‘I like to support people in their decision to change and create health for themselves’
When Loretta Covert had surgery a few years ago and wasn’t recovering quickly, a friend suggested that she see a faith healer. She thought, why not? That visit changed her life. Abandoning her studies in horticulture, Covert began exploring metaphysics, spirituality and traditional Chinese medicine. She attended the Kairos Institute in Encinitas and is a graduate of the California Acupuncture College. Now, the 36-year-old North Park resident offers an acupuncture/massage service at the Park Blvd. Health Center. Using strategically placed needles, massage and meditation, Covert treats people afflicted with everything from insomnia to infertility. Times staff writer Caroline Lemke interviewed Covert, and Theresa Tamura photographed her.
I was working for a company taking care of indoor plants when I became ill. I had had some surgery, and I wasn’t healing, I wasn’t gaining my strength back. One of my fellow workers took me to see a faith healer who had helped him a lot with his back pain.
It was a totally unexpected experience. The faith healer was this Filipino man. I went in, laid down on the table, and he put his hand over my scar and said, “What happened here?” I had not told him anything, and I felt this incredible rush of energy move through me. I knew that this man knew God.
That’s basically what began my whole search into where I am now, into healing as a science and an art. I became interested in what faith healing was, and I started studying not so much religion, but spirituality.
It was while I was at the Kairos Institute that I realized horticulture wasn’t really my life work.
The reason I did the massage was to find out if I really wanted to work with people. I found I liked massage, and I was good at it, and from there I immediately went into acupuncture school, which is almost a four-year process.
Most people think that you just go take a class in acupuncture and you learn how to put a needle in. But acupuncture is just a small portion of what traditional Chinese medicine is. It’s much more than putting needles in. You really need to be able to diagnose a person.
Acupuncture is looking at the body as an energetic system and that each part of the body, each organ, has a specific energetic function. The traditional Chinese medicine doctor makes an evaluation or diagnosis much like a Western medical doctor does. It’s done through observation, listening not only to what the patient tells, but what they aren’t telling you. When someone comes in with a complaint, you utilize all the skills you have.
I find very often that people have no idea about their bodies. We spend a lot of time out of our bodies, so to speak. We’re such a mental society that we don’t really know what it is to stop and sit and be with ourselves. We spend a lot of time trying to get out of it.
All modalities of healing are relevant. Some people may need to go see an acupuncturist and that takes care of it. And some people need to go see a medical doctor and some may need to see a chiropractor. If I see that a patient of mine needs something different, I will refer them to a medical doctor, or a chiropractor or an osteopath.
We need the medical Establishment. If I get my bones broken, take me to a hospital. I will go see an acupuncturist afterward to facilitate the healing process.
I feel that my role as an acupuncturist or a healer is to support people in understanding their own ability to heal themselves and take responsibility for that. I like to support people in their decision to change and create health for themselves. It’s difficult because you have to be willing to make some changes in life style, and sometimes in beliefs.
Every day, every patient who comes to me, I learn a great deal about acupuncture, about healing and what my role is, about myself, about people in general. We’re all here to basically learn from one another and assist one another, whatever our process.