Unsure of what to expect during an Acupuncture treatment?
Although you may have heard of your friends, family or favourite celebrity having regular acupuncture treatments to manage their sports injury, increase their energy, relieve stress or support their body through pregnancy, you may still be wondering what actually happens
during an acupuncture session. Here, I have put together a list of common questions and tips on how to prepare and what to expect during an initial session of acupuncture.
- Don’t feel intimidated when we ask lots of questions about not only your presenting signs and symptoms, but also lots of questions about your general health and overall quality of life.
When choosing the holistic road to health, your Chinese Medicine Doctor will look at every aspect of your life to help support your body. We believe that all aspects of your life play key roles in your healing so will aim to help support your body through improving your diet, sleep, exercise and stress management. - Expect to be asked to show your tongue and also to have your pulse taken. We observe the tongue and also feel the pulse as diagnostic tools to give us a greater understanding of any patterns of disharmony that are occurring in the body. Feel free to ask us what your tongue looks like or how your pulse is feeling so you can start to better understand what is going on in your body.
- The needles are single use, sterile needles – that are left in the body for around 40 minutes. Depending on your condition, we use anywhere between a set of 5 to 10 needles all over the body. There are acupuncture points on the legs, arms, stomach, back and even all over the face and head! The sensation that you will experience from the needles may be a dull ache, a radiating feeling, a numbness or a distending sensation. You may not even feel them at all! However, overall the treatment is designed to be calming and enable you to completely relax during your 40-minute session.
- One treatment is often not enough to see the therapeutic benefits of acupuncture. As acupuncture works on supporting the bodies own resource’s to encourage healing, a one off treatment isn’t usually enough to see lasting results. The more regular treatments you have, the better effects and more lasting changes you will start to see. Depending on your condition, it is usually recommended to see your Chinese Medicine Doctor once a week for 4-6 weeks, and then ongoing treatments for maintenance care.
- In combination with your acupuncture treatment, your Chinese Medicine Doctor will give you lots of diet and lifestyle advice and may also prescribe Chinese Medicine herbs or supplements. Although taking an hour out of your week to come in for your acupuncture session has amazing therapeutic benefits, this usually isn’t enough to completely heal your body and it might take small or large adjustments to your overall lifestyle to get you back on track to optimal health. Your Chinese Medicine Doctor will discuss diet changes that ease stress on the body and also lifestyle adjustments that will increase your overall wellbeing. Chinese herbs are also commonly prescribed to help relieve and manage your symptoms.They have an added bonus of supplementing the body with nutrients that we are unable to create ourselves or absorb from our diets.
- The final and possibly one of the most important tips, is to not come into your treatment on an empty stomach. Having acupuncture on an empty stomach may lead to dizziness, light-headedness or even fainting. So it is important to have eaten within a few hours before your treatment, to have enough energy to completely experience the therapeutic benefits of acupuncture. It is not necessary to have a full meal, but ensuring to have at least a snack will be enough.
Lastly, all Chinese Medicine Doctor’s here in Australia are registered under AHPRA and have studied at university for 4-5yrs to obtain a Bachelor Degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine. They work closely with other allied practitioners like Chiropractors, Nutritionists, Naturopaths, Physios and also GPs and specialists. We treat a plethora of conditions including, musculoskeletal pain, stress, hormone regulation, pregnancy support and overall general wellbeing.
Coming into your acupuncture session should be a relaxing and calming experience, and this article will answer some of those questions surrounding an initial treatment, so there are no unexpected surprises.
Georgia Fong practices at Health Space Rozelle on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. If you would like to see her for a booking, please contact the clinic on 02) 9810 8769 or request a booking online.
