Chi-Akra Center founder Mary Elizabeth Wakefield is one of the leading proponents of facial renewal techniques in the world today. She is the only US acupuncturist 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.
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.
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.
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, with her partner, 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 practitioners 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 will conclude in October 2016, and others are currently in the planning stages for US and international locations in 2017 and 2018.
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.
Mary Elizabeth is a graduate of Tri-State College of Acupuncture in New York City, and has studied with such notable acupuncturists as Carolyn Bengston, Kiiko Matsumoto, Dr. Mark Seem, Arya Nielson, Jeffrey Yuen, Dr. Richard Tan, Fabien Maman, Yitian Ni and Donna Carey.
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. She appeared nationally on Fit TV (Discovery Channel), demonstrating the facial on host Gina Lombardi, in a segment entitled "Buying Beauty."
Mary Elizabeth's system of Constitutional Facial Acupuncture Renewal™ has been featured during a segment on FOX News that aired nationally, and 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). |