Your First Acupuncture Appointment

Timing:

First appointments can take up to 90 minutes. Please allow for this much time in your schedule.

Arrive 10-15 minutes early to fill out intake forms, or save time and fill them out ahead of time. You can download the forms here.

The appointment will begin with a review of your intake forms and a discussion of your chief complaint. This will be followed by a focused physical examination if necessary. For more complex issues, a more advanced digital meridian imaging exam may need to be added to the initial exam.

The actual treatment will take 30-45 minutes.

What to bring:

Bring your completed intake paperwork if you filled it out ahead of time.

If you are seeking acupuncture for injury or pain and have reports from MRI, CT Scan, or X-Ray that you can bring, this information, while not necessary, can be very helpful in creating an effective treatment plan for you.

What to wear:

Please wear loose fitting clothing. I will need your limbs accessible from fingers to elbow and toes to knee. If you are seeking treatment for a pain related disorder, please make sure that the site of pain will be easily accessible for treatment.

After the first appointment:

Many patients report feeling very tired or very hungry after their first acupuncture appointment. If this occurs, please listen to your body and get some extra sleep or eat accordingly.

If you have never had acupuncture before, you may experience a slight itchiness at some of the points where needles were inserted. This is entirely normal and tends to occur only after an individual’s first acupuncture appointment.