A couple of days ago I had my very first acupuncture treatment experience, so I thought I’d tell you guys a little about it in case it’s helpful to anyone who is looking for information on what to expect before booking their own acupuncture appointment.
What happens in an acupuncture session?
In my experience this is how it went in the first meeting:
- Patient form: Before starting, you often are asked to fill in a patient form.
- Question session: You sit down and chat with the practitioner, describing why you’re there and answering their questions about your body and how it feels. Being Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is different to Western Medicine, some information is gathered that isn’t normally asked in a typical doctor’s appointment, like, whether you prefer cold drinks or hot drinks, or if you have cravings for sweet foods or salty foods. It’s all helpful for the TCM diagnosis though.
- Tongue examination: The practitioner will ask you to stick out your tongue because the tongue helps show what’s going on in the body in TCM.
- Pulse taking: This is an important part of TCM diagnosis. They take the pulse on both arms, feeling it usually with three fingers, each finger feeling for a different kind of pulse.
- Feeling the meridian channels: I was told to take my shoes and socks off and roll up my trousers up to the knee and lie down on the treatment table. The pracitioner then felt the meridians in my feet and lower legs. Again, this is important information gathering for the practitioner to feel what’s going on because they can feel what the energy flow is like in the channels – eg if it’s flowing smoothly or if it’s a bit stagnant and full. This felt a bit like a massage to me and was rather pleasant! Although I did find it a little bit ticklish! The pracititoner also felt my tummy area briefly.
- Acupuncture treatment: After assessing the best course of treatment with all the above-mentioned methods, the practitioner picks which points he’ll be wanting to treat. For my treatment, my points were on the feet and arms so I didn’t have to get undressed or anything. With you lying down on the treatment table, the practitioner inserts the acupuncture needles into the points. He then told me to relax and let the needles do their work, and in my case, he left the room for about 15-20 minutes during this time.
- Acupuncture clothing: Wear something loose fitting that’s easy to roll up and / or take off.
- Come feeling good hunger and thirst-wise: Although it’s probably not advisable to eat a massive heavy feast just before treatment, I feel like it may be a good idea to feel comfortable hunger and thirst wise during treatment, just because it’d be good to feel as comfortable as possible and not have an embarrassing rumbly tummy or feel sick from being so full when you lie down. Also, if you’re like me and feel a bit anxious towards your first treatment session, the adrenaline eats up your sugar and can make you more prone to hypoglycaemia / light-headed / dizzy so making sure you ate enough helps prevent the extent of this.
Does acupuncture hurt?
Before getting acupuncture I always wondered: “what does acupuncture feel like? Will it be painful?” Now having had my first ever session, I can share my experience with anyone who is curious.
I wouldn’t say it really hurts. You do feel it though. It feels like someone pressing a nail into your skin at first, and then the practitioner manipulates the needle a little to make sure it hits the right depth to get the right spot. When the needle hits the right spot it activates other feelings. Each point can generate slightly different sensations, ranging from a kind of ZING like an electric feeling, to a sudden dull ache (like when you hit your funny bone), to other kinds of feelings. I’d say the “worst” bit is definitely the bit when the needle hits the spot but after that, once it’s in, it doesn’t hurt any more.
During the treatment, every so often I felt a twinge of “electricity” shooting through my body but it wasn’t really painful so much as unusual. It felt like something was happening!
The thing that surprised me the most was that when the session was over and the pracitioner removed the needles, I didn’t feel that at all! I couldn’t even tell if he’d already done it.
Tips for your Acupuncture Treatment
How much does acupuncture cost?
From what I’ve seen, in the UK at least it can be anything from £50 an hour to £100 an hour, but of course it could extend beyond this range in either direction too. It depends on the practitioner, where they practice (eg a practitioner in London may charge more than a practitioner in a less expensive town), their expenses (eg clinic room rental costs / commute), their level of expertese and, well, how much they feel like charging really!
How I felt after Acupuncture
I felt good after the acupuncture. Emotionally I felt more chilled out, and without going into too much detail, physically I saw some evidence that it got things in my body “moving” ::ahem:: (which is good since part of my treatment was for Stagnation).
Does Acupuncture work?
Having just had my first treatment, it’s too early for me to tell you about effectiveness but I can tell you that I was very impressed by the practitioner’s reading of my body. For example, just by feeling my meridian channels in my feet he could tell that it was the time of the month for me! And I really resonate with the whole TCM diagnosis thing and how strongly it relates to emotions, so yeah! I’m very optimistic about acupuncture being helpful for me! I shall keep you posted on how it goes over the coming weeks.
Update after a course of 7 treatments:
The issue that I went to acupuncture for was one that I’d had for many years (over 10 years), so my practitioner told me that it may take a longer course of acupuncture to see results. Normally he said that most minor issues only take about 4 treatments to sort out though. I was hopeful it would take around 4 treatments. After the first treatment, I already felt a significant shift. However over the following 6 sessions, the main issue I came for appeared to be a little stubborn and didn’t change very much, although in the meantime all sorts of other minor issues in my body became more balanced (eg. things like my hypoglycaemia sorted itself out) and the acupuncture did seem to be “doing things” in my body because I did feel some minor side effects of the treatment (when the liver was treated, I experienced an uncharacteristicly extreme anger outburst in response to a slight provocation; when the lung was treated I felt uplifted; and when the yang meridian channels on my legs were treated I got a rash on the skin surface along the corresponding channels). After 7 weeks of treatment (6 of which I felt didn’t have a noticeable effect to the core problem I was there for) I felt it was a bit expensive to keep coming every week without knowing how many sessions I’d need to see a positive shift. So I’m currently taking a break from acupuncture and seeing how I go with an alternate method of treatment (essential oils).