Marion Bergan Irwin
“I bring to my practice an open heart, a patient ear, and the depth of knowledge that comes from 25 years of reading and studying acupuncture and alternative medicine, not to mention the wisdom resulting from having spent over a year in silent meditation.
My intent is to create a space where you can relax, let go of your stress, pains, heart aches or whatever it is that prevents you from being harmoniously in flow with your life. We will work together creating balance with acupuncture, life style changes, or just a different perspective.
I welcome anyone who resonates with what I have shared about myself and I look forward to working with you.”
I speak the following languages:
- English
Modalities Offered (Click to view description)
- Acupuncture
Acupuncture is among the oldest healing practices in the world. Originating in China, it is based on the concept that disease results from disruption in the flow of energy, or Qi (Chi), causing imbalance. Practiced in Asian countries for thousands of years, acupuncture is one of the key components of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).
In TCM, the body is seen as a delicate balance of two opposing and yet complementary forces: yin and yang. Yin represents cold, slow, or passive aspects of the person, while yang represents hot, excited, or active aspects. According to TCM, health is achieved by maintaining the body in a 'balanced state'; disease is due to an internal imbalance of yin and yang. This imbalance leads to blockage in the flow of Qi. In traditional Chinese medicine, the vital energy or life force proposed to regulate a person's spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical health can be influenced by the opposing forces of yin and yang (vital energy) along pathways known as meridians. Qi can be unblocked, according to TCM, by using acupuncture at certain points on the body that connect with these meridians. Sources vary on the number of meridians, with numbers ranging from 14 to 20. One commonly cited source describes meridians as 14 main channels 'connecting the body in a weblike interconnecting matrix' of at least 2,000 acupuncture points.
Acupuncture needles, which are made of hair-thin stainless steel, are inserted into specific points of the body to stimulate meridians, the energy pathways, to enhance the flow of energy to organs and throughout the body. This process has been used to restore balance in a variety conditions, such as diseases, addictions, infertility, decreasing pain, and promoting overall wellness. During your first office visit, the practitioner may ask you at length about your health condition, lifestyle, and behavior. The practitioner will want to obtain a complete picture of your therapeutic needs and behaviors that may contribute to your condition. Inform the acupuncturist about all treatments or medications you are taking and all medical conditions you have. People experience acupuncture differently, but most feel no or quite minimal pain as the needles are inserted. Some people feel energized by treatment, while others feel relaxed. Treatment may take place over a period of several weeks or more. - Auriculotherapy
Auriculotherapy is also known as 'ear acupuncture.' Based upon acupuncture principles, and similar to reflexology and iridology, this practice stimulates areas of the external ear to alleviate health concerns elsewhere in the body.
Auriculotherapy maps areas of the ear to corresponding points in the body to help promote health and healing. It has been used for the relief of chronic pain and the alleviation of substance abuse and a broad range of medical conditions. Treatment can include application of massage, low energy laser or acupuncture needles. It was developed into a treatment system in the early 1950's by French doctor Paul Nogier. - Energy Medicine
Energy Field Medicine, Energy Medicine, Energy Work
Energy therapies work from a common understanding that a smooth and balanced flow of vital energy is fundamental to physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. They start from the premise that our mind-body systems have an innate intelligence and are constantly striving for balance, but that our energy flow may be disrupted by stress, injuries, toxins, poor diet, and other impediments.
Energy therapies offer a variety of ways to enhance, direct, and otherwise balance the flow, as healing at the level of the energetic field supports healing on many levels. Some forms have been in use for thousands of years, others are based on discoveries of the past two centuries. As technologies for measuring energy and its effects become more sensitive, many of these practices have been receiving more serious attention from Western science.
These therapies vary in how they engage with the physical body, and work with energy on different levels, but all share an awareness of the vibrational character of all life, and thus of health. Typically, the client rests on a massage table or comfortable chair, and the energy practitioner works with the client's energetic field. Sometimes, no touch is involved, which is especially useful for individuals who could use the healthful benefits of massage but have delicate skin that experiences discomfort with touch. Often, energy therapies are utilized in concert with other modalities. Hospitals often welcome the use of energy modalities during surgery and in post-op, finding them beneficial to a patient's speed of recovery.
Energy therapies encompass many different modalities, such as Shiatsu and other forms of massage; acupuncture and acupressure; chiropractic; Reiki; Therapeutic and Healing Touch; Matrix, homeopathy; Hatha yoga; flower remedies and aromatherapy; Qi Gong; energy medicine, energy psychology and thought field therapy; as well as a variety of specialized branches developed by individual healers. (Definition contributed by Ruth Ann Smalley, Ph.D., Certified Eden Energy Medicine Practitioner, Authorized Instructor, Eden Energy Medicine for Women.) - Essential Oils
Essential oils are utilized in many complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine (CAIM)practices including aromatherapy and massage. Essential oils are plant oils with specific aromas to support and balance the mind, body, and spirit in the promotion of relaxation and healing.
The plant oils are distilled in a natural process without synthetics into essential oils, which are highly concentrated and typically blended with an inert base oil. Inhaling essential oils, such as from candle-burning or use of an air diffuser, may have immediate calming effects. Application in appropriate strengths through the skin may promote additional benefits, such as healing of minor injuries or other pain relief. Aromatherapy can be used for relaxtion, and also to help prevent or improve various conditions, injuries, disorders, and diseases. - Meditation
Meditation is a mind-body practice. There are many types of meditation, most of which originated in ancient religious and spiritual traditions.
Generally, a person who is meditating uses certain techniques, such as a specific posture, focused attention, and an open attitude toward distractions. Meditation may be practiced for many reasons, such as to increase calmness and physical relaxation, to improve psychological balance, to cope with illness, or to enhance overall wellness.
The term meditation refers to a group of techniques, such as mantra meditation, relaxation response, mindfulness meditation, and Zen Buddhist meditation. Most meditative techniques started in Eastern religious or spiritual traditions. These techniques have been used by many different cultures throughout the world for thousands of years.
Today, many people use meditation outside of its traditional religious or cultural settings, for health and wellness purposes. In meditation, a person learns to focus attention. Some forms of meditation instruct the practitioner to become mindful of thoughts, feelings, and sensations and to observe them in a nonjudgmental way. This practice is believed to result in a state of greater calmness and physical relaxation, and psychological balance. It is also believed that practicing meditation can change how a person relates to the flow of emotions and thoughts in the mind. - Nutrition, Functional and Integrative
Nutrition, Functional and Integrative
Functional Nutrition practitioners identify and address the underlying root imbalances that may be preventing optimal health and performance, based on the principles of biochemistry, metabolism and performance.
Practitioners seek to restore normal immune, digestive, and detoxification functions through development of a personalized nutrition program that takes into account a full assessment of the client's nutritional intake or lack thereof.
Benefits of functional nutrition include overall wellness, prevention of illness, weight loss or gain (as needed) and increased functionality of the body's organs and systems such as brain, muscles, digestive tract, and more. - Reiki
Reiki is a healing practice that originated in Japan. These practitioners place their hands lightly on or just above the person receiving this modality, affecting natural healing energy flow with the goal of facilitating the person's own healing response.
Reiki promotes a rapid relaxation response which is easily learned. It can be used for self-care or on others. It has been used to promote overall health and well-being, provide relief from disease-related symptoms, provide relief from side-effects of conventional medical treatments, add relaxation and lower stress and pain from post-operative procedures.
A 2002 national survey by the National Center for Health Statistics and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) on adult Americans' use of CAM found that, adjusted to nationally representative numbers, more than 2.2 million adults in the United States had used Reiki for health purposes at the time of the survey. - Smoking Cessation Techniques
Smoking cessation techniques vary widely, and many holistic and integrative health practitioners can provide these services.
It is important to choose the method that best fits your unique needs. Some examples of techniques include, the Cold Turkey Method, Behavioral Methods, Cognitive Therapy Method, Acupuncture, and Hypnosis. - Weight Loss Techniques
Weight loss techniques usually include a combination of detoxification, dietary changes, regular exercise, and emotional/psychological support.
The techniques vary greatly. Most integrated and complementary health practitioners can provide weight loss assistance, so the first step is to chose a practitioner and a method that is a good fit for you. There are many weight loss programs on the market that have no scientific support and many of them can be avoided by seeking a qualified professional to assist in a weight loss program.
Conditions Addressed (Click to view description)
- Arthritis, Rheumatoid
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic disease that affects the joints, often those in a person's wrists, fingers, and feet. The common symptoms of RA are pain, stiffness, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and fever. There are treatments for RA in conventional medicine, and also treatments in complementary, alternative and integrative medicine (CAIM). Arthritis is the most common cause of disability in the United States, limiting the activities of nearly 19 million adults.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is what is called an autoimmune disease. In this type of disease, a person's immune system (the system in the body responsible for fighting disease) mistakenly attacks the person's own body. In RA, the parts attacked are the linings of the joints (places in the body where two bones connect). The reasons that this happens are complex and not fully understood. RA causes pain, swelling, and stiffness in a person's joints and problems with functioning. However, RA affects different people in different ways, in terms of the symptoms they have, how serious the symptoms are, and how long the symptoms last. RA is different from other types of arthritis (such as osteoarthritis).
There are many proven treatments for RA that are used to relieve pain, reduce swelling, slow down or stop the damage to joints, help the person function better, and improve the person's sense of well-being. These treatments range from complementary and alternative options to pharmaceuticals to combinations of both.
It is important for people with RA to have their condition followed by a health care professional. This helps prevent or minimize damage to the joints and disability, which can occur if RA is left untreated over time. - Asthma
Asthma is a disease that affects the lungs. It is one of the most common long-term diseases of children. It causes repeated episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and nighttime or early morning coughing. Asthma can be controlled by following medical and/or complementary and alternative health management plans and by avoiding contact with environmental triggers.
- Back Pain
Each year, up to one-quarter of U.S. adults experience low-back pain. Most people have significant back pain at least once in their lives; often, the cause is unknown. Back pain varies widely. For many people, it lasts only a few weeks, no matter what treatment is used. But for others, the pain can become chronic and even debilitating. Low-back pain is a challenging condition to diagnose, treat, and study.
Overall, studies have shown that spinal manipulation can provide mild-to-moderate relief from low-back pain and appears to be as effective as conventional medical treatments. In 2007 guidelines, the American College of Physicians and the American Pain Society include spinal manipulation as one of several treatment options for practitioners to consider using when pain does not improve with self-care. - Bursitis and Tendinitis
Bursitis and tendinitis are both common conditions that involve inflammation of the soft tissue around muscles and bones, most often in the shoulder, elbow, wrist, hip, knee, or ankle.
A bursa is a small, fluid-filled sac that acts as a cushion between a bone and other moving parts. Bursae are found throughout the body. Bursitis occurs when a bursa becomes inflamed (redness and increased fluid in the bursa), and is commonly caused by overuse or direct trauma to a joint.
A tendon connects muscles to bones. Tendons are located throughout your body and without them you would not be able to move. Tendons can be small, like those found in the hand, or large, like the Achilles tendon in the heel. Tendinitis is inflammation of a tendon and is most often the result of a repetitive injury in the affected area. These conditions occur more often with age. Tendons become less flexible with age, and therefore, more prone to injury.
People at a higher risk for Tendinitis and Bursitis are carpenters, gardeners, musicians, and athletes who perform activities that require repetitive motions or place stress on joints. Those who have an infection, arthritis, gout, thyroid disease, and diabetes can also experience a higher risk of inflammation of a bursa or tendon.
Diagnosis of tendinitis and bursitis begins with a medical history and physical examination. To rule out infection, fluid may be removed and tested from the inflamed area.
Treatment focuses on healing the injured bursa or tendon. Initially in treating both of these conditions the goal is to reduce pain and inflammation. - Chronic Pain
Chronic pain is pain that lasts beyond the expected time for healing (it can be weeks, months, or years) and interferes with normal life. The injury has healed, but the pain continues. Pain is a feeling triggered in the nervous system. The pain message may be triggered by muscle tension, stiffness, weakness, or spasms. The pain may be sharp or dull. It may come and go, or it may be constant. You may feel pain in one area of your body, such as your back, abdomen or chest or you may feel pain all over, such as when your muscles ache from the flu.
Whatever the cause of chronic pain, feelings of frustration, anger, and fear can make the pain more intense. Chronic pain can affect all areas of your life and should be taken seriously. Your response to pain is determined by many factors, including your emotional outlook. For example, depression seems to increase a person's perception of pain and decrease her or his ability to cope with it. Often, treating the depression treats the pain as well. Sometimes chronic pain is due to an ongoing cause, such as cancer or arthritis. Sometimes the cause is unknown. A healthcare professional can help you evaluate your pain and its cause. Fortunately, there are many ways to treat pain. Treatment varies depending on the cause of pain.
Pain can be helpful. Without pain, you might seriously hurt yourself without knowing it, or you might not realize you have a medical problem that needs treatment. Once you take care of the problem, pain usually goes away; therefore, it is important to seek appropriate care when you are experiencing pain. - Insomnia
Insomnia is characterized by an inability to initiate or maintain sleep. It can also present as early morning awakening where a person awakens several hours early and is unable to go back to sleep. Difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep may often present itself as excessive daytime sleepiness, which commonly results in functional impairment throughout the day. Before being diagnosed with primary insomnia, other potential causes need to be ruled out, such as other sleep disorders, side effects of medications, substance abuse, depression, or other previously undetected illness. Chronic psychophysiological insomnia (or "learned" or "conditioned" insomnia) may result from a stressor combined with fear of being unable to sleep. People affected with this condition may sleep better when not in their own beds.
- Menopause, Change of Life
Menopause is the time in a woman's life when her period stops and she can no longer become pregnant. It is a normal change in a woman's body. Menopause can occur naturally or be caused by surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation. A woman is said to have completed natural menopause when she has not had a period for 12 consecutive months (and there are no other causes, such as pregnancy or illness, for this change). This typically happens after age 45. Menopause occurs immediately if the uterus or both ovaries are surgically removed, or if the ovaries are damaged in cancer treatment with radiation therapy or certain drugs.
Menopause is sometimes called,'the change of life.' In the years leading up to menopause, a woman's ovaries slowly make less and less of the hormones estrogen and progesterone. You might not be aware of the changes happening in your body. Or, you might have symptoms as you near menopause. Many women wonder if these symptoms are normal, and many are confused about how to treat their symptoms.
Menopause affects every woman differently. Your only symptom may be your period stopping. You may have other symptoms, too. Some symptoms that women experience are related to menopause and decreased activity of the ovaries. Others may be related to aging in general.
Scientific evidence of a link to menopause is strongest for the following symptoms; hot flashes and night sweats, sleep difficulties, and vaginal dryness, which can lead to painful intercourse and other sexual problems.
It is not certain whether the following symptoms are due to menopause, other factors that can come with aging or a combination of menopause and these factors; problems in thinking or in remembering things, urinary incontinence, physical complaints, such as tiredness and stiff or painful joints, and changes in mood, such as depression, anxiety, and/or irritability.
After menopause, bone loss speeds up for several years as estrogen levels rapidly decrease. Bone loss can cause bones to weaken. Weak bones can break more easily. When bones weaken a lot, the condition is called osteoporosis. - Obesity, Overweight
Overweight and obesity are both labels for ranges of weight that are greater than what is generally considered healthy for a given height. The terms also identify ranges of weight that have been shown to increase the likelihood of certain diseases and other health problems.
For adults, overweight and obesity ranges are determined by using weight and height to calculate a number called the body mass index' (BMI). BMI is used because, for most people, it correlates with their amount of body fat. An adult who has a BMI between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight. An adult who has a BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese. It is important to remember that BMI does not directly measure body fat. As a result, some people, such as athletes, may have a BMI that identifies them as overweight even though they do not have excess body fat.
Other methods of estimating body fat and body fat distribution include measurements of skinfold thickness and waist circumference, calculation of waist-to-hip circumference ratios, and techniques such as ultrasound, computed tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
For children and teens, BMI ranges above a normal weight have different labels (at risk of overweight and overweight). Additionally, BMI ranges for children and teens are defined so that they take into account normal differences in body fat between boys and girls and differences in body fat at various ages.
BMI is just one indicator of potential health risks associated with being overweight or obese. For assessing someone's likelihood of developing overweight- or obesity-related diseases, take a look at two other predictors: 1) Waist circumference (because abdominal fat is a predictor of risk for obesity-related diseases) and 2) Other risk factors the individual has for diseases and conditions associated with obesity (for example, high blood pressure or physical inactivity).
Obesity increases the risk of many diseases and health conditions. These include; Hypertension (high blood pressure), Osteoarthritis (a degeneration of cartilage and its underlying bone within a joint), Dyslipidemia (for example, high total cholesterol or high levels of triglycerides), Type 2 diabetes, Coronary heart disease, Stroke, Gallbladder disease, Sleep apnea and respiratory problems, and some cancers (endometrial, breast, and colon). - Stress
Stress is a condition that develops when the demands on an individual begin to outweigh the capabilities and resources available to that individual. In other words; what is expected of you is putting too much pressure on you because you don't feel you have the "tools" to perform the task. A few examples of these "tools" are emotions, energy, physical strength, and mental ability. Stress can be related to things both inside and outside the body. Some examples of things outside the body that cause stress can be related to a job, home life, and interactions with others. Things inside the body that affect a person's stress level can include the availability of proper nutrients, the proper functioning of the parts of the body, the emotional state of being, and the abundance or lack of sleep per night.
The most common view of stress is a negative one; however, there are positive biological reasons for a "stress state" that help us handle stressful situations. A problem arises when there are too many of these situations occurring and the mind becomes emotionally over whelmed, the body becomes biologically overly stimulated and the person is in a general state of over reacting.
If a person remains in this over reactive state medical conditions can develop. Every person is different from another and displays stress differently; however, there are some common symptoms of negative stress such as sleep disturbances, muscle tension, headache, gastrointestinal disturbances, and fatigue. Emotional and behavioral symptoms that can accompany excess stress include nervousness, anxiety, changes in eating habits including overeating, loss of enthusiasm or energy, and mood changes.
If a person in an over reactive, negative stress state does not get help when these symptoms appear, more severe problems and disease states can occur. These can be psychological disorders (depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder), maladaptive behaviors (aggression, substance abuse), cognitive impairment, and physical disorders (cardiovascular, thyroid disease).
Anyone in any age group can experience negative stress. Some common groups of people that experience increased negative stress due to life transitions are children, teens, working parents, and seniors. If you feel that you or someone you know is in an over reactive, negative stress state, please seek care. There are many different healthcare workers that are available to help you.
Common Ailments Addressed [ Show ]
Contact Information
Name: Marion Bergan Irwin
350 Norhtern Blvd, Suite 305
Albany, NY 12204
Phone: 518-229-8188
Contact this Practitioner [ Show ]
Qualifications
Degree: Master of Acupuncture
Schools Graduated:
- New England School of Acupuncture, 1998
- American University, 1979
Years in Practice: 11 - 15
Financial Information
Average Cost per Initial Visit: $51 - $100
Average Cost per Session: $51 - $75
Credit Cards Accepted? yes
Insurance Accepted? no
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