Tao to Wellness

Megan is the best!
Here are my requirements for a health care provider: pleasant, personable, and competent.
Pleasant:
She’s super calm and kind and patient. She speaks softly and laughs. She says calming, therapist-​y things about holding space. Exactly when you need to hear calming, therapisty things about space.
Personable:
I need to know that the person tasked with my wellbeing actually understands me, my lifestyle, my goals, and my priorities. Megan listens and remembers. And she gets people. She said to me once that my adrenals are fatigued. Not just from stress this week or this year, but from years. Yes. Exactly. How did she know? Also, she’s got a bit of irreverence that I find soothing. I need there to be a human on the other side of these conversations.
Competent:
She reads all the latest in the field. She knows the numbers. She explains everything. She understands what you’re trying to say when you relate half recalled advice from other practitioners. She just knows her stuff.
Finally, she is a steal. She could charge double and be more than worth it.
Oh, and I never have trouble finding parking. In case you were worried about that.

My husband and I tried for a baby for nearly two years. After three miscarriages, I decided to try acupuncture. I found Megan on Unilocal and made an appointment. Out of all the fertility treatments we had received, it turns out signing up for weekly acupuncture was the most effective. I got pregnant the very first month!
I committed to seeing Megan weekly for the first 20 weeks then the appointments were more sporadic. I am now at 38 weeks and awaiting our little boy.
Megan was really invested in our success. She answered all kinds of questions and provided insight and input. I found I was getting more info from her than from my OB and fertility doctors combined.
If you’re afraid of needles, they aren’t that bad. You can only feel them a tiny bit when they go in then nothing. Tao to Wellness has a comfortable and cute atmosphere and Megan really knows what she’s doing!

I worked with Megan at Tao to Wellness. Megan and I worked on managing my anxiety and fostering emotional wellbeing.
Megan is a truly skilled practitioner of Chinese medicine! Her acupuncture treatments have helped me more than I could articulate. Each sessions leaves me feeling content and emotionally balanced. After months of working together, my mental and emotional life has been healed and repaired in ways I am still discovering. I am a true believer in the power of acupuncture to treat both physical and emotional challenges.
I would highly recommend Megan for acupuncture treatments. She is kind, respectful, compassionate and has the skill and experience necessary to make a difference in your health.

I came to Tao to Wellness because of prolonged headaches after a concussion. I had tried every other traditional medical treatment and was beginning to lose hope that my pain would go away. I met with Nikole who was always friendly, had a positive attitude, and she was genuinely concerned about my pain and overall wellbeing. She was obviously well-​trained and well-​practiced both in her knowledge and needle placement. I saw immediate improvement after just my first treatment. The addition of an herbal treatment helped even more. I’ve been headache free for over a month now thanks to the help of acupuncture and herbs at Tao to Wellness!

Profoundly grateful and forever transformed. To Megan Nielsen, whose depth of knowledge is articulated by skilled and thoughtful hands; her intelligent and balanced perspective of eastern and western medicine; and last, but not least, her empathetic sounding board to my incessant need to check out WebMD for the most obscure of ailments.
So, when actually I did have a health crisis and teetered between what-​ifs, she was right there guiding me through the haze, easing my anxiousness of the impending surgical procedure. The tumor on my ovary had grown so much that I could no longer button my jeans and had to resort to wearing dresses and skirts. Climbing the stairs became an exercise in stamina, leaving me winded and tired. I became acquainted with bottles of tiny little pills that managed my pain but left me nauseous and dizzy. I found myself riding an emotional rollercoaster that I didn’t sign up for but my one constant source of balance and strength was always my time with Megan. I looked forward (and still do!) to my appointments. I coveted these times where I was given permission to delve into my body and be kind to it.
A unilateral salpingo-​oophorectomy was performed and, to the amazement of my doctors, I had stopped taking all my pain medication and was up and walking a few hours after surgery. I attribute this, and the months of exceptional healing that followed, to Megan. Without her as my practitioner, I truly believe that I wouldn’t have had the kind of recovery that I did. My lovely scar is a reminder of this journey and I am forever indebted to her. She is not only my healer, she is also my friend.
There could be an entire encyclopedia of adjectives devoted to her profound attributes but you will know what I mean when you make that appointment and see her. She is simply amazing.

After having 2 surgeries on my Achilles tendons I decided to try acupuncture to help strengthen my ankles and prevent further injury. I started getting treatment from Nikole Maxey and immediately noticed a decrease in inflammation. I truly believe that acupuncture was the reason I recovered so much faster after my second surgery. Nikole has a strong understanding of the body and I now go in for treatment when my body feels out of balance or is in pain. Recently she has been treating me for knee pain. I would highly recommend Nikole to anyone looking for an acupuncturist.

Tao to Wellness has made me such a believer in the efficacy of acupuncture that I recommend it to all of my family and friends whether they’re complaining of back pain or postpartum depression. Admittedly, I approached acupuncture with a little skepticism. However, now I’m not only a believer, but it’s the thing I look forward to every week.
I started weekly acupuncture treatments with Christina and then Nikole last December after it was recommended by a fertility specialist when I mentioned that my cycles were long and irregular. After just a few treatments coupled with herbs, my cycle shortened by a full week and I became pregnant in the next cycle (!) Sadly, I lost the pregnancy after 6 weeks, but I continued to see Nikole every week and it has been so helpful to talk to her. And I’m certain that the acupuncture has helped my body bounce back from the miscarriage even faster than it might have on its own.
I’m moving to Houston this week and Tao to Wellness is the thing I’m most upset about leaving behind!

I have nothing but great things to say about Tao to Wellness. I started going to help with fertility and got pregnant on my first IUI attempt. Part of that is luck but another part is creating conditions for success which I attribute to Christina and Nikole Maxey. They are both really knowledgable and have provided material that has helped me make informed decisions.
I met Nikole on the day of my IUI treatment and have being going to her throughout my pregnancy. Nikole is not only an awesome person who is easy to talk to, she knows what she is doing and offers great resources. My pregnancy has been overall really smooth (more so than a lot of my friends) which I attribute to my acupuncture treatments. Coming to see Nikole has been grounding and is something that I look forward to every week. Nikole is at the top of my list for health practitioners that I respect, appreciate, trust, and enjoy. If you like highly skilled wonderful human beings, I strongly suggest that you give her a try.

Nikole has made such a difference to my quality of life. I suffered for years with lower back pain. After some steady work with Nikole I am absolutely pain free. I only wish I had found her sooner. I love the time I get to spend with her — she is a kind and caring practitioner. I cannot recommend her highly enough.

Tao to Wellness is truly a jewel for those who are seeking true inner health and guidance. Not only is this place peaceful, and VERY clean, but Christina is a brilliant, highly qualified, and magical being who will help you with your particular needs. I have been a faithful costumer for years, and I cannot imagine my life without Tao to Wellness. I visit Christina every time I feel about to get a cold and even I’m down, stressed or anxious. She has changed my life with acupuncture treatments and cupping! Thank you Christina!

This is a time when Unilocal really needs to make available a 6^th star shooting away from the end. Tao To Wellness deserves it.
In a nutshell, Christina’s amazing work played the primary role in giving my mother back a more active life. My mother had 3 separate back surgeries several years ago. Before that and since then, she’s been in constant intense pain that had caused her to essentially be bedridden. She was taking at least 5 Norco daily (10mg hydrocodone/​325mg acetaminophen) She went from a very active life to someone who had difficulty walking, sitting, standing. She could only walk for a few minutes at a time and was hunched over unable to stand up straight. She would get frequent muscle spasms in her legs that would cripple her with pain. She had sleeping difficulties and took Ambien every night. All of this caused her severe depression and she became a shell of the woman she once was.
She lives in Texas and had no access to acupuncture. Her doctors had basically given up helping her and diagnosed her with fibromyalgia. Keep stuffing pain pills down your throat and wait to die. That’s where they left her. I got her out here to live with me so that she could try acupuncture and see new doctors. I booked her an appointment at TTW for 2 days after her arrival. She began to notice measurable relief in a short time. A few weeks later, she was going out with me to run errands and do some Christmas shopping. She hadn’t been able to go out like this in years. Her mood picked up and she began feeling happier about life again. A few months later, we went to the Alameda Antique Fair and spent over 5 (FIVE!!!) hours walking around. This is a MASSIVE improvement! She couldn’t walk for 5 minutes just 4 months earlier and here she was walking for 5 hours!
Amazing. Life changing. Mind blowing. Christina’s work literally gave my mother back her life. She has moved back to Texas to be with family but will be coming back to CA (hopefully) next Spring or early Summer and will continue her treatments.

I’ve put off reviewing Tao to Wellness for ages and ages, because I’m not even sure how to say how great they are. Let’s go with:
TEN MILLION STARS! GREATEST EVER!!!
I can’t explain how great Megan and Christina are. Over the years, they’ve helped me and my husband manage a variety of chronic conditions, from an autoimmune disorder to arthritis, and they work crazy miracles while also being delightful, friendly people that put you at ease and make you feel at home while they fix you right up. I was skeptical about acupuncture before working with them, having had a few bad experiences in the past, but they are wonderfully effective and knowledgable. Their styles are slightly different, but they consult with each other regularly, so you can work with one or both of them – whatever you want!
Megan and Christina are so good that acupuncture’s in danger of becoming that thing I recommend to everybody for everything. You know how your friend’s grandma swore by Vap-​O-​Rub? Or how the dad in that movie was all about Windex? It’s like that. «Oh, sweetie, you feel like you’re coming down with a cold? Should I sign you up for acupuncture?» «You’ve been trying to get pregnant for a while, and are getting frustrated? Maybe you should give my acupuncturist a try; they were great for me!» «Ugh, I’m feeling run down and tired; let me go in for acupuncture.» The thing is, it always helps, for real.
I mostly see Megan nowadays, and she’s such a warm, kind, funny, welcoming person that going to see her makes getting poked with needles a total pleasure. (That is a *skill* there, friends.) Go see these ladies. TEN MILLION STARS!

Acupuncture didn’t work for my allergies :(

I am visiting Berkeley and made an appointment with Christina last week because of the positive reviews, but I have to say my experience was terrible and motivated me to write my first ever Unilocal review. I had a bad migraine the day of the appointment that I hoped Christina could help treat. On the plus side, Christina seems very nice, and the space was clean, albeit noisy from the road traffic. On the down side, Christina’s needling technique left much to be desired. She stuck around 15 – 20 needles all over me, and it hurt so badly I thought I might pass out. Christina seemed to think this was normal and told me to «breathe through it.» I have seen a number of acupuncturists, and see an acupuncturist regularly on the east coast, and I’ve never experienced that much pain during acupuncture before (even during a migraine). With a good acupuncturist, you should hardly feel the entering of the needle; you might feel a gentle tap and that’s it. With Christina, I could feel every needle entering my body. At one point, I could even feel her wriggling the end of the needle to get in deeper under my skin, as if it were a screw. It seriously felt like a medieval form of torture. At the end of the session, I noticed that I was bleeding quite a bit, enough to stain the sheet I was laying on at multiple spots, which was disturbing and again abnormal.
All this pain may have been worth it if she had actually treated the migraine, but the migraine remained for a full day, after which it tapered off naturally. To top it off, she left a needle in my leg, and I didn’t notice until later when I felt a constant pain in my leg where the needle was left in. So yeah, I’m not sure if Christina had an off day or what, but I will not be returning.

Christina and Megan have helped me through many injuries. They are very knowledgeable and made me a believer in acupuncture. I highly recommend this place to anyone who is looking for a holistic remedy for your health issues.

Christina, the founder, proved to be one of the most qualified and best acupuncturists I have used. I use to see a wonderful acupuncturist in Cupertino. Due to a move from the peninsula to the east bay, I have been without one for several years. A 30 day stay in an AirBnB in Berkeley that is across from «Tao to Wellness», plus high recommendations from the B&B owners, led me to seek treatment from Christina.
I was commuting daily to handle repairs on my Oakland house due to a water pipe break. It was a stressful situation with long hours and my chronic back/​neck pain and GERD were acting up. My first trial appointment led to weekly sessions during my 30-​day B&B stay. Christina’s skill, professionalism and caring attitude coupled with her experience and competency provided me with much needed relief. Never trying acupuncture for managing GERD, I was both surprised and delighted with the progress toward helping reduce the symptoms after the initial 3 sessions. If you are looking to try or change acupuncture practitioners, I highly recommend seeking treatment from Christina.

My go to place when I need some accupunture. I use to go here before I moved to Southern California and now since I am back, I have been here twice. Megan is awesome and easy to talk to. Very knowledgable and give great advise. I love falling asleep and have an outter body expereince here and just let my body do its work to heal. It is small place, but it is very comfortable and clean. I hope everyone can enjoy accupunture as much as I do.

Megan Nielsen is fantastic– the perfect combination of intelligent and pragmatic. I was referred through a friend and was a bit unsure about what to expect. Megan was clear, concise and knowledgeable. I finished our session with very tangible tips and examples of what to incorporate and change in my life.
It has been only a couple weeks, but I already have noticed substantial change with my overall energy and health. I feel so much better and was/​am completely amazed by how profound the results were. Seriously, I was starting to feel as if I had tried it all. Wish I had been in contact with Megan first!
Could sing her praise all day– simply, she is fantastic!!!

I decided to look into acupuncture because I had felt a little lethargic and my mind was a bit hazy. Megan gave me a consultation and an acupuncture treatment to go with it. I cannot thank her enough!
As a life insurance agent, I have to work and be focused for 60+ hours a week and after this treatment I can say my mind feels so much clearer than it had ever been before. I wish I had gotten treated years before. I feel as if I am a new person and it has greatly improved my motivation, my business and most importantly my mental thought processes.
I highly recommend Megan, as she is extremely friendly, knowledgeable and caring.
I’ll see you soon!
THANK YOU!!!

I went here because we were having trouble getting pregnant. I went for about three months once a week. It was a wonderful experience. I really feel like it was one piece of a very complex puzzle. Without it, I am sure I would not have finally achieved pregnancy. I am 5 months pregnant now and have had almost a completely pain free pregnancy.
I think both ladies are great, although Megan worked with me most of the time. I loved this establishment. I think they are caring, understanding, educated, and most of all, good at what they do.