I met Dominique Bariso at a professional networking group a few months ago in Hoboken. We all met around 7 AM at a local diner and all the professionals/entrepreneurs had to introduce themselves. I’m a morning person, but I am not used to actually talking to anyone at that time. Dominique stood up and spoke about her acupuncture business with such ease and grace, I felt instantly relaxed! This lady has the capability of relaxing you with just her voice and smile. I was truly amazed.

Dominique invited us to her family-owned practice located on West Side Avenue, where we got to learn more about the work she does. It’s so important to take care of your mind and your body, and alternative medicine is known to help various ailments… including stress. HINT HINT.

I think I might need to call her up today and make an appointment.

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What’s your name?

Dominique Bariso.

And what do you do?

I’m a chiropractor and acupuncturist in Jersey City.

How long have you been doing it?

Since December 2015, actually! It’s new.

Oh, it’s very new! How did you get into it?

Both of my parents are chiropractors, so I grew up with regular chiropractic wellness care. Growing up I was the weird kid who had carrots and celery with my lunch while everyone else had Dunkaroos and Lunchables. I was Pre-Med in undergrad, I studied for the MCAT, I became an EMT, I did cancer research…I was preparing myself for medical school originally. However the more I got into it, the more I questioned if it was right for me. It didn’t make sense to wait until things got really bad and then try to fix them. I wanted to do more of the prevention and wellness aspect of healthcare. I really wanted to get to the root of the problem right away, instead of just covering the symptoms. It is like a leaky roof, instead of putting down buckets to catch dripping water, I want to fix the leak and prevent having to replace the whole roof.  Chiropractic philosophy and acupuncture theory are both aligned with this approach. It was important to me to pick a school that offered both programs.

So I guess it’s not normal that a chiropractor also offers acupuncture?

Correct. Very few chiropractors are licensed acupuncturists but both practices together offer patients the best care.  Some conditions are best treated with chiropractic and others with acupuncture. The ability to offer both ensures patients have no gaps in treatment.

That’s awesome. For people who don’t know what a chiropractor does or what an acupuncturist does, can you explain the benefits and all that?

Acupuncture: According to Chinese Medicine you have energy flowing throughout your body. Just like your nervous system or circulatory system, you have another system with “qi” or energy. We can think about it like multiple highways in the body. Whenever you have pain anywhere, you have a traffic jam on the highway. My job is to get rid of the traffic jam. You may have one traffic jam or 100 traffic jams, but the treatment will always be to keep the highways free and clear of traffic jams. Chinese medicine is also about balance. The yin and yang symbol represents balance. When everything is balanced in the body, there are no symptoms. When things are imbalanced, that is when you start to develop symptoms. Night sweats, difficulty sleeping, poor digestion, and anxiety are all indicating that the body is not balanced. Acupuncture needles are placed in certain areas of the body to balance your energy.

Chiropractic: Chiropractors are specialists when it comes to health conditions involving the spine, muscles, joints, nerves, discs, tendons, etc. An emphasis is put on the spine as it protects the nervous system, which controls the entire body. My goals are to make sure your spine is aligned properly, check the mobility of your joints, relax any tight and painful muscles, and make sure you nerves are not irritated. If your problem is coming from somewhere else, we may have to send you out to a different type of doctor.

Awesome. So, acupuncture: some people will say they don’t believe in this stuff. Sell us acupuncture. 

You can’t see “qi” or energy. You can’t measure it. The crazy thing is that it works. And it has been working for over 2,500 years. Most people come see us after they have tried literally everything else. They have exhausted all other options.  And generally we surprise them with amazing results and they all become advocates. A young female patient came in not long ago with a headache so intense that she almost went to the emergency room. She was in tears in my office. She tried her prescription pain medication, muscle relaxants, a lidocaine patch, but was still in agonizing pain. She rated her pain a 9/10 on a 0-10 scale with 10 being the worst pain she has ever had. After one acupuncture treatment and some cupping she left our office completely pain-free, with the ability to move her neck fully and without pain.

What are things acupuncture can help relieve?

Acupuncture is my favorite. It can be used for pain management, headaches, digestive issues, difficulty sleeping, stress management, even cancer treatment side effects. Acupuncture is also great for women’s health, whether it’s painful menses, lack of menses, PCOS, inducing labor, morning sickness… the list is really long. We have successfully helped patients avoid surgery, cut down or even eliminate the need for pain medication, and even get pregnant.

What about “people issues?”

Acupuncture is helpful for people with anxiety, depression, even PTSD. Both chiropractic and acupuncture are offered in certain VA hospitals, cancer treatment centers, and very large clinics, so it’s an exciting time for both professions.

It’s cool, you’re fusing Western and Eastern together.

I see awesome results when I combine both. Everyone has their own preferences but the patients who get the most out of it, who see crazy results, are those who do a combination of chiropractic, acupuncture, and nutrition.

So are you from Jersey City?

I grew up in Jersey City, right upstairs actually, in the apartment above this office. This is my parents’ first office when they graduated 30-something years ago. I lived upstairs and went to Lincoln Park all the time as a little kid. I studied in New York, California, Connecticut and China, but when I graduated I knew I wanted to come back to Jersey City. I love it here. I want to grow and make chiropractic and acupuncture a bigger thing for community health. I think a lot of people could truly benefit from care.

Especially during very stressful times. 

Yeah!  Especially nowadays.

Just sitting here and talking to you, I feel very relaxed. 

This is a very stress-free, low-key environment. I don’t want people to get nervous. I know a lot of people are really nervous about acupuncture. People are afraid of needles. It took me four-and-a-half years to convince my sister to try acupuncture. Now she swears by it, and she tells everyone. I have had other patients with the same response after their first visit. Acupuncture is very relaxing. People fall asleep all the time when I am treating them! A great thing to tell people who may be hesitant is that the needles we use are so thin, they’re like your hair. If you put around 20 of my needles together, that would equal the size of a needle used for a blood test.

The pain isn’t so bad. There’s only a few points in the body, like the ears, where it hurts. Otherwise, it feels amazing. You can feel the blood flowing through you, it’s intense.

Yeah.  The needles send messages to your brain to produce its own natural painkillers, or opioids, instead of needing medication.

You feel high. 

You may feel a little buzz. Acupuncture stimulates your body’s self-healing mechanism.

Does somebody do acupuncture for you?

My New Year’s Resolution this year is to get treated more often. My parents are chiropractors, so I get chiropractic care whenever I can or whenever I need it. When I was in school, it was easy to get acupuncture treatments regularly. Now that I’m in private practice, I need to find a good acupuncturist for myself.

Great! So what about the nutrition side?

A good quote that we use is, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” My job is to teach. If I teach you what to eat, how to stretch, how to sit/stand properly, and how to manage stress, then you won’t need my help anymore, which is the goal.

Most people don’t know the connection between food and illness. When you have pain in your body, think about it like a fire. I can temporarily put the fire out with acupuncture or chiropractic care, but if you continue eating the wrong food the fire will always come back. The typical American diet is inflammatory. What we eat can cause a lot of health problems, can make a current health problem worse, and can put us at risk for a lot of diseases. My job is to make sure you know what or what not to eat, and make sure you are getting the right nutrients.

Awesome! Do you accept insurance? How does it work?

I accept insurance. Every insurance company is different and every insurance plan is different. Most plans have chiropractic coverage. Acupuncture is still new, but getting more popular, so less people have acupuncture coverage. That being said, we do have reduced rates for people who either don’t have insurance or don’t have coverage to make acupuncture and chiropractic affordable to everyone.

And the end of the day, you have to invest in yourself, too. 

So what’s your favorite Jersey City hangout spot?

I’m Italian, so I’m a sucker for Italian food. I love the shrimp scampi at GP’s downtown. I have a dog so I love Hamilton Park and walking around the neighborhood. For a good spot to hang out with friends I would say Archer Bar. I just went there recently and really like the vibe.

How is it having this office on West Side Ave?

It’s a little different. I always toss around the idea or moving downtown, but I’m lucky I had an office that was ready to go. I think Journal Square is still up-and-coming and has so much potential.

Do you have any future plans or anything else people should know?

I want to be more interactive with the community and meet other health professionals in the area. We just started getting more involved in community events last year, attending farmers’ markets and health fairs. This year we want to do even more to help people in our community.

Sounds awesome!

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You can follow Jersey City Chiropractic & Acupuncture on Facebook and Instagram. You can also plan your visit now on their website or visit their location at 944 West Side Ave in Jersey City.