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Welcome to Our Community
Please take a moment to read this introduction to our Community Acupuncture Clinic. We are delighted that you are interested in joining us! The schedule may look booked online, that might not be the case. Please text or check facebook for the most current info on clinic hours. Please drop-in any open Monday, regardless of availability online, schedule looks full even when it isn't.
Balancing Meridians Facebook link
What is Different about the Functional Community Acupuncture Clinic (FCAC)?
We treat in a community setting.
Most US acupuncturists treat clients on tables in individual rooms. This is not traditional in Asia, where acupuncture usually occurs in a community setting. In our clinic we primarily use zero gravity chairs, in a line, in a large quiet, soothing space. Treating patients in a community setting has many benefits: It’s easy for friends and family members to come in for treatment together; many clients find it comforting; and a collective energetic field becomes established which actually makes individual treatments more powerful. In some styles of acupuncture, the needles are removed after only a few minutes or after a half hour at most. The style of acupuncture we practice at FCAC allows clients to keep their needles in as long as they want, and the “right” amount of time varies from client to client. Most clients learn after a few treatments when they feel “done”. This can take from twenty minutes to a couple of hours! Many clients fall asleep and wake feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the day again.
We have a Sliding Scale Fees
The only way FCAC can make acupuncture affordable and still make a living ourselves is to streamline our treatments and see multiple patients in an hour, so we have returned to the traditional approach. Instead of asking you lots of questions, we rely on pulse and tongue diagnosis to decide how to treat you. This is exactly how acupuncture is practiced traditionally in Asia—many clients per hour and very little talking.
Our sliding scale fees are as follows. $20-$60 per treatment. Because we have sliding scale, we can’t do insurance billing (that’s the insurance companies’ rule). If you have insurance that covers acupuncture, we’ll be happy to give you a payment receipt, and you can submit it. That is okay with the insurance companies. You will need to pay, and you will have the opportunity to schedule your next appt prior to your treatment. We find the paying and scheduling prior to appt much more blissful approach. Who wants to make their brain work after an acupuncture treatment!
Our Commitment to You
We want to make it possible for you to receive acupuncture regularly enough and long enough to get better and stay better. We want to give you the tools to take care of your own health so that you will not need to rely on corporations like Big Insurance or Big Pharmaceuticals for costly, high-tech interventions. We will provide a safe environment with skilled practitioners.
What We Need from You
Responsibility
FCAC does not provide primary care medicine! Acupuncture is a wonderful complement to Western medicine, but it’s not a substitute for it. If you think you have a problem that isn’t usually treated with FCAC you need to utilize Western medicine. What we are talking about is a serious infection, malignant growth, or an injury that won’t heal, and all symptoms that you would normally call 911 for. We don’t have emergency medicine capabilities at the clinic. Once you have been cleared by a physician, you are more then welcome to return to our clinic for continued care. See list below of usual alignments that FCAC can treat. We can provide complimentary care for conditions that require a physician’s attention. For instance, we often treat clients for side effects of chemotherapy. But we need you to take responsibility for your own health.
FCAC doesn’t receive grants, state or federal money, or insurance reimbursement. FCAC exist because of clients pay for their treatments –it is a sustainable community business model.
Flexibility
The community setting requires some flexibility from you. For instance, many clients have a favorite spot. When we are busy, someone may be sitting in yours. Similarly, we have few clients that snore. Other clients who dislike snoring bring earplugs to their treatments. We are grateful for this! Some of our clients even bring favorite pillows or blankets from home with them, because they prefer theirs to ours. That’s fine with us. Basically, we need you to participate in making yourself comfortable in the community room before we arrive to treat you. We also request that you clean your chair prior to sitting down. We will provide cleaning solution (Thieves cleaning solution) for you to use that is safe for you and the environment.
In terms of how long you want to stay - - tell the acupuncturist if you need to be somewhere at a certain time. We will do our best to get you out in time. In general, if you feel done, open your eye and give us a meaningful look - - if your eyes are closed, we think you’re still asleep/cooking and we won’t wake you up.
Community-Mindedness
The soothing atmosphere in our clinic exist because all our clients create it by relaxing together. We appreciate everyone’s presence! This kind of collective stillness is rare and precious thing in our rushed and busy society. Maintaining this reservoir of calm requires that no one talk very much in the clinic space. If you want to have a substantial conversation, we will need to schedule that separately and can even be done over the phone or video chat. Please see Balancing Meridians website to schedule another kind of appt. Balancingmeridians.com
Part of our success is that our patients learn the “routine” and take on a lot of responsibility for the appointments. Re-scheduling and making payment happens at the front desk BEFORE each treatment, so you can relax and enjoy your treatment. Please take all personal belongings, (except shoes) with you into the treatment area. Also, please turn off your cell phone and other electronics prior to entering treatment area.
Commitment
Acupuncture is a PROCESS. It is very rare for an acupuncturist to be able to resolve a problem with one treatment. In China, a typical treatment protocol for chronic condition could be acupuncture every other day for three months! Most of our clients don’t need that much acupuncture, but virtually every client requires a course of treatment rather than a single treatment, in order to get what they want from acupuncture.
One big reason that we can keep our pries so low is because of the extraordinary amount of marketing our clients do on our behalf!!! We don’t have to advertise!!! We cannot express how grateful we are for this. Our clients are such effective marketers because they have first-hand experience of how well acupuncture works. All our satisfied clients basically made a commitment to a course of treatment.
On your first visit, your acupuncturist will suggest a course of treatment, which can be anything from “we’d like to see you once a week for six weeks” to “we’d like to see you every day for four days”. This suggestion is based on our experience with treating different kinds of conditions. If you don’t come in often enough or long enough, acupuncture probably won’t work for you. The purpose of our sliding scale is to help you make that commitment. If you have questions about how long it will take to see results, please ask us, or if you think you need to adjust your treatment plan, please let us know. We need you to commit to the process of treatment in order to get good results.
Lastly enjoy the space. You can book a sauna as well, to enhance your acupuncture appts!
Sincerely,
Functional Community Acupuncture Staff, at Balancing Meridians
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