Spotlight Series
Guest Name: Mallory Berge
Credentials: L.Ac – Flow Acupuncture
Mallory Berge: thanks for having me I’m excited too
Dr. Betty DeLass: yeah so I’m just gonna read your bio here so the audience knows who you are um Mallory is a licensed acupuncturist by the state of Utah and certified diploma of the Chinese medicine through NCCAOM is that how you say it okay
Mallory Berge: yeah like the national accreditation
Dr. Betty DeLass: okay great with the clinical specialty and conditions related to pregnancy fertility and Women’s Health she is also a member of the acupuncture and the TCM Board of Reproductive Medicine focusing on the integration integrative treatment of infertility she currently practices at Flow Acupuncture an award-winning Wellness Clinic dedicated to providing Quality Healthcare and Community Resources combining acupuncture traditional Chinese herb medicine and nutrition in her practice she’s deeply passionate about each patients’s unique Health journey and strives to create a space in which individuals can discover their own potential for healing Chinese medicine has shaped her view of health and she is grateful to have such valuable tools to guide her through her many through many of life’s phases including becoming pregnant and giving birth to her son in 2023 outside of her practice she enjoys cooking traveling and spending time outdoors with her family well thank you so much Mallory for coming on I’m excited to jump into these questions and so right off the bat like what made you decide to be an acupuncturist
Mallory Berge: yeah so I actually got into it through when I was in college and and I started getting acupuncture myself and just noticed a lot of things changing my health improving in a lot of different ways and I have a dance and movement background um and was at also at the time taking a lot of classes and things like yoga kind of these more somatic and meditative practices as well um so I kind of got into some of the philosophy behind Chinese medicine at that same time and when I graduated from college I was just kind of piecing things together I knew that um either health care or helping people was like in my future at some point my mom was a PA for like over 30 years so at one point I thought about going into like more Western medicine and going that route but ultimately it was um yeah just the benefits that I had had from Chinese medicine and acupuncture myself that made me want to um like pursue it further so I just started studying it I jumped into school right after I graduated from college and just kind of hit the ground running and never look back I just loved it so it’s amazing
Dr. Betty DeLass: amazing okay what would you say that makes you different amongst your peers
Mallory Berge: yeah so I mean I think part of it in terms of just my training and Specialties um you know I think especially here in the valley kind of set me apart um the um the Reproductive Medicine I think I’m only one of two that in the state kind of has that more specialized training um and I think you know going through it myself now the process of becoming pregnant having a kid going through postpartum very recently I think um has definitely colored and shaped like just my Approach and um just you know how I how I treat and and see individuals going through that it’s definitely like given me a lot of um just a deeper kind of understanding of what a lot of our patients going through um so yeah I think that’s one thing that kind of makes me different but yeah
Dr. Betty DeLass: awesome and then who would be an ideal fit for you like what kind of patient client that are you looking for that’s like oh this is this is my bread and butter
Mallory Berge: yeah I you know I kind of found myself in this specialty through just um treating pregnancy um I’ve had a lot of different clinical experience at this point and when I started I was actually working in a community clinic and that’s kind of how I initially became introduced to treating pregnant women um my boss his partner was actually a midwife and so we got a lot of referrals and that’s kind of how I started treating that and I think um you know maybe this answers some of your previous question too but not a lot of acupuncturists really want to touch pregnancy um and me
Dr. Betty DeLass: yeah yeah
Mallory Berge: and you know we were one of the few places you know I think that that were like willing and able and just wanting to treat that and once I did start treating pregnant women and um pregnant people I just was like these are the best patients so um you know I think it’s just it’s something that can be really helpful and for whatever reason people respond really well to acupuncture while pregnant so not only is it um you know just safe but it’s just great to like maintain a healthy pregnancy alleviate all the aches and pains and so um I think my ideal like person is someone who’s you know going through the whole process and I love just treating before during and after pregnancy um I just love seeing people through that whole process it’s such a rewarding thing but um yeah pregnancy Is My Jam
Dr. Betty DeLass: yes czy same okay what does the process look like to to work with you like how does someone come to work with you
Mallory Berge: yeah so I work at a clinic called Flow Acupuncture and we have um a few different acupuncturists um but basically someone will come in for an initial appointment and we go through quite a thorough health history um and I ask you know a decent amount of questions just about where they’re at um oh I’m sorry cat’s um just like where they’re at whether they’re trying to conceive um where they’re at in that process or if they’re already pregnant just um we talk about just different things that they’re wanting to focus on um different health concerns as well as their health history and then um I provide acupuncture and if they haven’t had acupuncture before I usually walk them through that whole process make sure they’re really comfortable um administer acupuncture needles on various points to kind of help address those concerns that they’re having and then the acupuncture itself is usually about a 30 to 40 minute procedure or process and um so we let people just rest on the table with the needles in and most people kind of just conk out space out take a little nap um it’s really just restorative too and then from there we kind of talk about a treatment plan most things I’m going to be seeing people pretty regularly to start it’s just the way acupuncture Works um so our initial treatment plan can be anywhere from come see me a couple times until we get this specific condition like or alleviated um or if it’s something like just kind of overall health and wellness throughout pregnancy you often see people once a month a couple times a month something like that but if we’re working on something specific I’ll usually see them weekly for anywhere from you know a couple weeks to a couple months just depending on what we’re really trying to focus on so
Dr. Betty DeLass: awesome awesome thank you for that snapshot okay in the grand scheme of things with pregnancy and postpartum what does recovery look like in your profession and your your ethos of care
Mallory Berge: yeah so you know we the way we look at you know pregnancy birth and and especially like kind of old school traditional Chinese medicine like that recovery like a lot of women during that time were just able to rest and they had mothers and grandmothers all these people bringing them like nourishing soups and really like calorie dense foods and the main focus was you know just rest feed your baby you don’t have to worry about anything else other than um recovery so in our day and age it looks a lot different but um you know the the healing in that initial like rest when you can get it is so important and um we try to help kind of prepare the body um before that even happens so we you know that’s huge when I’m seeing someone during pregnancy is we’re always thinking about recovery even you know before we get to that place so um going through birth is such a big event and is very taxing on the body and so um once some someone’s gone through that we really want to focus on nourishing what we call their like kind of their deep reserves their deep energetic reserves we call that Chien blood in Chinese medicine so um that and that is encompassing of you know foods that they can be eating um sometimes I’ll send people home with herbs or um just like a bone broth um couple herbs they can add to bone broth at home beforehand so that they’re like that’s ready to go um and then obviously acupuncture some some different techniques I’ll do um at the clinic just to help more with um like actual tissue healing and repair um there’s a process called moxabustion which sometimes we’ll do during pregnancy but it can be really helpful for that recovery process too so and traditionally that was like 40 days that women would just sit and rest that’s kind of the um so about a month or a little bit longer um but that’s usually when I’ll kind of start to see people is in that first month um if we can for just recovery
Dr. Betty DeLass: yeah awesome awesome okay um what’s something that most people don’t know that you think that they should know whether that’s about acupuncture yourself your practice pregnancy postpartum like any little nugget that you can share with us
Mallory Berge: yeah um you know I think number one acupuncture is not only safe but so amazing during pregnancy and um during that postpartum recovery too so I wish more people like knew that they could get acupuncture at any time um even after you know giving birth and obviously I think it’s you know sometimes hard to like get out of the house initially but um but I have done you know home visits before too and um so yeah I think that that’s like my main takeaway is that if you haven’t tried it if you’re curious about it but you haven’t even thought of doing it for pregnancy or during pregnancy um that’s like it’s so great it’s such a great just therapy and um just general like Health maintenance tool and we treat a ton of different things with with acupuncture um but I think you know one of my favorite just overall like things to get acupuncture for is just like I need to d-stress and chill out for a little bit and reset my nervous system um and just get like a health tuneup so I think it’s it’s not only great to um you know treat all these different conditions but even if you just need a little bit of a reset it’s just an awesome little tool
Dr. Betty DeLass: great great okay um is there anything special that you want to promote to the audience at all
Mallory Berge: um yeah I would with um with uh Destiny uh Olen I’m going to be doing a little um pregnancy postpartum kind of retreat coming up here in the next couple months so um just something to stay tuned for and we have a few other postpartum events not hosted by myself but at Flow Acupuncture so um try and provide just different resources and events for the community because it’s a space that I think you know just we’re always in need of you know things people feeling like they’re not just in
Dr. Betty DeLass: so awesome well that’s exciting can’t wait to hear what this is all about yeah two two great people doing great things yeah TV yeah um what is the this is my last question that and it’s my favorite question what is the main thing that you want to be known for
Mallory Berge: oh man I would probably say um that I wouldn’t be known for helping turn breach babies and I don’t know why that’s become my little thing but um I’ve been quite successful so far and I just want to keep that train rolling and yeah another great thing acupuncture is you know really helpful for
Dr. Betty DeLass: so so cool awesome well where can we find you website social media anything like that where we can find you
Mallory Berge: yeah yeah we’re on all those things so flowacupuncture.org is our website and we’re also on Facebook um our Instagram handle is flowacupunctureslc um and we have we post regularly about our events and things like that as well so you can always um book through our website too
Dr. Betty DeLass: amazing amazing well thank you so much Mallory for your time today and chatting up it was so good to connect back with you again and I hope to see you soon
Mallory Berge: yeah like always good to chat