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Exploring Life & Business with Chanelle Macnab of Chanelle Macnab L.Ac./West Sixth Wellness

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chanelle Macnab.

Chanelle Macnab

Hi Chanelle, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for sharing your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
I have a servant’s heart. My mission has always been “to serve.” I planned on attending medical school after completing a pre-med major in undergraduate school. My path slightly turned after a thirty-five-day, five-hundred-mile walking pilgrimage across Spain. At a deeper level, the walk helped me discern that I was destined for a more spiritual path rather than the more scientific and evidence-based philosophy of Western medicine. Twenty-three years later, I am a Licensed Acupuncturist practicing Traditional Chinese Medicine. I moved to Austin in 2011, operating a private practice and wellness center in the quaint neighborhood of Clarksville called West Sixth Wellness. Born in Los Angeles, I grew up partly in the Dominican Republic until age sixteen. I have a curiosity to learn new things, which has led me to speak four languages fluently, live and travel to twenty-nine countries, and study with renowned medical doctors, mentors, and spiritual teachers across the globe. The human body, as it relates to disease and health, is much more predictable than you might think. Almost every organ and cell inside the body functions similarly, heals through a predictable process, and responds to external factors (food, sleep, meditation, medicine, exercise, stress) in foreseeable patterns, ultimately leaving you feeling sick or healthy. All humans share the same anatomy and physiology. What differentiates us is our lifestyle, how we manage stress, how we persuade our minds, and how we eat, sleep, breathe, and move throughout our mundane lives.

My job is to be a good detective. I want to take a deep dive into your medical history and lifestyle behaviors, look at your spiritual, mental, and emotional health, and view you as a “whole” being functioning inside a human body. I explained it like this to my ten-year-old. I asked him, “How much do you love me?” He said, “I love you beyond the galaxies.” If you tried to measure the amount of love inside a person empirically, this infinite energy source could not fit into his tiny ten-year-old body. It’s unexplainable and physically impossible. The same goes for every emotion inside us: our religious faith and belief systems. We cannot measure it with a numerical symbol, but it is integral to our lives, health, and vitality. With that in mind, the body functions as a single organism and whole entity after two decades in practice. The interdependence, internally, between each organ system is essential to survival. Likewise, the external interdependence with our lifestyle and, to take it even a step further, inter-dimensionally, with the galaxies and stars are vital factors that influence our health. Imagine a pizza. Without the pie crust, none of the toppings would hold together and exist as a single pizza. In Western medicine, only the toppings, the physical symptoms, are often examined. The crust, to me, includes all of you, the mental, emotional, spiritual, and even multi-dimensional, universal being that you are. You are your unique “cosmic pizza,” healthy and thriving or suffering and deteriorating. I strive to look at the whole pizza.

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
When I started my practice in 2001, acupuncture and alternative medicine were not mainstream. Medical insurance did not cover acupuncture, and people, in general, were skeptical. I went door to door to several doctor’s offices with hot apple pies, trying to educate MDs about my profession. The door was often slammed shut, claiming that acupuncture doesn’t work because it is witchcraft. Chinese Medical School is a four-year program not unlike Western Medical School. The requirements for admission are a Pre-Med Bachelor’s Degree, and the number of clinical hours required for licensing is comparable to Western Medical Schools. In China, hospitals only practice Chinese medicine; these doctors are as renowned and respected as Western doctors. I spent six weeks studying in one of China’s oldest hospitals in Chengdu. The results were astounding, from Diabetic patients not having limbs amputated to stroke victims walking and talking within days after the incident and children with Bell’s Palsy fully recovering. The patients were healing exponentially faster with integrative medicine. There is, without a doubt, a place for Eastern Medicine within the current Western Medicine model that can achieve long-lasting results that ultimately improve quality of life.

I appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Chanelle Macnab L.Ac./West Sixth Wellness?
My business and website are my first and last name, Chanelle Macnab L.Ac. (chanellemacnab.com); however, I practice outside my West Sixth Wellness Center.

What should we know about your work?
As a wellness center, we offer various services, including acupuncture, cupping, herbal medicine, facial acupuncture, and red light therapy. Some of the more unique experiences offered are Chakra & Crystal Clearing, Sound Bowl Therapy, and Tibetan foot soak ceremonies. An initial consultation at my office includes an in-depth medical history and answering questions that may seem irrelevant to your health, such as your relationship health and stress factors. Integrating crucial information into your diagnosis, such as physical, mental, and emotional circumstances, can help you to heal exponentially faster. For example, when a patient comes to me with left-side upper back pain around their shoulder blade, I always ask what the emotional block in their heart is and what they are protecting themselves from feeling.

Another example that could tacitly convey emotional causality is foot pain. Is there a resistance or fear of moving forward in a specific area of life? I always ask a new mom with infertility if she has an emotional block towards becoming a mother. I am sure that Western doctors do not ask these questions. I’m not trying to minimize medicine, the etiology, and the symptoms to an esoteric, unquantifiable “cosmic pizza.” I rely heavily on empirical data from Western Medicine to diagnose and treat my patients. I review medical data, MRIs, blood tests, lab results, cardiology reports, and medical evaluations. Having these essential tools is going to allow us to come up with the most effective treatment plan. Albeit with the same goal to serve the patient, my treatment plan might include acupuncture, herbs, cupping, moxibustion, guided meditation, and sound bowls. Occasionally, I prescribe someone with depression or grief to jump into Barton Springs or do a cold plunge. I’m always thinking beyond the one-hour session. What tools can you take home? I ask patients to visualize themselves healed, imagine every cell healing, and instill a sense of calm. The body can only recover in a state of rest. My experiential sessions include smudging, sound bowls, guided meditation, deep relaxation, mental and emotional exercises, and acupuncture and cupping.

What do you specialize in?
I have training in so many different areas of medicine. I never imagined when I started this career that I would become an expert in treating anxiety and depression, especially since the pandemic. An astonishing ninety percent of my patients experience some form of anxiety, including young children and adolescents. Acupuncture is highly effective at treating and managing anxiety because it activates your nervous system, shuts off your fight or flight response, and turns on rest and repair, putting you into a calm, parasympathetic state. In this state, almost all ailments can heal. Here is a list of the most common ailments I treat daily in my practice:

  • Fertility and Pregnancy- Inception to labor induction
  • Immunology- Arthritis, Oncology, Epstein-Barr, Lupus, Celiac, Colitis
  • Pulmonology- Allergies, Asthma, Common flu/cold
  • Pain management (back pain, neck pain, knee pain)
  • Neurology- Migraine headache, Tension headaches, Epilepsy, Bell’s Palsy
  • Psychology- Anxiety, Depression, Insomnia

What are you known for?
I asked my patient this question the other day, and her response was this: Empowering others to heal, love in action, magic, miracle worker, co-creating health, spiritual healer.

What sets you apart from others?
I am a unique practitioner because every patient will leave with a new tool to heal themselves. It’s like when the doctor gives a child a coin to get a toy from the machine after each visit; my tools are internal, self-empowering, long-lasting, subtle exercises to practice daily to improve your health. What sets me apart is that I empower people to heal themselves.

What are you most proud of brand-wise?
I offer workshops a few times a year, vision board workshops, teenage anxiety workshops, and qi gong classes.

What do you want readers to know about your brand, offerings, and services?
I want people to know that if they are ready to dive deeper into their healing, embrace transformation, and practice the tools they learn at West Sixth Wellness, their lives will improve. Empowering and watching yourself heal through subtle shifts will bring you joy and new vitality. Book your session today.

Pricing we need to know about?
Visit the website www.chanellemacnab.com for pricing, offerings, packages, and online booking.

  • Acupuncture Treatment: $210
  • Cosmetic Acupuncture $250
  • Tibetan Foot Soak $75
  • Family/Systemic Constellation $350

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Chad Whadsworth

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