On Sunday, May 1, from 10am-1pm, River Valley Acupuncture will be offering free acupuncture at its second annual May Day celebration!

Acupuncture treatments will be free for all patients, whether they are new to the office or returning clients. Treatments will last approximately 40 minutes. Appointments are strongly recommended. Walk ins will be taken on a space-available basis. To make an appointment, sign up online or call the office at (508) 890-8899.

The May Day celebration is in association with the non-profit Community Acupuncture Network. Over 70 clinics across the U.S. and Canada are scheduled to participate. See a complete list here.

Please take a moment to read our guest blog on the Deep Relief Massage Therapy website!

One of the founding members of the community acupuncture movement, Lisa Rohleder, was recently interviewed by Acutake.com. The whole interview is great, so I highly suggest you read the entire article. Below is an excerpt, where Lisa answers the question, “[I]s community acupuncture… as clinically effective as private practice?

“I have been an acupuncturist for 16 years, and as far as I can tell, all forms of acupuncture work equally well—community acupuncture, private acupuncture, and all the various traditions and styles of practice. In fact, as we’ve seen with many recent studies, acupuncture is so powerful that even sham acupuncture works! What makes community acupuncture most effective is its accessibility.

Acupuncture works beautifully for lots of conditions, but it rarely works fast. That is the trade off you get for something that is so gentle and non-toxic. There are plenty of instances of dramatic outcomes from acupuncture, but you should not go into it expecting that. A more realistic expectation is that it will work gradually over time. With that in mind, you really want to think about not just how to get an acupuncture treatment but how to get a complete course of treatment.

A lot of people can scrape together $75 for one treatment, but not $750 for a course of 10 treatments. Under the conventional private-practice model, even if people can come up with enough money to get acupuncture for a while, the minute they are barely better enough to stop, they do. Maintenance treatments, the ones that take place after the original condition has subsided, are what prevent the same problems from coming back. Acupuncture is preventative, but only when administered regularly.”

For those of us who practice community acupuncture, the term community has two meanings. One, of course, is a reference to the group setting. We believe that when people are treated together in a group, they experience deeper relaxation and enhanced treatment benefits.

The other aspect has to do with our hope to be a useful part of our local communities. In addition to making acupuncture more accessible to the community, community acupuncturists also try to support local programs through activities such as being a drop-off point for CSAs, displaying the work of local artists, and volunteering at veterans acupuncture programs.

At the Holistic Happenings health fair last weekend, I asked attendants to share their thoughts on the meaning of community. Although some people found this difficult to answer, the combined answers come up with a very complete description.

Here are several of the responses I received to the question “What does community mean to me?”
Togetherness
Family, support, and service
Helping one another in times of need or even just for no reason at all
Sharing
A group of individuals coming together to achieve a common purpose/goal
It is what you put into it
A group of people who live and work together supporting one another to satisfy their needs
Those you care about and spend time with
Compassion
Comfortable caring environment filled with people that care and want to help
People working and getting along together
Friends supporting each other

From these definitions, it seems that the concept of community has three parts. The first is the idea of togetherness. A community must include more than one person, and they can’t exist in isolation. The next thought is that community requires work. For a community to survive, everyone must put in the effort to satisfy their common needs and goals. And finally, a community includes a sense of caring and compassion for one another. This sounds like a great definition to me!

What does the term community mean to you? Do you think that “community acupuncture” practices actually contribute to the well-being of the community? If not, how can we improve?

Why would I want to get acupuncture? Do I have to believe in this to work? How soon will I start to see changes? Why do you treat differently from my last acupuncturist?

All of the above are common questions that acupuncturists are used to answering. Now, these and many more are answered in an easy-to-understand manner in the new book Why Did You Put That Needle There?

Written by the folks at Manchester Acupuncture Studio, Why Did You Put That Needle There answers the questions that many patients have, but don’t always ask. For the past several weeks, our waiting room copy has been popular with patients—many even bring the book in to read during treatment!

Now, we are also offering copies for sale in our office. If you want more of an in-depth understanding of acupuncture, or you are looking for some easy-to-read information to pass along to a friend or family member, this is the book for you! Why Did You Put That Needle There costs just $8 (plus tax), and a portion of the cost of every book goes to benefit the non-profit Community Acupuncture Network.

Patients often ask me if Chinese acupuncturists really practice community acupuncture. A recent blog post to the Community Acupuncture Network website does a great job explaining how patients are treated in hospitals in Shanghai. Follow the link for the full text. An excerpt is below. As you can see, the Chinese clinics are actually a lot busier and nosier than community acupuncture practices here in the United States (but both get great results)!

“I conducted my acupuncture internship at Yueyang Hospital. Inpatients often receive acupuncture every day, while outpatients normally receive acupuncture 3 times a week. At the outpatient acupuncture department, patients start lining up as early as 6 in the morning for treatment. The department doesn’t open until 8 a.m., but there are no appointments – treatment is given on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you’re a new patient, the doctor will do a brief intake in her office. The office functions as the intake area as well as the place where the doctor and interns wash their hands, rinse out bloody cups, give injections into acupuncture points, insert ear seeds, check patients’ blood pressure, and even treat patients if the rest of the treatment area is full. It is a hive of activity, and by no means private.

The doctor will review the patient’s chart, ask questions, and check the tongue and pulse. Then the patient goes to the treatment area. The doctor with whom I studied, Dr. Zong, supervises an area of 8 tables and 3 chairs. The main area (pictured below) contains 4 tables and 3 chairs. There are curtains which can be used to provide privacy, but these are rarely used.

Each doctor is followed by a troupe of 2 to 4 clinical interns. Dr. Zong is in charge of the study-abroad program for international students, so there is also a group of 4 to 5 foreign students following her as well. As you can imagine, the treatment room is anything but quiet. Patients are chatting with other patients; interns are running around cupping, applying moxa, and removing needles; and Dr. Zong is calmly and methodically moving from patient to patient. As soon as one patient leaves, another takes his place. There is no time to change the sheets or even pause for a breath.

If you’re a returning patient, as soon as it’s your turn, you go right to your chair or table. Dr. Zong will come to you and do the intake right in the treatment room. There is no whispering here, no hushed voices. It would be hard to hear a whisper over the din. One of the first words you learn upon arriving in China is renao, which literally means “hot and noisy.” Renao has a very positive connotation. A place that is not renao feels empty and sad. Chinese clinics are very renao.”

***
“In the midst of the noise and through the haze of the moxa smoke, healing is taking place here. One of my favorite patients was being treated for schizophrenia, and she said that the treatment had allowed her to feel stable enough to return to work. Another patient with partial paralysis was able to get down from the treatment table by herself. This is truly a people’s medicine clinic, and the medicine works. Patients typically come at the same times each week and get to know each other. Husbands and wives come together, mothers bring their sons. There is a wonderful sense of camaraderie in the treatment room. They share the road to health together.

While those of us in the West may prefer a quieter room with some relaxing music in the background, Chinese acupuncture clinics and Community Acupuncture clinics are essentially the same: no fuss, no bother, a focus on the treatment itself and not on the interaction with the doctor, and high quality acupuncture at a low cost. Chinese acupuncture is Community Acupuncture.”

The Experience
Community acupuncture is done in a group setting. Patients remain fully clothed and are treated in reclining chairs, making the feel of the space less clinical and more like someone’s living room or community center. Because of the group setting, there is more appointment availability and many patients choose to come in with friends or family members. This makes the experience less isolating than being alone in a treatment room.

The group setting is closer to the way acupuncture is practiced traditionally in China. It also contributes to what we call “group Qi”: people seem to relax more deeply and experience better results from the treatment when they are treated in a room with other people.

Although the treatment rooms are quiet and relaxing, community acupuncture is a no-fuss process. Your practitioner will not spend much time chatting with you or offering extra services like massage. Since acupuncture stimulates the healing process of your own body, we believe that simplicity of both setting and treatment leads to better outcomes.

The Practitioner
Since your community acupuncturist performs many treatments each week and sees a wide variety of patients, you get the benefit of a practitioner with experience treating a broad range of conditions. The support of the Community Acupuncture Network enables practitioners to tap into the collective experience of hundreds of other acupuncturists to help with challenging cases.

Community acupuncturists see ourselves as part of the community, not as experts above our patients. Treating patients and helping them get better is our primary focus.

The Community
Community acupuncture means more than just group treatments. It means a practitioner and a business model that are committed to the growth and health of the community. Community acupuncturists actively seek out ways to be part of the community and support local programs through activities such as being a drop-off point for CSAs, displaying the work of local artists, and volunteering at veterans acupuncture programs.

Everyone benefits when more people have access to affordable acupuncture. Neighborhoods become physically healthier and more able to manage stress. Practitioners and patients work together to make the acupuncture experience better for the community.

The Financials
The current market rates for private acupuncture range from $50-$90, and sometimes higher. Community practices pledge to keep rates low, using a sliding scale of $15-$45 or a flat rate of less than $30.

Although many people could afford market rates for acupuncture every once in a while, if you have an ongoing health condition or one that is that is moderate or severe, you will need multiple acupuncture treatments. As with most healthy choices, frequency of acupuncture is important for it to be maximally effective (think: would you take a multivitamin once a week?). It is also the way acupuncture historically was designed to be used, and how it is currently used in China.

Most people, unless you are in the upper 10-15% income bracket, cannot afford to pay private rates for an extended period. Even in the rare case that insurance covers a portion of your acupuncture treatment, most companies won’t pay for a sufficient course of treatment.

Community Acupuncturists believe that “healing is not an elitist commodity.”* The sliding scale system is empowering to the patient, and its reliance on the honor system (no income verification is required) creates trust within community.

*The Remedy: Integrating Acupuncture Into American Health Care by Lisa Rohleder.

At River Valley Acupuncture, we think we have the best patients! And we want to say thank you by providing free treatments on Saturday, May 1 from 10am-1pm.

Our May Day celebration is for everyone—whether you’ve never had a treatment here, or you’ve been coming for years! Please bring your friends.

We will provide coffee, juice, and pastries and lots of relaxing acupuncture. The treatments will be done on a walk-in basis, no appointments will be taken. So, come early!

If you have friends and family in other areas, there may be a May Day celebration near them. Check the Community Acupuncture Network for a complete listing.

Last week, I had the honor of being interviewed by Licensed Acupuncturist Giorgi Repeti of the live internet radio show “The Acupuncture Power Hour.” For a full hour, we spoke candidly about community acupuncture and what it means for patients, practitioners, and the future of Chinese medicine.

The interview is now available as an MP3 file on the Talking Alternative radio station website.

If the concept of community acupuncture is still fairly new to you (as it is to most people), then you probably have lots of questions. It is definitely worth your while to tune in, as Giorgio did a great job of helping me clarify the purpose of community acupuncture in language that the average person can understand.

Please bear with the technical difficulties at the beginning of the show—I’m not a live radio expert!

Please take the time to watch this 8-minute video from the Community Acupuncture Network (CAN). CAN represents 150 community acupuncture practices across the United States, Canada, and Israel (there is also a similar organization in the U.K.). As CAN members, we all treat in a group setting and charge affordable rates ranging from $15-$40.

The video is great at explaining why community acupuncture is necessary. You get the chance to hear from several community acupuncture patients about how the treatments have impacted their lives, and catch a glimpse inside a few different community acupuncture offices.

If you enjoy the video, I hope you will pass it along!