Amy’s work weaves together threads of Chinese Herbal Medicine, Acupuncture, women’s health knowledge and empowered mothering practices to redesign the way women’s health stories unfold.
About Amy O’Brien (she/her)
I am an AHPRA registered Acupuncturist and Chinese Herbalist with almost 20 years clinical experience. I practice at Juno Specialists, where I really enjoy having genuine conversations, listening and educating, cozying people up in blankets while their acupuncture needles are in and making their herbs.
I also work in research at RMIT University. I’m the Clinical Acupuncturist for a multi-year collaborative project being conducted in Northern Hospital ED investigating the role of acupuncture in treating acute pain.
These workplace environments couldn’t be more different, but both allow for innovation, real-time collaboration and are the cutting edge of Doing Things Differently.
I’ve also undertaken training to become a Motherhood Studies Practitioner - which greatly informs the way I approach all aspects of women’s health, not just the experience of motherhood.
Outside of clinic I’m a netballer (GD, GA), a tea drinker, an indoor plant lover, a writer, a big nerd, a homebody, a mother.
I am late-diagnosed Autistic and ADHD (AuDHD) and recent years have provided space to know these pieces of myself better. I have a particular interest in supporting late diagnosed neurodivergent women based on my own years of exploration.
In practice I focus on women’s health because I believe that truly well and supported women will change the shape of the world.
The gender pain gap exists, and women’s health has been dismissed for far too long. My additional interest in maternal thriving is informed by my own experience. Most everything is harder when you add motherhood. It wasn’t til I met my own mothering experience that I realised how woefully inadequate a card with a vague non-specific offer of help is for women in their postpartum years.
My approach aligns deeply Desmond Tutu’s quote:
‘There comes a time when we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in’
I now know how to create impactful positive change for women and mothers. I deeply understand how to elevate individuals experience, and how to ripple an entirely different story for collective change.
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This is so much more than the acupuncture pins and the herbs you may receive during our time together. I am here to catalyse and clarify your thinking so that you can always be aware of the trajectory you are taking. So you can align your choices and actions for these mothering years with your values.
By encouraging new ways of thinking and challenging taken-for-granted assumptions, I intend to build a system that lifts its gaze to a world of maternal thriving.
I want the new pathways and perspectives you gain from our time together to fill your mind for the months and years to come after our treatments. I want it to infuse possibility and ripple change for your entire transitional years. To inform your decisions. And to cradle you in good health.
Qualifications
Bachelor Applied Science (Chinese Medicine) / Bachelor Applied Science (Human Biology)
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This five year double degree included a semester long internship in a hospital in China. I also administered acupuncture in the Emergency Department of The Northern Hospital, Epping, weekly for the final two years of my study. Treating pregnant women hospitalised with severe nausea in the ED is where my love for acupuncture in the treatment of acute and severe morning sickness was born.
Professional Post-Graduate Advanced Training in Canonical Chinese Medicine
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When I met Arnaud Versluys I realised there was so much more to Chinese Medicine than what we had been taught in University. With training from ICEAM I can proudly say in the past decade of my clinical practice every single herbal formula and modification I have made have been based on original Classical Chinese Herbal texts compiled thousands of years ago. This study was intense. I found my first grey hair the day I graduated.
Birth Attendant Training
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This course expanded my thinking, and opened up the possibilities about how best to support women up to and down from their birthing experiences. I also learned more about the delicate art of holding space for women. This course sparked me to continue to deepen my own learnings about birth story listening, birth trauma, postnatal mental health, and how to prepare ahead of time for the postpartum. It also consolidated my passion for filling the gaps in care for pregnant women and mothers in the early years. I have also had the opportunity to attend births with highly skilled doulas and learnt so much through these opportunities.
Motherhood Studies Practitioner Certification Training
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This course has been the missing piece for me, finally filled. In my years of study and work in ‘holistic medicine’ I have encountered a complete lack of acknowledgment of the systems and structures that have the power to detrimentally impact our health outcomes. This training has helped me to understand how our cultural practices and embedded ideologies influence the situations we find ourselves in.
These new knowledge overlays allowing me to understand our experiences with broader perspective. To look backwards, forwards and identify all the contributing and protective factors.
These illuminations have been deeply enriching, and helps provide a framework to understand all the common threads I have been putting together myself over my years in clinic.
I provide layers of support:
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Receiving compassionate, active and non-judgemental listening
Space to be honest about what you’re feeling and allow your story to be voiced
To be seen, heard and believed in your experience, and feel less isolated and alone
Witnessing the significance of what you’re traversing
Acknowledging when you are walking tough terrain
Space to ask questions
Willingness to have hard conversations
Discussions around why we may feel shame when experiencing difficulty conceiving, in pregnancy and in motherhood. With this new perspective, introducing tools and mindset shifts to let shame slide away
Naming things you may feel - including things like frustration, shame and guilt, confusion and overwhelm, fear and vulnerability, grief and loss, isolation, exhaustion and emptiness
Making visible the societal expectations of women during conception, pregnancy, motherhood, as a first step of letting those expectations go
Compassion, reverence and gentle reframing of all you’re carrying. Allowing you can be lighter with your expectations of self
Honouring and reflecting back to you all the amazing things you and your body are doing
Being listened to is not a ‘nice to have’. It’s fundamentally important that you feel heard.
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In postpartum, there is a beautiful process termed 'birth story listening' which provides safe, compassionate space for you to unfold your story without interruption or judgement. This helps to process of the events of birth and allows you to witness the work you've done. This same process can apply to any significant unfolding - fertility treatment, loss, motherhood
I am not a psychologist, or mental health counsellor. I will refer you to incredible professionals as needed.
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Conversations and resources about:
Providing you with greater context for the moment you’re standing in. Education around navigating preconception, conception, fertility, pregnancy, birth preparation and onwards
Your broader health picture. All our systems have the ability to support and influence each other
Lifestyle and dietary modifications to support
Caring for yourself when things are hard
Prioritising sleep through every stage: how and why
Understanding the role of stress - using tools like meditation and music to calm your nervous system
Supporting anxiety and overwhelm - mindset shifts, acupressure techniques and tools to smooth emotions
Fostering inner compassion when your inner voice gets nasty
Prevention, early recognition of and tools for burnout and depletion
Unpacking unhelpful (internalised, patriarchal) narratives around what it looks like to do conception / pregnancy / birth / mothering ‘the right way’
Examination of the inputs you're receiving from the outside world (eg. social media portrayal of pregnancy and mothering)
Building awareness of detrimental cultural norms and untangling what is ‘ours’ from what was created for us to accept as our own
Claiming our identity through active meaning making (your story as a source of claiming who you are)
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Effectively planning for the days, weeks and months ahead.
Together we can focus on:
Assessing mental loads you’re carrying
Deciding on the wisest use of your capacity, energy and time
Prioritisation and de-prioritisation: what's really needed
Prioritising, seeking and scaffolding adequate care and support now
Offloading tasks: what to outsource to others, what to let go of entirely
Resetting expectations: humanising your capacity from a place of compassion and grace
If in depletion / burnout / overwhelm: forming solid, practical first steps for you to focus on. We'll hold off on too much information and more complex resources until you have more capacity
Exploring and naming your values: pinpointing what's important to you. This perspective and clarity shows where to let go, and where to hold strong. Solidifying what's important to you and ensures decisions are internally lead
Redesigning the structure of your days / experiences to aligning your actions with your values (rather than them being pulled and lead by societal norms.)
Long-term planning: positioning you in the strongest place to navigate the path forward
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As a qualified Chinese Medicine Practitioner, if we are In Home or In Clinic I can support you with Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine.
I provide individualised care aimed at supporting the whole picture. I practice a style of care that adapts and responds to your needs
We’ll address primary symptoms and concerns and work to optimise sleep, digestion, energy and emotions
We’ll consider stress reduction skills and tools
I can actively collaborate with your care team where appropriate.
Acupuncture and Chinese Herbs are only an option for In Home and In Clinic Sessions - I cannot treat via Online Sessions.
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Getting you, your partner and those around you on the same page.
We might cover:
Communicating boundaries, and what boundaries actually mean
How to ask for help, what to ask for
Emotional granularity as a way of understanding and communicating your experience to others to open greater possibilities for support
Educating partners - providing them with knowledge, skills and tools to actively support you
Mapping out and scaffolding broader values aligned social support
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Fostering your sense autonomy and informed decision making
Finding your voice: not downplaying or silencing hard things
Creating a values aligned care team. The positive flow-on effects doing so early, so you have your team to go to at any point
Encouraging help seeking steps towards medical support / providing useful referrals
Connecting you with medical care providers
Sharing evidenced-based resources and other materials: organisations, hotlines, podcasts, groups
I will never suggest any specific medical course of action. This is beyond my scope of practice. I will refer you into incredible, competent medical care providers who can help you identify the right medical management pathway for your situation.
The skills, tools and education we unfold will serve as transferable skills to enable you to self-lead in circumstances beyond our sessions together.
