At your first appointment, please arrive 10-20 minutes early to fill out the registration and health history paperwork. Once your health history has been reviewed, the acupuncturist will assess your condition, which may include asking you questions, feeling your pulses, and looking at your tongue, all of which are traditional Chinese medicine tools to determine your treatment plan.
We treat patients in comfortable reclining chairs or on a
massage
table. No disrobing is necessary. Please wear comfortable, loose
clothing that can be rolled up above your elbows and knees, so we can
access points on your arms and legs. The points on the extremities are
the most powerful points in the body and we can use them to treat any
condition.
Acupuncture needles are about the width of a human hair and most patients feel little or no pain. Far from painful, acupuncture is often described by patients as a profoundly relaxing experience. After the needles are placed, the patients rest comfortably in the community treatment room.
Acupuncture needles are much thinner than the hypodermic
needles at
your doctor’s office. The needles are made from stainless steel that is
so fine most people do not feel any discomfort with insertion. Most
people find that their initial anxiety fades and they are able to relax
once the needles are inserted.
Your acupuncturist will consult with you about the number of treatments necessary for your condition, which will depend on the individual, the condition being treated, and the severity of that condition. Although you may experience some effects immediately, such as relaxation and temporary pain relief, it may take 3-5 treatments to see initial benefits. Substantial improvement can require 10 or more treatments. This is why it is so important to us to provide affordable acupuncture, so that you can get better. Once progress has been made, the number and frequency of treatments can be reduced.
Treatment
time varies from patient to patient, while an average appointment can
be anywhere from thirty minutes to two hours. For your first
appointment you can expect to be at the clinic from one to two hours.
In the community setting you decide when your treatment is over.
Patients describe a feeling of alertness or an awake feeling when the
treatment is over. Often patients fall asleep in the chairs, or feel a
sense of restfulness.
If you are sleeping, we will not wake you up, unless you tell us you
have to be done at a specific time. Once you are ready for the needles
to be removed, just open your eyes and give your acupuncturist a
meaningful look and we will come check on you.
We do everything we can at CCCA to protect your privacy. There are several ways of helping to ensure your privacy such as soft music playing, water features, and speaking in whispers. We also rely on the Chinese diagnostic techniques of pulse reading and examining the tongue, so very little talking is needed. Since it is a community room, there is the chance that you may overhear something about another patient. Please keep this information confidential, as you would want another to do the same for you.
We
do not accept insurance. Because we have a sliding scale we are not
allowed to bill insurance. If you do have insurance that covers
acupuncture, we would be happy to provide you with a receipt to mail
into your insurance company, so you can be reimbuursed.