Community Acupuncture | North Carolina

The statements made have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration. Our products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. The statements on this website are based principally on traditional knowledge accumulated over thousands of years of Chinese medical practices.

Elkin Community Acupuncture Sliding Scale $15-35

Elkin, North Carolina.

Online Forms

To save time at your first appointment, you can download these forms and bring them to your first appointment. If you are unable to print out these forms, we will have them available at the office, but please show up 30 minutes early to fill them out.

Welcome Letter - Please Read Before Appointment:

This is important because it explains

the procedures in a community clinic

that are different than a solo acupuncture

appointment.

New Patient Intake - Please Fill Out:

Privacy Statement - Please Sign & Bring:

Informed Consent - Please Sign & Bring:

Elkin Community Acupuncture - Acupuncture is received in recliner chairs - clothes stay on.

Welcome to Elkin Community Acupuncture!

Please take a few minutes to read this introduction

to our clinic and to our community.

We are delighted that you are interested in joining us!

Community Acupuncture is not for everyone:

If you have a serious or complex health condition you will want to use a primary care giver in addition to utilizing Community Acupuncture.

If you require one-on-one council you will want to visit an acupuncturist who can accommodate you. We provide a list on our website.

1st visit: You will want to come in 30 minutes early to your appointment if you have not brought your paperwork in with you. Here is what you will need to do: Complete and sign a patient intake, privacy statement, consent to treat form. Bring your paperwork with you and find a treatment chair to relax in until your treatment begins.

The Treatment

When a chair opens up, you will proceed to the open chair, take off your shoes after sitting down (never walk around the clinic barefoot) and pull up your pants to the knees and shirt sleeves to the elbows. Recline your chair back and your acupuncturist will be with you.

Your acupuncturist will ask you how you are, and you can very briefly describe improvements or setbacks that you may be having; point to any area of pain, and offer your wrists for a pulse diagnosis.

At this point you will close your eyes, and relax for your treatment.

You will likely fall asleep and will be left undisturbed until you wake. Most patients know when they feel ‘done’. At this point you should give your acupuncturist a meaningful look signaling that you are ready to have the needles taken out. If your eyes are closed, we will not know that you are ready to go. Do not move until your needles are removed for you.

At this point, you should put your shoes back on while you are still in the chair.

Community Acupuncture Etiquette

All phones should be turned off before entering the building. No phone conversations or texting should take place in the herb pharmacy, waiting area, or treatment room.

Voices should be kept hushed in the treatment room and low in the building during treatment hours.

It is inappropriate to ask:

How does this work?

What are we treating today?

What acupuncture points are you treating? Etc.

You have a right to know all of these things, but you will need to go to another area acupuncturist if you are looking for this type of service; the community acupuncture model does not allow time for education. Luckily, you do not need to know how acupuncture works for it to actually work. We do provide books in the waiting area that will answer questions you may have about Chinese medicine and acupuncture.

Children

Children are treated with laser light rather than needles unless they request needles. The treatment typically takes 10 minutes or so.

You are welcome to bring your children along for your treatment if they are able to wait quietly in the waiting area. Children should stay out of the treatment area when they are not actively being treated. They must be able to maintain themselves seated while they wait for you so that they do not disturb other acupuncture patients. If a child is brought along during a treatment and begins to chat or wander around, the parent/care giver will have to end their session immediately to remove the child/children. No refunds are issued for treatments cut short under these conditions.

What to know for your treatment

Do not come to the appointment overly hungry or thirsty.

Wear or bring loose fitting, comfortable clothing.

If possible, avoid caffeine two hours before treatment.

Remember to urinate just before your treatment.

As a consideration to others, turn your phone off before entering our office.

This is a fragrance free office; please do not wear perfumes or scented lotions.

Please let us know if you are:

Pregnant, trying to get pregnant, or think you may be pregnant.

Taking blood thinners or are on medication for high/low blood pressure.

Under the influence of drugs (prescription or not) and/or alcohol.

What is different about Elkin Community Acupuncture?

• We treat in a community setting -

Most US acupuncturists treat patients on tables in individual cubicles. This is not traditional in Asia, where acupuncture usually occurs in a community setting. At Elkin Community Acupuncture clinic we use reclining chairs, clustered in a circle in a 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 patients 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 Elkin Community Acupuncture allows patients to keep their needles in almost as long as they want (unless you schedule at the very end of the day), and the “right” amount of time varies from patient to patient. Most people learn after a few treatments when they feel “done”; this can take from twenty minutes to over an hour! Many people fall asleep, and wake feeling refreshed.

• We have a sliding scale -

Most US acupuncturists also see only one patient per hour and charge $65 to $175 per treatment. They tend to spend a long time talking with each patient, going over medical records, asking many questions. We don’t. The only way that we at Elkin Community Acupuncture 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 diagnosis to decide how to treat you. This is exactly how acupuncture is practiced traditionally in Asia -- many patients per hour and very little talking. Because we have a sliding scale, we cannot do insurance billing (that’s the insurance companies’ rule).

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 our community to be welcoming to all different kinds of people. We want to give you the tools to take care of your own health so that you will not need to rely solely, or heavily, on the insurance and pharmaceutical corporations and industries for costly and high-tech interventions. We will provide a safe environment with skilled practitioners.

What we need from you

♦ Responsibility

Elkin Community Acupuncture does not provide primary care medicine!

Acupuncture is a wonderful complement to Western medicine and can address any type of disease, but it is not a substitute for primary care. If you think you have a problem that is not “garden variety” (meaning, you are worried that you might have a serious infection, a malignant growth, or an injury that won’t heal), or if you want someone to go over the details of your medical history from a western medical perspective, you need to see a primary care physician (ND, MD, or DO). You cannot expect us to diagnose and treat something really serious. We can provide complimentary care for conditions which require a physician’s attention -- for instance, we often treat patients for the side effects of chemotherapy. But we need you to take responsibility for your own health.

***Elkin Community Acupuncture does not receive grants, state or federal money, or insurance reimbursement. Elkin Community Acupuncture exists because patients pay for their treatments – it a sustainable community business model.

♦ Flexibility

The community setting requires some flexibility from you. For instance, many patients have a favorite recliner. When we are busy, someone may be sitting in yours. Similarly, we have a few patients who snore. Other patients who dislike snoring bring earplugs to their treatments. We are grateful for this! Some of our patients 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.

In terms of how long you want to stay -- tell your acupuncturist when your treatment begins, if you need to be somewhere at a certain time! We’ll make sure you’re out on time. In general, if you feel done, open your eyes and give your acupuncturist a meaningful look -- if your eyes are closed, we think you’re asleep and we won’t wake you up.

♦ Community-Mindedness

The soothing atmosphere in our clinic exists because all of our patients create it by relaxing together. We appreciate everyone’s presence! This kind of collective stillness is a 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 have questions about acupuncture and how it works -- please read Acupuncture is Like Noodles. You can read our clinic copy. Unfortunately, we can’t explain what every point does, or how acupuncture works, while we are treating you -- these are very large topics! This is why our Resource Book of articles and information exists. If you have questions, we’ll happily give you plenty to read!

♦ Commitment

Acupuncture is a PROCESS. It is very rare for any acupuncturist to be able to resolve a problem with one treatment. In China, a typical treatment protocol for a chronic condition could be acupuncture every other day for three months! Most of our patients don’t need that much acupuncture, but virtually every patient requires a course of treatment, rather than a single treatment, in order to get what they want from acupuncture.

One big reason that community acupuncture clinics are able to keep prices so low is because of the extraordinary amount of marketing that patients do. We cannot express how grateful we are for this. Patients are such effective marketers because they have first-hand experience of how well acupuncture works.

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 really like to see you every day for the next 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, we can provide an estimation; 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. It is also important for you to know that adopting positive lifestyle habits can attribute to your wellness.

And, last, but not least...enjoy the space. We do, and hope that Elkin Community Acupuncture can be an important part of your community.

Thank you,

The Elkin Community Acupuncture Staff