Five Needles, Forty Minutes, and a Whole Lot of Calm

Every Wednesday at 11:30 a.m. in PE 215, something a little different happens. The lights go down. Soft, meditative music fills the room. And a small group of students and staff sit quietly with ten acupuncture needles in their ears.

This is AcuWellness, the Wolfpack Wellness Center’s weekly auricular acupuncture session, and it’s free to anyone on campus.

The protocol is called Auricular Acupuncture Detoxification. It involves placing five sterile needles in each ear. Both ears. Ten total. The needles stay in for 30 to 45 minutes while participants rest in whatever position works for them. Chair, floor, against the wall. The room accommodates.

What Actually Happens When You Walk In

You sign a release. You get an alcohol swab to sanitize the inner ear lobe. Then Marla Lucero, the practitioner who has run these sessions since 2017, works her way around the room placing the needles one by one. It takes a few minutes per person. There’s usually light conversation, a little laughter.

Once everyone is set up, the lights go off, the music starts, and the room goes quiet for the next half hour or so.

Lucero came from education, then shifted into mental health work, and has been training practitioners on the side through a collaboration with an addiction psychiatrist. The weekly session at CSU Pueblo is one branch of that broader work. She has been doing it since 2017.

A Freshman, Three Weeks In

Glenda, a first-year exercise science student, had been coming for three weeks when she showed up this past Wednesday. She started for personal wellness, nothing dramatic.

She said it helps. She keeps coming back. For a first-year student voluntarily adding something to her week, that says something. Exercise science as a major makes her a natural candidate for exploring wellness practices, but she didn’t frame it that way. She just showed up.

A Few Things to Know Before You Go

Tuck your hair behind your ears before the session. The needles sit inside the ear, not on the outer rim, but loose hair can catch. Wear something comfortable. Once the needles are in, you are not walking around. The full session runs 30 to 45 minutes.

First-timers can ask to see the needles beforehand. They are very fine. The whole thing is gentler than it sounds.

If you want to bring a group from your office or department, the Wolfpack Wellness Center will come to you. There’s a request form on the Counseling Center’s page on the CSU Pueblo website, under the faculty and staff link. No cost for that either.