FAQ

No!  I practice Five Element acupuncture which is very gentle and often people are unaware of the needles being inserted.  In fact, many people find treatment so relaxing they even doze off!  

Acupuncture needles are very slim, about the same diameter as two human hairs.  Having acupuncture is nothing like injections such as vaccines or blood tests.     

Women are sometimes more sensitive at certain times of their cycle.

I usually recommend people come each week for the first 3 or 4 sessions and then space the treatments out incrementally until they can come for a 'maintenance' treatment every 3 or 4 months.

Absolutely!  Acupuncture is one of the safest medical treatments on offer, in fact in 2001 a number of studies concluded that the risk of serious adverse reaction to acupuncture is less than 1 in 10,000.  Click here if you'd like to read more about this.

As a fully qualified graduate of The Acupuncture Academy and a member of the Association of Acupuncture Clinicians (AAC) I adhere to a strict code of practice.  I also hold a licence to practice from West Dorset Council.  I hope that is sufficient reassurance, but do let me know if you have any more concerns.

Almost anything!  Because traditional acupuncture aims to treat the whole person as well as specific symptoms it can be effective for a range of conditions, and there is an impressive body of research that demonstrates this.  The highly esteemed British Medical Journal recently published a glowing report into acupuncture and no less than Harvard Medical School advocates for this system of medicine!  

No, acupuncture is not a religion! 

I trained for 3 years to understand how acupuncture works, you get to relax and let me work out what treatment your body needs.  You'll notice the difference and keep coming back for more.

And don't forget that acupuncture works on animals and babies...need I say more?

Yes, acupuncture is sometimes referred to as 'complementary medicine', it works well alongside Western medicine.  An example of this would be during chemotherapy, acupuncture can help to reduce the associated nausea and   

When you make your appointment I will confirm by email and send you a medical history questionnaire which we can go through together.  We will discuss your symptoms and goals.   

It is helpful if you can wear loose fitting clothing as I may carry out a simple and brief physical examination during your first treatment.

There is no simple answer to this one!  Traditional Chinese medicine is very different to modern Western medicine in its understanding of human functioning, the two cannot be compared in a straightforward way.  There are several hypotheses on the underlying mechanics of acupuncture, but we may have to wait for further developments in technology before we can fully understand how acupuncture works.  

Research into acupuncture as a medical treatment has grown exponentially in the past 20 years, increasing at twice the rate of research into conventional biomedicine. Over this period, there have been over 13,000 studies conducted in 60 countries.  If you want to delve into this area further, click here.