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Lynn Maloney: The queen of pins and needles

Acupuncturist

By Rebecca Anderson

November 12, 2009 | 12:00 a.m. CST


46 | Six years in Columbia

Yoga instructor and acupuncturist Lynn Maloney is incredibly busy for someone who teaches deep relaxation. She strides through her comfy office and promises more time “tomorrow” with an ingenuous smile. She then disappears with a swirl of her cranberry dress.
Like high-waisted jeans, the ancient healing and medical practice of acupuncture is enjoying a revival period as it gains a place in Columbia’s medical industry.
Maloney became interested in alternative medicine and health care through a yoga class at the Kripalu Center in Lenox, Mass., in 1991. A few years later, she moved into the staff’s ashram, a school and living community, for three years. After studying the way that “energy moves with the body” and reading a book about Chinese five-element medicine, Maloney re-entered the world to become an acupuncturist.
She studied at the Traditional Acupuncture Institute (now Tai Sophia) in Columbia, Md., and opened the doors of Lynn Maloney Acupuncture in Silver Spring, Md. After visiting a friend in Columbia, Mo., Maloney moved the practice in 2003.
Maloney credits an Oprah feature and a TV segment during the 2008 Beijing Olympics with the steady surge in national interest in acupuncture.
Although several chiropractors and M.D.s in Columbia have received acupuncture training, Maloney is the only practitioner in Columbia with a master’s degree in the field. She continues her passion for yoga and teaches weekly meditative classes downtown at AlleyCat Yoga. Her acupunture practice remains separate, but the two often overlap.
“As a yoga teacher, I do sometimes know that there are postures, stretches and breathing techniques that can be useful to my patients,” Maloney says.
Although Maloney’s colleagues in Kansas City and St. Louis have been pairing acupuncture with hospital treatment, the trend has yet to take off in Columbia’s hospitals. However, the yoga and acupuncture often coexist.
“It’s a huge asset to have both available,” she says. “More medical doctors are either referring their patients or are in favor of patients receiving acupuncture.”
Even though it is still unknown whether the health care reform will include increased coverage of acupuncture, Maloney finds that patients ages 3 to 94 continue to flood the corner office, after they are referred by word-of-mouth for everything from fertility to arthritis.
“The longer I’m here and the more familiar and comfortable people become with acupuncture, the more I have people coming in as a first line rather than as a last resort,” Maloney says. “People are already using acupuncture more.”

Lynn Maloney provides acupuncture treatment through her company, Lynn Maloney Acupuncture. She is also a ...

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