A professional Acupuncturist will behave towards you in exactly as any other health professional. Absolute discretion is assured as patient confidentiality is no different for an Acupuncturist than it is for your G.P.
In your first consultation you will be asked a lot of detail about you as an individual, your general health, your lifestyle and your diet. Familial history can also be important. This process leads to a diagnosis. In addition, your pulse on both wrists and your tongue (please don’t brush it!) will also provide valuable information about your condition. Your first consultation will last about one and a half hours and one hour for each treatment thereafter.
Once the diagnosis is made a treatment protocol will be created. However, unlike western medicine the treatment approach will be unique to you. Patients suffering from the same condition do not receive the same treatment. They only have a similar outcome not necessarily the same cause.
Treatment is delivered by inserting very fine needles into the skin at appropriate acupuncture points. The needles are on average 0.25 of a millimetre in diameter. They will be left in for 20 minutes or withdrawn immediately. It is highly unusual for patients to feel pain, even a pinprick. Some points may ache in a most unusual manner for a short while.
Depending on your condition, cupping or moxibustion may be employed.
Frequently during treatment, patients report spontaneously of a growing feeling of calm and/or well being. The overall experience should be pleasant and uplifting.
Your clothing may need to be adjusted or in some cases removed to facilitate needling, but you will be kept warm and comfortable at all times.