Episode 7: Rebecca Linn, Community-Based Acupuncture & the Power of 5 Needles

Welcome to the Carousel of Happiness Podcast. On today's episode we meet carousel operator, admin, and painter Rebecca Linn. For the last year, she's been offering community-based acupuncture at the Carousel of Happiness. You'll hear about the origins of this treatment, how Rebecca found acupuncture after her life took an unexpected turn, and we'll talk about the complexities of the human body. If you're looking for permission and encouragement to feel your feelings, this episode is for you.

The Carousel of Happiness is a nonprofit arts & culture organization dedicated to inspiring happiness, well-being, and service to others through stories and experiences.

If you enjoy the podcast, please consider visiting the Carousel of Happiness online (https://carouselofhappiness.org/), on social media (https://www.facebook.com/carouselofhappiness), or in real life; or consider donating (https://carouselofhappiness.app.neoncrm.com/forms/general-donation) to keep the carousel and its message alive and spinning 'round and 'round.

If you have a story to share, please reach out to Allie Wagner at outreach@carouselofhappiness.org

Special thanks to songwriter, performer, and friend of the carousel, Darryl Purpose (https://darrylpurpose.com/), for sharing his song, "Next Time Around," as our theme song.

Transcript

Welcome to the Carousel of Happiness Podcast. I’m your host, Allie Wagner. 

On our last episode, I shared a new intention for the podcast. Rather than looking backward on where the carousel has been, I’d like to shift our attention to where it is now, and how it is currently impacting others. We’re going to start exploring the ripple effects of this very special place.

Today’s episode is about carousel operator, admin, and painter Rebecca Linn. Who has been offering a different kind of service at the carousel for the last year now. One that has its origins in the Bronx in the 70s. You’ll hear about how Rebecca’s life took a turn, and how that turn has influenced her showing up twice a week for others. We’ll talk about the complexities of the human body, as well as the human experience. 

Let’s begin with today’s story.

GONG

When you visit the Carousel of Happiness on Friday afternoons between 12 -1, you’ll notice a little handwritten sign on the bottom of the stairs that says, “Puppet Theater Closed.”

But if you ignore the sign, like I did last Friday, and walk up the stairs anyway, you’ll pad across the thick green carpet, past the carousel overlook and the actual puppet theater itself, and into the birthday party room. In it, you’ll find plastic chairs lining the walls forming a little half circle in the room. And there’s a long table in there. Covered in a turquoise tablecloth from the birthday party the week before. But instead of sheet cake and paper plates laid out across that table, you’ll instead find newspaper clippings, several laminated pictures of the human ear, a bottle of hand sanitizer, and carefully packaged acupuncture needles.

And standing next to the table, in a carousel sweatshirt and jeans, with an apron cinched around her waist, you’ll find painter, carousel operator and admin, Rebecca Linn ready to greet you with a smile.

Because, on Friday afternoons between 12 and 1 and Monday evenings between 5 - 6, the Carousel of Happiness hosts a different kind of party in the birthday room.

During those times you’ll find Rebecca at the carousel, not handing out party favors or putting up streamers, and those needles on the table aren’t for pinning the tail on the donkey. Twice a week Rebecca offers a gift no store can sell, a gift you don’t even have to buy.

The gift of peace. The gift of clarity. The gift of coming home to yourself. 

Twice a week, instead of painting the animals like she does during the week or spinning you round and round as an operator on weekends, Rebecca instead shows up to the carousel to offer another type of service. A form of community-based acupuncture clinically proven to reduce anxiety, depression, insomnia, as well as reduce withdrawal symptoms and cravings for alcohol, drugs, and other addictive substances. This type of completely free, accessible to all, community-based acupuncture is so powerful, it’s been proven to be 5 times more effective than methadone in treating heroin addiction.

Rebecca has been offering this service at the Carousel of Happiness for about a year now, but I went for the first time with my husband, Garth last week.

When we arrived, we were the first ones there. We scanned a QR code and filled out some paperwork. I took a quick peek at the news clippings Rebecca had laid out on the table. I picked up a front page article from the Daily Camera from January 16th about Acudetox or AcuWellness, the type of acupuncture we were about to receive. The article profiled Rebecca’s teacher, Avani Dilger, an addiction counselor and acupuncture detox specialist who started offering this type of community-based acupuncture in Boulder County after the King Soopers mass shooting in 2021. 

Acudetox or AcuWellness is a five-point ear acupuncture protocol in which 5 small needles are placed into each ear, where they remain for between 20 - 40 minutes. The five spots on the ear where the needles are placed come from Chinese Medicine and are designed to increase energy flow in different areas of the body to serve different purposes.

After we filled out our paperwork, Rebecca invited us to sit down and, with firm yet gentle hands, she put five needles in each of our ears.

Now, for a moment, I want to direct your attention to the fact that when I introduced Rebecca I did not introduce her as a nurse or doctor. She is a retired Boulder Valley School District employee. She has a degree in fine arts. How is it that she’s putting needles in my ear in the birthday party room of the carousel? 

Rebecca practices something called auricular acupuncture – a fancy word for “ear acupuncture.” This type of acupuncture can be taught to and administered by non-medical professionals like Rebecca.

Rebecca shared with me that this  type of treatment originates in the United States in the Bronx in the early 1970s. Right around the time that Scott is coming back from Vietnam, experiencing his own challenges with reentry to civilian life, during a very tumultuous time in American culture, there were others, just like him, on the other side of the country also struggling.

At this time, heroin use had become widespread in Harlem and the South Bronx, having a particularly devastating effect on people of color. Local leaders of groups like the Puerto Rican Young Lords and the Black Panther Party were demanding addiction support for their communities, with no luck.

So, on  November 10, 1970, more than two dozen members of the Young Lords, along with members of the Black Panther Party, occupied the 6th floor of Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx to insist that the long-promised drug treatment program come to fruition. 

After days of tense negotiations between the Young Lords and hospital administrators, the drug detox program was granted funding and recognition, staffed largely by volunteers.

In the hospital’s auditorium, volunteers set up 40 chairs and 20 tables, and began administering methadone, a synthetic opioid used to ease the symptoms of heroin withdrawal. For the clinic’s opening day, over 200 people formed a line outside, waiting for treatment.

But staff members recognized that methadone wasn’t the complete answer. They wanted an alternative treatment that was natural and inexpensive. They knew that methadone was just another form of dependence.

Right around this time, the Lincoln Hospital detox program hired a young activist named Mutulu Shakur as the director of political education. If his last name sounds familiar, it’s because he is the stepfather of rapper and actor Tupac Shakur. In 1973 Mutulu Shakur read an article in the NYT about doctors in Hong Kong who were using acupuncture to treat withdrawal symptoms of substance abuse. 

Acupuncture in Communist China was designed to be taken out into rural areas, administered by people with relatively little training, and to provide comprehensive, generalized, and preventative care to communities who weren't being served by hospitals. Just like in the Harlem and the Bronx.

It sounded like a perfect fit for Lincoln Hospital. After receiving training in Quebec and California, Shakur became certified in auricular acupuncture in 1976 and returned to NY to establish Lincoln Detox’s acupuncture training program (one of the first of its kind in the country).

This program is standardized in the United States by the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA) - now more than 600 programs in US that use acupuncture as a method of addiction recovery. NADA has trained more than 10,000 health professionals in North America and more than 25,000 healthcare providers in more than 40 countries.

Including Rebecca Linn.

Rebecca's path to acupuncture wasn’t planned. Much like Scott, Rebecca found herself pivoting on her life’s journey after her own dark night of the soul. One year ago, Rebecca’s daughter Skye died of a fentanyl overdose. The overdose happened after fifteen years of opioid use and misuse. Skye had been in a car accident long ago and the doctor prescribed her opioids for the pain. In the years that followed, she would go back and forth between using opioids and rehabilitation, before she passed last year. 

After learning more about what happens chemically in the brain to people who take opioids, and mourning the loss of her daughter, Rebecca felt a strong desire to do something. To help. Rebecca’s granddaughter had been seeing Avani Dilger for support and Avani mentioned the acupuncture program. Rebecca signed up immediately. And, she’s been offering this service to anyone who shows up ever since.

Why does she do it? What does she get out of these sessions?

She says it’s an honor to both her and the memory of her daughter to help others find relief.

And she’s telling the truth. Because as soon as she puts needles in Garth’s ear, he begins to cry. Rebecca notices and immediately, without thinking, reaches for him and shouts, “oh baby, do you need a tissue?”

We all laugh. She apologizes for calling him baby.

But he doesn’t mind. The tenderness is just oozing out of her. She can’t help it. 

I haven’t known Rebecca very long. But I know her to be thoughtful and kind. Quiet. She really thinks about what she says before she says it. She takes her time and doesn’t rush, but she’s not slow. She’s deliberate. Intentional. Discerning. And much like the rest of us who live up here, she’s tough. Hearty. Resilient.

And in that moment, when she’s offering my baby a tissue, she is all of those things. As well as tender. And compassionate. She is so loving it’s obvious this love is coming through her from a larger place. She’s just the messenger. Just like with Scott, you can see so clearly how she’s living out a life’s purpose by holding healing space for others. You can tell she’s dancing with the divine. One needle at a time. 

Garth explains to Rebecca that he cries every time he gets bodywork. It’s true. Acupuncture, sound healing, massage, doesn’t matter…he always cries. Garth was a wildland firefighter for 25 years and spent a lot of his life, like many first responders do, shutting himself off from his feelings in order to cope. In order to survive.

And, now that he’s retired, he uses bodywork as a way to somatically release what his body has held on to for decades.  

The more that I follow my own path, the more I appreciate both the simplicity and complexity of bodywork. Sure, talk therapy is great, but there’s something to be said for allowing energy to be felt in our bodies and passed without analysis. There’s a lightness to it, an ease. It feels more animalistic, more natural, in some way.

When Garth and I walk our dogs in the woods sometimes we’ll come across a moose. And, thankfully, these encounters have been safe, but a little nerve-wracking sometimes. And after the moment has passed, one of our dogs, our puppy, will go absolutely nuts. He’ll wiggle and shake and vocalize and nip at his sister. Basically, he’ll go nuts, but in doing so, he allows the stress hormones inside his body to move their way through and then…all of a sudden…he’s good. And, likely, 10 minutes later he’s asleep on the couch.

But we, as human beings, don’t do this. We don’t always allow ourselves to feel the sensations in our bodies, and when we don’t feel them, they get stuck in there. Those memories, those experiences, they sit in our bodies, creating physiological imbalances like anxiety, insomnia, or digestive disorders.

According to Chinese medicine, every area of the body can be traced to a single pressure point on the ear, and you can stimulate these points through acupuncture to help increase energy flow. And what’s interesting about these points is that you can see not just the physiological impact of this area, but the emotional and spiritual impact as well.

For example, point number 1, the sympathetic point in the 5 point protocol calms the sympathetic nervous system, soothes the spirit, fosters serenity, and improves inner self-confidence. According to Chinese Medicine, stimulation of this earth point increases our empathy and helps us care for ourselves and for others with grace and compassion. 

Point number two, called shen men or the “spirit gate” improves our connection to ourselves and to others. It increases our circulation, both in terms of the physiological movement of blood within our bodies, as well as the heart’s metaphorical ability to love. Stimulation of this area improves self-control, and helps us communicate better. Activation of this fire point fosters a deeper relationship with ourselves as a bridge to deepening our relationships with others. It calms ruminating thinking, supports the processing of strong emotions, and reduces stress, depression, anxiety, and insomnia.

Point number three is the kidney point. It calms fear in the presence of “not knowing all of the answers.” Stimulation of this point gives us the will, energy, and fortitude to get through all of life’s difficult challenges. This water point teaches us stillness and intentional listening, and supports our access to inner knowledge and intuition. Physiologically, it improves fear management, heals internal organs, and supports the adrenal glands.

Point number four is the conduit for the expression of free-flowing emotions. It allows for vision, creativity, hope, and planning. Stimulation of this area assists us in seeing things outside the box, from different angles. It allows us to change and transform as we move through this life. This wood point offers us hope. Hope we can transmute our anger and frustration and other sticky emotions to become better people as a result. This point reawakens the promise of the possibility for growth and change. 

And number five, the lung point, this point encourages us to be discerning. To keep in our experience that which is working, and let the rest go. This point reminds us that if we release what no longer serves, we have more space for our highest and best. Stimulation of this point helps us grieve what has come before and passed, so that we can move forward with life. Just like the breath, we are encouraged to settle into the rhythm of life. Taking in the new, fresh energy, and then releasing and letting go of the old. This point helps us navigate transitions and surrender to what is. 

When Garth was crying during his treatment, he didn’t know which of these areas was being stimulated. He couldn’t tell you if his tears were because of grief or anxiety or stress.

All he could tell you was that whatever it was, was no longer inside his physical body.

Rebecca estimates that she probably sees about 14 people a week at the carousel. Some are processing grief, others hoping to reduce stress. And she shows up, twice a week, to hold healing space for others. So that others might get the help they need.

And while this might not be a path she intended for herself, it is certainly one that her life’s experience has guided her toward. 

I’ve been thinking about Skye this week, in preparation for this episode. Thinking about the impact of her legacy. Rebecca estimates she’s given acupuncture to around 500 people since she started last year. That’s 500 people who have benefited because of her and her relationship with her daughter.  

We are intricately connected. What happens in our ears relates to what happens in our bodies. Everything is connected. And the same is true of one another. What happens to one human being has the potential to impact others in ways we are only just starting to understand. 

If you’re curious about acupuncture, stop by the carousel. Fridays 12 - 1, and Mondays 5 - 6. Treatment is completely free, all supplies are funded by a class action lawsuit against the pharmaceutical companies who produced the addictive opioids in the first place. 

This week, I invite you to give yourself permission to feel. Whatever sensations are moving through your body, I invite you to be present with them all. Because that which we resist, persists. And, if you can’t come to the carousel for acupuncture, go for a walk. Spend time outside. And if you come across a moose on the trail, know that you can wiggle and bark and nip at your sister…wait, don’t do that. But take some advice from my puppy: if you allow yourself to feel for just a little bit, you might be able  to take a nap on the couch 10 mins later.

In the meantime, take care. Be well. And, as we like to say at the Carousel of Happiness, “don’t delay joy.” And we’ll see you next time around.