James McNeill
James McNeill graduated from the NSW College of Natural Therapies in Sydney after four years full time training in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) including internship training in Hangzhou, China in 1984.
After settling into practice in Subiaco, Perth he moved to New Zealand with his partner Jacqui, also an acupuncturist, with their young daughter Elana. In 1990 they together opened Napier Acupuncture Clinic and had two more children together, Kimberly and Daniel.
Along with establishing a busy practice, James and Jacqui became involved with promoting TCM as a profession through their work with AcupunctureNZ. At that stage acupuncture was in its infancy in this country. After seeing how this ancient medicine was used successfully at the forefront of the medical system in China, there was a lot of work to be done to see its full potential utilized here.
Acupuncture’s popularity has grown rapidly in New Zealand over the last three decades. James was firstly Education Officer of AcupunctureNZ, then its Vice President and finall President from 1995-97. During this time he was the AcupunctureNZ’s representative on the New Zealand Qualification Authority’s Acupuncture Advisory Board.
As past-President, James was a Council member for AcupunctureNZ until 2004. From 2001 until 2004 he was appointed to the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Complementary and Alternative Health. Their task was to provide the Minister of Health with advice on possible ways complementary medicines such as acupuncture and TCM could be incorporated into the New Zealand health system.
James was contributing author to David Bell’s Spirit of Nature published in 2004. In 2005 they together won the Ashton Wylie Book Award in Auckland. James is also a singer, guitarist and songwriter. He has a keen interest in Chinese philosophy and regularly practises Qigong and mindfulness meditation to support his TCM practice.
With three grown children, James continues to write songs and feels humbled and grateful for all the people he has been able to help throughout his career. He is also keenly aware that he has only scratched the surface of the vast amount of knowledge accumulated through over five thousand years of TCM practice.
Jacqui Kiddle
Jacqui Kiddle has over 30 years experience in Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine. She has a Bachelor of Science from Canterbury University graduating in Psychology and then going on to study Traditional Chinese Medicine at the NSW College of Natural Therapies in Sydney. This included an internship at the Zhejiang Medical Hospital in Hangzhou, China. Jacqui graduated in 1984.
Together with James McNeill, they established their first Acupuncture Clinic in Perth, then 3 years later, again with James in Auckland. In 1990 Jacqui and James moved to Napier and established clinics in Napier and Hastings.With a young family of 3 children the clinics consolidated to create the present Napier Acupuncture Clinic in 2000.
She is also a contributor to Living Hawke’s Bay magazine.
Jacqui has been meditating reularly for all of her adult life and for over 15 years has also included Qi Gong practice in her daily schedule. She has found both meditation and Qi Gong extremely helpful in her clinical work both for herself and her patients.
Jacqui particularly enjoys treating fertility and pregnancy issues but what she finds most rewarding is connecting with people to make lifestyle changes so that they can better manage their own health issues.
Jacqui’s other interests include:painting, writing, music, swimming, yoga, cycling and walking. She is so grateful to have access to the magnificent Hawke’s bay pathways and walking tracks. Friends and family are also very important in her life.
Alex Rowberry
Alex graduated from the New Zealand School of Acupuncture in Wellington completing a Degree in Health Science, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture. During the time Alex was at the New Zealand school she also complete a Diploma in Medical Qi gong and Tai Chi in 2015.
After six years of training in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Medical Qi gong including internship training at the Hutt Hospital Pregnancy Unit and Ahohata Woman’s Prison in Wellington she headed overseas to operate her own clinic in Greece with her family to live out a long term dream.
After fulfilling this dream Alex and her family have returned home, to New Zealand, to raise their 11 year old twin girls. Napier was always on the radar for Alex as she longed to live in the sunshine and had for many years looked at the weather map and sort Napier as her forever destination.
Alex has a strong passion for Chinese Medicine and healing that was developed from her childhood. Alex’s comes from a family line of healers. Her Grandfather was one of Wellington’s first Chiropractors, who moved on to own and run his own practice in diverse healing modalities. Her Grandmother was a hands-on healer and ran her own group for many years also in Wellington establishing extensive groups who worked out of Wellington Hospital. Her Nana was one of the first pioneer nurses on horseback in the Waimate North Region. Groomed from a young age Alex accompanied her Grandparents to clinic and to hospital. She does attribute these informative years to her understanding of people and when she developed strong desire to help and work with patient from a holistic perspective.
Her desire is to complete her Masters over the next decade and continue her work at Napier Acupuncture. Her areas of interest are Shingles and have completed her research papers on the subject; with successful outcomes in clinic she is more passionate than ever to continue writing about Shingles and reducing patient discomfort. Her other areas of interest include musculoskeletal injuries she has been an avid sports person for many years playing premiere league soccer and coaching for most of her adult life, pregnancy and digestive complaints. However, she is a very good all round practitioner.
Alex continues to write and research and feels grateful to have the opportunity to be part of such a wonderful practice with James and Jacqui. Alex feels there is still so much to learn and share. She believes you could not learn the vast body of information Chinese Medicine encompasses in several lifetimes. But will do her best to share as much as possible with you ALL.
