Community Acupuncture Clinic

Nourishing Life is pleased to be a part of a growing network of community acupuncture clinics dedicated to serving our clients by providing high quality alternative medicine at affordable rates. Please take a minute to read this introduction to our Community Clinic. We are delighted that you are interested in joining us! Please take a minute to read this introduction to our Community Clinic.

We treat in a community setting:
In the United States most acupuncture treatments take place on tables in individual rooms. Did you know that traditionally this is not how acupuncture is practiced? In Asia, acupuncture usually occurs in a community setting, in one large open room with lots of tables and chairs available for treatments. In our Community Clinic we use recliners clustered in groups in a large, quiet, soothing space. Treating patients in a community setting has many benefits: it's more affordable, friends and family members can come in for treatments together; patients find the communal setting comforting; and a collective energetic field is established which actually makes individual treatments more powerful. In some styles of acupuncture, the needles are removed after only a few minutes or after a half hour at most. The Community Clinic allows patients to keep their needles in longer, and the "right" amount of time varies from patient to patient. Most people learn after a few treatments when they feel "done". This can take from 15 minutes to an hour! Many people fall asleep and wake feeling refreshed.

Making Acupuncture Affordable:
Acupuncturists typically see patients one on one, and charge $65 to $175 per treatment. In this scenario a significant amount of time is consumed talking with the practitioner in a detailed interview and undergoing extensive palpation techniques. In the Community Clinic we make acupuncture more affordable by streamlining the treatments and seeing multiple patients in an hour. In order to do this we use a more traditional approach to diagnosis, instead of asking a lot of questions we rely almost exclusively on the tongue and pulse to decide how to balance and harmonize your body. This is how acupuncture is practiced in Asia: many patients per hour and very little talking.

The Community Clinic does not receive grants, state or federal money, or insurance reimbursement. We exist because patients pay for their treatments. The fees we receive are what make our Community Acupuncture Clinic a sustainable business model.

Our Commitment to you:
We want to make it possible for you to receive acupuncture regularly enough and long enough to get better and stay better. We are hoping that by making acupuncture affordable you can come in as frequently as you like and continue on your journey to greater health.

What we need from you:

Responsibility:
We do not provide primary care medicine. Acupuncture is a wonderful complement to Western Medicine, but it is not a substitute for it. If you have a serious problem with your health you need to go see a primary care physician (ND, MD or DO). We can provide complimentary care for conditions that require a physician's attention, for instance, we often treat patients for the side effects of chemotherapy, but we need you to take responsibility for your own health.

Flexibility:
The community setting requires some flexibility from you. For instance, many patients have a favorite recliner. When we are busy, someone may be sitting in yours. Similarly, we have a few patients who snore. Other patients who dislike snoring bring earplugs to their treatments. We are grateful for this!

In an effort to keep our Community Acupuncture Clinic open and accessible Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays we may have to rotate our practitioners in order to keep each of these clinic shifts staffed without interruption. We ask for you to be flexible at these times, where an unscheduled substitution may keep you from seeing your normally scheduled practitioner, so that we can keep the Community Clinic open and running smoothly.

Please make yourself comfortable in the community room before we arrive to treat you. Find a chair that suits you and remove your shoes and socks. Place your belongings behind your chair (as close to the wall as possible) so that your acupuncturist can move easily around the recliner and access the selected acupuncture points. Remember to wear loose fitting clothing for these sessions so that we can rollup your pant legs to your knees, or get access your neck and shoulders if needed.

Typically patients will relax in the recliner until they feel "done". In general, if you feel done, open your eyes and give us a meaningful look, if your eyes are closed, we think you're asleep and we won't wake you up. Some individuals stay 15 to 20 minutes in the Acu-Lounge while others may prefer to linger 45 minutes or longer. We usually prefer to limit treatments to an hour to allow other members of our community to benefit from this service. If you need to be out of the Community Clinic at a specific time please let the receptionist know when you check in for your appointment, your acupuncturist will then make sure that you are able to leave the clinic on time.

Community-Mindedness:
The soothing atmosphere in our clinic exists because all of our patients create it by relaxing together. We appreciate everyone's presence! This kind of collective stillness is a rare and precious thing in our rushed and busy society. Maintaining this reservoir of calm requires that no one talk very much in the clinic space. If you would like to speak to a practitioner one on one at any length, please let us know. If you want to have a substantial conversation, we will probably need to schedule time outside the Community Clinic to address your concerns.

Part of our success is that our patients learn the "routine" and take on a lot of responsibility for the appointments. Please take all personal belongings, (bags, shoes, etc.) with you into the treatment room. And of course, please turn off your cell phone.

We also ask that you arrive at your appointment on time, or even a little early! We will try and get you into the Acu-Lounge as soon as possible. The flow of the community clinic can be interrupted by late arrivals, causing delays for the people who are scheduled after you. It is for this reason that we reserve the right to turn people away who are late for their appointments so that we can be considerate to the rest of the patients that are scheduled for treatments that day.

We also ask that you give at least 24 hours notice before cancelling or changing your scheduled appointment. Currently we have extensive waiting lists for the community clinic with people eagerly looking for openings. If you fail to show up for your appointment and do not give us prior notice, or arrive too late, your slot goes unfilled and another member of our community misses out on an opportunity to receive a treatment. In order for the Community Acupuncture Clinic to remain a sustainable business model we depend on each and every slot to be filled to cover our expenses. It is for this reason that missed appointments will be charged the normal fee of $30.

Commitment:
Acupuncture is a process. It is very rare for any acupuncturist to be able to resolve a problem with one treatment. In China, a typical treatment protocol for a chronic condition could be acupuncture ever other day for three months! Most of our patients don't need that much acupuncture but virtually every patient requires a course of treatments, rather than a single treatment, in order to benefit from acupuncture.

One big reason that we are able to keep our prices so low is because of the extraordinary amount of marketing that our patients do on our behalf. We cannot express how grateful we are for this. Our patients are such effective marketers because they have a first hand experience of how well acupuncture works. All of our satisfied patients basically made a commitment to a course of treatments.

On your first visit, your acupuncturist will suggest a course of treatments, which can be anything from "we would like to see you once a week for six weeks" to "we would really like to see you every day for the next four days". This suggestion is based on our experience with treating different kinds of conditions. If you don't come in often enough or long enough, acupuncture probably won't work for you. The purpose of the Community Clinic is to help you make that commitment. If you have questions about how long it will take to see results, please ask us, or if you think you need to adjust your treatment plan, please let us know. We need you to commit to the process of treatment in order to get good results.

And last but not least…enjoy the space! We hope that the Community Clinic can support you on your journey to greater health and well being. Thank you!