Emily’s article about how to find a holistic health practitioner on a budget was recently featured on MassMoms.com. Read the full text here.

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

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!

It’s turning out to be a busy month, with three speaking engagements coming up.

First, this Sunday (August 9) I’ll be presenting at the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) with fellow community acupuncturist Tess Bois. We will be discussing community acupuncture—specifically, how we can be of service to local communities—and offering free treatments to attendees. The workshop is from 8:00am-9:30am at UMass Amherst in the Isenberg School of Management Building, room 129.

On August 19, I will be taping an episode of the Route 9 Veterans Forum on Leicester Public Access, hosted by Bill Moore. We will be discussing the non-profit group Veterans Acupuncture Care (VAC), Metrowest. VAC provides free acupuncture to active military, veterans, and reservists, and their families. I’ll find out specifics about when and where the show will be aired, and it will also get uploaded to the Boxford Cable Access website.

Finally, the good folks at Generations Healing Center in Oxford have invited me back to do a talk on Women’s Health, PMS, and menopause. That will take place on August 28.

If any of these events interest you, please check them out! Is your group or event looking for speakers? I love to talk about acupuncture! Please contact us to set something up.

For the past two years, I have made a valiant effort to keep up with blog writing, usually with an article every week. I knew that I wanted the blog to provide useful information to my readers, and to focus on acupuncture and other forms of complementary and alternative care.

However, it takes a significant amount of time to write a thoughtful article. I found that I couldn’t keep up with every health-related topic, so I gradually began to refine my focus. Now, I write almost exclusively about acupuncture, especially community acupuncture, and about our office events.

I hope my readers enjoy the shift in focus, and I would love some comments about how useful you find the information.

Still, I continue to stay informed about health news in general, and I love to share that information. Creating a Twitter account allows me to have the best of both worlds– it is so quick and easy to write a Twitter post that I can present a wider range of topics on a more regular basis.

So, if you like to collect tid-bits of health information like I do, follow me on Twitter for daily updates. Go here to find my account: http://twitter.com/EmilyKonstan

And, of course, I will continue to publish longer articles here on a weekly basis.

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Affordable Acupuncture Comes to Central Mass

Worcester, June 1, 2009

Three community acupuncturists brought together by geography and a commitment to a common cause have teamed up to form the Central Massachusetts Chapter of the Community Acupuncture Network (Central Mass CAN!). The purpose of the group is to work together to make acupuncture accessible to the larger community by making it affordable. Central Mass CAN! is reaching out to local businesses, city employees, unions, and non-profits who want to make acupuncture available to their employees or organization members.

These practitioners offer treatments on a sliding scale of $15-$45. “Our goal is to treat people who would not otherwise consider acupuncture because the cost of a typical acupuncture session ranges from $60 to $85,” says Emily Konstan of River Valley Acupuncture in Worcester.

In community acupuncture, patients are treated in recliner chairs in a group setting; this creates a supportive and relaxing environment. “Community clinics across the country emphasize affordable treatments delivered consistently and frequently, which is the way that acupuncture works best,” Erika Ehnstrom-Carr of Leominster Acupuncture Studio explains.

All three acupuncturists treat a wide variety of ailments such as back pain, infertility, allergies, digestive disorders, asthma, fatigue, fibromyalgia, and skin conditions. Tess Bois, owner of One World Community Acupuncture in Fitchburg, notes, “We want our community to be more aware that acupuncture is an affordable option.”

About Central Mass CAN
The community acupuncture movement came to the United States in 2002, with the opening of Working Class Acupuncture (WCA) in Portland, Oregon. The owners of WCA then founded the Community Acupuncture Network, which includes more than 70 acupuncture clinics across the country that follows this business model.

The Central Massachusetts chapter of the Community Acupuncture Network (Central Mass CAN!) formed in May of 2009.

Contact:
Website: http://centralmasscan.wordpress.com/
Email: centralmasscan@gmail.com
Emily Konstan
River Valley Acupuncture
(508) 890-8899

To mark his first 100 days in office, President Obama participated in a town hall meeting in Missouri and answered questions from the audience there.

One participant, a Licensed Acupuncturist and Licensed Massage Therapist, asked the President how the administration’s health care program would incorporate alternative medicine.

This was Obama’s reply: “Well, look, my attitude is that we should — we should do what works. So I think it is pretty well documented through scientific studies that acupuncture, for example, can be very helpful in relieving certain things like migraines and other ailments — or at least as effective as more intrusive interventions. I will let the science guide me.”

That short paragraph has acupuncturists everywhere talking. The President of the United States called acupuncture “effective”! What a great endorsement!

But will these statements actually have an impact on acupuncture use in our country? President Obama did not explicitly say that acupuncture or other holistic treatments would be covered under his proposed new health plan.

Also, an endorsement from a famous person doesn’t necessarily mean that people will be flocking to try acupuncture. In 2007, Oprah Winfrey devoted the majority of an entire show to acupuncture. Although Oprah is seen to be a major trendsetter, only one new patient in my office mentioned that she decided to try acupuncture because of the show.

The best endorsements for acupuncture, as with most products and services, are the testimonials of satisfied patients. If you have benefited from acupuncture, please think about telling someone you know who might find it helpful. If you have never tried acupuncture before and are curious about it, ask someone you know who has tried it. Or, contact a Licensed Acupuncturist near you; many offer free telephone or in-office consultations.

You can also stay tuned to future blog posts, which will include an incredibly easy way to decide if acupuncture is a good option for you!

River Valley Acupuncture received our first mainstream news article! It appeared in the DBA, a business insert of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

That’s me in the picture– modeling one of our treatment recliners.

Many thanks to Rod Lee of the Worcester T&G, for taking the time to learn about my business and for writing such a great article.

Please feel free to pass along the article to your friends and family. And if you know any local media looking for a good story, I am always happy to chat about the office!

The United States Air Force recently announced a program that surprised, and thrilled, many acupuncturists.