What's the cost?
Comprehensive Consultation and Treatment:
$135 - 120 min - intake & acupuncture treatment
$100 - 90 min - follow-up acupuncture treatments
Acute Pain or Structural Care and Treatment
$100 - 90 min - intake & acupuncture treatment
$100 - 90 min - follow-up acupuncture treatments
Insurance Coverage:
- While we do not take insurance, your cost of treatment could be eligible for reimbursement.
- We provide a medical bill which you can file with your carrier.
- Please check with your insurance carrier to see if your care is covered.
What to Expect
Treatment Format:
First session is 90-120 minutes and include a case history interview, physical exam and treatment plan as well as 1st treatment session. Follow-up treatments are 75-80 minutes. Depending on your situation we diagnose using various Chinese medical and western physical exams. All treatments are primarily done using acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping or body work and instructions for home care.
Before First Appointment:
Please eat something at least one hour before your appointment. Do not wear any additional makeup or perfume if possible. If you have a list of medications, supplements you are taking, or any lab work or tests, please bring them with you.
Structure of Appointment:
- History of condition
- Evaluation of current lifestyle
- Understanding your goals
- Physical exam
- Diagnosis & Treatment
Treatment & Case Management:
- Non-chiropractic structural correction
- Acupuncture & Moxa
- Specific exercise prescriptions
- Setting goals for the week
Physical Exam:
Includes evaluation of the radial pulses on your wrists and may include other procedures such as examining your tongue, ear, eyes, abdomen and body posture as necessitated by your condition. Only appropriate draping and patient contact takes place in our sessions.
Needles:
Only sterile, one time use disposable needles are used with patients. Needles are hair thin and bare no resemblance to hypodermic syringes. Several other techniques which do not require the use of needle may be used in your session.
Procedures:
In addition to needles, I often perform Moxibustion. This involves burning of an herb called Artemesia Vulgaris above the skin surface over acupuncture points. It warms the points up and increases circulation to specific parts of the body.
Treatment Planning:
We design a treatment plan designed specifically for your condition and life situation. I will discuss the treatment plan with you and will explain the methods I recommend.
After Treatment:
Many people relax during treatment and may doze off. Afterwards it is best to take it easy for the day, so your body can continue making its adjustments and work to heal itself. The benefits of acupuncture start immediately. After your first treatment you could experience an excellent night of sleep, higher energy, more focus, less stress and a reduction in pain.
Follow-up:
Before we end the session, I will discuss with you any follow-ups you need to make between sessions. All are designed to be easy to do at home, at work, and while you engage in movement and can help you perform better and heal faster.
Does acupuncture hurt?
People feel different sensations, however most people would not call it painful. When the needle is inserted, often this results in a very good feeling and fills you with a sense of calm relaxation. Acupuncture needles are hair thin, and very different from hospital needles. 10-30 of our hair-thin needles can fit inside a hospital needle.
Needles are sterile and disposable for your safety. Some areas will may be more sensitive but the sensation is nothing like what people expect, and the results are well worth it.
If you are curious what a needle feels like without investing in full course of treatment, please contact me to set up a brief demonstration session. For those individuals who cannot tolerate needles, I offer non-insertive methods. Please contact me if you have questions about alternative approaches.
How often do I need to come in?
This will depend on the severity and duration of your condition. I have to perform an intake, and diagnostics session to get a clear idea of the severity of your condition and what you can expect from treatment.
We can sometimes know how you will react from the very first treatment, but often times we need several treatments to properly evaluate how your body is reacting. This allows us to determine the proper speed and amount of change that your system is able to handle from any one treatment.
What is typical is that patients feel an immediate relief, or reduction in pain symptoms with the first session.
A normal course of treatment is once per week for 3-4 weeks for mild to moderate conditions in order to get substantial and long-lasting change to take place. Chronic symptoms can take 8-12 session. The length of treatment is highly dependent on each individual situation. Please contact me with questions about your situation.
Are you licensed and certified?
Yes. The state of Colorado has strict guidelines in order to practice acupuncture. It requires a minimum of four years of study in a graduate degree program and then passing a series of national exams.
Acupuncturists graduate with a Masters of Science in Acupuncture or Oriental Medicine and the L.Ac. stands for Licensed Acupuncturist.
How does Acupuncture work?
Physical Effects:
Acupuncture is pain relieving, cools inflammation, and regulates your brain chemistry.
How healing works:
- Acupuncture stimulates blood flow in places which aren't getting enough oxygen. When blood flow is restored, places which were stagnating and accumulating toxins from dead or dying tissue get flushed with fresh nutrients. Sites of internal or external injury heal quickly and comprehensively. By treating the root cause of poor blood flow, we can heal many different and seemingly unrelated conditions.
- Messages travel through your nerves up the spinal cord to the brain. This allows the acupuncture effect to trigger specific changes in your neurology. Your brain releases different chemicals, and causes you to relax. The effect can change your emotional and mental response to stress and can even affect your mood.
Your body is used to be being a certain way.
- Even though you may feel results quickly, people tend to go back to old habits. The length a treatment lasts is dependent on the severity of your condition and how long you've had it. Because each treatment builds on the previous one, your body tissue and blood chemistry changes.
- Acupuncture supports you not only physically, but actually makes healthy changes feel easier. You soon reach a tipping point where you feel better, longer, with new health and a new outlook. Additionally, you now find it easy to maintain your health at home without frequent intervention. Need for weekly treatments falls away and you stay healthy on your own.
Who do you treat?
I frequently work with families, professional men and women, athletes, and students. I work with individuals from many age groups. Most frequently I see physical injuries from sports, work related physical or mental stress, or excessive computer usage. I frequently work with individuals who's emotional or mental stress are their primary reason for seeking treatment. If you're curious if sessions can help you, Contact Me >
What styles of acupuncture do you practice?
Japanese Structural Acupuncture works by relaxing the tight muscles responsible for pulling the body out if its central alignment. When muscle fibers begin to relax, the structure starts to correct itself immediately. This takes unwanted pressure off organs and relieves pain by restoring healthy nerve and blood flow to vital organs and tissues.
This vast increase and regulation in full circulation triggers the nervous system to become fully balanced. Your fight or flight system no longer fires incorrectly, and you return to a calm and restful mind.
The application of a technique called moxibustion boosts up the body's own immune system by increasing the white blood cell count. It also helps the red blood cells to be full and round, so they can move through your blood stream most efficiently.
Classical Five-Element Acupuncture works with a different focus. In addition to relaxing tight muscles, it directly treats the root cause of why your nervous system is getting imbalanced at an individual level. This imbalance affects your neurochemistry, and general predisposition to do things a certain way.
In addition to a feeling of less stress, and more relaxation, clients often experience greater ease and better ability to handle stress in general. Long-standing tendencies to react to life's stressors in certain ways tend to be replaced with greater emotional resiliency, mental flexibility and emotional ease.
