You have learned to work around it. You stand a certain way, sleep a certain way, brace before you lift, and tell people you are fine because explaining it again is exhausting.
Maybe it started with an injury that should have healed by now. Maybe it crept in over years at a desk, or after a surgery, or for no reason you can name. You have tried the things — rest, stretches, anti-inflammatories, perhaps physical therapy or an injection that helped for a while. And yet here you are, still organizing your day around a body that hurts.
If that is where you are, you are exactly the kind of person Dr. Sophia Scheffel works with. Chronic pain is rarely a problem of the painful spot alone. It is a problem of a nervous system that has learned to stay on alert, of tissue that has adapted around an old injury, of patterns that keep the pain in place long after the original cause has faded. Treating the spot without addressing the pattern is why so much pain relief is temporary.
A different way of looking at persistent pain
In Chinese medicine, pain is read as a sign that something is not moving freely — circulation, signaling, the body's own regulation. Modern research describes a related picture: in long-standing pain, the nervous system itself becomes sensitized, amplifying signals and holding the body in a protective, guarded state. The pain becomes self-sustaining.
Acupuncture works on exactly this. Fine needles placed at specific points help down-regulate an over-active nervous system, increase local blood flow to tissue that has been starved of it, and release the tight muscle and fascia that have built up around the original problem. Over a course of treatment, the body is helped out of its guarded pattern and back toward normal movement and regulation.
What matters most in Dr. Scheffel's approach is that the same condition lives differently in each person. Two people with the same diagnosis — the same kind of back pain, the same labeled injury — rarely hold it the same way, and rarely need the same care. So treatment begins with understanding how your pain actually shows up in you: your history, what you have already tried, how you move, and the specific way your body is holding what it is holding.
Conditions commonly treated
Dr. Scheffel is trained in orthopedic acupuncture and dry needling, and works with a wide range of pain and musculoskeletal conditions, including:
- Chronic back and neck pain
- Joint pain and arthritis
- Sciatica and nerve-related pain
- Sports and overuse injuries
- Muscle tension, trigger points, and myofascial pain
- Injury recovery and restricted movement
Orthopedic acupuncture and dry needling
For musculoskeletal pain, Dr. Scheffel often combines classical acupuncture with orthopedic techniques and dry needling — releasing the tight muscular trigger points that refer pain and limit movement. Dry needling targets those bands directly; the broader Chinese medicine framework addresses the pattern underneath, so the relief tends to hold rather than fade between sessions.
What treatment looks like
Your first visit is about 90 minutes and begins with an unhurried conversation about your history and how the pain affects your life. From there, treatment is built around your individual presentation — not a fixed protocol applied to a chart. Most people with pain lasting longer than three months need a course of roughly 4 to 12 weekly sessions, with maintenance visits about once a month afterward. Longstanding pain generally takes more time than a recent injury. Dr. Scheffel will give you a realistic sense of what to expect at the start and adjust as your body responds.
Care is informed by Dr. Scheffel's doctoral training and ongoing study with senior teachers, including advanced work in orthopedic acupuncture. Where it supports your recovery, individualized Chinese herbal medicine may be recommended alongside the acupuncture.
“I came to Sophia with severe hip pain that left me barely able to walk or exercise. After trying chiropractic and other treatments without success, acupuncture with her made a huge difference. Within a few sessions my pain improved dramatically, my mobility returned, and I'm able to work out again. She took the time to understand my situation and made me feel comfortable at every step.”
“Sophia knows her craft immensely. After getting to know my health problems and understanding my needs, I saw great progress within three sessions. My ongoing wrist pain is almost gone — she has done what doctors were never able to achieve. I finally feel normal again.”
If you have been living with pain
You do not have to keep organizing your life around it, and you do not have to be certain acupuncture is the answer before you begin. If you are not sure whether this approach fits your situation, you are welcome to reach out before booking — the first visit is also a chance to talk it through honestly.
Book an appointment with Dr. Scheffel at Diablo Acupuncture in Walnut Creek, at the Lafayette border, serving Lamorinda and the greater Contra Costa County area.