FRANKFORD - An internship led a Newton High School graduate to the field of acupuncture, and she has brought her skills to Sussex County with the opening of her second office location.

Kayleigh Kovonuk is the owner of Lifestyle Acupuncture of New Jersey, which opened on Route 206 in Augusta earlier this year as an addition to its other location in Rockaway.

Kovonuk said that acupuncture is based on traditional Chinese medicine, which focuses on providing nutrients to cells in the body and taking out waste. As such, her practice treats physical pain as well as mental health and a variety of other ailments by addressing different pressure points.

The basic premise of (acupuncture) is that, whenever there's imbalance or disease in the body, it's due to stagnation or a lack of flow of energy in blood, Kovonuk said. The reality of it in the physiological sense is that it's basically moving oxygen in the body, it's moving blood, it's getting circulation and cells to the areas that need help, and it's helping the body heal itself.

Kovonuk, who graduated with a degree in psychology from The College of New Jersey, had no knowledge of acupuncture prior to interning at a substance abuse center for teenagers in her senior year. There, she began to seek out ways to treat the patients other than what the center normally described.

Basically these 15, 16-year-olds were just given medications that were so similar to their drugs of abuse that they were just replacing one addiction with another, Kovonuk said. I was looking into alternative ways to help people from psychological conditions, whether it be addiction, anxiety, depression, and I looked into acupuncture.

Incidentally, the husband of Kovonuks medical director at the internship was an acupuncturist and was able to provide more information on the field. Before long, Kovonuk was enrolled at New England School of Acupuncture, where she studied for two years before transferring to Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in New York City to focus on orthopedic and sports medicine.

Kovonuk worked at a Morristown practice during and after medical school, where she performed a variety of behind the scenes work that helped her learn the ins and outs of the industry. With plenty of experience under her belt, she partnered with a colleague to open Lifestyle Acupuncture in Rockaway in May 2016.

While her business was thriving, Kovonuk, a Newton High School graduate, always knew she wanted to move back where she grew up to practice acupuncture. She obtained the lease for the Augusta building, a former massage office, last November and opened the facility in February.

Lifestyle Acupunctures two main specialties, according to Kovonuk, are pain and emotional treatment, with new partner Arik Cohen specializing in stroke rehabilitation. The practice also treats pediatric patients, a demographic often overlooked in the field.

Since I've had kids, that part of my practice has grown a lot, Kovonuk said. As I go further, I kind of want to focus more on emotional health, women's health and pediatrics because there's so much going on in today's society, especially with kids.

Kovonuk now lives in Frankford with her husband Evan, daughter Scarlett, 5, and son Austin, 1. For her practice, she joked that her long-term plan is to "take over Sussex County," possibly by adding another practice in Sparta when the time is right.

More to the point, Kovonuks goal is to be the go-to place for acupuncture in Sussex County, rather than splitting her week between Augusta and Rockaway like she does now. Having built up a family-like atmosphere among her clientele in the past three years, she is ready to focus it in the community she knows best.

I really eventually just want to be up here, Kovonuk said. This is just the beginning. I have lots of ideas, but they all are going to be in Sussex County because once you live up here, you just don't want to leave.

Lifestyle Acupuncture of New Jersey is located at 47 Route 206 in Augusta. Its hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tuesday and Saturday, and 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

For more information, call the office at 973-300-3180 or visit http://www.lifestyleacupuncturenj.com.

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Acupuncturist hoping to make mark in county - Times Herald-Record