What to expect from Acupuncture

Your first appointment

If you’ve never had acupuncture before, it can be a daunting thought. But everything will be carefully explained as you are led through the process. Here is a little more detail of what your appointment might look like.

You will be welcomed into the A D Acupuncture clinic, which is a peaceful, luxurious space that you will just love coming to. The clinic space, just a couple of minutes from Brockley station, is quiet, beautiful and very relaxing!

Appointments start with a chat with Alice. At a first appointment we are going to take a deep dive into what brings you to acupuncture, as well as to learn all about your overall health and wellbeing and health history. Chinese Medicine is working on the whole of you, not breaking you up into small parts. And for this reason, we need a really clear picture of how your body and mind are functioning.

After your consultation, it is time to take a lie down! Once laying on the bed, Alice will ask to look at your tongue and feel your pulses. Tongue and pulse readings are some of Chinese Medicine’s diagnostic tools. These give insight into the body and help Alice piece everything together. 

Alice will then start popping the needles in. These tiny needles are sometimes not felt at all, or can sometimes create sensations of electricity, tingling or dull aching, but nothing should be painful. Any additional support needed such as Moxa or GuaSha will be added as required. You can take a further read about these here. 

Now is the time to relax! You will rest with the needles for about 25 minutes, in which time some patients fall asleep, meditate, or just go into a state of deep relaxation.

The needles are then removed, and you can hop up from the bed. That’s it, your first acupuncture treatment!

Alice will then give any diet and lifestyle advice, suggested additional testing, as well as a prognosis and treatment plan. All this information will also be written up and sent to you.