What the real benefit?

While lower pricing in and of itself is a wonderful thing, the true benefit of community acupuncture is the ability to come for treatment the required number of times to get better.

Getting one treatment may help your body start the healing process, it's usually not enough. But how many of us can afford to pay $65 two or three times a week, even for one week? Not as many as can afford $15-$35 two or three times a week.

But don't just take my word for it. Here's an article talking about just this. http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200990723046&source=rss

What the heck is community acupuncture?

This is my first foray into blogging. Check out my website summitacupunctureservices.com.

So just what is "community acupuncture"?

Summit Acupuncture's mission is to use acupuncture to create social change in health care. We provide, and advocate for others to provide, accessible acupuncture for working class patients; we support acupuncturists in being social entrepreneurs; and we share our business model for natural health care that empowers patients, builds community and breaks down class divisions.

Our sliding scale is $15 - $35 per treatment. You decide what you can afford. We strive to make acupuncture affordable for you to come as often and for as long as needed in order to feel better!

Acupuncture is one of the oldest, most commonly used systems of healing in the world. Acupuncture is simple, safe, and sustainable healthcare. As acupuncture has moved more toward the mainstream in America, it has become prohibitively expensive for most people, but this trend does not have to continue.

Acupuncture does not need to be expensive to be effective. Acupuncture can be part of the solution to the soaring cost of healthcare – if it is affordable and accessible to everybody. Summit Acupuncture makes this possible.

There's a great article from Portland OR that describes this very well. Even has a picture.

http://www.portlandtribune.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=116890618799445600

Our fees are low, so that you can come back often enough to get better. That's really important. Why bother getting one treatment when you need five? Now you can afford to have the five.

You will be treated in a common area, resting comfortably in a recliner. No need to undress -- the points used will be on your arms, legs and head.

Most US acupuncturists treat patients on tables in individual cubicles. This is not traditional in Asia, where acupuncture usually occurs in a community setting. In our clinic we use recliners, in a large, quiet, soothing space. Treating patients in a community setting has many benefits: it’s easy for friends and family members to come in for treatment together; many patients find it comforting; and a collective energetic field becomes 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 style of acupuncture we practice at Summit Acupuncture allows patients to keep their needles in as long as they want, 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 twenty minutes to a couple of hours! Many people fall asleep, and wake feeling refreshed.

Most US acupuncturists also see only one patient per hour and charge $65 to $175 per treatment. They tend to spend a long time talking with each patient, going over medical records, asking many questions. We don’t. The only way that we at Summit Acupuncture can make acupuncture affordable and still make a living ourselves is to streamline our treatments and see multiple patients in an hour, so we have returned to the traditional approach; instead of asking you lots of questions, we rely on pulse diagnosis to decide how to treat you. This is exactly how acupuncture is practiced traditionally in Asia -- many patients per hour and very little talking.

This community approach is popular on the coasts and in the southeast. Summit Acupuncture is the first of this type of clinic in the metro area. The closest other clinic is in St. Louis.

Hope to see you soon.

Sage