Best of Hero & Acupuncturist Jacques Depardieu

We revisit some of the most memorable moments from Chandler’s conversations with Acupuncturist and East Asian medicine practitioner Jacques Depardieu. Jacques shares how acupuncture doesn’t just treat pain—it reconnects you to your body, helps regulate your digestive system, and unlocks clarity on a deeper emotional and energetic level. 

From explaining how stress and digestion are intertwined to helping women return to their inner knowing, Jacques brings ancient practices into a modern, relatable context. This episode is for anyone feeling overwhelmed, disconnected, or simply curious about how energy work and body-based healing can support emotional transformation.

What Will You Learn

• [00:07:06] How acupuncture supports the body’s internal communication and energy flow.
• [00:09:00] Why acupuncture can release long-held emotional or physical tension.
• [00:10:30] How treating one part of the body can affect another through energetic meridians.
• [00:13:00] Why recognizing choice and agency is essential to healing.
• [00:17:30] The role of nature, music, and joy in everyday healing practices.
• [00:19:00] How East Asian medicine views digestion through a holistic lens.
• [00:22:30] Why emotional stress often manifests as physical symptoms.
• [00:24:00] How busy women can reconnect with their inner knowing.
• [00:26:30] The emotional toll of being mentally pulled in too many directions.
• [00:31:00] Why fulfillment must come from within—not from achievement or status.

 Want to Hear More from Hero Jacques? Check Out These Episodes!

• Awaken Your Healing Abilities with Acupuncture
• Access the Power of Self-Worth with Acupuncture
• The Gut-Life Balance: How Acupuncture Assists with Digestive Discomfort
• How to Live Consciously in a Digital World

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Jacques Depardieu

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Chandler Stroud

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Mixing and editing provided by Next Day Podcast.

Transcript

Chandler Stroud: [00:00:00] Hey guys, it's Chandler and welcome to The Healing Heroes. 

I'm Chandler Stroud, an executive wife and busy mom of two who after years of living with anxiety. Health struggles and an unshakeable feeling like I should be happier, made a profound discovery that changed everything. Join me on a journey where unexpected paths lead to healing and more happiness. On this show, we will explore [00:00:30] unconventional ways to unlock more joy in your own life with the help of my very own healers.

And trusted advisors, the Healing Heroes.

Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Healing Heroes podcast. I'm your host Chandler, and I am so excited that you are with us today because we're doing something very special. In honor of our one year anniversary coming up this July, and that is [00:01:00] we have launched a hero highlight series. So each week we are launching a new episode dedicated to one of our healing heroes that curates some of our favorite moments since the show launched.

It's a great way for you new listeners to get to know our heroes a little bit better, and for everyone to catch up on episodes they may have missed. So today we are featuring Acupuncturist and hero Jacques Dip, who is. Always such a [00:01:30] joy to be around, and I'm really excited to delve deeper into some of the incredibly meaningful conversations I have had with him.

But first, let me quickly overview what acupuncture is and why it has had such a meaningful role in my healing journey. So at the highest level, acupuncture is an ancient practice. That is rooted in East Asian medicine and uses ultra thin needles to [00:02:00] stimulate specific points on the human body, but to call it just a physical practice would be missing.

The point. Acupuncture, as Jacques always says, is experiential. You don't just get acupuncture. You feel it. You shift from it. You emerge changed by it. Some people come in for back pain and leave with emotional clarity. Others come in anxious and leave [00:02:30] grounded like I did. It works not just on the body, but on the energetic systems that carry our stress, our emotions, and our stories.

It's hard to explain fully, but easy to recognize. Once you have felt it, which I have been lucky enough to have done many times over acupuncture is one of the healing practices that I try to do weekly. And [00:03:00] that's because as I've talked about on the show, I think I. For so many busy moms and working professionals out there, it can be so hard to be present in your body.

We talk about so many somatic practices on this show, somatic meaning of the body. I. Practices and approaches that get you back into that physical space where your body, mind, and spirit are aligned. It is a very difficult state to achieve, [00:03:30] especially in this modern world where we're surrounded by distractions and technology, but so many of the approaches we talk about on the show can help.

Women access those meditative states when they've felt so elusive in the past. And so I love acupuncture for this reason. Yes, I've seen Jacques for knee pain, digestive issues, and physical ailments. He's able to. Help me heal through the needles, [00:04:00] but more than anything, it has taught me how to be present in my body again.

And the more and more I do it, the better I get at accessing that state. You forget. Why you were upset when you came in or stressed out. It really is so effective at just helping you be present and really tuning into that deeper self and that inner knowing, and that is why I have so enjoyed working with Jacques now [00:04:30] for well over a year.

And I still see him regularly because even though I have all of these tools that enable me to get present in my body. Every day there is something magical about acupuncture where no two experiences are the same, and it has become just such a treat during my very busy weeks to have that time to see Jacques and Zen out.

And so I am thrilled to introduce you to our resident expert [00:05:00] in East Asian Medicine and acupuncture. Hero Jacques Dip, enjoy.

Jacques Depardieu: So acupuncture is a system of inserting needles into the body. They're really actually pins. They're filiform needles, which is, they are really rounded on the tip, and generally you'll experience some discomfort, but they're nothing like getting a. An injection, and this [00:05:30] system of medicine is based on these theories of.

East Asian medicine, which understand the body as an energetic reality, not just physical. So we are not only physical, but there's this constant communication, which from our culture, we are aware of this. But the system was based on a book, which is actually written 250 bc, which is pretty wild. [00:06:00] And still to this day we can see that when we affect certain points on the body with these pins that we get a result, which is Chandler.

Your experience was a classical acupuncture system of meridians where your lung and heart meridian on your left arm we're connected to your gallbladder and bladder meridian on your right arm. Okay? So we are not gonna get. Complicated with that. What we're gonna do is really understand and explain [00:06:30] that this system, when practiced, will enhance people's not only physical experience, but also there are mental and emotional changes that are occurring, and that is based on this theory or idea that nothing.

Is separable that body, mind, and spirit are whole. Traditional Chinese medicine is a holistic medicine, which is always taking into account that our physical, mental, and [00:07:00] emotional experiences are always happening together. And there are communications between the meridians, between the organs, between our thoughts and feelings and.

And when there is difficulty, then you know, you hear somebody say, oh, that's an energy blockage. Then that's the expression of when that release of energy where it's blocked, whether it's in your [00:07:30] knee from a pain or in your chest because somebody is really nasty to you. And everybody knows that feeling like where they feel like heartache and then all of a sudden they cry and then afterward it's lifted.

That's what we're talking about here.

What's fascinating about acupuncture is it's experiential. It's just similar to, you know, a sunset on the beach. The way that I practice is to [00:08:00] support court, the body to communicate within itself. Within that particular individual, if you can assist the person to experience a state, it's kind of like. If you meditate, if anybody meditates, it's very similar to someone who's meditated for, let's say six months.

You know, an hour or two a day, you can start to experience that. [00:08:30] Acupuncture is a shortcut to that, at least the way that I practice. And in that state, generally, the person is more. Consciously aware of being in their body than in their mind. We're constantly directing our thoughts and feelings, whether we're aware of it or not, to being in a state of either thinking about the past or projecting into the future.

Our schedules, our agendas, what we have to do, right? And [00:09:00] the acupuncture can help the person. Experience being in their body without those thoughts and feelings happening and directing them. And that sounds so simple and so obvious, but when you experience it, you can completely change the way your body.

Reacts to food. You can change the way your body's experiencing pain. You can change the [00:09:30] way your body is experiencing a headache because the tension in your body leaves. And what I, for lack of better way of communicating it, the body has a memory. And just like our mind. And when that is disengaged, then the way we're experiencing tension, whether it's in our jaw, whether it's in our chest, whatever that weight, whether it's physical, mental or emotional, kind of breaks the chain of memory.[00:10:00] 

Then that's what happened. You know, Chandler with you with those pins, that's that's quite. An undertaking to describe the meridians and their relationships. But simply put, there is a, an energetic relationship between your left arm and your right knee. And if you know from experience where that relationship is, you can.

Effect change in one [00:10:30] part of the body by needling another. And kind of like if you, you wanna turn the lights on in the family room, but you know that in your entrance you have like the big master switches, so you just go to the master switch. You don't have to walk all the way down to the family room to turn the lights on.

You just do it on from the master switch is kind of like that.

People come in. They lay down, I give them acupuncture, they get up. They're like, [00:11:00] that's really weird. It feels better. So when you ask me that question about like, how does acupuncture help? I know how I am framing this individual's issue, and then I, through the placement of the pins, try to assist them to go into a state where they do a few things.

One is. For a, a short period of time, feel a release or a relief of their symptoms physically. [00:11:30] The second thing is, and, and in the experiential is for this period of time, they're laying down there until all of a sudden they go, that's really weird. I never fall asleep in the day, or like. I must have been, I, I think I was dreaming, or my leg twitched and woke me up and I, you know, I didn't know what I was gonna be doing for the last 45 minutes.

So, experientially the thoughts and feelings that we're constantly operating from, which were [00:12:00] generally. Unaware of, but can be made aware through meditation or really just through sitting and saying, what am I thinking about right now? Right? What am I feeling right now? That happens naturally. And then lastly, that doesn't disappear.

When the pins come out, the person gets up and experiences being in their lives. For whatever that period of time is. And for some people, literally one treatment can be weeks or longer, but [00:12:30] usually days where they're like. My mother-in-law called me and I was totally chill and she didn't irritate me.

Like, that's really weird. Or I went back to work and it was a five alarm fire, but like I was like, we got this. It's not a problem.

Chandler Stroud: How do you think women can distinguish between. Use the example of the corporate office where they're feeling like they're creating in that [00:13:00] setting versus they're doing it for some other reason. Like what are your thoughts on how women can start to understand if they are in tune or in touch with that inner knowing?

Jacques Depardieu: Really, it comes down to first and foremost, and that's what we talked about with the acupuncture, experiencing your moment. From a place where you realize you're choosing. What you wanna do with your life. Like, you know, my kids, we joke [00:13:30] around, but I'm like, you don't have to go to school. Right? I don't have to go to work and you don't have to go to work either.

And people are like, what? Are you kidding? That's a joke. Like, I'll get fired, da da da. You know? I'm like gonna get kicked outta school. No, but you actually don't have to go to work. You choose to go to work. So the first thing is fe realizing that you choose. Your life. Like you choose, right? You choose how you want to be with your children, if you have any, you choose how you wanna be with your sick, like, and the thing is, [00:14:00] is the first step is realizing that you are the creator.

That you take action. If your life is just reaction, unfortunately, you know that's what's gonna happen. Mm-hmm. So the first is, is you're like, wow, this guy's annoying me. It's my choice. Okay. And like I feel like reacting so fine, but I'm aware of that. Right? So bringing this kind of awareness into the workspace might make you [00:14:30] quit your job or it might make you work twice as hard.

It's one of these things where we realize. That there are certain kind of norms and habits, but we go into them and then once we change them, then we change the way we're looking at it. You know, we can be way more creative in an office than in a you know, in an art studio, you know? And, and most people like.

Totally. I believe that actually, and most people are like, what do you [00:15:00] mean by that? Like, because the, the person in the art studio is tormented and they're like, you know, they're like, they have to be like this and you can't touch my paint. And, you know, and then the person in the, in the office is like, Hey, you know what?

Like, that's a really great idea. I love that idea. Let's run with that idea. Like nothing is created in life. Unless it comes from thought first. Right? And look at how, you know, creative. We can be on like just a project or just like what you're doing with this. This is true creativity, right? 

Chandler Stroud: Mm. [00:15:30] Yeah. That's 

Jacques Depardieu: why I'm having so 

Chandler Stroud: much fun with it.

Jacques Depardieu: But it, it's not just the office, it's everything. It's when you're shopping, it's when you're driving, when you come from a place of inner self worth, the way that you operate. In life and the way that you see everything changes. It's work, but it's worth it. Yeah.

So this show [00:16:00] and all of the different modalities on it in one way or another, can assist individuals to realize what they'd like to change in their life. And how they can go about changing that in the ways that seem they're more inclined to use, whether it is a more intuition based practice, a more psycho spiritual based practice, a more [00:16:30] spiritual based practice, whatever, whatever that is.

That you're personally inclined to. If it leads you to a place where you can get to look at your life and decide, this works for me and this doesn't, and I don't like the way I'm experiencing feeling overwhelmed, I'm gonna change that. I don't like the relationship I have. And how I think of myself and look at myself or how I am with my family, [00:17:00] then that's the way to go and simple suggestions for me from me rather are spending more time in nature.

I. Doing stuff. Look what's behind me right there. Right. Music. Yeah. So I've said, I think I might have said this, the most powerful medicine on the planet in my perspective is nature. And the second one that people use every day is music. [00:17:30] And the thing is, is a lot of people don't necessarily use music for healing, but it's still an expression.

But we can use music. Not only, we don't have to become musicians 'cause we can appreciate it listening to it, but we can change the way we're experiencing that moment through sound. Some people like to make puzzles, some people like cooking, but if it can be done with awareness and [00:18:00] intention. In this way that you're actually connecting to your life, to your joy and to what your experience in the moment is, and it brings you this sense of fulfillment.

And that's like, that's another thing I get into is value fulfillment. What do we value and how does it fulfill us? I think so many people do not experience something that fulfills them. [00:18:30] And do something that they feel has value every day. That is really unfortunate, like really seriously unfortunate, and it can be done so easily, even if you're just like going around with a little coloring book and color for 15 minutes, you know,

Chandler Stroud: Jacques and East Asian Medicine. What is the connection between stress, mental health and digestive health? 

Jacques Depardieu: So the difference [00:19:00] is that when in our society what we do is we examine something, we kind of break it down, and then we focus it, right? So we all know that experience of like, oh, your shoulder hurts.

I. Your elbow. Well, I can look at your shoulder, but you gotta go look at the other guy for your elbow. Right? Just like, wait a minute. You know? So, and amazing results have been achieved through specialization, but in, in our particular society when it comes to digestion, it's [00:19:30] really focused on solely. In a way of like what creates digestive issues, inflammatory responses in the body, imbalances in our digestive enzymes cellular irritations along our GI tract.

Okay, so the difference is this, that when. Someone in East Asian medicine observes any issue, specifically digestion. They are looking from a framework of all the [00:20:00] associations of what inflames or irritates that digestion. Not just the specific foods, but you know, simply put who. What, when, where, how? Okay.

That question is asked by every practitioner of East Asian medicine on any condition, so we can review that, right? Who? Who has the digestive issue? Somebody who's six? Somebody who's [00:20:30] 36. Somebody who's 76. Okay. What. What's going on? Where is it in their digestive system? When? When does it happen? Okay, and then how?

Right? You do all that first, that's the story. Then based on the information you receive, you assist the person in, let's say this, let's just have a particular person, so they only eat one meal a day. Okay. And it's at night [00:21:00] and it's half an hour before bed. Okay? So you help them, Hey, you've gotta try to eat breakfast.

And try to eat lunch and cut down on your dinner. Okay. Two, we find out that like the reason they do that is because they're totally stressed out and they just basically get themselves through the day by taking, you know, caffeinated beverages. And the only way that they relax at night is like a couple glasses of wine with that dinner.

So then. We help them in the [00:21:30] morning to try and take something that's more relaxing, we start to address their emotional response, right? And they, and then we try and assist them with herbs and with acupuncture to experience that day in a different way. And then suddenly, all of a sudden that individual.

All of a sudden it's like, you know what? I only took my over the counter acid reflux medication once, and now that I'm eating in the daytime, I [00:22:00] absolutely don't need to eat so much at night. I've cut my portion to like a quarter and like I don't even need the glass of wine, and then all of a sudden they're like, this is crazy, but like my sleep is better.

I'm having a bowel movement when I wake up in the morning. And I generally feel like less aches and pains.

Chandler Stroud: I know you've been practicing for over 20 years and you've seen all sorts of things. You [00:22:30] understand your patients on an incredibly deep level. I'm curious what sorts of ways you've seen women in particular reconnect with themselves as a result of your work. I think specifically, how do you think busy moms and women most need to heal based on your experiences with patients?

Jacques Depardieu: That is the most important question I. For me to be clear about, women are really the foundation and the [00:23:00] creators of community and women and children. I personally believe from my experience, are what creates community. Women have this natural intuitive state within them. And there's this knowing, and children have it too.

And so what I find often is that regardless of what women are coming in. Four [00:23:30] often, and you've just said it, busy moms, often people in our, in our society think of like, oh wow, you know, she is like, she's got such a nice house and they have lots of money and you know, she just gets all the help she wants, or whatever.

They make this assumption like, oh, life is so easy, but actually. It doesn't necessarily mean that life is easy, but what I wanna point out is that when [00:24:00] women connect to that inner knowing within themselves, when they, I. Look for what they really, truly value, and that's an individual experience, but there is a general seeking of community, of kinship, of supporting themselves if they're so inclined to have a family and they have the ability to do that, supporting their children in that way.

So [00:24:30] it's often. For women trying to connect to that inner knowing because. So many women experience trying to be 2, 3, 4 different personalities at the same time and all at the same time. I really do believe that many, many women now are struggling and suffering. This isn't just, I believe this is statist. I try and assist [00:25:00] each patient, each mother, each sister, each daughter, grandmother, whatever.

To assist them in connecting to that aspect of themselves. One of the most important things is to assist women to find their way to their own personal self-worth, because when that happens. It's gonna change them. It's gonna change their family, it's gonna change the community, like, and then they'll [00:25:30] connect together.

Women are generally more empathetic and I. They historically, at least in my life, and I might be wrong, you know, when I was a kid, my great aunt and my grandmother and my other aunt and my mom, and they would sit together and they would actually sew clothing and talk and they'd talk about everything and about their lives and what, [00:26:00] you know, one was difficulty that it was going through with one and then another, and then, you know, phones.

Then all of a sudden took place so that every night my mother would be talking to her sister. They didn't have, you know, couldn't do group calls back then, but then she would talk to her other sister and then they would, you know, and, and so there's this sharing, this communication occurring. Right? And that was technology.

Phone was technology for sure. And now [00:26:30] what I see happening, and that's why I'm alluding to women, is it is so difficult. To separate ourselves. At least I feel the same way from our consciousness and not just like our thoughts, but our emotional realities being in four or five places simultaneously. Okay.

So, you know, and I'll speak for myself. Which is, I'm at work. My daughter texts me and says [00:27:00] she's feeling sick. My son, you know, just got in a fender bender. My wife calls me to tell me that, you know, such and such never delivered such and such, and by the way, there's a leak in the basement. These are all real things, by the way, you know, I believe it.

I believe it. And I'm at work, and then my mom calls me and she's, you know, 95 rock and roll, and she's got some stuff going on. So why I'm sharing that with you is if I didn't care, [00:27:30] it would be easy, but I do care. So I'm, I'm sharing that's a personal experience. Now what I do believe is happening is when somebody cares and they're.

Feel that they should be in 2, 3, 4, 5 places at the same time with their sister who's sick on the west coast with their child, who's really having a tough day with their other child who didn't make you [00:28:00] know the team and you know, and then also like having something with their husband where something didn't get done or whatever.

It, it's, it's overwhelming. Right. It's overwhelming. And we're not just machines. We're not just like computers that say, okay, if not A, then B. If not B, then C. We're going through all of this. This is what it's part of. Being a human being is hopefully to be empathetic, sympathetic, right, and yeah, and [00:28:30] and caring and.

And we're supposed to also, you know, you've used that word before, but we're also be to be productive, right? Mm-hmm. It's requires three or four times the amount of energy when that happens, because when we are in three, four places at the same time, I, I don't think that that's actually natural. I mean, it, it, for some, possibly it's doable and I, I've never seen somebody [00:29:00] be able to do that.

Yet without having some overwhelming response after a while, you know, and we are, we're getting better at it, right? Because we're, we're doing it every day. But I do believe that a lot of the effects of what's happening right now is from basically that unfortunate, and, you know, in one way it's fortunate, right?

'cause we can communicate, but another way that overwhelming inability to be able to. Be focused enough to be in three, four places at the [00:29:30] same time. So I think for women, that is, that's one of the things that's probably one of the biggest struggles, is that sense of wanting to be there and not being able to be completely.

Chandler Stroud: Oftentimes, especially as it relates to self-worth, I think women in particular desire to get that job title or to buy that house or to lose the [00:30:00] weight or to get the guy or whatever it may be. But then oftentimes they get that thing and they're still left feeling unfulfilled. So as we think about desire, I think it's really important to focus on the feeling.

What do you desire to feel? And don't worry so much on what the, not the outcome, but the results or external showing of that feeling is because the universe is gonna collaborate with you to create that. But what really matters is what's the core [00:30:30] of that desire? How do you wanna feel? Do you wanna feel peaceful?

Do you wanna feel joyous? Do you wanna feel free? Do you wanna feel safe? What is that core? Desire that will inform everything else. And I think that's where tapping into your inner knowing can give you that, that sense of understanding a deeper part of yourself than just the surface level. I want the thing because the thing ultimately never brings you joy.

You're looking 

Jacques Depardieu: for. That's it. So [00:31:00] what I mean by that is you've just touched on something which I think women are by far more aware of, than. Most, but once we realize that we can only experience joy, it's a personal experience from within. Okay? And so events can't fulfill that. A significant other can't do that for [00:31:30] you.

A job can't do that for you. A house can't do that for you. You may experience it for a short period of time. There are some that even a bit longer, but absolutely anything that's not within us. The only way that I. I'm aware of to experience joy is from within. Now, that doesn't mean that my children don't bring me joy when I see them, but what they're [00:32:00] doing is, is they're reminding me and activating the joy within myself.

And that doesn't mean, you know, I can't enjoy. What you called a house, but you know what my house is, it's a home. Like my house is my home. Mm-hmm. And all of us have gone into houses that are not homes. And I've also gone into, you know, it's a, it's, it's a personal experience and there are relationships, there are deep, meaningful [00:32:30] relationships and there are people in relationships that there's no connection.

So really. That going after, like you said, that title or that house or that thing, it can become really empty. Okay. But if you're doing it and realizing that it's just activating that within yourself and like the commitment to yourself will naturally lead you the commitment to your family [00:33:00] and to the commitment to your significant other, because basically.

It's gonna be challenging and there's gonna be change. And that is the human condition and we gotta love it. And if you don't love that, then you're gonna have a tough one end of story. So, you know, I can't, I mean, I generally don't speak like that, but that's it. So once you realize, hey, that's cool, and like, let's do this together, right?

But it has to start inside. So I really think what you [00:33:30] brought up is probably at the core, especially in the society we live in, of most people's difficulties, is we live at, so we live in the United States, at least I do. And it's very driven in a material way. You know, what we consider successful is reflected in their materialism.

Okay. And, in whatever way that is. And really it's like, there's nothing wrong with that, but when you get it from within yourself, it might change. You know, the [00:34:00] things that you go after, you might be less inclined to go after certain things and operate from a place that might be more meaningful to you, which is work that.

You are passionate about a relationship that you're actually passionate about doing things with your family that you're passionate about instead of what you think your family should be doing, what you think the kids' sports should be, what you think you should be doing at the office, you know what house you think you should be living [00:34:30] in.