IMPORTANT PRACTICE UPDATE
My final day seeing patients in Virginia will be November 19, 2026, as I will be relocating out of state. I remain open and am still actively scheduling appointments—including new SAAT treatments through my final days. Existing appointments remain confirmed. Current patients are welcome to contact me directly with questions about continued care or referrals.
A detailed practice-closure notice was emailed to patients for whom I had an email address available. If you did not receive it, please contact me directly.
About
Jessica Dodds, DACM, L.Ac., Dipl. O.M.
Doctor of Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine
Hi, I’m Jessica, a Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, licensed acupuncturist, and practitioner of SAAT and Auricular Medicine.
Chinese medicine is the foundation of my clinical work. Through acupuncture, herbal medicine, and its whole-person framework, it offers both practical treatment and a way to understand how seemingly separate symptoms and systems may relate.
As my practice evolved—and as more people came to me with allergies, sensitivities, MCAS, environmental exposures, tick-borne illness, and other complex or multi-system concerns—I expanded my work to include SAAT and Auricular Medicine. These approaches offer additional ways to evaluate and address concerns that may not fit neatly into a single category.
I do not believe every person should be approached through the same modality. My role is to listen carefully, consider the larger picture, and determine which clinical lens—or combination of approaches—offers the most useful place to begin.
From Ecology to Medicine
Before entering medicine, I studied Fisheries and Wildlife Science at Virginia Tech, drawn there by my love of the wild world and my fascination with trout, cold-water streams, forests, and the relationships that allow ecosystems to thrive. Ecology remains one of my favorite subjects.
Years later, while studying Chinese medicine and visiting old-growth forests, those interests began to merge. A healthy trout stream depends not on water alone, but on the surrounding forest, shade, temperature, soil, microorganisms, plants, and animals. I recognized the same kind of systems thinking in Chinese medicine: human health also arises from relationships among interconnected functions, our environments, and our ability to respond and adapt. Looking at one part alone can miss what is shaping the whole.
That ecological perspective reflects how my mind works clinically: zooming in on a particular symptom, substance, or pattern, then out to consider its larger context. That wider view feels increasingly important in a world of greater environmental and chemical exposures, an increasingly complicated food supply, expanding tick-borne disease, and health concerns that cross multiple systems.
My approach is practical as well as philosophical. Sometimes someone simply needs acupuncture for an aching back. Other times, the picture calls for deeper work with several overlapping concerns. I value careful observation, critical thinking, and meeting each person where they are. If ecology teaches us anything, it is that living systems—and good medicine—must adapt. My aim is to help people live more fully and healthfully in this one short life.
Education & Training
Doctor and Master of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine
Daoist Traditions College of Chinese Medical Arts
Diplomate of Oriental Medicine
National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
Board Certified Licensed Acupuncturist
Virginia, North Carolina
Classical Chinese Medicine
Including the teachings of Jeffrey Yuen
SAAT Practitioner
Auricular Medicine Practitioner
Trained by SAAT founder Dr. Nader Soliman
Certificate in Western Herbal Medicine
Sacred Plant Traditions
Certified in Dry Needling
Trigger-point needling