The Fusion of Healing Arts: Amber Milanovich On Balancing Acupuncture, Feng Shui, And Design Sensibility
In the realms of artistry, holistic healing, and the art of designing harmonious spaces, Amber Milanovich emerges as a luminary, seamlessly merging diverse disciplines to create a world of wellness. Gazetta had the privilege to tap into her journey from being an artist and designer to becoming an acupuncturist and a certified feng shui consultant.
Amber’s odyssey began with an innate affinity for art and design, which led her into a career in the design industry. However, an inner restlessness nudged her to explore profound questions about life, eventually drawing her to the ancient art of acupuncture. She embarked on a new path as an acupuncturist and later as a feng shui consultant, guided by the profound philosophies underpinning these practices. Amber graciously shared insights into her transformative journey bridging the worlds of art, acupuncture, and feng shui, offering her thoughts on the fusion of these diverse disciplines.
Evvie 7: Amber, can you describe your journey from being an artist and designer to becoming an acupuncturist and a certified feng shui consultant? How do these diverse practices influence your approach to healing individuals and creating harmonious living spaces?
Amber Milanovich: It’s been a journey indeed! I naturally gravitated toward art and design as far back as I can remember so I pursued a degree in fine arts and ended up working as a designer. While working as a designer, though, I was riddled with a kind of unrest…I was grappling with the big questions in life and my seeking brought me to acupuncture. Feeling such a resonance with the medicine I decided to leave the design industry and pursue a career as an acupuncturist, and then later as a feng shui consultant. The profound philosophy on which these disciplines are based have proved to be a great sounding board and place of rest for me when I really needed it and I wanted to be able to share that with others. Ultimately, in practicing these things I have found that the way I see, hear, and feel as an artist have shaped my unique approach to working with clients.
Evvie 7: You’ve expressed a fascination with the intersection of the physical and energetic bodies. Could you explain how this understanding shapes your acupuncture practice, and how it extends to your consideration of energy flow in clients’ living spaces through feng shui?
Amber Milanovich: Both acupuncture and feng shui inherently merge the physical and energetic. Whether I’m placing a needle to move qi through a channel in the body or moving a piece of furniture to activate the “Qi” in a space, I am using the physical structure to affect a larger change in a client’s life…I’m often amazed at how far the seemingly small movements reverberate. Adjusting the position of one’s bed might initially give better rest, but maybe 6 months down the road their financial situation improves and so does their relationship. It really is like that. Or relieving someone’s jaw pain with needles ultimately has them expressing themselves more which leads to a promotion at work. These connections are endless… and sometimes I’m making these connections quite intentionally, but often they just happen and that’s the “Qi” balancing out and harmonizing aspects of our life and health.
EVVIE 7: How does your background in fine art and design enhance your sensitivity and observational skills when working with patients? Are there specific creative strategies you find particularly effective in both healing treatments and feng shui consultations?
Amber Milanovich: I like this question because it’s forcing me to pinpoint the things I do in practice that are like muscle memory or happen intuitively at this point. This past spring I decided to take a figure drawing class for the first time in a very long time. The act of just watching the body in space…what it takes to move… It’s necessary to understand through observation what’s tense and what’s slack in the body in order to translate that to paper. That same kind of observation applies to understanding ailments in the body– what’s too tense, what is lacking movement, what needs to be fortified? From there I create a strategy for needle placement and technique to guide the body into integrity. It’s the same with feng shui. When observing a space I’m taking in the nuances of how energy moves, or doesn’t, through a room and I’m making choices from that deep feeling and observational place about what I can do to shift it to a more optimal state. So it’s a matter of figuring out how I can translate my observations and interpretations into these concrete forms.
Evvie 7: You’ve referred to feng shui as “acupuncture for your home.” How do these practices align?
Amber Milanovich: In the same way that we can move the “Qi” in our bodies using needles to affect change, we can move the objects in our homes to bring about greater harmony. Both are physical manifestations of a bigger energetic reality and both are vehicles for working with that energy. Sometimes our circumstances are calling for one modality or the other, and sometimes using both feng shui and acupuncture simultaneously makes sense. It’s a matter of how and where issues are showing up, but it’s not uncommon for there to be a correlation in both one’s space and what their body is manifesting. There is even a technique used in feng shui in which an outline of the body is superimposed over a floor plan. This can show areas of congestion or perhaps a deficiency of something. For example, this could show that a cluttered entrance falls in the head area when the outline is superimposed and this person has chronic headaches. In that case I would be inclined to clear out the entrance and also recommend a series of treatments to address the headaches. It’s quite possible that we could make some headway (haha pun) with the acupuncture treatments only to have the headaches return later because the clutter in the entrance to her home had not been cleared.
Evvie 7: What inspired you to pursue certification as a feng shui consultant, and how has this aspect of your work expanded your ability to improve clients’ personal health and create harmonious living environments?
Amber Milanovich: I suppose I’ve always had an interest in and sensitivity to environments. From experimenting with decorating my childhood bedroom to finding a college dorm pretty much intolerable to understanding how my home could be a sanctuary when I left work in Manhattan…these interactions with my environment were my earliest teachers. As I became more immersed in the world of East Asian healing arts, feng shui was on my radar. As I learned more about it, it felt like the obvious next step to pursue a formal certification and be able to offer this to clients. There have been times when I’ve picked up in someone’s pulse during an acupuncture treatment that there was something specific in their environment that related to a symptom they were wanting to address. This helped me to understand how clearly it’s all related and the importance of having ways to address the energetic aspects of someone’s space.
Evvie 7: Can you share a specific instance where your skills as an acupuncturist and your design sensibility seamlessly blended during a feng shui consultation, resulting in tangible positive changes for a client’s life or living space?
Amber Milanovich: A patient was coming to acupuncture treatments for neck pain that was visible through her restricted movements. She also noted difficulty focusing on tasks. What came up was that this person’s desk was not in command position, meaning the door was behind her as she worked. So, not only was she tightening her neck without quite realizing it because she never knew what was coming, but exerting energy to always be on guard was taking away from her ability to concentrate on what was in front of her. In this case the patient had the ability to move her desk to a more optimal position. If she had not been able to move her desk we could have added a mirror that would allow her to see the door. With acupuncture we worked on undoing the muscle memory of having to be on guard, ultimately leading to much less stiffness, and her focus improved.
Evvie 7: In your approach to acupuncture, you emphasized the significance of point combinations and the poetic, mysterious, tactile, and practical aspects. How do you balance these elements to empower patients to embrace their authentic selves?
Amber Milanovich: This is really where it’s at…empowering patients to move fully into who they are. Every person is so unique and it requires tuning into all aspects of an individual to refine the treatment, hopefully landing on something that fits very well. I think that in order to do this I have to be simultaneously listening to their practical concerns but also hearing and seeing the tone and poetry of what they need. Sometimes this is from listening to what they say, and sometimes I glean the best clues from watching their movements or hearing the way they breathe. Coming in receptive and bringing it back to the basics of Chinese medicine allows for a balanced diagnosis and treatment.
Evvie 7: Apart from acupuncture, you incorporate holistic techniques like cupping, tui na, moxibustion, and lifestyle recommendations into your treatments. Can you provide an example of how this comprehensive approach led to significant enhancements in a patient’s well-being?
Amber Milanovich: Chinese medicine incorporates many different modalities…It’s a toolkit and choosing the right tool at the right time can really influence the outcome. I am thinking of a situation where a person was dealing with digestive issues. I had to first warm and build “Qi” using moxibustion because the patient did not have the resources for acupuncture alone to be effective. But by combining the technique of moxibustion which fortifies the body with acupuncture, they were able to have resolve.
Evvie 7: What overarching goals do you aim to achieve when working with patients, and how do you envision the enduring impact of acupuncture and holistic healing in their lives, extending far beyond the confines of your treatment sessions?
Amber Milanovich: My whole aim really is to not just address a given symptom a patient is coming in with (though that is certainly important) but to make shifts that impact their lives and the lives of those around them. At the core of both feng shui and acupuncture is the notion that when “Qi” flows without interruption we come into the fullest expression of ourselves. Naturally this is going to benefit our lives in many ways and have an impact that ripples outside of us. I have also seen how treatments and adjustments keep unfolding for a long time after they’re administered. We are part of a much bigger whole, and the ripples continue in what I believe is divine timing.
Amber Milanovich’s journey, woven through the threads of art, acupuncture, and feng shui, reflects a profound exploration. Her ability to merge diverse disciplines into a harmonious symphony of healing is a testament to her unique approach. As she navigates the realms of artistry, holistic healing, and designing harmonious spaces, Milanovich illuminates pathways to well-being that extend beyond the ordinary.
In her own words, her journey is not solely about addressing individual symptoms but about catalyzing holistic shifts. Through the ripple effect of harmonious living, she envisions a profound and enduring impact that transcends the confines of individual lives.
Amber stands as a beacon, guiding others toward an integrated existence where the threads of art, healing, and design converge, offering a vision of a more balanced, harmonious world.
To Follow Or Learn More About Amber:
Website: http://ambermilanovich.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ambermilanovichacupunture/
