Aromatherapy, guided imagery, acupuncture offer comfort in Fridley - Sun Focus

By Sue Webber
Contributing Writer

Peggy Miller has spent most of her career working on social justice causes and social services.

But when she was 40, she made the decision to pursue a new career path. She enrolled in a four-year class to learn acupuncture.

For the last five years, Miller has helped treat clients using the integrative therapies of acupuncture – plus aromatherapy and guided imagery — at the Penny George Institute for Health and Healing, part of Allina Health at Unity Hospital in Fridley.

“I love working with people at transitions; it’s good to be part of the solution,” Miller said.


Peggy Miller uses the integrative therapies of acupuncture – plus aromatherapy and guided imagery — at the Penny George Institute for Health and Healing, part of Allina Health at Unity Hospital in Fridley. (Photo by Sue Webber)

It was after she worked with victims of violence for 25 years, then in hospice care, massage therapy and then at a reproductive health center, that she decided on the mid-life career change.

“I’ve never regretted it for a moment,” Miller said. “I love what I do.”

Acupuncture, which involves pricking the skin or tissues with thin needles, originated more than 5,000 years ago in China. The practice is used to alleviate pain and to treat various physical, mental, and emotional conditions.

Using integrative, holistic services at the Penny George Institute, Miller works with both inpatients and outpatients, all ages, both men and women. Doctors refer some clients to her; others come on their own. She uses acupuncture primarily, in conjunction with Oriental medicine and essential oils. “I uses guided imagery a lot,” Miller said.

“We see people with every conceivable condition, some ambulatory and some not,” Miller said. “We get a lot of oncology patients, some in acute stages. They really benefit from aromatherapy to treat their nausea.”

She notes that a lot of current medications are derived from plants. Using aromatherapy is simply taking a deep whiff of the essence of the plant.

According to information from Allina Health, this is how aromatherapy works: “The natural ingredients of the essential oils help relax a busy mind, calm stress, help sleep and reduce pain.

“When you smell the aroma, the molecules of the essential oil move from your nose through your body, bringing healing to the places that need it.”

Oils ranging from frankincense, ginger and lavender to mandarin, chamomile, spearmint and sweet marjoram are used to relieve a variety of ills, including pain, anxiety and stress, indigestion, nausea, and headaches.

Guided imagery, according to Allina Health: “uses words and images to help move your attention away from the worry, stress and pain and help you find your own inner strength and creativity to support healing.”

“Guided imagery is accessing the subconscious that exists all the time,” Miller said. “It’s the background of our conscious brain. You have to eliminate the clutter to go to a quiet pool.”

Hospital patients often find that it helps them to become calm before, during or after a procedure or surgery.

“With inpatients, you establish a quick relationship,” Miller said. “With outpatients I might see someone six, 10 or 12 times. It depends on whatever works. There’s no distinction between the mind, body and spirit. We really treat the whole person. People do experience transformation.”

Each client is evaluated during an initial one-hour visit, she said. For example, she said, “Each headache is completely different. There isn’t just one headache. My job is to figure out what kind it is.”

Initially, she takes the patient’s pulse; there are nine in each wrist, she said. Then she looks at the patient’s tongue and listens to the sound of the patient’s voice.

“That gives me an idea of which system is out of whack,” Miller said. “In Chinese medicine, 10 questions are part of the intake. Three of the questions I love are: When did you stop singing? When did you stop laughing? When is the last time you slept well?”

Other questions she might ask include: What did you used to love to do? When did you do it last? What’s standing in your way?

She gives her patients homework, techniques for them to practice. “I want them to have take-home tools,” she said.

Much of the stress she sees in patients is a result of today’s extreme technological society, Miller said. “People are constantly distracted with iPads and Smart phones, she said.” “They’re working, working, working really fast.”

She suggests that people find “a tiny place” in their lives – even just 5 or 10 minutes a day – to turn off the TV and phone, put their feet flat on the floor, take some deep breaths and just be silent.

“If you do that every day, your health will change,” Miller said. “We are constantly cranked up. The only way to decrank is to turn it all off. Deep breathing is one of the ways to get rid of toxins in the body.”

She practices what she preaches. Miller has been meditating since she was 17.

“Anyone can meditate,” Miller said. “It’s no different than praying, thinking loving thoughts or sending out good wishes.”

She says she has stopped listening to the news on her way home, opting instead for rock and roll music.

“And when I get home, I know my dog will need to go for a walk,” Miller said.

Recharging her own batteries allows her to work effectively with others, Miller said. “One of the requirements in our medicine, since about the sixth century, is ‘Don’t touch another person until you take care of your own chi,’” she said. “That’s a game changer. When you get out of balance, you aren’t doing anyone any favors.”

A native of Detroit, Miller grew up interested in journalism and English and thought she would be an English professor.

“That’s not what the cards held,” she said. “I loved to write then and I still do. I write poetry, and I journal.”

Miller worked at a small crisis center in Michigan and then came to the Twin Cities in the late ‘70s to take a job in Ramsey County. She worked with the Minnesota Coalition Against Sexual Assaults.

She also has done some teaching at the Minnesota College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine and also at Abbott Northwestern Hospital.

Read more articles from the August OurLife sections here.