Plan your visit.  You will never feel rushed – we make sure to understand what’s going on from a total health perspective, every time you see us.

Initial Treatment Session

Your initial visit has various parts to it. It will be longer than subsequent visits, due to a lengthy discussion which we will have with you at the onset. Prior to this first session you will have completed a comprehensive Health History questionnaire which you’ll bring with you. During this first session we will discuss your health history in detail using this questionnaire as a guide. Chinese Medicine treats the whole person not just specific symptoms. Therefore, we will most likely be touching on emotional and spiritual aspects of your life as well as the specific physical issues at hand.

This visit also includes a physical exam. We will be taking your pulses, viewing your tongue and palpating the body as needed for diagnostic purposes. These diagnostic tools along with the information from our discussion allow us to arrive at a specific Chinese Medical diagnosis and subsequent treatment plan. These will be discussed with you prior to any treatment. This initial session is also a great time for you to ask any questions you might have about Chinese Medicine.

Please allow at least two hours for this first visit. This visit is extensive because, as previously mentioned; Chinese Medicine looks at the whole person in order to determine a treatment strategy that addresses both the symptoms as well as any root cause of the disorder or area of complaint.

The number of future sessions is based on an individual’s treatment plan, which is decided upon at the first visit.

On Treatment Day

  • Please avoid wearing perfumes or scented cosmetics of any kind. Do not wear make-up. Make-up and perfumes interfere with diagnosis. You can bring cosmetics with you and use our bathroom after treatment if you like.
  • Avoid heavy meals right before or after treatment. Do not starve yourself, just eat normally.
  • Please refrain from using alcohol or drugs on treatment day other than medications prescribed by your physician. Alcohol and drugs will undermine the effectiveness of treatment.
  • Please do not drink coffee within two hours before and after treatment.
  • To increase the effectiveness of your treatment it is helpful to plan to arrive without rushing.

Also, to support the energy shift from treatment, it is helpful if you can plan to relax after treatment. Taking it easy after a treatment allows the maximum benefit. Heavy exercise and stress after treatment can severely reduce the helpfulness of the treatment.

We will work with you to help schedule your treatment with relaxation in mind.

Things To Look For After Treatment

You may experience a variety of changes after treatment. Drowsiness, tingling sensations, and shifts of mood, energy level or perception are common. These are normal reactions and are not cause for alarm. They should disappear within hours or within a day or two. Please feel free to call us if you are concerned. It is helpful for you and for us if you keep track of changes you notice between treatments and report them to us. We will monitor these changes, whether physical, emotional, or mental and they will help to guide treatment planning.

Needles and Moxa

The needles we use are pre-sterilized and disposable. They are very thin: about the width of two human hairs. We discard them immediately after use. Do they hurt? Sometimes a patient reports that they do, but usually only momentarily. The acupuncture points avoid nerves and blood vessels. The sensation of needling may be experienced as a dull ache, a brief sharp sensation, or a tingling or moving sensation. Sometimes you may feel nothing at all. Treatments tend to be relaxing.

Moxa is a dried and ground herb called mugwort (artemesia vulgaris). Moxa is burned to warm acupuncture points in order to bring energy to them and to nourish them. Most people enjoy and even request moxa.

What Conditions Can Acupuncture Help?

Chinese Medicine is a complete system of diagnosis and treatment. It relies on balancing and harmonizing a person: body/mind/spirit. We don’t really treat conditions as such, but rather we treat the whole person. As we balance and unblock the flow of life energy, which the Chinese call Qi, better health is restored and symptoms tend to be alleviated. In situations where symptoms persist, it is often the case that they can be more integrated into a person’s life and become less of an obstacle for well being.

People come to see us with athletic or overuse injuries, back pain, headaches, weakness, arthritis, menstrual disorders, immune deficiencies, dizziness, depression, anxiety, poor sleep, agitation, poor energy, digestive problems, asthma, constipation, diarrhea and many other conditions. Feel free to bring your own symptoms with you when you come. We don’t treat disease. We do treat you and give you the attention you deserve.

Subsequent Sessions

The following sessions will generally be from 1 – 1 ½ hours in length. There is always an initial short discussion about what the patient has observed since the last treatment. Because the body and a person are always changing, each treatment will have a specific treatment strategy.