About Treatment
First Visit
Your first appointment takes an hour and a half (follow-ups are 45 minutes) because the acupuncturist needs to take down detailed information about your condition – how long you’ve had it, how it’s changed and what other treatments you’ve tried. She also wants to find out about your general state of health – your sleep, appetite, digestion and lifestyle. This information helps to uncover imbalances which might be causing or worsening your condition, and to tailor the treatment to your individual needs.
Diagnosis
As well as asking questions, the acupuncturist will take your pulse in three different positions on each wrist. Unlike doctors and nurses, she is not feeling solely for the pulse rate, but more for the shape and strength in the different positions.
Practitioners of Chinese Medicine believe that your vital energy, or ‘Qi’ flows around your body in twelve channels, or meridians (and it’s along those channels that acupuncture points are found). The different pulse positions on your wrists tell the acupuncturist about the flow of Qi in each of the twelve channels. This gives a good picture of your general state of health, and any major imbalances.
She will also want to look at your tongue, and is looking for shape, colour, coating, spots, cracks and movement. These all give information which helps tailor your diagnosis.
Needles
Acupuncture needles are made of stainless steel. They are small and fine – usually no thicker than a hair – and come in sterile, single-use blister packs.
How will I feel during treatment?
It’s difficult to predict how individuals will respond to treatment. The majority of patients find treatment very relaxing – some even fall asleep!
How often will I need to come?
Some conditions respond immediately to acupuncture, and others take a good deal longer. Generally, the longer you’ve had a condition, the more treatments you’ll expect to have, and the more frequently you’ll need them.
On average, you can expect to come once a week for four treatments, and then review the progress with your acupuncturist. By this time both you and she will have a good idea of how acupuncture is working for you, and you can discuss lengthening the time between treatments. Some people will not need further treatment, whilst others work towards coming seasonally for maintenance treatment. Others continue to come monthly because they feel acupuncture keeps them ‘in balance’ physically and emotionally.