About Us
Personalized care to help you thrive
Clear Skies Healing provides intelligent, personalized care that helps you get back to doing what you love. Our inspired holistic and integrative medical approach to healing can help uncover the root cause of your condition(s) and identify disharmonies of mind, body, and spirit. We’ll work as your partner to create a clear plan of action, using proven strategies to provide meaningful results and to bring you back into balance.
Meet Dr. Ariel Whitworth
Dr. Ariel Whitworth, L.Ac., DACM, MA, is a doctor of Chinese medicine, acupuncturist, intuitive healer, herbalist, shamanic practitioner, writer and editor, yoga instructor, avid meditator, and visionary artist. Through years of dedicated study in both nature-based shamanic traditions and Eastern spiritual traditions, her medicine practice helps clients bring harmony and balance to the mind, body, and spirit.
Ariel believes in a whole-body approach to medicine—to truly find a route to wellness, you target not just the symptoms, but the root of the condition. As such, she relies on strong client connection, which means a willingness to listen and understand exactly what’s going on for you—your history, your symptoms, your needs. She has worked successfully with clients experiencing childhood trauma, abuse, mental health conditions, orthopedic and sports injuries, chronic and acute pain, insomnia, stress, depression, PTSD, internal medical and autoimmune conditions, gastrointestinal issues, women’s health issues, sexual trauma, addictions, and more.
Certifications and Apprenticeships
Ariel is a NCCAOM-certified Diplomate of Oriental Medicine and is California board-certified as a Licensed Acupuncturist. She holds licenses in Colorado and California. She earned a Doctorate in Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine from Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in San Diego. She has apprenticed with Peruvian shaman and Shipibo maestro Ricardo Amaringo for 6 years, and has received his permission to practice shamanism in his tradition.
What We Treat
Athletic Injuries and Pain
Ariel has always had a passion for athletics and body mechanics, having been a former aerialist, runner, and professional dancer. While finishing her doctorate at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in San Diego, Ariel apprenticed with an orthopedic and pain specialist, and became adept at treating injuries and working with pain management. She’s skilled at working with both acute and chronic pain clients of all ages, providing skilled biomechanical assessment and gentle, effective treatment.
Mental Health and Trauma Therapy
With a B.A. and research background in neuroscience and biology, Ariel has always been interested in the mind-body connection. She uses a variety of modalities—including Chinese medicine, shamanism, and meditation—to successfully help clients with many mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, eating disorders, trauma, PTSD, and insomnia. Whether you need to feel grounded, held, heard, lifted, freed, or something entirely unexpected, she’ll find a way to meet your needs.
Internal Medicine
Ariel has a gift for finding the root imbalance of your condition and helping you create a path to wellness. Whether you’re working with a digestive complaint, autoimmune disorder, respiratory issue or cold, fatigue, insomnia, geriatric health condition, or need support with women’s health and fertility, she can help you find solutions and feel better.
Custom Herbal Treatments
Ariel is an expert herbalist, having studied or apprenticed with herbal instructors and plant shamanic mentors across the globe. She has come to understand herbal and plant-based medicine as a powerful way to navigate physical and emotional well-being, bringing balance during the changes in season, planetary shifts, and the dynamics and harmonics of life. Through careful observation and investigation, and a spiritual-intuitive understanding of the medicine that each plant offers, Ariel constructs formulas or finds plant guides specific to the constitution and needs of each individual.
Frequently Asked Questions
Acupuncture is a medical technique used to treat or assist with a variety of medical conditions. It involves the insertion of very thin needles into the skin, at precise locations on the body that are recognized as acupuncture points. In Chinese medical theory, these points lie on channels that connect to the body’s organs and carry nutrients and blood throughout the body.
Chinese herbs include a variety of plant roots and leaves, shells, grasses, flowers, fungi/mushrooms, animal-based products, and other medicinal substances. Often a Chinese herbal formula may offer a natural, often gentle approach to working with your condition, or may help supplement the medications your doctor has already prescribed.
According to the World Health Organization1, acupuncture or Chinese herbs may effectively help with variety of medical conditions, including:
Respiratory Disorders
Sinusitis, Rhinitis
Common cold
Tonsillitis
Sore throat
Hay fever
Bronchitis
Bronchial asthma
Disorders of the Eyes
Acute conjunctivitis
Myopia in children
Cataracts without complications
Central retinitis
Mental-Emotional Disorders
Anxiety
Depression
Stress
Insomnia
Addictions
Weight control
Musculo-skeletal Disorders
Frozen shoulder
Tennis elbow
Low back pain
Osteoarthritis and joint pains
Stiff neck
Tendonitis
Bursitis
Sprains
Injuries from auto accidents
Chronic fatigue syndrome
Fibromyalgia
Gastro-intestinal Disorders
Acute and chronic gastritis
Hyperacidity
Hiccoughs
Acute uncomplicated duodenal ulcer
Chronic duodenal ulcer (pain relief)
Acute and chronic colitis
Acute bacillary dysentery
Constipation
Diarrhea
Paralytic ileus
Neurological Disorders
Headache and Migraine
Dizziness
Trigeminal neuralgia
Bell’s palsy (within 3-6 months)
Pareses following stroke
Peripheral neuropathies
Meniere’s disease
Neurogenic bladder dysfunction
Nocturnal enuresis
Intercostal neuralgia
Sciatica
Disorders of the Mouth
Toothache
Post extraction pain
Gingivitis
Acute and chronic pharyngitis
Ear Disorders
Ringing in the ears
Deafness
Meniere’s disease
Earache
Reproductive System Disorders
Infertility
Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)
Irregular menses
Menstrual cramps
Pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)
Menopausal symptoms
Morning sickness
Urinary incontinence
Impotence
- Traditional Medicine – Growing Needs and Potential, World Health Organization Policy Perspective on Medicines; #1 May 2002; World Health Organization, Geneva.
First appointment?
- Fill our initial intake forms or arrive 30 minutes early to fill them out.
- Wear comfortable, loose-fitting clothing.
- Make sure you have eaten a meal prior to arriving.
- Please do not arrive intoxicated. We reserve the right to refuse treatment.
- Bring your payment. We accept cash or credit.
Wear comfortable, loose-fitting clothing that can be easily rolled up to the knee or elbow. If you have pain in a specific area of the body, we may ask you to uncover that area for treatment, so consider your clothing choices. Alternately, many people like to dress in layers or bring a change of clothes. We have sheets and other covers if we need to ask you to take anything off. You will be asked to remove your shoes and socks.
You should expect to be at your appointment for about an hour. Needles are frequently retained between 15 and 30 minutes, but retention times may be longer or shorter depending on your condition and the style of treatment. Filling out initial paperwork may take 15-20 minutes, so please have it done in advance or come to the office early.
In general, patients find acupuncture relaxing. The needles used are very fine, often about the size of hairs. You may experience some sensation upon needle insertion and/or manipulation, but generally that sensation only lasts at most a few seconds. You may also experience a feeling of energy moving, tingling, dull achy pain, itching, a wave sensation, or other physical sensations during your treatment. Or you may not feel anything! Each person’s experience is unique. Any of the mild sensations you experience are a good thing—these sensations are often considered the “arrival of qi,” meaning that the point has been activated and is doing its job.
Yes. Acupuncturists use single-use, sterile, disposable needles. Acupuncturists have over 3000 hours of training in both Chinese and Western medicine—or about 4 years of graduate school. Side effects are uncommon.
Acupuncture relieves pain, reduces inflammation, and helps the body come back into natural balance, or homeostasis. A number of Western medical theories are currently accepted as possibilities for how acupuncture works.
Moxa, also known as Ai Ye, or Artemisiae argyi folium, is a Chinese herb that is often rolled into sticks or cones and burned over the skin. It is also known as mugwort. It can be used to supplement and strengthen the body, warm cold areas of the body, improve circulation, and more. Most patients find moxa gentle, warm, and pleasant.
Cupping is a technique in which cups are warmed and suction is created so that they can be placed on the skin. In Chinese medicine, we use cupping to improve circulation, release tight muscle areas, expel pathogens, and eliminate stasis. Most patients enjoy cupping and many remark that it feels like massage.
Gua sha is a technique used in Chinese medicine to stimulate muscular areas and release tension and stasis. It involves applying pressure to the skin with a hand-held instrument, and tends to feel similar to massage.
Appointments vary depending on what services you would like to include. We also have 5-session treatment packages available. Please see our services page for more information. We currently accept cash or credit cards.
A shamanic healing session may involve a variety of therapies, including counseling, herbal recommendations, energy work, journeying, meditation, music or creative therapy, divination, or assignment of activities and journaling practices for self-healing. Typically, I suggest a minimum of 5-10 individual sessions for deeper work.
Many people who have had experiences with entheogenic substances may want support processing and integrating what can often be a profound and deeply expansive or cathartic experience. You may be left with questions or want to identify the right ways to move forward in integrating this work. You may need assistance working through experiences or traumas that the entheogen has helped bring to light. I can provide support, counseling, integration tools, and help you identify direction for future growth, while honoring the new tools and insight the entheogen has provided. I have years of experience assisting others with this type of integration work.
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