Generally acupuncture is offered as a course of sessions, although by no means always..
Initially you would see me for about an hour. During that hour you’d receive some acupuncture, but would also be asked a great many detailed questions about yourself. These form the basis of a traditional Chinese medical diagnosis. The subsequent course of treatment is based very closely on that diagnosis. If required you may also receive professional advice on nutrition, exercise, stress management – whatever is appropriate.
So why all the questions? If you know you have, for example, asthma, why not just go ahead and ‘do' the treatment for asthma? The answer is that Chinese medicine treats everybody as a distinct, unique individual. So your asthma will be very slightly different from anybody else's because you are different from anybody else. The Acupuncture you will receive will therefore be tailored precisely to you and you alone, as you present on each day of treatment.
Initially you would see me for about an hour. During that hour you’d receive some acupuncture, but would also be asked a great many detailed questions about yourself. These form the basis of a traditional Chinese medical diagnosis. The subsequent course of treatment is based very closely on that diagnosis. If required you may also receive professional advice on nutrition, exercise, stress management – whatever is appropriate.
So why all the questions? If you know you have, for example, asthma, why not just go ahead and ‘do' the treatment for asthma? The answer is that Chinese medicine treats everybody as a distinct, unique individual. So your asthma will be very slightly different from anybody else's because you are different from anybody else. The Acupuncture you will receive will therefore be tailored precisely to you and you alone, as you present on each day of treatment.
The therapy is generally done with you lying down. In most of the acupuncture styles I practice, the needles are gently inserted and then usually retained for about 20 minutes, before being painlessly removed. So you'll probably be spending most of your session lying on a comfortable couch in a very relaxed state. If you can't lie down, there are always other options, of course.
Thereafter you'll generally come weekly for a few weeks, gradually being ‘phased out' as you get better. Most people continue to come back long after the original illness has gone. Sometimes they choose to come back to me for twenty years! They generally tell me it's because they just knew they were ‘due' for a session. This is all part of the preventative healthcare benefits of Chinese acupuncture. |
Of course not everybody requires an entire course of treatment. It all depends on circumstances and everybody is different. Sometimes I don’t see somebody for years and then they seek me out again, often with a different problem than before. That’s one of the nice things about acupuncture, it can be delivered in a highly flexible way.