FAQ

It’s not supposed to, no. Generally when the needles are tapped into the skin you can feel a pinch or a bit of pressure there, rarely pain. However, if a needle brushes past one of your millions of tiny nerve receptors, you are likely to feel that. This is usually instantaneous and when it isn’t, a simply adjustment of the positioning of the needle is usually enough. On the whole, your acupuncture should be not at all invasive.

Yes you can. I am a member of the Australian Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Association of Australia and this entitles me to provider numbers with all health funds that recognise Acupuncture. Depending on your level of extras cover you can claim a rebate through the Hicaps service at the clinic, otherwise pay in full and apply for a rebate direct from your insurer.

Yes. By law in Australia, our indemnity insurance and professional code of ethics states that we must ensure our needles are single use, sterilized needles.

We discuss what’s bothering you, ask questions that may seem unrelated but that give us more clues as to what’s going on underneath. Look at your tongue, feel your pulse, make a diagnosis and then treat you with soothing and relaxing Acupuncture. You lay with the needles for somewhere between 20 and 30 mins. If herbs are required they’re given to you at the end of the consultation.

It’s important that you’ve eaten within the last few hours before treatment. People who suffer from postural hypotension or constitutionally low blood pressure may need to eat closer to their treatments so that they don’t feel too tired or dizzy when they come up after.

It is absolutely crucial that you abstain from drinking alcohol before your acupuncture.

Write down the things you want to talk about. It makes it easier if you’re not trying to remember everything at the time!

Frequency and number of treatments depends entirely on how fast you respond to your initial treatment. If we’re able to obtain a good result quickly, the likelihood of follow ups are perhaps weekly for a few weeks to ensure symptoms have resolved. If it’s an acute injury for example, twice a week is more efficient. If it’s chronic, squeezing lots of appointments into a short period of time wont rush the healing process and so treatments could be a fortnight apart over a few months to determine resolution. If we’re managing a condition, fortnightly or monthly is common. If we’re looking at cyclical issues, then working regularly on that cycle may be appropriate and if it’s a seasonal issue, then perhaps we only see you acutely for a few weeks just before the change of season. It all depends on how long you’ve had the condition, how severe it is, how quickly your body heals and whether it requires maintaining or sustains on it’s own.

In this day and age, working in a western country practicing eastern medicine poses that very question a lot. It is always crucial to list all medications you’re taking before commencing acupuncture or Chinese herbs so that we make allowances for what you’re taking. For instance, a person taking a daily dose of aspirin shouldn’t be given herbs that treat the blood. A person on medication to lower blood pressure shouldn’t be given hot herbs. A person on fluid tablets shouldn’t be given moistening fluid generating herbs. All these conditions and medications effect our approach and so it’s imperative that in order to treat you appropriately, that you inform us of what you’re taking.

The other aspect to acupuncture and medication is that there can be benefit for side effects. Common examples of these are treating the energy depletion that can be associated with anti depressants, treating the various side effects of chemotherapy such as headaches, insomnia, nausea, pain and skin rashes.

Acupuncture is simply an alternative general practice modality, meaning that it is suitable for anybody. Chinese Medicine is simply another way at looking a persons’ health and so is naturally appropriate from infants right through to seniors.