responses, improving blood flow, oxygen delivery, and nervous system balance. Treatments are customized with dry needling, cupping therapy, and red light therapy.
Many of our patients notice less pain, improved mobility, and faster recovery after just a few sessions. When appropriate, we coordinate care with your physician, physical therapist, or trainer to ensure the most comprehensive and effective treatment plan possible.
Acupuncture for Stress & Mental Health
Our Approach
The best thing about acupuncture is that it feels good.
You do not have to meditate perfectly, clear your mind, or accomplish anything during your session. You simply get to lie down and rest.
Treatment is individualized based on what you are experiencing. We may incorporate acupuncture, gentle electroacupuncture, heat therapy, cupping, or other techniques depending on your symptoms and preferences.
Many patients describe a sense of calm, lightness, mental clarity, or deep rest during and after treatment. Some fall asleep on the table.
For acute periods of stress, a few treatments may provide meaningful support. For chronic stress, anxiety, insomnia, or long-standing nervous system dysregulation, we may recommend weekly treatment initially and gradually space sessions out as you begin feeling more resilient.
Acupuncture for Stress + Anxiety in Portland, Maine
West End Acupuncture provides individualized acupuncture for stress, anxiety, sleep, and nervous system support at our clinic in Portland’s West End.
We work with patients experiencing chronic stress, anxiety, insomnia, fatigue, headaches, TMJ, muscle tension, digestive changes, hormonal transitions, and other physical manifestations of stress.
Acupuncture can be used on its own as a regular wellness practice or alongside therapy, medication, exercise, meditation, and other forms of mental health care.
You don't need to wait until you're completely depleted to give your nervous system an opportunity to recover.
Modern life is stressful. Over time, stress can show up throughout the body as anxiety, fatigue, insomnia, muscle tension, headaches, jaw clenching, digestive changes, irritability, low mood, difficulty concentrating, or simply feeling overwhelmed and depleted.
At West End Acupuncture in Portland, Maine, we take a holistic, mind-body approach to stress and mental health. Acupuncture can help regulate the nervous system, support physical and emotional recovery, and create more space for rest, calm, and resilience.
Think of acupuncture as exercise for your nervous system. With regular treatment, we are creating repeated opportunities for the body to practice shifting out of a heightened stress response and into a more settled, restorative state.
Chronic Stress + Anxiety
Stress is not just something you experience mentally. It changes breathing, muscle tension, digestion, sleep, heart rate, pain sensitivity, and how you feel in your body.
Acupuncture may help support nervous system regulation during periods of chronic stress, generalized anxiety, overwhelm, or major life transitions. Treatment gives the body an opportunity to slow down and shift away from the constant feeling of being “on.”
We commonly work with patients experiencing:
Chronic stress and overwhelm
Anxiety and persistent worry
Physical tension associated with stress
Jaw clenching and TMJ
Stress-related headaches
Digestive changes during periods of stress
Difficulty relaxing or slowing down
Feeling wired, restless, or depleted
For many patients, the immediate benefit is simple but meaningful: they leave treatment feeling noticeably calmer than when they arrived.
Insomnia + Fatigue
Sleep and stress are closely connected. When the nervous system has difficulty settling at night, falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking feeling restored can become increasingly difficult.
Acupuncture can support healthier rhythms of rest and recovery, especially when poor sleep is connected to stress, anxiety, hormonal changes, pain, muscle tension, or an overactive mind.
Mood + Emotional Well-Being
Our mental and physical health are deeply connected.
As a complementary therapy, acupuncture can provide a consistent space for nervous system regulation, rest, and reconnection with the body. Some patients describe feeling more grounded, settled, or emotionally spacious after treatment.
Acupuncture can work alongside psychotherapy or medication, as part of a broader mental health and wellness plan.
Stress-Related Physical Symptoms
Treatment can address both the physical symptoms you are experiencing and the nervous system patterns that may be contributing to them.
Common stress-related symptoms we treat include:
Neck and shoulder tension
TMJ and jaw clenching
Headaches and migraines
Low back tension
Digestive changes
Poor sleep, fatigue
Muscle tightness and guarding
Hormonal symptoms that worsen with stress
Acupuncture + Nervous System Regulation
Your nervous system is constantly responding to what is happening around you.
The sympathetic nervous system helps mobilize the body for action. This is the familiar “fight or flight” response. The parasympathetic nervous system supports processes associated with rest, digestion, recovery, and restoration.
Both are necessary. The problem is when the body has difficulty transitioning out of a prolonged state of activation.
Acupuncture provides a strong sensory input to the nervous system while you remain physically still and safe. For many patients, treatment produces a noticeable shift toward relaxation: breathing slows, muscles soften, mental activity quiets, and the body settles.
Over time, we think of treatment as helping create more flexibility in how the nervous system responds to stress.
Acupuncture for Skin Health
At West End Acupuncture, we take an inside-out approach to skin health. In addition to treating surface-level symptoms such as breakouts or irritation, we support internal systems that influence the skin such as digestion, hormone changes, stress and immune response.
We offer two distinct but complementary services for skin support:
Acupuncture for Skin Conditions
Acupuncture helps regulate the systems that influence skin health by calming inflammation, improving detoxification pathways, and supporting immune function.
Conditions we commonly treat:
Eczema and dermatitis (perioral, seborrheic, etc.)
Acne (Teen, Adult, Hormone-related skin changes)
Rosacea
Hair loss
Sensitive skin, histamine-related skin responses, and rashes
With each treatment, Justine will personalize a skincare routine for you, including comprehensive nutrition support + topical care. Treatments are gentle and relaxing. Many clients notice that their skin improves alongside better sleep and digestion, smoother cycles, and overall stress support.
Facial Acupuncture (Cosmetic Acupuncture)
Facial acupuncture is a gentle, non-invasive treatment designed to support skin revitalization naturally. Ultra-fine needles are placed on the face and body to stimulate collagen production, increase circulation, relax facial muscles, and reduce puffiness, while promoting full-body balance and relaxation.
Benefits include:
Softening of fine lines and wrinkles
Improved skin tone, elasticity, and hydration
Enhanced lymphatic drainage for puffiness and dark circles
Calmer, more resilient skin during times of stress
Relief of jaw tension and stress-related breakouts
A natural, holistic alternative to injectables and invasive treatments
When done consistently, facial acupuncture helps restore a vibrant, lifted, and well-rested appearance while also supporting your overall health.
Please visit our FACIAL ACUPUNCTURE treatment offering for full details + pricing.
Digestive & Internal Health
Digestion is central to overall health. When the digestive system is out of balance, it can show up as bloating, constipation, reflux, food sensitivity, fatigue, inflammation, or changes in mood and energy.
At West End Acupuncture, we use acupuncture and simple dietary guidance to help regulate the digestive system and support the gut-brain connection.
Digestive Disorders
Acupuncture can support people experiencing IBS, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, acid reflux, nausea, and general digestive discomfort. Regular treatment may help regulate gut motility, calm the nervous system, and support healthier communication between the brain and digestive tract.
Chronic Digestive Conditions
For people living with Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, gastritis, or other chronic inflammatory digestive conditions, acupuncture can be used as a complementary therapy to help reduce stress, support symptom management, and promote a greater sense of balance alongside medical care.
Immune & Respiratory Issues
Acupuncture can also support the immune and respiratory systems. Frequent colds, seasonal allergies, sinus congestion, hay fever, asthma, and inflammatory symptoms may improve as treatment helps regulate the nervous system, calm inflammation, and support the body’s natural resilience.
Our Approach
Digestive and immune concerns are often connected to stress, sleep, diet, inflammation, and the nervous system. Each treatment is personalized to your symptoms, constitution, and goals, so we can address both the immediate discomfort and the deeper patterns contributing to it.
Acupuncture for Women’s Health
How Acupuncture Supports Women’s Health
Hormonal health is closely connected to the nervous system, circulation, inflammation, sleep, digestion, stress, and overall health. This is why hormonal changes can affect so much more than your menstrual cycle.
Acupuncture can help regulate the nervous system, improve circulation, reduce pain and muscle tension, and support the body through periods of hormonal and physiological change. Many patients also find acupuncture helpful for stress, sleep, mood, digestion, and feeling more comfortable and connected to their bodies.
What to Expect
Our approach is nurturing, grounded, and respectful. We understand that women’s health concerns can be personal and complex, and we create space to discuss what you’re experiencing in detail.
Your first visit includes a conversation about your current symptoms, health history, menstrual and hormonal patterns, sleep, stress, digestion, medications or supplements, and your goals for treatment.
Each session includes an individualized acupuncture treatment and, when helpful, practical lifestyle, dietary, and self-care recommendations to support your goals between visits.
Women’s Health Acupuncture in Portland, Maine
West End Acupuncture provides individualized women’s health acupuncture in Portland, Maine, with specialized support for menstrual health, fertility, pregnancy, postpartum recovery, perimenopause, and menopause.
If you’re curious whether acupuncture may be appropriate for what you’re experiencing, please reach out or schedule an initial visit. We’d be happy to learn more about what’s going on and how we can support you.
Justine has over 10 years of clinical experience in integrative health, with advanced training and a special focus in women’s health. Acupuncture offers gentle, individualized support throughout the changing stages of a woman’s life, from menstrual and hormonal health to fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause, and menopause.
Each treatment is personalized to meet you where you are. We look at your symptoms alongside the bigger picture, including your cycle, sleep, stress, digestion, energy, lifestyle, and current stage of life.
Menstrual Cycle + Hormonal Support
Your menstrual cycle can offer important information about your overall health. Painful periods, irregular cycles, PMS, headaches, bloating, fatigue, mood changes, and changes in menstrual flow can all affect how you feel throughout the month.
Acupuncture can provide supportive care throughout the menstrual cycle, with treatments individualized according to your symptoms and cycle patterns.
We commonly work with:
Painful or irregular periods
PMS and mood changes
Menstrual headaches and migraines
Bloating and digestive changes
PCOS/PMOS and irregular ovulation
Endometriosis-related pain
Cycle changes related to stress or hormonal transitions
Fertility Acupuncture
Trying to conceive can be physically and emotionally demanding. We provide fertility acupuncture for patients preparing to conceive naturally as well as those undergoing IUI or IVF.
Treatment may be coordinated with different phases of the menstrual cycle or with your fertility clinic’s treatment schedule. Our goal is to provide complementary care that supports stress regulation, sleep, menstrual health, physical comfort, and overall well-being throughout the fertility process.
Fertility acupuncture may support:
Preparing to conceive
Menstrual cycle and ovulation support
Stress and nervous system regulation
IUI and IVF preparation
Support during ovarian stimulation and retrieval
Embryo transfer and the post-transfer period
Sleep, digestion, and treatment-related stress
Acupuncture does not replace fertility evaluation or reproductive medicine when needed, and we are happy to work alongside your OB/GYN or fertility team.
Pregnancy + Postpartum Acupuncture
Pregnancy brings significant physical and hormonal changes, and acupuncture can provide gentle support throughout each trimester.
During pregnancy, patients commonly come to us for nausea, headaches, stress, sleep difficulties, back and hip pain, pelvic discomfort, muscle tension, and general support as the body changes. In the later weeks of pregnancy, acupuncture can also offer a dedicated opportunity for rest and preparation as you approach birth.
After delivery, treatment shifts toward recovery. Postpartum acupuncture can support the transition through healing, feeding, disrupted sleep, hormonal changes, and the physical demands of caring for a new baby.
We commonly support:
Pregnancy nausea
Headaches and migraines
Back, hip, and pelvic discomfort
Sleep and stress
Physical changes during pregnancy
Third-trimester and late-pregnancy support
Postpartum recovery
Neck and shoulder tension from feeding and carrying
Fatigue, stress, and nervous system support
Perimenopause + Menopause
Perimenopause can begin years before the final menstrual period, and the transition can affect far more than your cycle. Changes in estrogen and progesterone can coincide with shifts in sleep, temperature regulation, mood, energy, headaches, body composition, skin, digestion, and musculoskeletal health.
Acupuncture offers a non-pharmaceutical form of supportive care during this transition and can also be used alongside hormone therapy or other medical treatment.
We commonly work with:
Hot flashes and night sweats
Sleep disruption
Anxiety, irritability, and mood changes
Headaches and migraines
Fatigue and changes in energy
Irregular or changing menstrual cycles
Muscle and joint aches
Stress and nervous system regulation
Our goal is not simply to treat an isolated symptom, but to help you feel supported and resilient as your body moves through a significant physiological transition.