At Santa Cruz CORE, we have a passion for what we do. We make an effort to spend significant time and energy with each patient to ensure their needs are met. For us, it’s more than just acupuncture; our acupuncturists work with multiple healing modalities during an acupuncture session to get you feeling better. Working to create positive change in the body, we use a combination of needling, moxa, gua sha, cupping, ear seeds, massage, and Tai Chi and Qi Gung. Each individual is treated as such, an individual with an unique body and we use our various tools to create the most healing we can in each session.

What We Do:

Personalized Life-Style Medicine - everyone gets a personalized treatment for their conditions. Acupuncture treatments are created-designed according to the diagnosis. For example: two patients with migraines may receive different treatments and herbs because the root cause may be different.

Holistic Health Care - we treat the whole person including their symptoms. We offer a complete Holistic health care system that is effective and natural.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) includes - Acupuncture, Chinese Herbs, Nutritional Guidance/Therapy, Lifestyle Coaching, Meditation, and Qi Gung. All these therapies bring the body into balance to heal itself.

Acupuncture awakens your healing energy to heal your body, mind, and spirit. When using the herbs in conjunction with Acupuncture, the effectiveness of both increases.

We offer private and community acupuncture, functional and integrative medicine, nutrition and massage

Shannon Caperton, L.Ac was inspired to become an acupuncturist after witnessing the power of this type of medicine. It improved the health of family members struggling with health issues and who were bereft of relief using standard medical care.

She attended graduate school at Pacific College of Oriental Medicine in Chicago where she earned her Masters in Traditional Chinese Medicine. During her time in Chicago she was privileged to work in underserved communities at the Project Vida clinic in the Little Villages neighborhood on the city’s west side, as well as at Chicago Women's Health Center. In addition to these experiences, she worked extensively in the school’s student clinic, which prepared her for working with a diverse population and gave her the experience to treat a wide variety of disorders.

Shannon is nationally certified by the NCCAOM, as well as licensed by the Ohio Medical Board.

Mrs. Sparks is nationally certified by NCCAOM and is licensed to practice acupuncture by the Ohio and Kentucky Medical Boards. Mrs. Sparks has over 26 years experience in acupuncture and medical research. She specializes in pain relief, including neck, shoulder, back, and joint pain, frozen shoulder, sciatica, headaches, migraines, painful menses, stroke paralysis, Bell's palsy, depression, anxiety, insomnia, hypertension, gastrointestinal issues, arthritis, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, OB/Gyn disorders.

Mrs. Sparks was trained as a physician in China in both western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine, with a specialty in acupuncture. She graduated from Yunan university of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1985, and then completed 2 years of advanced acupuncture training. Early in Mrs. Sparks' career she worked under the supervision of Zunxin Guan, one of foremost acupuncture experts in Yunan, China. Later on Mrs. Sparks was a principal clinical researcher running projects funded by China's Bureau of Traditional Chinese medicine and material medica. Mrs. Sparks also worked seven years at the University of Cincinnati College of medicine in cardiology research. Overall she has been involved in Acupuncture practice, Chinese herbal medicine, and biomedical research more than 26 years.