Your first visit, in order
A first visit takes about 75 minutes. Later visits take about 45.
- 01
Step 1: Before you come
Our front desk calls your plan, asks about your acupuncture benefit and tells you what it said. If you pay yourself, we send a written estimate.
- 02
Step 2: You arrive
Come a few minutes early. A cup of barley tea is on, and the front desk has a short form about your health history.
- 03
Step 3: We talk, then we examine
About 20 minutes of questions, then a look at your tongue and a feel of your pulse and abdomen. This is a pattern assessment, not a medical exam.
- 04
Step 4: The treatment
A few needles, rest for 20 to 30 minutes, and sometimes cupping or moxa. Your acupuncturist explains the risks and answers questions first.
- 05
Step 5: The plan
We suggest a plan for the next few visits, say what it might cost in plain words, and book the next one if you want.
What to wear, eat and bring
Wear
Loose clothes that roll up past the knee and the elbow.
Eat
Something light beforehand. Do not come hungry or very full.
Bring
A list of every medicine, vitamin and herb you take, and your insurance card.
Ask
Anything at all, including how to say a Korean term. We like questions.
Tell us first
Say these when you book, and again at the visit: you are or might be pregnant, you take a blood thinner or bleed easily, you have a pacemaker or implant, you have had lymph nodes removed, or needles worry you. Your acupuncturist changes the plan for any of these.