Your first visit
Your first visit, in order
It takes about 60 minutes. Later visits take about 40.
- 01
Step 1: Before you come
Our front desk checks how your visits can be billed and tells you what it found. If you pay yourself, we send a written estimate.
- 02
Step 2: We talk
Your acupuncturist asks about your health, your medicines and what you hope for, and looks at your tongue and pulse.
- 03
Step 3: The needles go in
Needles are placed at a few points and stay for about 20 to 30 minutes while you rest.
- 04
Step 4: You rest
The room is quiet, and your acupuncturist checks in. Then the needles come out.
- 05
Step 5: We plan
Your acupuncturist suggests a plan for the next few visits, and you can change it or stop at any time.
What to wear, eat and bring
Wear
Loose clothes that roll up past the knee and the elbow, or shorts and a T-shirt.
Eat
Something light a couple of hours before. It is better not to come hungry or very full.
Bring
A list of everything you take, medicines and supplements included. Bring your referral and plan card if you have them.
Ask
Anything you like. We explain each step, and you can stop at any point.
Tell us first
Tell us when you book, and again at the visit, if you are or might be pregnant, take a blood thinner, have a pacemaker, have had lymph nodes removed, have a bleeding disorder or worry about needles. We plan around each of these.
If you are on a long list of medicines, bring the list. Acupuncture works alongside your doctor's care, and you keep taking what your prescriber gave you.