About Five Stones
Who are we?
Five Stones is a small integrative health clinic in Baltimore, Maryland that offers alternative medical services ranging from acupuncture to life coaching. We are board certified, licensed, and have hundreds of healthy, satisfied clients.
We work hard to offer outstanding, holistic care to patients suffering from chronic health issues. Our goal is to help our patients achieve complete physical, mental, and social well-being, using common-sense, low-costs solutions whenever possible.
We cultivate wellness while addressing your symptoms. Our practitioners are experienced in their fields and are uniquely capable of putting you back on your path. With your active participation, you’ll see tremendous positive results in your health.
We understand that achieving maximum health requires risk. At Five Stones we generate a relaxed and supportive atmosphere for you to be able to take these steps. Understanding our clients is at the heart of what we do.
Our focus is on the simple but powerful building blocks of healthy living:
sleep, diet, exercise, social engagement.
Vanina Wolf, L.Ac., Dipl.Ac.
Acupuncturist and director of Five Stones
Mary C. Burke, LCSW-C, ACSW
Certified Psychotherapist
What is Integrative Health?
Integrative medicine is healing-oriented medicine that takes account of the whole person (body, mind, and spirit), including all aspects of lifestyle. It emphasizes the therapeutic relationship and makes use of all appropriate therapies, both conventional and alternative.
The principles of integrative medicine:
- A partnership between patient and practitioner in the healing process
- Appropriate use of conventional and alternative methods to facilitate the body’s innate healing responses
- Consideration of all factors that influence health, wellness and disease, including mind, spirit, and community as well as body
- A philosophy that neither rejects conventional medicine nor accepts alternative therapies uncritically
- Recognition that good medicine should be based in good science, be inquiry driven, and be open to new paradigms
- Use of natural, effective, less-invasive interventions whenever possible
- Use of the broader concepts of promotional health and the prevention of illness as well as the treatment of disease
- Using trained practitioners who model of health and well-being, and are committed to the dynamic process of self-exploration and self-development
Why Five Stones?
Our goal is not only to get you well, but also to reverse the chronic trend towards disease. We seek to improve your quality of life and save you financial, emotional, and time resources by avoiding unnecessary surgeries, medical interventions, medications, and missed work days.
The World Health Organization (WHO) states that chronic diseases are the leading cause of death and disability worldwide, pervading all socio-economic classes. 79% of these diseases are attributed to wealth and occur in developed countries: Cardiovascular diseases (CVD), cancer, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary disease and Type 2 Diabetes.
In addition, The Institute of Medicine (IOM) 2012 study estimates as many as 98,000 people die every year in the U.S. at a cost of $29 billion due to medical errors. If the CDC were to include preventable medical mistakes as a leading cause of death, it would rank #6.
At Five Stones, we disseminate scientific-backed knowledge about best practices for disease prevention. By choosing us, you reduce your risk to be a “medical error.” We offer you our time, experience, knowledge, and attentive listening. Our result-oriented care stems from centuries of human wisdom, is open to modern science, and has no reported “medical mistakes”. We’ll partner with you to install and maintain habits of good health.
Five Stones practitioners are interested in reducing our population’s mortality rates from chronic diseases. There are often physical / mental signs that accompany a disease process even before it’s symptomatic. We are trained to notice these signs and create an appropriate treatment plan. We work in partnership with primary doctors and secondary specialists. Our team is trained to coordinate between conventional and alternative medical experts to design a unique health plan for you. Our goal is that you walk out of our office not just feeling like you’ve survived, but that you’ll thrive!
We have the training, the education, the experience, and the passion.