Are You Following The Process of Acupuncture?
Acupuncture is not magic but if you follow the proper process, it can be. So often I have heard “I tried acupuncture but it never really helped.” Just recently I was speaking to a friend who said this to me. I happen to know first hand that he has not approached the process of acupuncture in the proper way. This is not his fault but the fault of the acupuncturist. It is our job to educate our patients about how the process works. There are levels and steps to addressing an issue.
Relief or symptomatic care is when you are seeking out acupuncture to help rid yourself of a particular issue. You begin seeing an acupuncturist for balancing hormones, relieving stress or pain management. Whatever the issue may be, at this point it is not under control and is affecting your life in some way. Acupuncture has a cumulative affect. I like to say you need to build a relationship with the needles over several sessions. It is as if we are trying to rewire a pattern in your body. Often times, this is a pattern that has been in place for a very long time. In this case, rewiring is going to take some time. We want to continue to send the message over and over and therefore your treatments need to be close together. In China, patients are generally treated daily in the initial phase. Here in the U.S., 2 times a week to start is ideal. Once a week for several weeks is essential to make any progress. Once you are 60-100% better, we begin to space the treatments out and move into corrective care. We have relieved symptoms and now we need to get to the root of what caused the symptoms in the first place. Generally you would see your acupuncturist once a week or 2 times a month.
Then we get to maintenance. Unfortunately, this is often where people start. They see an acupuncturist every now and then when the pain or issue is heightened but do not move through the process of relieving the issue for a substantial amount of time followed by corrective care. These first 2 steps cannot be skipped if you truly want to obtain the benefits of acupuncture. Maintenance is when we have had relief and the issue is no longer present. In order to prevent falling back into old patterns, we require regular maintenance about once a month or at least every other month at minimum. We give our cars better care than our bodies often. Maintenance is an absolute crucial part of the process for our bodies as well.
During all phases of treatment, it is important to make changes outside of the acupuncture treatment. These suggestions are often given to you by your acupuncturist and commonly are focused on nutrition, herbal medicine, supplements. You will be asked to take inventory of what in your life is causing the issue and to make adjustments where possible. Stress reduction practices like adding in yoga, running or some other type of fitness is also recommended. When we seek help to resolve an issue but continue to do the same things that cause the issue, true healing cannot take place.