NADA protocol- what is it and how can it help with addictions? NADA stands 
for the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association. It is a not-for-profit training and advocacy organization. NADA encourages community wellness through the use of a standardized auricular (ear) acupuncture protocol for behavioral health, including addictions, mental health, and disaster & emotional trauma. The organization works to improve access and effectiveness of care through promoting policies and practices which integrate NADA-style treatment with other Western behavioral health modalities. While acupuncture has been around for thousands of years, the specific treatment of addiction with acupuncture only dates back to the early 1970s. The work of Doctors Wen and Smith led to the discovery of what ultimately would become a hybrid of acupuncture.
Who started NADA?
Dr. Michael O. Smith was a psychiatrist with a beautiful life in California taking care of movie stars, sunning and swimming. Instead of staying put and enjoying that life, he moved to New York City where he counseled prisoners on an island and worked at the Lincoln Hospital’s treatment center in the Bronx. The medical director, Dr. Richard Taft, was murdered. Dr. Smith could have left, like other psychiatrists at Lincoln did. However, he stuck it out. He spent a lot of time talking to the staff and to patients, and he read about a neurosurgeon in Hong Kong, Dr. Wen, who used acupuncture to perform surgery on an opium addict. Dr. Wen was researching the effects of acupuncture for post-surgical pain and coincidentally found that applying electrical stimulation to the lung point in the ear relieved opiate withdrawal symptoms.
NADA protocol: How it got started in the US
History: Starting in 1974, the staff and other professionals associated with the 
South Bronx’s Lincoln Recovery Center spent 10 years developing the basic five ear-points NADA protocol for the treatment of addiction. Under the guidance of Dr. Smith, using the diagnostic tools of experience and trial and error. In addition, they determined a need for a national-level organization to expand training capacity and awareness of the value of acupuncture as a tool of recovery. Hence, incorporated in 1985 in the state of New York, the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association has helped spread acu detox far and wide, nationally and internationally.
NADA protocol taken around the world
NADA was established to enroll members, establish a collection of related reference materials, codify a training curriculum and develop a flexible system for registering qualified trainers and delivering trainings. Dr. Smith traveled the world to spread the NADA protocol. He was seen in countries like Ethiopia, Nepal, Ireland, India, Africa. Word has it that he always traveled economy class. He taught his protocol to police in India, judges in America, Chinese acupuncturists working in HIV clinics. Doctors and nurses began helping the mentally ill through the use of Dr. Smith’s auricular acupuncture in Russia, Asia, throughout Europe, Canada, South America, Mexico and the Philippines.
According to Smith, all people inherently possess the means to heal themselves. Therefore, application of the acupuncture needles only serve to summon the invisible, but very real force, called Qi (pronounced CHEE). This Qi, or energy force, can release a patient from the grip of addiction, or quiet a mind affected by mental illness. During treatment, there is no counseling provided for the patient, uncovering another reason why NADA is such an apt name. Jokingly, Smith also said any president of the NADA can brag they are the president of nothing. “Nada” means nothing in Spanish.
Dr. Smith is the Johnny Appleseed of human rights to the traumatized individuals of the world. Furthermore, he said that everyone has the
Right to be:
- Drug free
- Guilt free
- Shame free
My experience with the NADA protocol
When I was in graduate school to become an acupuncturist, my very first
needling was doing the NADA protocol. That is how my school taught the curriculum. First we learned how to needle in the ear. We had to buy a fake ear and practice on it. Then we got to practice on our classmates. It was scary at first and awkward to use my left hand to insert the needles into the opposite ear. There is an art to auricular acupuncture for sure. Additionally we learned Qi Gong so that we were fluid with our movements around the patients. This was also a way to protect our own backs.
The NADA protocol and Dr. Smith’s words:
Here is a compilation of Michael Smith’s writing that was read at the opening of the 2017 NADA conference in Delaware. It explains the deeper levels of the NADA protocol and why it is so effective in quelling addictions. Dr. Smith passed away in late December 2017. He truly was a great man with a very big heart and will be remembered affectionately.
- “The NADA protocol started with one needle plugged into a machine and an addict turning it up high for the buzz”.
- “NADA is not like a pill. A pill doesn’t have wisdom- but acupuncture has wisdom from the very first. Pills do the same thing every time. Very few things are like that. Acupuncture is nothing like that. It works on animals and plants. It is balancing, normalizing and restorative. In addition, within the field of addiction and trauma, acupuncture helps people survive in the first days of recovery. It doesn’t necessarily solve anything, but it puts people in a useful space”.
NADA protocol- more words from the founder, Dr. Michael Smith
- “NADA is a foundation. A foundation is the basic part of having something done successfully. You can build many different types of houses on it. It is also a demonstration of what sobriety is…of what a person’s own value is. A patients says ‘I don’t deserve to relax.’ Acupuncture tells that person that ‘Nature forgives you every day. You are not broken. There is a possibility for growth.’ You don’t tell the person. The person perceives it.”
- “And moreover, NADA is a gift. Clients are very needy and it’s hard to give them anything. It is hard to give something to people who have low self-esteem. They do not know how to accept anything. Acupuncture looks like you’re bringing something from the outside. However, what the patients are getting is the ability to use parts of their own mind and spirit that they were unable to use before. It gives them a part of themselves that was always there.”
- “And NADA is about sharing. Part of this sharing is the group Qi effect. Hence, the treatment should be done quickly to allow the Qi to move easily. Clients feel they’re being judged all the time. They think they do not deserve to relax. However, you put in a needle and, within a few minutes, the patient is feeling more comfortable. Initially the clients don’t trust you. Remember, they don’t trust themselves. Why should they trust you? Because the treatment is non-verbal, this makes a difference. They begin to realize for themselves that they are not broken, that something works, and it works because they are alive.”
And Dr. Smith’s valuable words about NADA continue…
- “When you first meet a client, you have about five minutes to help them- to make them realize that they are alive and that something good is possible. You give them acupuncture, and you have offered the knowledge that they have life potential. There is not much that is important to a using addict so you have to make what you do, count. NADA gives them self-validation and is treatment for their Spirit.”
- “Interaction and richness is what works. Your message must be variable. It’s what you bring to the situation. Keep it simple so complicated things can happen. Make it complicated and the client won’t understand. Additionally, If you want to change a person’s life with a 10 second message, it has to mean something to that person. Intelligence, wealth and process is inside the client, not the practitioner.”
- “Acupuncture is a living thing. It’s like a message or a lesson. Once the body learns the lesson, you don’t need the treatment. It’s a whispered suggestion–when you speak to a client, so speak so that the client can take it in. Say similar things, not unique things. Furthermore, don’t tell people new ideas. Make them safe and then let their ideas pop up. Make what is already there rich. Help to value and honor it.”
And lastly, words from Dr. Michael Smith:
- “The Spirit of NADA is service. People grow and we grow through the people we serve. We’ve done a great deal to have gotten to this point where we are today. And now we must hand off our knowledge and this is not always easy. We must begin to plan how it can be done. Lastly, I appreciate what we have done so far, but I appreciate even more what we might do in the future.”
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