Quick and painless acupuncture pain relief in Vancouver

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• Before your treatment

  1. Wear clothes that you can roll up to your elbows and just past your knees.

  2. Eat something: Please be sure to have something to eat and drink before your treatment to give you some energy to work with.

  3. Go to the bathroom: It’s always a good idea to empty your bladder before you’ll be ‘stuck’ on the table for a while.

  4. Don’t brush your tongue: Because the tongue is routinely examined as part of Chinese diagnosis, please do not brush your tongue or discolour it with hard candy, cough drops, tea or coffee within three hours of your appointment.

  5. No lotion: Please come scent- and lotion-free.

 

• During treatment

  1. Tell me what we’ll be focusing on: Be ready to tell me what issues you’d like to work on in order or priority, their location, how they feel, and how long you’ve had them.

  2. Finding points to treat: I’ll palpate your arms and legs to find the right points to treat, and I need you to tell me the points that feel the most ‘tender’ to you. Tender usually means kind of a ‘bruised’ feeling.

  3. What you’ll feel:

     • Generally, despite what you might expect, acupuncture should not feel ‘sharp’. Instead, we are looking for a dull, achy, heavy, crampy, or radiating feeling. This is good – it means the needles are working their magic.

  4. Once you have your needles in, I’ll cover you up and leave you alone to ‘cook’ for a while. I will give you a call button in case you get cold or need anything.

 

• How often should I come?

• For acute issues (muscle spasms, acute pain, diarrhea, migraines, common colds, etc.), I suggest coming several times in quick succession – once every 2-3 days gives the best results.

• For more chronic pain and systemic issues (digestive problems, MS, insomnia, headaches, etc.), I suggest coming once a week for 2-3 weeks, until the issue has improved significantly, and then easing off into more of a preventative maintenance schedule of once every 2 weeks or once a month.

• For menses-related issues (PMS, heavy bleeding, long/short cycles, difficulties conceiving, etc.), I suggest starting with 2x/month in sync with your cycle, timed right when you are having the issue and then every 2 weeks after that. For example, if you have a 28-day cycle and you are struggling with menstrual cramps, I suggest coming at PMS time (e.g. Day 25) and again mid-cycle (Day 13ish). Acupuncture usually helps immediately, but cycle issues tend to take an average of 3 cycles to stick. Once the issue is eliminated or under control, then 1x/month is a good rhythm to keep things in balance.