AB ACUPUNCTURE
Upper West Side · New York City
Filling the gaps between
aspirin and surgery
Not woo. Real science.
I work with pain, migraines, and persistent symptoms you've been managing, working around, or simply putting up with for too long.
Choose an appointment or a free 15-minute consultation.
What Brings You In?
PAIN THAT KEEPS COMING BACK
Back, neck, shoulder, hip and joint pain. Old injuries. The knee that's technically “fine” but has opinions about stairs. The things you've learned to work around instead of actually feeling better.
MIGRAINES & HEADACHES
When headaches are frequent, unpredictable, hormonal—or triggered by seemingly everything. The goal isn't just getting through the next one. It's having them take up less space in your life.
MIDLIFE & MENOPAUSE
Sleep changes, hot flashes, brain fog, fatigue, new aches and pains—and the strange assortment of things that can start showing up at the same time.
SLEEP, STRESS & DIGESTION
When you're tired but can't sleep, your digestion has become temperamental, or your nervous system seems to have forgotten how to turn the volume down.
CHRONIC & COMPLEX SYMPTOMS
Persistent problems that don't fit neatly into one box—or that have a perfectly good diagnosis but still don't have a particularly satisfying solution.
WHY ACUPUNCTURE?
Your symptoms are information.
The question is what they're telling us.
Pain has a job. It’s one of the ways your brain protects you—an alarm designed to get your attention when it perceives a threat.
Sometimes that alarm is responding exactly as it should. Something is injured, irritated, or under strain, and it hurts for a reason.
But sometimes the alarm keeps sounding after the original danger has passed. Or it becomes so sensitive that things that are actually safe begin setting it off. The pain is still completely real. The question becomes: what is the system protecting you from now?
I think about other persistent symptoms in much the same way: not as something to dismiss or simply put up with, but as information worth paying attention to. Changes in sleep, digestion, energy, stress, and how your body is functioning can all help us understand the larger picture.
That’s why I don’t treat from a single playbook. I combine traditional acupuncture with motor point acupuncture, Pain Reprocessing Therapy, photobiomodulation, and other techniques when appropriate.
I’m looking not only at where you’re experiencing symptoms, but at what changed, what keeps aggravating them, and what may be keeping your system stuck in the same pattern.
The goal isn’t simply to quiet the signal. It’s to understand why it’s there—and choose the right way to respond to it.
And sometimes acupuncture isn’t the answer.
Good integrative medicine means knowing when Western medicine is the right medicine. If something about your symptoms or history tells me you need a physician, imaging, physical therapy, or another kind of care, I’ll tell you.
I’m not interested in making acupuncture the answer to every question. I’m interested in figuring out what makes sense for you.
Meet the Team
This is AB Acupuncture! We are passionate about this medicine and look forward to sharing it with you!
Owner, Acupuncturist, Clinical Director
Annalisa Brown, L.Ac
Before pursuing my passion for Chinese medicine, I worked in the financial industry and in nonprofit arts management. After being a patient of acupuncture for over 20 years, I had a transformative moment while lying on the treatment table—I realized I wanted to share this incredible gift with others. Acupuncture helped me understand my body in a whole new way, inspiring me to study at the Pacific College of Health & Science, the largest institution for Acupuncture and East Asian Medicine in the country.
Recognizing that there’s always more to learn, I pursued advanced studies in orthopedic acupuncture techniques for chronic and acute pain with some of the field's leading practitioners. I also focused on stroke rehabilitation techniques and became certified in Oncology Acupuncture by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. My studies even took me to Kyoto, Japan, where I advanced my practice of Japanese acupuncture for a short seminar at Meiji University of Integrative Medicine.
Early in my career, I was skeptical of anything that sounded like "woo" — including the parts of this medicine that lean on story and metaphor instead of straight anatomy. Studying the neuroscience behind pain changed that. I understand now why picturing a headache as a storm cloud, or learning to interrupt the sentence "I'm so dumb," can measurably change how your body experiences pain. My training in motor point acupuncture, Pain Reprocessing Therapy, and photobiomodulation grew out of that shift — treating the nervous system, not just the tissue.
For those curious about my education, I hold a Master of Science in Acupuncture from Pacific College of Health & Science, where I completed an intensive four-year program combining Eastern and Western medical coursework, including over 3,000 hours of clinical experience. I am board-certified by the National Commission on the Certification of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM) and licensed in New York.
Now, I am thrilled to have opened a multidisciplinary health and wellness space on the Upper West Side, specializing in acute and chronic pain conditions with a focus on immune health, anxiety, neurological conditions, and related conditions.
I understand how hectic life in New York can be — running on autopilot between errands, workouts, and a packed subway platform. My goal isn't to give you an hour of escape and send you back out the same way you came in. It's to help you leave knowing your own body a little better than when you arrived, so that over time, you need me less, not more. Acupuncture changed how I understood my own body. I think it can do the same for yours.
COO | Office Manager
Brian White
Making AB Acupuncture a true family business, Annalisa’s husband Brian White joined the practice after a long and successful career in theater production management. He worked on Broadway and Off-Broadway shows and toured internationally with theater and dance companies, where he learned how to keep complex, high-pressure environments running smoothly.
At AB Acupuncture and W72 Wellness, Brian brings that same steady presence to the day-to-day operations of the practice. He manages the business, supports patients at the front desk, and takes care of the space itself—ensuring that everything runs with thoughtfulness and ease.
He is also proud to be Annalisa’s first patient—and continues to be one of her biggest cheerleaders.
Front Desk Coordinator
Yaffa Borukhova
Yaffa Borukhova joins AB Acupuncture as our part-time Front Desk Coordinator, bringing both warmth and a sharp, curious mind to the front of the practice. An Upper West Sider, she is the host of the podcast Streetsmart MBA, where she explores business, culture, and real-world intelligence beyond the classroom.
She also writes on Substack and is the author of the children’s book You Don’t Look Jewish!, reflecting her interest in identity, storytelling, and the nuances of modern life.
At the clinic, Yaffa is often the first person you’ll meet—helping patients feel welcome, oriented, and at ease from the moment they walk through the door in the mornings.
HOURS
Located at W72 Wellness
118 W. 72nd St. Ground Floor Rear
NY, NY 10023
Seeing Patients Exclusively on:
Tuesday: 11am-7pm
Wednesday: 11am-7pm
Thursday: 11am-7pm