Eventide Acupuncture and Integrative Health seeks to blend eastern, western medicine in new space in Haydenville

Angelique Britt in her office at Eventide Acupuncture & Integrative Health at the Brass Works Mill in Haydenville on Tuesday.

Angelique Britt in her office at Eventide Acupuncture & Integrative Health at the Brass Works Mill in Haydenville on Tuesday. STAFF PHOTO / DANIEL JACOBI II

Angelique Britt in her office at Eventide Acupuncture & Integrative Health at the Brass Works Mill, Tuesday, in Haydenville.

Angelique Britt in her office at Eventide Acupuncture & Integrative Health at the Brass Works Mill, Tuesday, in Haydenville. STAFF PHOTO / DANIEL JACOBI II

By SAMUEL GELINAS

Staff Writer

Published: 01-23-2025 2:47 PM

Modified: 01-23-2025 6:02 PM


HAYDENVILLE — On Dec. 10 Angelique Britt opened her first business, Eventide Acupuncture and Integrative Health, in the Brass Works building at 132 Main St.

Here she explained that, “Over the course of my nursing career I could not shrink from this ever-growing sense that our current health care system is broken in many ways, but there must be something else that could be offered to people.”

And she found what she called the “sweet spot” for optimizing health care, located at the intersection of western and eastern medicine.

The two traditions offer differing “lenses” to view patients and their pain — lenses that together give a more complete portrait into human suffering and healing, Britt said.

While western medicine is more focused on standardized care and often takes an agnostic or unknowing stance toward the source of where ailments come from, she said that eastern methods take into account a more holistic view of the body — even emotional states or the itches on your left foot that won’t go away.

Consider a patient with heartburn, she said. Western methods would prescribe a generic medication, or a carbon copy of drugs taken by others with heartburn. Eastern methods, on the other hand, wouldn’t view heartburn as a solitary ailment, but one connected to the whole body.

“So someone might have heartburn, but they also might not really sleep well, and they might have high blood pressure and they might have like, a weird itch on their left foot that’s been there for three months. And something as obscure as like an itch on the left foot is valid,” said Britt.

“On the eastern side we diagnose by pattern, so a person’s individual constellation of symptoms, including things that might not be related to the reason why you’re coming, are factored in to how we’re treating you,” she said.

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Connected meridians, or “energy” carrying passageways, shown on charts in her acupuncture studio illustrate the connection between seemingly disconnected parts. For example, the way that digestive health is linked to massaging the arms. And as a free piece of advice she said that placing fingers in the creases of the nose while congested, there are meridians there that, when massaged, will dry up the nasal passage.

In addition to acupuncture, she also offers customized herbal mixes from her “herbal pharmacy.”

“You could say it’s more constitutional medicine that’s very individual. It’s not prescriptive,” which is why she said her sessions with clients last as long as an hour, and on their first visit are given 90 minutes to discuss the complexities of their pain.

Acupuncture, Britt said, “can address the majority of issues.” In her own work she is most heavily in mental health, end of life care, and autoimmune disorders.

Accessibility to acupuncture is a “big thing” for her, she said, and she is currently working toward having insurance coverage from six different providers. She anticipates two providers may be available this month.

This is her first business venture, and follows Britt’s 22-year career working in both hospice and oncology locally.

She grew up in Northampton and graduated from UMass Amherst in 2003 with a bachelor’s in nursing, and worked her post-graduate job at the White Mountain Apache Reservation in Arizona for 14 months, which kick started her career in hospice.

On the side, she has studied herbal medicine for years, and later would come across Chinese medicine, which led her to enroll in the New England School of Acupuncture in Worcester.

She graduated last fall. While in school, she also suffered from thyroid cancer, now fully cleared as she enters into her new chapter as a business owner.

“It wasn’t part of my plan to start all by myself, but I was able to find a space here ... when I saw it I was like, ‘this is the spot,’” she said, sitting in her acupuncture studio, surrounded by the warm lamps, white walls, carpets, woodwork, and other elements that enliven the former industrial space that features ceilings about 12 feet high and large factory style windows.

“It was sort of spontaneous. I’m just going to do it. So I wrote a business plan and sent it to the bank, and I got approved for an SBA (Small Business Administration) loan,” she said.

An now, more than a month after opening, she looks to add to her clientele list of seven patients.

Initial sessions of 90 minutes cost $130, and subsequent 60-minute visits cost $105. A 25% discount is being offered this month.

Samuel Gelinas can be reached at sgelinas@gazettenet.com.