Rachel Esquilin (SHE/THEY), Founder, Licensed Acupuncturist, MSTOM, NCCAOM DIPL.
I first began my journey towards Acupuncture and East Asian Medicine in 2004. I was working at a Rape Crisis Center doing Legal and Medical Advocacy for survivors of Sexual Assault. While I was committed to the work, my mind, body and spirit were experiencing serious burn out. During this time, I was exploring different methods of self-care and had developed a serious spiritual practice which included daily meditations.
One day during a strategic planning retreat for work, I had an “ah ha” moment. I didn’t love this work and it was making me physically ill. I had so much passion and desire to help people heal, but I felt stuck in my role as an advocate within a dysfunctional medical system. So I went outside to a peaceful grassy hill and began to meditate on what I wanted to do with my life.
After a long meditation session, I was 100% clear that I wanted and needed to become an Acupuncturist. I knew that it would allow me to provide people with the tools necessary to truly heal and enjoy myself in the process. The message was clear and I knew it with all of my being. I was committed to my new path. I have never looked back and am thankful everyday that I took the leap of faith to embark on this journey. I fully understand the potency of that message and what a gift I received from the Universe that day.
In my practice, I often find myself supporting patients on their path towards personal peace. This inner peace and fulfillment come from being aligned physically, mentally and spiritually. In order for alignment to happen, one’s thoughts, words and actions must match. This is a wonderful state of being in integrity with oneself, which leads to upright Qi or good health. With the understanding that the mind and body are one in the same; in treating one, you automatically treat the other. I use Chinese Medicine to help people come back into balance so that they have the clarity necessary for this alignment to happen.
Clinical experience
Rachel Esquilin holds a Master of Science degree from the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in New York City, where she graduated valedictorian in 2009. She is a Nationally Certified Diplomate of Acupuncture and Chinese Herbalism, as well as a Licensed Acupuncturist in New York and New Jersey. Rachel has a strong background in women's health, LGBTQI health and extensive experience providing medical advocacy, legal advocacy, health education and counseling.
Over the past 15 years, Rachel has treated thousands of patients in a multitude settings including Community Clinics both locally and nationally, Non-Profits, the Navajo Reservation, Standing Rock and in several Hospitals including St. John's Hospital, St. Vincent's Hospital, New York University's Hospital for Joint Diseases and St. Luke’s Roosevelt IVF clinic. In 2010, she founded Seven Seas Acupuncture, a thriving East Asian Medicine clinic in Brooklyn, NY.
Rachel combines many modalities in order to provide her patients with a highly individualized healing session. She utilizes Acupuncture, Tui-Na (Chinese Massage), Cupping, Gua Sha, Qi Gong/Energy Release, Nutritional Counseling, Herbal Medicine, Intuition, Counseling/Coaching, Breathing Techniques and Visualizations to support the healing process. In her practice, she has witnessed the transformative power of East Asian Medicine in restoring balance to the body, mind and spirit.
Rachel has a strong spiritual practice based in ancestor worship, as well as an in-depth relationship with plant medicine that greatly inform her work. She believes that the large majority of physical ailments find their roots in emotional-spiritual disharmonies. Rachel supports patients in finding balance and inner peace through connecting them with Universal/Source Qi.
cresta pie (she/they), Massage therapist
Cresta is a massage therapist, intuitive somadera, elemental energy worker, traditional folk healer, spiritual herbalist and eco-chaplain who has dedicated her life to the revelation of the natural world and all the beings it holds.
Cresta’s sessions are an integrated weave of therapeutic touch and energy work. As a practitioner of Shamanic and Usui Shiki Ryoho Reiki, she utilizes chakra attunement and breath work to assist clients in returning to resonance within their own body. Cresta is versed in Swedish, trigger point therapy, Shiatsu, sports massage, deep tissue manipulation, lymphatic massage, and myofascial release techniques.
For over 30 years, Cresta has practiced the art of communicating with physical, emotional, and energetic bodies. Her approach to massage work is eclectic, informed by the study of Indigenous, Eastern and Western medicine, rooted in African diasporic spiritualism, Hoodoo, and the lineage of the land. Although she has had many human teachers she finds her most profound instruction in the hallowed halls of the forest and the whispering cathedrals of the spirit world. Drawing inspiration from nature’s expression of life, she views the natural world as a primary teacher of impermanence, resilience, and interconnectedness. Whether she is working as a land steward, crafting plant and food medicine, or sitting with a client, she relies on the mystical relationship between practitioner, person, and world. Every element of nature—the soil, the wildflower, the ancient trees—are sentient beings with whom we are in constant, sacred dialogue.
Cresta’s practice refers to the belief that we are inextricably interconnected. To her, healing the self is an essential act of social justice; if we do not tend to our inner worlds, we risk reinforcing the patterns of oppression and harm in our outer worlds. She integrates contemplative training with a trauma-experienced lens to highlight the relationship between personal wellness and collective equity. Her practice is an offering of devotion to the diversity of humanity and is a welcoming space for all genders, races, abilities, sexualities, body types and faiths.
Cresta aims to live in celebration of the magical in every moment. She invites you to treat your own breath, muscle, and bone as a temple, to nourish every nerve and honor the sacred being that you are.