By David Bolling
It is two weeks before WigOut, the Tenth Anniversary of Cancer Support Sonoma, and I am horizontally reclined on a comfortable lounge chair, inside the common room at the Zen-like CSS office on First Street West in Sonoma. A tranquil, melodious sound track from one of those Andean pan flutes is wafting through my ears, one of which is painlessly punctured by five slender needles.
I’m here to experience one of the numerous services provided by the nonprofit agency serving both cancer patients and the general public. While acupuncture may, or may not, actually address cancer itself, it is clearly capable of alleviating the pain and discomfort from invasive treatments, like chemotherapy and radiation, used to treat cancer victims.
The basic principle of acupuncture is that nerve pathways radiate throughout the body in channels or meridians that form a matrix of connecting points that transmit energy. Stimulating specific points in the matrix can enhance energy flow, release stress, promote blood flow and alleviate pain. There is well-researched evidence that acupuncture can relieve postoperative and chemotherapy-induced nausea, reduce stress and strengthen the immune system.
The needles can also usher in a wave of profound relaxation, which is happening to me know, as Alison Kelly, the licensed practitioner with a Master’s degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine, completes the needle insertion so delicately I can barely feel it. What I do feel is a wave of relaxation so complete that for an extended moment in time I completely forget where I am. Perhaps airborne over the Andes, floating on a cloud of pan flute peace.
The protocol Kelly has used on my earlobes is called NADA, proven over the course of 40 years to treat substance abuse, anxiety, depression and stress. I might be willing to suffer those symptoms if I could receive this therapy every day.
That experience, promoted as Community Acupuncture, is open to cancer patients and non-cancer patients alike. CSS cancer clients pay $30 for the 40 minute community sessions, and for the general public the price is $50. Appointments can be booked in advance and the sessions are held Mondays at 11:30 and 2 p.m. and on Saturdays at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.
CSS offers numerous other healing therapies, including oncology yoga massage, reflexology, naturopathic consultation, Ayurvedic consultation, biodynamic cranial therapy, individual counseling, support groups and more. The survival and blossoming health of CSS is due in no small part to the tireless efforts of its former volunteer executive director, healer and bulldog leader Teri Adolfo, a rotating team of skilled healers and financial support from the community.
To help keep the doors open and the growing client base served, the organization produces an extravagantly wacky and financially essential annual fundraising celebration in which attendees are urged to wear every conceivable kind of wig, in honor of the common cancer treatment phenomenon, radical hair loss.
This year, WigOut is scheduled for September 25 at Jacuzzi Family Vineyards, featuring a live auction, gourmet dinner, wine, music and a sea of artificial, multi-colored hair. Tickets can be purchased online at cancersupportsonoma.ejoinme.org/WigOut2025.
To book an acupuncture treatment go to cancersupportsonoma.janeapp.com/#/community-acupuncture. Or just call 707.509.3549. Cancer Support Sonoma is located at 585 First Street West.
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