Joe Curcio, LAc, SEP
Over two decades of holistic healing practice, I have had the privilege of helping thousands of people to feel more fully alive by helping them reconnect with their essential healing power. Healing is less about “fixing” and more a process of contacting one’s innate intelligence and heeding its counsel. However, because of certain life events and experiences, our capacity to detect and interpret this inner guidance is often impaired by outdated yet persistent survival impulses that continue to "run the show." While following these impulses was likely absolutely necessary to endure those past difficult times, they prevent thriving today. Eventually, when the signals from the body and mind take the form of pain, anxiety, and depression that cannot be ignored, we reach out for help in reconnecting.
My work is to serve as the supportive companion who helps foster this reconnection. My profession is a spiritual practice. Everyday, I am humbled by the opportunity to share in another’s life journey. I strive to help clients uncover and remove the obstacles that prevent their feeling fully alive. In the same way that we realize who we are by seeing who we are not, we regain our vitality by clearing away the places within and around us that are not life affirming.
The healing approach I use is gentle, progressive and highly effective. I help clients feel met through deeply listening and joining them in their experience, while also empowering them by providing guidance and direction within a structured container for the therapeutic process to unfold. Somatic Experiencing®, Dynamic Attachment Repatterning, craniosacral unwinding and compassionate communication are a few of the therapeutic methods I use. I also draw upon my experience as an acupuncturist, herbalist and yoga instructor to provide guidance related to movement/exercise, lifestyle, diet and supplementation upon request.
A large segment of my client base is comprised of mental health professionals, somatic practitioners and coaches whom I help with the effects of vicarious trauma and burnout. I am also an approved Somatic Experiencing® session provider for SE trainees in the beginning and intermediate years .
I hope to have the opportunity to walk alongside you on your healing path.
Joe Curcio, LAc SEP BSc
EXPERIENCE
I am a Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner, nationally board-certified, California and Kentucky state licensed acupuncturist and herbalist, in private practice since 2002. I received my training from Somatic Experiencing® International as well as at one of the top ranked Oriental Medicine school in the nation, Emperor’s College of Traditional Oriental Medicine in Santa Monica, California, graduating with highest honors. My acupuncture training consisted of a 4000 hour program of study included instruction in acupuncture, herbal medicine, and modern bio-medicine. In addition to completing a two year clinical internship at the college clinic, I was chosen to participate in an externship at both the L.A. Free Clinic with a focus on fibromyalgia as well as the Daniel Freeman Hospital, treating withdrawal from chemical dependency.
I have treated a wide variety of conditions over the course of my career, too numerous to detail here. Some of the concerns I most frequently address are: anxiety and depression, PTSD, pain management and resolution, neurological disorders, autoimmune conditions, and digestive disorders.
I have completed a three year training program in Somatic Experiencing®, and serve as an assistant to the faculty in training new practitioners. I integrate craniosacral unwinding into my practice as appropriate. I am a certified yoga instructor and taught yoga throughout my acupuncture training and into my first few years of clinical practice. I have also served as a professor at both Emperor's College and Yo San University. Mindfulness has been an important thread weaving through my life for nearly 30 years, and I have logged several thousand hours on the meditation cushion. I am particularly interested and actively engaged in exploring the intersection between nervous system regulation and meditation.
BACKGROUND
When I work with clients, I typically get to know their stories pretty well. So that you can get a sense of who I am, I will share some of my story with you.
I grew up outside Chicago, the youngest of five kids. Somehow managing to graduate at the top of my high school class, I convinced myself it would be a good idea to enroll in the college of engineering at the University of Illinois. Although I did well academically, my primary interest in those days was playing guitar in my band.
After college, I packed my Marshall half stack amp, metallurgical engineering diploma and whatever else would fit into my car and set out for Hollywood with starry-eyed aspirations of getting a record deal. It didn’t take long before I realized that this wasn’t going to happen, and I found myself falling back on my undergrad degree and working as an engineer in the aerospace industry. Although I performed well at my job, I suffered immense internal conflict over the knowledge that I was developing technology for the military. I didn't want to be a cog in the war machine and I knew I needed to make a change, but didn't know which way to go. These struggles, coupled with the usual corporate stressors and a history of head trauma, resulted in my developing cluster headaches, one of the most painful conditions known to humankind.
During college, I had a friend who claimed to have the ability to cure ailments with "energy" that traveled through her hands and into the sufferer's body. I would routinely meet her claims with a condescending, "Uh-huh." After all, I was training to be an engineer, and every good scientist knows that all that new-age stuff is nonsense, right? Then, one fateful day, my friend was visiting L.A. and offered to give me a massage. Shortly after the massage began, I suddenly felt a distinct tingling electrical sensation radiating up through my spine and out the crown of my head. Before I had a chance to speak, she asked, "Do you feel that?"
I responded with a bewildered, "Yes!"
"That's the healing energy that comes through my hands that I told you about," she casually conveyed. I was fascinated.
"This new-age stuff is real!", I thought. I read everything I could find on the topic. I received Reiki attunements. I began practicing and receiving hands on healing treatment. However, while the treatment helped my overall well-being, the headaches continued, forcing me to seek other alternatives.
Around the same time, a friend at my yoga studio who was studying acupuncture recommended I setup an appointment with an intern at the Emperor's college acupuncture clinic. That piece of advice inexorably changed my life path. I received my first acupuncture treatment the next week, and enrolled in the program soon thereafter.
After completing my training, I founded L.A. Wellness in 2002 and began my private practice. Craniosacral training followed soon after that. Although receiving personal acupuncture and craniosacral sessions made profound changes in my health, well-being, and spiritual unfolding, it wasn't until I began my exploration of Somatic Experiencing® that the headaches that had plagued me for decades finally subsided.
In 2022, I closed the L.A. Wellness clinic and relocated to Louisville, KY. I continue to offer Somatic Experiencing therapy to clients around the world via telehealth which may be scheduled via this website, and I offer acupuncture and in person Somatic Experiencing in Louisville at Common Ground Wellness. You may schedule an in person session with me here.
I am the grateful father to my amazing daughter, Kaya, and in addition to healing, I love hiking, biking and camping, reading, practicing yoga, and, of course, playing music!
EDUCATION
Master’s Degree: Traditional Oriental Medicine. Emperor’s College, Santa Monica, CA
Bachelor of Science: Metallurgical Engineering. University of Illinois, Urbana, IL
LICENSES & CERTIFICATIONS
National Diplomate of Acupuncture (NCCAOM)
AC 8689 California Licensed Acupuncturist
Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner and assistant
Certified Yoga Instructor
Certificate in Craniosacral Unwinding Technique
EXTERNSHIPS
Daniel Freeman Hospital - Marina Del Rey, CA. Transitional Rehabilitation Center (Drug Detoxification)
Los Angeles Free Clinic - Los Angeles, CA
ACADEMIC AFFILIATIONS
Professor of Medical Physics:
- Yo San University - Marina Del Rey, CA
- Emperor's College of Traditional Oriental Medicine - Santa Monica, CA
Assistant Trainer - Somatic Experiencing® Training Institute - Boulder, CO
PUBLICATIONS
Tunes on Tangs and Songs on Sans - A Musical Study Guide to Chinese Herbal Formulas