Chi-Akra Center founder Mary Elizabeth Wakefield is one of the leading proponents of facial acupuncture and related techniques in the world today. She is one of only a select few US acupuncturists, including Jeffrey Yuen, to have been awarded the title of Educator of the Year by the American Association of Oriental Medicine (AAAOM), for her contributions to the field of Oriental medicine as a teacher, creator of innovative treatment protocols, writer for acupuncture periodicals, and advocate of acupuncture in the national media.
Mary Elizabeth and her life, teaching and business partner, MichelAngelo, recently appeared as presenters at the first International Cosmetic Acupuncture Symposium (ICAS), an international summit on facial acupuncture education and practice in Tokyo, JAPAN, 3-4 December, 2016, organized by their Japanese colleague and former sponsor, Takao Ueda. Seminar venues included the famous Imperial Hotel. Future symposiums are planned for Vancouver (2018) and Tokyo (2020).
The author of the long-awaited book on her much sought after and transformative facial acupuncture treatment protocols, Constitutional Facial Acupuncture, published by Elsevier Churchill Livingstone (UK) in January 2014, she is the acknowledged international forerunner in facial acupuncture education, innovation and treatment.
The book is now into its second English printing and is additionally available in a German hardcover version; follow the link at the bottom of the page to order an autographed copy. You will also find a link for ordering Ms. Wakefield’s DVD, An Introduction to Constitutional Facial Acupuncture Renewal.
Mary Elizabeth has personally trained close to 5,000 acupuncturists, bodyworkers and estheticians from 5 continents – North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australasia – in her protocols, and maintains a private practice on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, in New York City.
Ms. Wakefield and MichelAngelo pioneered a 2-year International GOLD STANDARD FACIAL ACUPUNCTURE® Certification Program at Northwestern Health Sciences University in Minneapolis, MN, USA, in 2012-13. 20 practictioners from 3 different continents successfully fulfilled the requirements of this graduate-level training in facial acupuncture, unprecedented in its scope, consisting of 4 levels and 8 individual training modules, and are the first GOLD STANDARD FACIAL ACUPUNCTURE® certified acupuncturists in the world. A second GOLD STANDARD FACIAL ACUPUNCTURE® Program concluded in October 2016, and a third is now scheduled for 2018-19, once again at Northwestern Health Sciences University.
Mary Elizabeth has 30+ years of clinical professional experience as a healing practitioner, and is a licensed acupuncturist, certified by the NCCAOM, a Zen Shiatsu practitioner, massage therapist, a cranio-sacral therapist, Acutonics® practitioner, opera singer, herbalist and Interfaith minister.
During the summer months of 2007, Ms. Wakefield pioneered the installation of a 10-week elective (and an associated facial acupuncture clinic) featuring her treatment protocols in Constitutional Facial Acupuncture Renewal™ at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in New York.*
Ms. Wakefield was highlighted in an article on facial acupuncture that appeared in the Style section of the December issue of the New York Times. From 2000-2009, she contributed an ongoing column on facial acupuncture and related topics to Acupuncture Today magazine, and has also written articles for the California Journal of Oriental Medicine and Oriental Medicine Journal.
Ms. Wakefield was invited to custom design a Diamond Acupuncture Facial™ in conjunction with the Academy Awards, and traveled to Los Angeles to debut it at the Soho Mansion Diamond Aquifer Suite. Thereafter, she appeared nationally on Fit TV (Discovery Channel), demonstrating the facial on host Gina Lombardi, in a segment entitled “Buying Beauty.”
Ms. Wakefield appeared on national television on the FOX network as a spokesperson for facial acupuncture on The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet. Mary Elizabeth’s system of Constitutional Facial Acupuncture™ has been featured during a segment on FOX News that aired nationally; she has also demonstrated her techniques in an interview on EyeWitness News, WABC-TV, in New York.
Her practice and treatment protocols have been highlighted or featured in interviews in a number of prominent magazines – Oriental Medicine Journal, Qi Magazine, Alternative Medicine, American Spa, Luxury Spa Finder, Les Nouvelles Esthetique, Spa Asia (Singapore) and Spa Arabia (Dubai).
*this elective, while still active, no longer presents Ms. Wakefield’s protocols.
Mary Elizabeth Wakefield, L. Ac., M. S., M. M.
President, Chi-Akra Center
250 East 63rd Street, Suite 607
New York, NY 10065 USA
888-652-5550/212-593-1954 (office)