Sheila McLaughlin holds a B.S. and Master of Science degree in Traditional Oriental Medicine. Her field is Acupuncture and Chinese Herbology. She is Nationally Board Certified in both areas. She has been in private practice in New York City in the Union Square area of Manhattan for over 13 years. As a faculty member of the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, New York Branch, she has taught clinical theory and technique and supervised intern practice in the school clinic treating patients from the greater New York City area. With a National Acupuncture Detox Association (NADA) certification for the treatment of addictions, she supervises a team of certified detox specialists at the Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center. She also acts as an advisor to the administration regarding the clinic’s acupuncture services. While there, she also provides treatment to people with AIDS and members of the medically underserved local community. Immediately following the World Trade Center attack, she and a colleague set up a 24 hour onsite clinic for the treatment of firefighters, police, Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) workers and others involved in the Search and Rescue effort. Licensed acupuncturists from all over New York State provided thousands of treatments in the clinic set up in New York’s Jacob Javits Center, FEMA’s center of operations at the time. As a result, she helped form Profession Acupuncture Response Team (PART), to incorporate acupuncture into future disaster relief operations. Sheila was featured in Discovery Health Channel’s program entitled "Chronic Pain", an episode in their series – "21st Century Medicine. In the program, when asked how she saw 21st Century medicine, she spoke about the integration of Eastern and Western medicines as their strengths are different and complimentary. Western medicine is unsurpassed in treating acute disease and trauma. Eastern medicine’s strength is more often in treating chronic disorders.