Your First Visit

Our East Asian Medicine Medicine Practitioner, through an intake interview, will assess and evaluate your current condition, by identifying symptoms and patterns, reviewing your medical history and any external factors that may impact your well-being. Our practitioner will inspect your entire body, tongue and pulses. Our practitioner will examine you for skin and nail coloration and texture, body type, respiration, speech characteristics, gait, bodily odors, etc. Using two of the most important diagnostic tools, tongue and pulse diagnosis, your practitioner will observe your tongue’s body, coating, and color, and exam your pulses for quality, depth and frequency to determine the health of your internal organs, meridians and constitution.  Additionally, your practitioner will perform palpation techniques of various acupuncture meridians and points, with the aim of discovering abnormal reactions that occur when disease appears in the body.   Based upon all of the collected information, your practitioner will determine the stage to which the disease has developed, location of the disease and the amount of the body’s strength and resistance to fight the disease.  Your practitioner will then choose the best acupuncture points, techniques and methods, such as cupping and moxibustion, to be used in order to regulate and bring the body into balance.

Once the diagnosis is made, you lie down on a padded treatment table while single-use hair-thin stainless steel needles are inserted into acupuncture points.  Depending upon the placement of the needles, you may lie face down or face up or on your side.  The procedure is gentle.  Most people feel very peaceful and may even fall asleep.   The needles are usually retained for 25-45 minutes.  The treatment modality and frequency will depend on your constitution and condition(s).  For example, shoulder pain can be treated with 6-8 treatments, whereas, a bulging disc in the neck will take 8-12 treatments.  Some chronic diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, or paralysis, require extended treatment plans.   Your practitioner will be able to assess the approximate amount of treatments needed after your first visit.