Meet Suzanne Spiegel | Acupuncturist and Writer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Suzanne Spiegel and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Suzanne, we’d love to hear what makes you happy.
Since my early twenties, I’ve felt most alive when exploring the inner landscapes of emotion, energy, and consciousness — and noticing how these subtle dimensions mirror the world around me. There’s something endlessly inspiring about tracing the hidden threads that connect our inner experience with nature, health, and human connection.

I’m happiest when I’m learning, reflecting, and in conversation with others who are also tuned in to life’s mysteries. I find joy in wild rivers, soaking in hot springs, long walks with my dogs, and time with people who live outside the box — those whose authenticity can’t be easily defined.

Nature and animals remind me what it means to simply be — to move in harmony with one’s own essence. That’s what I aim to support in my work: helping others return to their truest rhythm, their most vital state of being.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I’ve spent the last fifteen years immersed in traditions that explore the inner landscape — from yoga and meditation to Chinese medicine and Taoist philosophy. My oracle deck, Spirit of the Points, is the creative expression where all of these paths intersect. It’s a living synthesis of everything I know and love — acupuncture, Taoism, Internal Family Systems, Buddhism, and somatic practices — woven together into a tool for insight, embodiment, and transformation.

I’ve always been in awe of the power of acupuncture — how a single point can open the heart, shift a pattern, or bring someone back to themselves. But what many people don’t realize is that acupuncture is rooted in Taoism — a philosophy that extends far beyond the treatment room. Taoism teaches us how to live in alignment with nature, how to become medicine ourselves, and how to move through the world in a way that is honest, fluid, and true.

Spirit of the Points brings that wisdom into everyday life. Each card represents a specific acupuncture point and offers Taoist-inspired guidance along with rituals, meditations, and reflection prompts. It’s designed to help people reconnect with their own rhythms, their deeper nature, and the living intelligence of the body and spirit.

This deck was born during a challanging season of my life — during my father’s dying process. As I supported him through that transition, I found myself turning more deeply toward the acupuncture points, listening to them not just clinically, but spiritually. They became companions — offering insight, comfort, and direction through one of the darkest and most tender periods of my life.

What I want people to know about healing — and about this work — is that it’s not about striving for perfection. It’s about presence. It’s about slowing down, softening inward, and learning to include the parts of ourselves we’ve pushed away. True healing happens not through force, but through deeper listening — to the body, to the breath, to what life is really asking of us.

It’s less about doing, and more about being. About living with honesty rather than perfectionism.

To me, healing is a process of returning — to our instincts, our inner rhythms, and the quiet intelligence of nature moving through us. My hope is that this deck becomes a steady companion — not offering quick answers, but deep invitations. Invitations to slow down, to listen more closely, and to remember the beauty of being exactly where you are and showing up fully.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’d start with a girls’ night — gathering a few of my favorite women who live from the heart and genuinely root for one another. We’d go to one of our local Lafayette favorites like Community, Tiocalli, or 24 Carrot — all places with great food and good energy.

If it was warm enough, I’d take them for a dip in Boulder Creek, one of my absolute favorite places to be in the summer. I love the sparkly feeling of cold water on a hot day. There’s something so freeing about putting down responsibilities and being childlike with the people you love — jumping in, laughing, and just playing.

If we had a whole weekend, I’d take them to Valley View Hot Springs in the San Luis Valley. The land there is raw and wide open, with stunning mountain views and natural hot pools that overlook the valley. It’s one of those places where the usual layers fall away. Being there — especially with a group of women — feels deeply disarming and resetting. There’s no pressure to perform or impress. Just presence, joy, laughter, and real connection.

That’s my favorite kind of trip: one that brings people back to themselves through nature, good food, shared presence, and deep belly laughs.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Sarah and Ty Powers have been two of the most influential mentors in my life. They were the first to show me that wisdom, heart, and medicine are not things to study from the outside, but ways of being to live from within.

Sarah’s book Insight Yoga introduced me to the Five Elements — a discovery that ultimately led me to study Five Element acupuncture. Her teachings helped me experience the meridians and elements not as abstract frameworks, but as living, breathing expressions of both my inner and outer worlds.

Their silent retreats have become mile markers in my life — sacred pauses where I return to what’s true, release what no longer serves, and reorient toward a more meaningful, intentional way of living.

Together, their influence shaped my path as a yoga teacher and deepened my ability to teach and hold space with presence and integrity. Ultimately, their work guided me toward becoming a Five Element acupuncturist — not just as a profession, but as a way of living in harmony with nature, spirit, and self.

More than anything, they taught me that all of life is about living the medicine. That insight only deepened as I explored Taoism, where I came to see the entire tradition as a kind of living medicine — a way of aligning with the rhythms of nature, not to escape life, but to fully inhabit it.

Website: https://www.suzannespiegel.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/suzannespiegs/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/suzanne.spiegel/

Image Credits
photo credit Henry Lai (giving acupuncture in blue jumpsuit and sitting in field) Christopher Cleary (giving acupuncture in blue long sleeve) (, Chapin Matthews (yoga posture with sun peeking through), Evan Kinsley (meditation postures in front of canyon walls)