Calm after the storms

These Saturday morning sessions are part of a national program in which active military, veterans and their family members, as well as first responders, can get free acupuncture treatments each week.

The clinics were created by Acupuncturists Without Borders, a national group that formed after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The group provided free community acupuncture care to help survivors, as well as emergency personnel and other caregivers, cope with the stress and trauma of the disaster.

Next, the group decided to provide free acupuncture for veterans, especially those who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and their families. Locally, the clinics are offered in Framingham, Boston, and Worcester.

The numbers of people getting acupuncture each week is increasing, said Christine Lee, project leader for the Veterans Acupuncture Care clinic in Framingham. In the year the clinic opened, she said, volunteer acupuncturists saw about 350 patient visits. So far this year, the number has increased to about 775 visits. (The group doesn’t keep track of the number of individual patients who attend.)

The group asks patients to fill out follow-up surveys about the treatment, and many reported their moods were more even and they could concentrate better, she said. “They sleep better, they have less pain,’’ she said.

Which is precisely what proponents contend: that acupuncture, a 2,000-year-old treatment that began in China, can relieve anxiety and stress and help people sleep better. Acupuncturists at all Military Stress Recovery programs follow the same protocol: They insert five needles into each ear at locations that are believed to correspond to stress and anxiety, and different organs.

One of the local clients, R.A. Kather, 83, has trigeminal neuralgia, a painful nerve disorder that causes stabbing pains to the face. His wife recently moved into a nursing home, which has “shaken me up quite a bit,’’ he said.

So he drives to St. Andrew’s for his weekly sessions. “It helps me to relax a little bit,’’ he said.