We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brooke Taylor. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brooke below.

Brooke, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

My mission is to help people tap into their own innate healing abilities through Chinese medicine and acupuncture. My niche is cosmetic acupuncture, however, you cannot treat the skin or face in a microcosm, you must treat the body as a whole. This means to improve the face, we need to diagnose the constitution accordingly, and get the whole body/mind to contribute to a good foundation for the skin to thrive.

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Brooke, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I was in the skincare industry for many years as an esthetician, then an educator and global brand manager, eventually living in Australia. I was lucky to work for a holistic brand – they included the body/mind in their facials by initiating the treatment with body palming and breath work. Most skincare lines at the time were very ‘product on/product off’, so it was lovely to see people responding to touch and breath.

I began getting acupuncture to manage insomnia and stress years prior, and found it to be incredibly helpful. At one point years later, I had my own health challenge, culminating in taking time off to sort myself. This gave me the space and time to re-evaluate how I wanted to move forward, and I chose to work for myself by going back to school for acupuncture. I discovered that some people focus on cosmetic acupuncture, so I made sure to pursue this route in extracurricular instruction. I knew I wanted to combine all I knew about skincare with a way to address their concerns from the inside out – beyond the topical.

A lot of skin problems are made worse with stress for instance, and acupuncture is amazing for helping the body mitigate the effects of stress. The same goes for hormones and digestion. Skincare is still important, but it can’t be a bandaid if something bigger is going on.

I later added what I consider to be a very important component – the emotions. We store a lot of our emotions in the face! I took a course for releasing the muscles where tight and spasmed, and toning where slack. This includes an intra-oral portion, massage the face from both inside the cheeks and out. The release is amazing. Chinese medicine provides the blueprint for face reading, so by interpreting the face, then using both needles and massage to create a shift, people find this type of change goes much deeper for healing the skin and creating positive change.

I most appreciate that people are seeking out this service before they pursue more invasive options like injectables. Some have been putting things into their face without considering the underlying tissue and how it will support the injected material. It also does not address the cause. I find many of my patients also do not like the way the look as they go further down the rabbit hole of this type of fix. They just want to look like the best version of themselves.

This work is very rewarding for me in helping patients who have had a hard time that affected their skin and face, such as being a caregiver, or having their own health issues. They feel so much better when they see their face begin to reflect a healthier version of themselves.

Most recently, I have expanded my practice so my patients can better pursue total health. So if I find a certain imbalance, I can refer them to someone on my team to focus on what is affecting them and holding back their progress. An example is tight shoulders and neck from computer work or lifestyle pulling the face down as the muscles remain contracted. Once we release the muscle and fascia, I’m more able to build on the work to lift the neck or bottom half of the face. Or some might need shorter sessions to manage stress, but more often. This helps reduce the signs of stress in the skin, from inflammation to breakouts, and things like jaw clenching.

Have you ever had to pivot?

When I first started with cosmetic acupuncture, I envisioned the work would be around a subset of issues to help improve the skin, and I was a bit adamant about not doing certain aspects of women’s health, such as working with their cycles and around fertility. Part of my thinking was that there were a lot of women’s health specialists in my field, so this category seemed specific, and well covered! Fast forward, and I found women’s periods to be inextricably linked to all aspects of their health and skincare. I instead had to do a deep dive into all the ways the period acts as a barometer of health, and move forward considering periods of every patient. And by end of last year, I had over 25 pregnant patients, with more showing up every week, still. There is a real baby boom going on! So I now focus heavily on the underserved postpartum phase as well. HUGE pivot for me.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think in my case it helped that I came to acupuncture with a deep history in skincare. There are a lot of cosmetic acupuncturists, but they don’t always make this their focus, rather it is one focus of several, and there are not near as many of us that also have the education around the actual skin.

I stayed niche, which is scary, as you feel like you are saying ‘no’ to everyone else. It was a leap to say ‘this is what I do’ knowing people might go elsewhere, but in the end, I’d rather refer out for things out of my wheelhouse anyway (I most recently expanded my business with a partner just to have this option for my patients). Once I committed fully to this niche market, I began pursuing education around modalities that enhanced my treatments. One that became very important was Facial Sculpting Massage as taught by Yakov Gershkovich. I was one of few acupuncturists taking his courses, it was mostly estheticians. But by incorporating his modality of deep targeted massage for the face with the interpretation of the face through Chinese medicine, I had another specialty to offer that was very results driven, and becoming more sought after. I continue to expand on this with other services that create synergy such as microcurrent and light therapy, I just make sure I am offering the most effective versions available.

A few influencers moved to my city, and were looking for this particular treatment. Once they found me, and shared my techniques, it increased my business significantly. I think remaining focused on my vision was invaluable for getting to this point. It’s also worth noting I focused on an elevated experience, rather than a clinical feel, which suited my skincare background.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thisistheroad.com
• Instagram: @theroadacupuncture @thedesertcanary
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theroadacupuncture
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brooke-taylor-ab20137/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/brookeglobal
• Other: TikTok: brookeandtcm

Image Credits
Photos property of The Road.