Your first visit will begin with an in depth assessment of your condition.  The intake and treatment may take up to 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Subsequent sessions are approximately 45 minutes.

During the assessment I may ask you about some things that you might not think are connected to your chief complaint, for example, your emotions, sleeping patterns, and eating habits. Oriental medicine considers the whole person, not just one isolated symptom to determine patterns of disharmony.

Although treatment will focus on your chief complaint, your whole being must be considered in order to develop the most appropriate course of treatment. Oriental medicine is unique in that it appreciates that illnesses may be identical, but the persons suffering from them are individuals.

As part of your intake, viewing your tongue, feeling your pulse, checking your body PH, etc. provides me with a great deal of information about your body to help guide the treatment.

My needling technique is very gentle, and my patients usually feel nothing at all or nothing more than the sense of a small "mosquito bite", which disappears in moments.

Although people experience different levels of sensitivity, I work very closely with you to make sure your experience is comfortable and positive. 

My approach is always to use the fewest needles possible to achieve therapeutic results. With acupuncture, more needles does not always mean better results, but accurate selection of specific acupuncture points and placement are really the keys to giving effective treatment.

Needles are typically retained for about 20-30 minutes although sometimes needles are stimulated for a few minutes then removed. I often play soothing music to help you relax during this time. Many people even fall asleep. 

Treatment should begin as soon as possible. This is especially true for stroke patients. The sooner you seek help, the easier it is to treat. For longstanding illnesses, weekly treatments may be required for several months in order to have a curative effect.

Once you initiate the healing process, it is important to follow through on treatments. The more consistent you are, the better the results. The effects of acupuncture tend to be cumulative. After you are feeling better, I will likely recommend additional treatments to build up your body.

In Oriental medicine, this is referred to as "solidifying the constitution." The goal is to further strengthen your body to prevent recurrence of the illness. Once they are feeling better, many patients do not see the need to continue treatment. This is a mistake. Healing requires a great deal of energy for sustained recovery.

Your body is most vulnerable following recovery from illness because it has expended much of its energy and internal resources in order to get better. It is therefore important to have a few treatments after health is restored in order to help prevent a relapse or new illness. In general, when an illness recurs it is often more difficult to treat.

Post Treatment 

Your relief may be immediate, delayed for a few hours or even develop after a couple of days.  The relief may last for a few hours on the first visit and then last progressively longer with each successive treatment.  It is important to recognize that we are all individuals, and as individuals our response to treatment varies.

On rare occasions one's original symptoms may briefly get worse or 'flare-up' after a treatment.  A flare-up typically occurs later on the treatment day.  Improvement and relief will generally follow.

In some conditions, the body must fully expel a pathogen in order for healing to occur. For example, if you have a cold, acupuncture can help accelerate the cold cycle so your body can expel the pathogen and get rid of the cold sooner.  During this period you may have more nasal discharge rather than less, but your cold will be resolved sooner. 

As another example, if you are worn down and starting to get a cold, acupuncture and Oriental medicine can help your body defend against it so you don't get the cold at all.

In cases of chronic pain, your original pain may improve and then unmask other less obvious pain or health complaints.  I will be continuously modifying your treatment accordingly.

Please work with your prescribing physician with regard to reduction in your pain, or any other prescribed medications as changes in prescription medication require prior approval and strict monitoring by your prescribing physician.

 Contact me 

If you are looking for a safe, effective and drug-free treatment that is conducted in a peaceful and respectful manner; where the time is taken to fully listen to you and your concerns, then I'm the health practitioner for you.

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