5 Star Acu: Premium Acupuncture Care

The Acupuncture Experience

The acupuncture experience-this is a great title, because it is just that-an experience. In fact people are often surprised about how deeply relaxing and enjoyable an acupuncture treatment is. It is not just a means to an ends-it is an amazing experience as well! It is important to enjoy the healing process and we make sure you do.

When you first come in for a treatment we have you fill in an intake and we do a total body assessment, investigating all aspects of your chief complaint and health in general. Once established we use traditional diagnostic methods to gather more information about your body and health. The Chinese didn’t have the X-rays and MRIs that we have today so they had to develop other diagnostic techniques to assess the organ systems and health of an individual. These diagnostic techniques were developed thousands of years ago and evolved through the ages. They are so effective, they are still used today. Your pulse, tongue, abdomen, fingernails, eyes, facial color, odor, posture, gait, and voice all give us information that we can use to treat you more effectively.

Once your intake has been completed, tuina is applied when appropriate. Tuina is Chinese massage and we use this to relax you, to gather more information about your injury, and increase circulation to the area that we are going to be working on. Often times we apply Chinese herbal liniments to the area of concern as well, to facilitate healing. Once we have increased circulation and worked on the area with our hands, we apply acupuncture to the points we have selected based upon our diagnosis and your chief complaint.

After the acupuncture is applied, you rest on the table for 30 minutes. Most people are so relaxed they fall asleep during this time or enter what we call “the acupuncture zone.” People describe this as not quite asleep, but not awake either-science calls this an alpha state-similar to what people enter when they meditate. After a half hour, we remove the needles and may do additional massage if required.

We then establish a treatment plan based upon your individual needs. This may include subsequent visits and herbal remedies to maximize your healing potential. I guarantee you will be amazed by its results.