Acorn Community Clinic
“Mighty oaks from little acorns grow”
proverb
ACORN COMMUNITY CLINIC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization co-founded by Dr. Vanessa Newman and Dr. Carmen Hering to increase community access to osteopathic and anthroposophic medicine and therapies, with a special emphasis on serving birthing parents, infants and children. We recognize the profound opportunity for growth and transformation during the perinatal period and early childhood. Seeing this potential, Acorn Community Clinic is also passionate about childhood education and provides education to schools and teachers on child health and development. Acorn Community Clinic offers discounted patient services based on a sliding scale. Because of this, we rely on generous donations to make these service available to those in need.
For appointments or administrative support, please contact Live Oak Medicine at:
Phone (510) 526-5256
Fax (510) 526-5547
liveoakmed@gmail.com
To LEARN MORE or to DONATE to our clinic, please contact us at: acorncommunityclinic@gmail.com
OSTEOPATHIC and ANTHROPOSOPHIC MEDICINE pay special attention to the needs of children. Conditions during conception, pregnancy, and birth have far-reaching effects on future health and well being. In today’s rapidly moving global society, support and guidance for how to lead an unhurried life and meet the child with loving presence is essential. We offer specific recommendations for creating a nurturing environment for children through daily rhythm, adequate rest and warmth, nourishing foods and a balanced sensory diet.
How a child comes into the world and the intrauterine environment before birth affect how well-prepared the body is to encounter the world. Forces of growth and development continue to unfold rapidly after birth, with the nervous system playing a central role in guiding and directing this growth. Because of this, CRANIAL OSTEOPATHY (1992 study, 2022 study) has special relevance in the care of children. Forces of labor and delivery on the newborn head and body may create compressions that do not spontaneously resolve; if birth is rapid, prolonged, or traumatic, even more so. Caesarian births also have associated complications: fluid may be retained in the lungs and body tissues, breathing may be sluggish, and primitive reflexes may not be adequately stimulated.
OSTEOPATHY actively supports the unfolding of developmental processes and addresses restrictions and limitations to growth and movement. This treatment has specific applications for infants and children related to developmental challenges and circumstances surrounding birth. ANTHROPOSOPHIC MEDICINE offers a constitutional and developmental picture of the child which is helpful in addressing specific challenges and recurrent illness patterns. Growth and development occur in stages corresponding to seven year cycles of early, middle, and late childhood. An ANTHROPOSOPHIC understanding of these stages and the specific challenges and achievements unique to each is helpful in nurturing and fostering healthy development. How our children encounter and engage these various challenges, both in health and illness, gives us insight into their nature and individual needs and guides us toward healthy expression and symptom resolution.
Receive the children in reverence, educate them in love,
and send them forth in freedom.RUDOLF STEINER
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of life’s longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
and though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
for they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of to-morrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you. For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
-Khalil Gibran
