Consultations

Consultations involve an inquiry into all your signs and symptoms as well as your medical history, looking at your tongue and feeling your pulse to form a diagnosis of both your constitution and your current condition so that an appropriate course of treatment can be discussed and implemented.

Acupuncture is a gentle mode of healing so a course of treatments is often recommended to get lasting results. Everyone responds differently to treatment and so it is often difficult to be specific about how many treatments are required. A good rule of thumb is that the more chronic a problem the longer the course of treatments, the more serious the condition the more frequent the course should be.

Acupuncture is as much a system of prevention as treatment and so wellness programs can be of great support for you in your busy life.

A little more about Acupuncture

Acupuncture involves relatively painless insertion of very fine, sterile, single-use needles to gently stimulate specific points along your body’s network of energy channels to regulate and restore the natural flow of ‘Qi’. Your body is infused and surrounded by fields of energy and the meridians or “energy channels” of oriental medicine are intimately related to these energy fields. Once the needles are inserted you may feel sensations of heaviness, tingling, or release as the energy of the point is activated and you begin your journey to optimal health.

Acupuncture is appropriate for all ages and stages of growth and development. Babies and children can even benefit from specially modified gentle acupuncture/acupressure techniques. The effectiveness of acupuncture may be enhanced by the use of supplementary techniques such as Moxibustion, Gua Sha and Cupping.

A new evidence study (The Acupuncture Evidence Project: A Comparative Literature Review by J. McDonald and S. Janz.  Australian Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Association, Brisbane, 2017) highlights research that shows the level of Acupuncture’s effectiveness, across a wide range of conditions.

Evidence Based Acupuncture is a wonderful website that was created to show the current state of knowledge about acupuncture, using the language of science.

The World Health Organisation also has an older report on the benefits of acupuncture

 

A little more about Moxibustion

Moxibustion is the burning of the herb Artemisia Vulgaris (Mugwort / Ai Ye) either on or above the skin to warm the meridians and expel cold, to stimulate the smooth flow of qi and blood, to strengthen the yang as well as tonify and potentially prevent disease. There are many different techniques used in the application of moxibustion.   The indirect techniques include the use of Moxa Boxes, the burning of moxa within a ceramic temple that sits above specific areas of the body such as the lower back or abdomen; Stick moxa, a cigar like stick of moxa that is burned directly above the skin over specific points; and, Needle head moxa where small cylinders of moxa are placed on the end of the acupuncture needles so that the warmth penetrates deeply into the point without burning the skin.

A little more about Scar bridging

Scar bridging is a wonderful treatment to help reduce the energy blockages caused by scars from surgery, injury, or burns as well as softening the appearance of the scar. Scars often cut across one or more energy channels of the body and so block the flow of energy through those channels. These treatments involve needling around the scar and the use of indirect moxibustion over the scar tissue.